Counting Torchwood
Mar. 7th, 2009 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI am counting characters that get to speak but with no weighting for number of lines or screen time or being series regulars. (Those would also be valuable, but require more math.) Are speaking characters: male or female, white or of color, and did they get dead (although the Dead count got complicated when I started counting corpses that never spoke first). Also Bechdel pass/fail.
My count is likely imperfect. I can only count what I see.
Wiki reckons Cardiff is "Ethnicity 91.57% White, 1.99% Mixed, 3.96% S. Asian, 1.28% Black, 1.20% Chinese or other."
http://www.icar.org.uk/4733/statistics/about-cardiff.html
seems to be Wiki's source and that's the 2001 census figures they're quoting.
So 9/10 white would accurately reflect the ethnic variety of the area.
I'm going to assume men and women are about 50/50 in real life without looking it up.
1-01 Everything Changes
20 characters
5 women, 15 men.
2 of color, 18 white.
Bechdel pass: Gwen and Suzie talk about murder and resurrection and their job.
Dead characters: 4
1 man, 3 women
2 white, 2 of color
2 speaking 2 in photos
1-02 Day One
18 speaking characters
4 women, 14 men.
2 of color, 16 white.
Bechdel pass: Gwen talks to Carys, about why she is arrested (killing a man), having an alien inside her (erm), and sex (which after testing turns out must be with men). Pass if you squint.
Dead characters: 7 (8 if you count Carys' mum, death mentioned but long ago)
7 men, 0 women (unless Carys' mum counts)
7 white, 0 of color.
3 speaking, 4 only seen sitting around
one of them says "I'm gay" right before she kills him with sex anyway.
1-03 Ghost Machine
Characters: complicated because 2 are portrayed at 2 different ages. I'll count them as one person at two ages. Because.
Also there's 3 at the start and more in the Bernie chase that are on the transcript because they yell 'oi' as the chase goes past, or similar nonsense. And you can't always see who is yelling. So do I count them? I'll say not.
With all that fiddling about that's
18 characters ... or 26.
6 or 8 women, the rest men
1 character of color
Bechdel fail: women only talk to women about finding Bernie Harris
Dead characters:
2 speaking
1 man 1 woman
1-04 Cyberwoman
8 characters
4 women 4 men
3 of color 5 white
Bechdel pass: Gwen and Lisa, "Let me go!" "Do not struggle. You will be like me."
... it's short, but it's not about men.
Dead characters:
3 speaking
2 women 1 man
2 of color 1 white
1-05 Small Worlds
19 characters
10 women, 9 men
2 of color, 17 white
Bechdel pass: Jasmine and her mum talk about Jasmine's fairy friends.
Dead characters:
on screen speaking: 2 white males
flashback: couldn't count them, and it's all sepia toned, but seemed more ethnic mixed.
1-06 Countrycide
11 speaking characters
4 women, 7 men
1 of color, 10 white
Bechdel fail: no scene has only two women.
Dead characters:
1 white woman seen killed
lots and lots of people seen dead, but in such a state you can't count them
1-07 Greeks bearing gifts
28 speaking roles, 10 named and 18 mind-voices
4 named women and 9 mind voice women, the rest men
3 named people of color, *maybe* 2 mind voices but it's very hard to see.
Bechdel pass: two women talk about sex with each other.
... and as soon as they stop are back to talking about men :eyeroll:
clear f/f activity, and one of them dead by the end of the episode.
Dead characters:
1 white woman, 1 white man, on screen
lots and lots and lots and lots of dead bodies on the Torchwood computer screens.
1-08 The Keep Killing Suzie
11 speaking characters
4 women
5 people of color
Dead characters:
5 (Mark, his wife, Alex, Suzie, her dad) 3 speaking, 2 silent.
2 women
3 people of color
Bechdel: Pass. Tosh & Suzie talk about honor. Gwen and Suzie talk about everything.
1-09 Random Shoes
Counting Eugene only once, and I think the Moderator and Mr Garrett are one and the same.
17 speaking characters
5 women
2 people of color
Dead characters:
Just Eugene, a white male
Bechdel: Fail, unless you extract individual sentences. Gwen and Linda talk, but Linda always talks about her life in relation to Craig, her boss she's dating, and Eugene, who was going to get her a ticket to Australia.
