Women in Doctor Who: Writers
Jan. 30th, 2012 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI just wiki researched women writers in Doctor Who.
... that isn't actually as simple as reading the names. There seems to be a lot of argue about if people actually exist, or if they did ever went within miles of a script. *blinks*
I made a list:
Women who write for Doctor Who:
Classic series:
023 The Ark X "The Steel Sky"
"The Plague"
"The Return"
"The Bomb" Paul Erickson &
Lesley Scott
Lesley Scott is the first woman to receive a writing credit in the history of the British science-fiction program, Doctor Who. She received a full co-writing credit for the 1966 serial, The Ark, despite having contributed nothing to the script.[1] The credit came at the request of writer Paul Erickson's agent, on Erickson's behalf. He wanted, for reasons still obscure, to share the writing credit with his then-wife. However, she did not receive any part of the copyright for the serial.[2]
She remained the only woman credited as a writer on Doctor Who until Barbara Clegg in 1983. She is not a professional television writer, and has no other writing credits in that medium to her name.[3] However, she is credited as a contributor to the Dr. Who Annuals published by World Distributors/World International.[4]
127 Enlightenment 6H 4 episodes Barbara Clegg
137 Attack of the Cybermen 6T 2 episodes Paula Moore
Authorship
The serial is credited to "Paula Moore"; however, behind that name lies one of the most confused and controversial authorships in the entire series' history. Authorship copyright on the serial is divided between
"Paula Moore" (real name Paula Woolsey) as the author; Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis as creators of the Cybermen; Eric Saward as the creator of Lytton and the BBC who hold the copyright on the series elements.
Several separate accounts offer wildly differing versions of who actually authored the story. Most accounts agree that series fan and continuity advisor Ian Levine suggested a number of plot elements. At the one extreme, it is suggested that the story was authored by series script editor Eric Saward, with or without substantial input by Levine, with Woolsey only acting as the story's author to prevent problems with the Writers' Guild, who objected to script editors editing their own scripts. Alternatively, it is suggested that Woolsey originated the story, but Saward heavily rewrote it in his capacity as script editor. Levine himself claims that Saward wrote the dialogue to Levine's story and plot and that Woolsey "did not write one single word of that script". Saward has flatly denied this in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine.
139 The Mark of the Rani 6X 2 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
143 Terror of the Vervoids 7C[9] 4 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
The Ultimate Foe 7C[9] 2 episodes Robert Holmes and Pip and Jane Baker
144 Time and the Rani 7D 4 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
155 Survival 7P 3 episodes Rona Munro
actually exists! writes lots of things.
New series:
3.4 "Daleks in Manhattan" Helen Raynor
3.5 "Evolution of the Daleks" Helen Raynor
4.4 "The Sontaran Stratagem" Helen Raynor
4.5 "The Poison Sky" Helen Raynor
Helen Raynor (born Swansea March 1972) is a British television and theatre writer and script editor. From 2004 until 2007 she was one of the script editors of the revived version of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working on its first three series. Her own writing work includes two stories of Doctor Who and episodes of spin-off series Torchwood,
In Doctor Who Magazine issue 366 (dated 1 March 2006), it was announced that Raynor would also be script editing the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, also produced by BBC Wales.
Girls who write for Doctor Who: possibly included in Children of Oakley Junior School
All that was wiki sourced, I know, should do proper readings somewhere better.
The classic series stuff gets a bit confusing to count. There were Not Many Women, and them in the 80s.
But, basically:
In the whole new series there was Helen Raynor.
And not recently.
That does not strike me as good.
Who should we get to write Doctor Who?
... that isn't actually as simple as reading the names. There seems to be a lot of argue about if people actually exist, or if they did ever went within miles of a script. *blinks*
I made a list:
Women who write for Doctor Who:
Classic series:
023 The Ark X "The Steel Sky"
"The Plague"
"The Return"
"The Bomb" Paul Erickson &
Lesley Scott
Lesley Scott is the first woman to receive a writing credit in the history of the British science-fiction program, Doctor Who. She received a full co-writing credit for the 1966 serial, The Ark, despite having contributed nothing to the script.[1] The credit came at the request of writer Paul Erickson's agent, on Erickson's behalf. He wanted, for reasons still obscure, to share the writing credit with his then-wife. However, she did not receive any part of the copyright for the serial.[2]
She remained the only woman credited as a writer on Doctor Who until Barbara Clegg in 1983. She is not a professional television writer, and has no other writing credits in that medium to her name.[3] However, she is credited as a contributor to the Dr. Who Annuals published by World Distributors/World International.[4]
127 Enlightenment 6H 4 episodes Barbara Clegg
137 Attack of the Cybermen 6T 2 episodes Paula Moore
Authorship
The serial is credited to "Paula Moore"; however, behind that name lies one of the most confused and controversial authorships in the entire series' history. Authorship copyright on the serial is divided between
"Paula Moore" (real name Paula Woolsey) as the author; Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis as creators of the Cybermen; Eric Saward as the creator of Lytton and the BBC who hold the copyright on the series elements.
