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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Jana Ježková The Portrayal of Women in the Classic Doctor Who Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. 2015 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D., whose invaluable input, incredible patience, time and encouragement have made it possible for this thesis to even come to an existence. I would also like to give my thanks to my friends for their kind words, support and cheering me up and to my boyfriend Mgr. Lukáš Vladík who put the idea about Doctor Who into my head in the first place. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................. 5 1. Television as a Popular Cultural Medium .................................................... 7 1.1. Semiotics in Television ........................................................................ 7 1.2. Codes of Television and Realism .......................................................... 9 1.3. Polysemy in Television ....................................................................... 10 1.4. Conventions, Stereotypes and Ideology in Television ........................... 12 2. The Portrayal of Women on Television ...................................................... 15 2.1. The Question of Women’s Representation on Television ....................... 15 2.2. Historical Background ........................................................................ 17 2.3. Women’s Representation on TV from the 1960s to the 1980s ............... 19 3. Doctor Who ............................................................................................. 22 3.1. “Hello, I’m the Doctor.” “Doctor Who?” ............................................... 22 3.2. The Origins of Doctor Who ................................................................. 23 3.3. Brief History of the Series ................................................................... 24 3.4. The Doctor’s Companions ................................................................... 27 4. The Analysis of Female Characters of the Classic Who ............................... 33 4.1. Susan Foreman ................................................................................. 34 4.2. Barbara Wright .................................................................................. 37 4.3. Polly ................................................................................................. 39 4.4. Zoe Heriot ......................................................................................... 42 4.5. Dr. Liz Shaw ...................................................................................... 46 4.6. Sarah Jane Smith ............................................................................... 49 4.7. Leela................................................................................................. 52 4.8. Ace ................................................................................................... 55 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 59 Works Cited ................................................................................................ 64 List of Relevant Episodes ............................................................................. 68 Résumé ...................................................................................................... 71 Resumé ...................................................................................................... 72 Introduction The main objective of this thesis is to observe the portrayal of female characters in the BBC’s science fiction programme Doctor Who which celebrated its 50th anniversary in October 2013 and which has become over the years a successful popular cultural British phenomenon. The thesis first provides an introduction to the world of television and it examines the problem of women’s representation. The thesis then focuses on the representation of women in the “classic” Doctor Who series that aired from 1963 to 1989. The purpose of the thesis is to closely analyse the way the women in the series are depicted. The 26 years of broadcast enable the thesis to not only describe the selected female characters but it also tries to contrast them and draw conclusions based on their similarities and differences. It therefore offers a unique way of observing the development of women’s portrayal in the programme. The thesis consists of four chapters: the first one looking at relevant aspects of television studies, the second one discussing the problem of women’s representation on television, the third one considering the programme itself and the fourth one focusing on the main concern of the thesis, namely the portrayal of women in Doctor Who. The purpose of the first part is to introduce the concept of television and to present some of its characteristics which will help to understand how television works. The second part discusses the portrayal of women on television in relation to the historical background and also the way the depiction of women developed in the second half of the twentieth century. The third part of the thesis first briefly introduces the origins and the historical development of Doctor Who and then it presents the question of representation 5 of its female characters, primarily in relation to the 2005 “reboot” of the programme. Last but not least, the thesis concentrates on the textual analysis of female characters in Doctor Who. This last chapter examines selected characters in order to demonstrate how their portrayal developed throughout the programme’s nearly 30-year-long run on television. One of the main secondary sources used in the thesis is Reading Television by Fiske and Hartley which proves to be a useful source when introducing the television studies. This book discusses various aspects of television. Its relevance to this thesis resides in the fact that it focuses on the analysis of television. The authors write about its signs, codes, functions and ways how to read it which they demonstrate using numerous examples. Regarding the chapter on representation of women on television, another secondary source of importance to this thesis is Andrea L. Press’s Women Watching Television: Gender, Class, and Generation in the American Television Experience. It is useful when bringing up the issues of gender and mass media reception. Additionally, Press proposes three phases of television history in connection to portrayal of women. These phases offer a comprehensive and interesting way to examine the issue of women’s representation on television. For the analysis of Doctor Who, selected episodes will serve as primary sources. The most significant secondary source in relation to the programme is James Chapman’s Inside the Tardis: The Worlds of Doctor Who – A Cultural History. Chapman, drawing on the resources provided by the BBC Written Archives, explores the origins and history of this programme. He extensively focuses on the classic series and therefore serves as a relevant source. 6 1. Television as a Popular Cultural Medium Since Doctor Who occupies a place within the television culture, in this chapter, important characteristics and aspects of television which are to be taken into consideration are discussed. Television, since its invention in the 1920s, has gradually taken up a more important role in the society. Nearly every household owns at least one TV and its content is vastly consumed. It is then acceptable to assume that television is a popular medium and, as a popular medium, television has received a lot of attention and it is often studied and analysed. 1.1. Semiotics in Television The study of television is connected with the study of signs – semiotics. Semiotics, according to Fiske and Hartley, concentrates on how the signs “work and the ways in which we use them” (36). The father of semiotics is usually considered to be Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist who is famous for his groundbreaking lectures which were recorded and published in Course in General Linguistics. Saussure presented the concept of a sign as a union of a signified and a signifier (67). Signified represents the “mental concept” of the sign on one hand, signifier stands for the “physical object” on the other hand, such as “a sound, printed word or image” (67). These signs then convey a meaning in any kind of communication – conversation, road signs, newspaper articles, television. At this point, it is important to mention that the signs are “determined by our culture” (Fiske and Hartley 38). They are products of human beings and they rely on their experience of reality. 7 Furthermore, Fiske and Hartley argue that there are several “orders of signification” (40). For the purpose of this thesis, the difference between the first and the second is to be considered. In the first order, the sign is “self- contained” (Fiske and Hartley 41). The meaning it conveys is clear, it is the first meaning that comes to one’s head in most cases. By contrast, in the second order, the meaning carried by the sign is met with a “range of cultural meanings that derive not from the sign itself, but from the way the society uses and values both the signifier and

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