Doctor Who

1. Doctor Who
GENDER
Chrissie Bishop

2. Camera
• Panning shot of the woman’s family as she walks in looking quite scared. This signifies that the
woman is in danger, presumably by the evil male character who stands before her. This is a midshot – she is looking up at the evil man which illustrates how she is weak compared to him and
has no power.
• The woman is typically shown in a mid-shot so that we can view both her facial expressions and
body language as she’s generally quite scared.
• Whilst the woman looks around her, the people in the corners of the room all seem to look down
at her too, which furthermore promotes her powerlessness and makes the audience sympathise
with her character.
• A long, low-angle shot is used which shows both the woman, the evil man and the woman in a
red dress. The evil man and his companion are standing on top of the stairs and looking down at
the woman, indicating how they hold the most authority and signifying her weak character.
• The evil man is continuously shown in a low-angle shot to make him look superior to the audience
and to the woman.
• The woman beings to show facial expressions that express her fears; she’s nervously shrieking and
sighing in a diegetic and synchronous way whilst worryingly looking around her.

3. Camera
• The evil man points to the woman and tells her what to do, by putting her in her place
and demanding her to kneel down – she’s looking up at him even more now as she is on
the floor in an over the shoulder and extremely low-angle shot.
• We are then introduced to the doctor – who is actually in the form of an alien creature
and being contained in a bird cage.
• The camera shows the villain with more close up shots and allows his character to take
up one whole frame alone to show that he is more important.
• Reverse-shots are used whilst the villain begins to talk to the woman.
• We can see a guard point his gun to one of the men in the background – this man works
for the villain and this furthermore promotes the villains power as he’s controlling and
manipulating others to get what he wants; this is signified through a mid-shot.
• There is a mid-shot used of him where he is looking at his watch, in this shot we can
establish that he is married because he is wearing a wedding ring, and also looking at his
watch which explains his richness and how wealthy this man appears compared to
Martha who has nothing at all.

4. Camera
• The camera moves around the room to show the reaction of everyone else and how scared they are of him. The villain
thinks that he is going to kill the woman, however she stops his process of speech with laugher, possibly connoting how
she’s slowly gaining a little bit of confidence; foreshadowing her sudden power later on.
• A long, over the shoulder shot re-emphasizes how he’s on top of the stairs and looking down upon everyone.
• A variety of close-up, high-angle shots portray the woman looking up at the villain.
• The camera also seems to show the woman in mid shots, showing the surrounding of the settings in the shot because she
is not as important as him.
• A high angle shot is used to look down on the Doctor who currently has no power.
• The doctor then jumps in and begins to talk in the debate, in reverse shots.
• As these roles exchange, more close-ups and low-angle shots are used to signify the villain as he’s losing power to the
woman and this shows how she’s now looking down on him; this is juxtaposed as high angle shots portray her looking
down on him.
• Various shots such as close-ups, long-shots and mid-shots are also used to show many other people calling for the doctor.
• A long shot signifies how the doctor is beating the villain to show us all of their body language and facial expressions.

5. Sound
• Non-diegetic background music is continuously played in the background to build tension; this music
generally increases in volume as the clip goes on and becomes more suspenseful.
• She’s nervously shrieking and sighing in a diegetic and synchronous way.
• The male character also speaks as if he is full of himself or really sure that his plan is going to work, to make
this even more obvious they have shown that he is in command over the majority of the characters on the
set, as no one tells him what to do or interrupts him at all.
• Diegetic dialogue is used whilst they begin to speak – the villain laughs and tries to humiliate the woman, he
tries to make small funny jokes that he only finds amusing as we see him smiling and laughing to himself.
The villain also asks rhetorical questions to himself which no one attempts to answer.
• There are diegetic and synchronous sounds of the clock ticking to create tension and suspense as to what is
going to happen.
• The doctor then jumps in and begins to talk in the debate, in reverse shots and synchronous diegetic sounds.
• Everyone synchronously starts calling for the doctor in a diegetic sound of speech.
• During this, the non-diegetic background music is at its prime as it becomes full of suspense and sounds
somewhat glorious as the problem is now solved.

