‘Doctor Who’ just hired its first female writer since 2008.
After six years of employing an all-male writing staff, Doctor Who has finally hired a female writer.
Welsh playwright and TV scriptwriter Catherine Treganna will pen one episode for the show’s ninth season, having previously worked on Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood.
The hiring of Catherine Treganna is a cause for celebration, more or less. After more than 50 full-length episodes and a handful of minisodes, Moffat and the BBC are finally trying to redress the gender imbalance on the show. The question now is whether this will trigger further progress. Will hiring one female writer be treated as some kind of victory for gender equality, or as the baby step that it actually is? Every episode of the show relies on the humanizing perspective of the Doctor’s female companions, but catering to that perspective has not felt like a serious priority for several seasons now.
I live in hope that the fandom will treat Treganna better than they did the last female writer who worked on Doctor Who (Helen Raynor). Fandom harassed and ridiculed her work on the show until she had a breakdown.
(I agree that Who needs more female writers, I just find it funny/sad that a lot of people seem to forget that the last time we had one, fandom shat all over her.)
What was basically going on in fandom at the time:
[Episode written by Mark Gatiss/Matthew Graham/Tom Macrae/other male writer airs: apparently no-one likes it]
Fans: See, this is why Gatiss/Graham/Macrae/whoever shoudn’t write for Doctor Who!
[Episode written by Helen Raynor airs: apparently no-one likes it]
Fans: See, this is why WOMEN shouldn’t write for Doctor Who!