1-10 Out of Time
16 speaking characters
7 women
3 people of color
1 Dead character
white male
Bechdel: Pass, early and often. There's enough conversations between women in this one I'm interested in measuring the percentages. And they're about jobs and planes and housing and all sorts.
1-11 Combat
11 speaking characters
3 women
2 people of color
2 dead characters
both white males
Bechdel: Fail.
It is the only episode in the first season with a scene between Tosh and Gwen.
They talk about who Owen is/was shagging.
1-12 Captain Jack Harkness
15 characters
6 women
1 person of color
no dead characters
Bechdel: fail, no scene with only two women in it. women talk to each other in crowds.
Toshiko makes references to Japanese culture, and history in Britain. Other characters respond to her ethnicity. Tosh notices "easy for you to say, I'm the only asian person here" (I quote from memory) So the fact that she's the only person of color in the episode is deliberate and has been thought about.
The lack of women in speaking parts... I think the two Captains have teams that mirror each other, with George and Tim being Owen and Ianto, but 1941 has no equivalent to Tosh and Gwen. So there's a deliberate lack of women? But that's extrapolating way beyond the numbers.
1-13 End of Days
15 speaking characters
7 women
3 people of color
dead characters are difficult to count.
there's more diversity in non-speaking roles, and dead people.
Bechdel: Pass, Tosh speaks to her mother.
The return of dead and departed girlfriends, and Toshiko's injured mother, brought the female character count up. Use of women to inspire the series regulars, business as usual. Use of mother to inspire daughter, relatively unusual. Use of dead boyfriend to inspire a woman, quite unusual. Only the guys got to come back from death though.
And large parts of Cardiff, probably.
That's the first season done, I'll do another post for second season.
Feel free to join in with later episodes.
Note on Bechdel test: I'm only counting it when the scene is about women, not when they're part of a mixed male and female group. This is because I want to see if women only exist when men are around. Bechdel failing movies do that a lot. Women exist solely in relation to men. When we're not observed by or observing men, we're schrodingered into voiceless invisibility. It's weird and creepy. So: if there's men around when two women talk, if they're part of the same group, it doesn't count. Other tests may vary.
My count is likely imperfect. I can only count what I see.
Wiki reckons Cardiff is "Ethnicity 91.57% White, 1.99% Mixed, 3.96% S. Asian, 1.28% Black, 1.20% Chinese or other."
http://www.icar.org.uk/4733/statistics/about-cardiff.html
seems to be Wiki's source and that's the 2001 census figures they're quoting.
So 9/10 white would accurately reflect the ethnic variety of the area.
I'm going to assume men and women are about 50/50 in real life without looking it up.
1-01 Everything Changes
20 characters
5 women, 15 men.
2 of color, 18 white.
Bechdel pass: Gwen and Suzie talk about murder and resurrection and their job.
Dead characters: 4
1 man, 3 women
2 white, 2 of color
2 speaking 2 in photos
1-02 Day One
18 speaking characters
4 women, 14 men.
2 of color, 16 white.
Bechdel pass: Gwen talks to Carys, about why she is arrested (killing a man), having an alien inside her (erm), and sex (which after testing turns out must be with men). Pass if you squint.
Dead characters: 7 (8 if you count Carys' mum, death mentioned but long ago)
7 men, 0 women (unless Carys' mum counts)
7 white, 0 of color.
3 speaking, 4 only seen sitting around
one of them says "I'm gay" right before she kills him with sex anyway.
1-03 Ghost Machine
Characters: complicated because 2 are portrayed at 2 different ages. I'll count them as one person at two ages. Because.
Also there's 3 at the start and more in the Bernie chase that are on the transcript because they yell 'oi' as the chase goes past, or similar nonsense. And you can't always see who is yelling. So do I count them? I'll say not.
With all that fiddling about that's
18 characters ... or 26.
6 or 8 women, the rest men
1 character of color
Bechdel fail: women only talk to women about finding Bernie Harris
Dead characters:
2 speaking
1 man 1 woman
1-04 Cyberwoman
8 characters
4 women 4 men
3 of color 5 white
Bechdel pass: Gwen and Lisa, "Let me go!" "Do not struggle. You will be like me."