Several separate accounts offer wildly differing versions of who actually authored the story. Most accounts agree that series fan and continuity advisor Ian Levine suggested a number of plot elements. At the one extreme, it is suggested that the story was authored by series script editor Eric Saward, with or without substantial input by Levine, with Woolsey only acting as the story's author to prevent problems with the Writers' Guild, who objected to script editors editing their own scripts. Alternatively, it is suggested that Woolsey originated the story, but Saward heavily rewrote it in his capacity as script editor. Levine himself claims that Saward wrote the dialogue to Levine's story and plot and that Woolsey "did not write one single word of that script". Saward has flatly denied this in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine.
139 The Mark of the Rani 6X 2 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
143 Terror of the Vervoids 7C[9] 4 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
The Ultimate Foe 7C[9] 2 episodes Robert Holmes and Pip and Jane Baker
144 Time and the Rani 7D 4 episodes Pip and Jane Baker
155 Survival 7P 3 episodes Rona Munro
actually exists! writes lots of things.
New series:
3.4 "Daleks in Manhattan" Helen Raynor
3.5 "Evolution of the Daleks" Helen Raynor
4.4 "The Sontaran Stratagem" Helen Raynor
4.5 "The Poison Sky" Helen Raynor
Helen Raynor (born Swansea March 1972) is a British television and theatre writer and script editor. From 2004 until 2007 she was one of the script editors of the revived version of the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, working on its first three series. Her own writing work includes two stories of Doctor Who and episodes of spin-off series Torchwood,
In Doctor Who Magazine issue 366 (dated 1 March 2006), it was announced that Raynor would also be script editing the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood, also produced by BBC Wales.
Girls who write for Doctor Who: possibly included in Children of Oakley Junior School
All that was wiki sourced, I know, should do proper readings somewhere better.
The classic series stuff gets a bit confusing to count. There were Not Many Women, and them in the 80s.
But, basically:
In the whole new series there was Helen Raynor.
And not recently.
That does not strike me as good.
Who should we get to write Doctor Who?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 01:51 pm (UTC)Other media do a little better. Alison Bingemann apparently did most of the writing of the novelisation of The Celestial Toymaker. Barbara Clegg, Rona Munro, and Pip-and-Jane-Baker all did the novelisations of their TV stories. Spinoff novels have been written by Kate Orman, Jacqueline Rayner, Naomi Alderman, Una McCormack (
Drilling down into published short stories, I find additional names including the apparently male Evan Pritchard (a pseudonym for Rebecca Levene), the apparently female Tara Samms (a psudonym for Stephen Cole), Harriet Green, Vanessa Bishop, Pam Baddeley, Liz Holliday, Lisa Miles, Beverley Allen, Violet Addison, Anna Bratton, Diane Duane, Linnea Dodson, Kathleen O. David, Xanna Eve Chown, Lizzie Hopley, Ann Kelly, Mary Robinette Kowal, Lucy A. Snyder, Sharon Gosling, Samantha Baker, Alison Lawson, Alison Jacobs, Jo Fletcher, Karen Dunn, Sarah Groenewegen, Kathryn Sullivan, Juliet E. McKenna, possibly Jackie Marshall and possibly Sam Lester.
Big Finish plays have been written by Jacqueline Rayner (again!), Lloyd Rose (again!), Claire Bartlett, Emma Beeby, Catherine Harvey, and Caroline Symcox; and also adapted from TV scripts or concepts by Hazel Adair, Barbara Clegg and Ingrid Pitt. Anita Sullivan wrote a Torchwood radio play.
Comics come off even worse than TV. I find only Karen Dunn, Leah Moore, Claire Lister, and the ubiquitous Jacqueline Rayner with scripting credits.
Doesn't answer your question of who we should get to write Doctor Who, but does at least answer the question of who has already done so.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 02:08 pm (UTC)And is a good start on suggestions for who could write Doctor Who. If they've done spin offs on TV or they've done other media and at other times written for TV then that looks simples. Just import to main show.
er, assuming they're good. I know some of those are, but I haven't watched or listened all.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 03:04 pm (UTC)I am not sure that Orman would be a natural TV writer; her novels, while generally very good, are very novelistic, and I note that she has never done a Big Finish audio ( see she does have a comics credit which I missed in my previous comment). Rayner on the other hand is variable but very good at her peak - her Winner Takes All is one of the best Ninth Doctor novels, and I also really loved the insanity of her Sixth Doctor audio The Doomwood Curse.
To combine the two, I do recommend the early Big Finish audio adaptation by Rayner of Orman's Bernice Summerfield book Walking to Babylon, which guest stars Elisabeth Sladen as the Babylonian priestess Ninan-ashtammu. Glorious.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-05 08:22 pm (UTC)