6. Editing
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Continuity edit is used throughout the whole scene.
The characters of both binary opposites
CGI effects are used to create the imagery of the alien Doctor.
Flashbacks are used to reinforce that she’s in the right and that the villain is
wrong; this also contradicts the typical stereotypes of genders. In one of the
flashbacks, we see the woman being the ‘boss’ of a group – telling them what to
do and information about the issues surrounding them and the doctor,
demanding them to spread the word; this further connotes her rising power.
• Transitions are also used such as blurring and lights.
• CGI effects are used for various parts of the clips such as the Earth.
• Special effects show the doctor break free from the cage and rise up and
seemingly fly whilst glowing and destroying the villain.

7. Mise-en-scene
• The woman is wearing just a long black coat, which is the only piece of clothing we can see, her
hair is nearly done up in a bun exposing her face for us to see that she is more vulnerable and an
easy target. We see her searching the room as she walks towards her fate, as a desperate attempt
for help. She looks to her left unsure and worried, almost scared as to what may happen, and
then looking directly at the man, then to the right to a friendly face. It shows how Martha is being
treated because she is a women and a younger one, she is scared and worried as to what would
happen judging from her body language.
• She is introduced when we see her walking in with two body guards coated in black armour
souring her in each side.
• At first sight we see that the villain’s character is well dressed wearing a classic black and white
sophisticated suit, all nearly in place. He is well shaven, with a clean hair cut that tells us that he
likes everything to be in order and is a neat freak. This character appears to be a strong successful
male who is very powerful and knows this – he’s quite literally the boss of everyone else.
• Her expression always seems to be the same without change, just a blank sheet throughout the
whole so his speech she does not speak a word or say anything to disturb his speech or goes
against what he is saying.

8. Gender
• This automatically shows us that she is vulnerable and needs protecting because
she is young and a female.
• The woman behind the evil man (his companion) is wearing a red dress which
symbolises danger and sexualises her as she’s generally shown as more of an
object than a human – she has no input and doesn’t tend to help the male villain.
• This reflects how the doctor actually holds no power at the moment as he is
locked up and his facial expressions are very sad and gloomy, contradicting the
typical stereotypes of both genders – especially as the doctor usually saves the
day.
• The villain asks the woman for the teleporter device – he doesn’t use any
manners and quite simply and bluntly expects her to just give it to him, which she
does, followed by his request to kneel down to him. She follows his actions and
this reflects how he again holds a lot of power compared to her.

9. Gender
• However, just when he thinks things are going in his favour she begins to laugh. This completely changes the
whole scenario where he is in power and she is not. The woman takes full control in this relationship. This
time when he addresses her she responds with one word answers. Now it is the woman’s turn to be all cocky
and know it all, she talks to the man as if he was a child, patronising him with her words. “A gun?” She is
almost doubting him in her words trying to make him couscous. Her jargon is certainly childish and what
most females who think they are right would use, the man begins to doubt himself as the woman gains all
control from this, the tables are now turned.
• The woman now appears to be a strong leader rather than a female who obeys commands. She breaks what
we see to be her under control and actually stands up to the man proving that she is right and he is wrong.
The gender opposites have now revered and we see the woman in more close up shots, speaking more
because she is in power.
• The villain still doubts her even though she seems like she knows what she’s talking about, this is
stereotypical because we never listen to what women are saying, however this is proven right and all the
power from him has now been taken away and he cannot stop it. He tries to order everyone to stop talking
however this time he has lost his authority to the woman and the gender roles are reversed.
• The woman represents the female side; of women who don’t get listened to, believed in and obeying orders
from men, which gave into the male gauze, however she then turned that around to order around the man
and told him what he didn't know and actually spoke up for herself towards the end. This was something we
did not expect and found that women could be as powerful or ever more than men as she defeated him in
the end.