... it's short, but it's not about men.
Dead characters:
3 speaking
2 women 1 man
2 of color 1 white
1-05 Small Worlds
19 characters
10 women, 9 men
2 of color, 17 white
Bechdel pass: Jasmine and her mum talk about Jasmine's fairy friends.
Dead characters:
on screen speaking: 2 white males
flashback: couldn't count them, and it's all sepia toned, but seemed more ethnic mixed.
1-06 Countrycide
11 speaking characters
4 women, 7 men
1 of color, 10 white
Bechdel fail: no scene has only two women.
Dead characters:
1 white woman seen killed
lots and lots of people seen dead, but in such a state you can't count them
1-07 Greeks bearing gifts
28 speaking roles, 10 named and 18 mind-voices
4 named women and 9 mind voice women, the rest men
3 named people of color, *maybe* 2 mind voices but it's very hard to see.
Bechdel pass: two women talk about sex with each other.
... and as soon as they stop are back to talking about men :eyeroll:
clear f/f activity, and one of them dead by the end of the episode.
Dead characters:
1 white woman, 1 white man, on screen
lots and lots and lots and lots of dead bodies on the Torchwood computer screens.
1-08 The Keep Killing Suzie
11 speaking characters
4 women
5 people of color
Dead characters:
5 (Mark, his wife, Alex, Suzie, her dad) 3 speaking, 2 silent.
2 women
3 people of color
Bechdel: Pass. Tosh & Suzie talk about honor. Gwen and Suzie talk about everything.
1-09 Random Shoes
Counting Eugene only once, and I think the Moderator and Mr Garrett are one and the same.
17 speaking characters
5 women
2 people of color
Dead characters:
Just Eugene, a white male
Bechdel: Fail, unless you extract individual sentences. Gwen and Linda talk, but Linda always talks about her life in relation to Craig, her boss she's dating, and Eugene, who was going to get her a ticket to Australia.
1-10 Out of Time
16 speaking characters
7 women
3 people of color
1 Dead character
white male
Bechdel: Pass, early and often. There's enough conversations between women in this one I'm interested in measuring the percentages. And they're about jobs and planes and housing and all sorts.
1-11 Combat
11 speaking characters
3 women
2 people of color
2 dead characters
both white males
Bechdel: Fail.
It is the only episode in the first season with a scene between Tosh and Gwen.
They talk about who Owen is/was shagging.
1-12 Captain Jack Harkness
15 characters
6 women
1 person of color
no dead characters
Bechdel: fail, no scene with only two women in it. women talk to each other in crowds.
Toshiko makes references to Japanese culture, and history in Britain. Other characters respond to her ethnicity. Tosh notices "easy for you to say, I'm the only asian person here" (I quote from memory) So the fact that she's the only person of color in the episode is deliberate and has been thought about.
The lack of women in speaking parts... I think the two Captains have teams that mirror each other, with George and Tim being Owen and Ianto, but 1941 has no equivalent to Tosh and Gwen. So there's a deliberate lack of women? But that's extrapolating way beyond the numbers.
1-13 End of Days
15 speaking characters
7 women
3 people of color
dead characters are difficult to count.
there's more diversity in non-speaking roles, and dead people.
Bechdel: Pass, Tosh speaks to her mother.
The return of dead and departed girlfriends, and Toshiko's injured mother, brought the female character count up. Use of women to inspire the series regulars, business as usual. Use of mother to inspire daughter, relatively unusual. Use of dead boyfriend to inspire a woman, quite unusual. Only the guys got to come back from death though.
And large parts of Cardiff, probably.
That's the first season done, I'll do another post for second season.
Feel free to join in with later episodes.
Note on Bechdel test: I'm only counting it when the scene is about women, not when they're part of a mixed male and female group. This is because I want to see if women only exist when men are around. Bechdel failing movies do that a lot. Women exist solely in relation to men. When we're not observed by or observing men, we're schrodingered into voiceless invisibility. It's weird and creepy. So: if there's men around when two women talk, if they're part of the same group, it doesn't count. Other tests may vary.