This last episode of Doctor Who had the most female exclusive scenes in the show’s history.
None of them passed the Bechdel Test.
We must’ve been watching different episodes because the one I just -re-watched featured conversations between named female characters about something other than a man.
you know, like, female characters discussing and dissecting a worldwide crisis (while being the leading authorities on said crisis). and female characters escaping captivity and figuring out one of the plot’s biggest twist on their own.
That you could watch the episode and come away with that baffles me! I mean-
*
CLARA: How many planes?
KATE: 4,165 aircraft currently airborne.
CLARA: That’s a lot of passengers.
That’s a lot of fuel.
KATE: Oh, dear God, yes, it is.
CLARA: OK, so, what could you do with 4,000 flying bombs?
JAC: Ah, well, 439 nuclear power stations currently active.
KATE: What else?
CLARA: I dunno. Fault lines. Earthquake, a tsunami?
JAC: Running simulations now.
KATE: So this is an attack?
CLARA: What kind of an attack advertises?
Why show somebody what you can do? Why not just do it? What’s actually happened to the planes?
What are the pilots saying?
KATE: We can’t contact them.
JAC: The planes haven’t stopped – they’re actually frozen.
Like, frozen in time. Pardon my sci-fi, but this is beyond any human technology.
*
MISSY: Today, I shall be talking to you out of…
The square window!
KATE: What the hell was that? How did she do that?
JAC: Dunno – some sort of psychic projection, or… something.
KATE: Great, thanks.
MISSY: OK, cutting to the chase. Not dead, back, big surprise, never mind.
I’m in a lovely little square in one of your, oh, I don’t know, hot countries.
There’s a light breeze coming from the east, this coffee is a buzz-monster in my brain, and I’m going to need eight snipers.
KATE: Eight what?
MISSY: Three for each heart, and two for my brainstem – you’ll have to switch me off fast, before I can regenerate.
How fast can you get here? Ooh.
I’ll need to arrange you a flight corridor.
KATE: Why do you need snipers?
MISSY: Because it’s the only way she’ll feel safe enough to talk to me.
Shall we say four o’clock?
*
MISSY: You know what this airlock is?
I’ll tell you.
It’s pants.
CLARA: What do you mean?
MISSY: I mean that today might be the day.
CLARA: What day?
MISSY: The day I kill you.
CLARA: What are you doing? Are you opening it?
MISSY: Yeah, course.
CLARA: Missy, we’ll get sucked out!
MISSY: You and me together, off we go!
Let’s make jam!
*
MISSY: And the rest of the planet, the whole thing, is invisible.
CLARA: That’s ridiculous.
MISSY: Well, yes, of course it is.
I mean, how would you ever find your glasses?
Or the little girl’s room? And what if you kissed an ugly?
Unless, when you’re part of the atmosphere you start syncing with the spectrum.
CLARA: Why would anybody hide a whole planet?
MISSY: That would rather depend on the planet, dear.
