Rachel Talalay: Doctor Who’s female directors have defied the odds

Given that only 15 per cent of all Modern Who episodes are helmed by women, that’s punching above its weight, or more technically, highly statistically significant.

This leads the maths geek in me to proclaim sensationally: "Proof! Women directors make better Doctor Who episodes than men!" Or, perhaps: "Women are better directors!" Or even: "Women are better than men – full stop."

Wow, that was fun; that was cathartic, just writing those words. But the empiricist Talalay knows that things are more complicated.

Let’s take a closer look at three of these fan-favourites: Blink, Midnight and Heaven Sent. Blink (9.8/10) and Heaven Sent (9.6/10) are actually the two top-rated episodes of Doctor Who on IMDB. Midnight holds its own with an excellent 9.0/10.

I chose these three because they have something unexpected in common: each was conceived by the producers as a way to save money. And yet, their results were clearly not constrained by this. Much of that success can be credited to the directors.

Blink is a standalone story where the Doctor (David Tennant) and Companion (Martha/Freema Agyeman) only appear in a very small percentage of the story. Fortunately, Carey Mulligan is the guest cast lead and, as Sally Sparrow, she absolutely owns the episode. But without the Doctor/Companion, the episode could have been a throwaway, missing its core. Not a chance. Not this script. Not with director Hettie MacDonald.

Blink has its financial limitations. It introduces new monsters, the terrifying and beloved Weeping Angels. But instead of animatronic makeup FX or CGI monsters, they are inanimate stone sculptures, simply statues (…until they are not). Most of the shots are actors in stone-coloured make-up standing still with some freeze frame effects to stabilise them. Their movements are created by editing. From an economics standpoint, it doesn’t get much more affordable.

Hettie MacDonald was the first woman to helm a Modern Who. I sometimes wonder how I would have responded if that had been me. Would I have felt pangs of disappointment that I was given a Doctor Who script with barely a Doctor? And to be handed a new monster that was simply a statue — really? You don’t think I can handle the CGI or Makeup/puppetry? How’s that going to work?

That makes me feel even greater admiration for Hettie’s accomplishments. The shock cut editing and the beautiful lensing and score add up to the perfect shiver. Rewatching Steven Moffat’s early episodes reminds me what a master he is at creating a chilling atmosphere. Hettie’s direction relishes and enhances these moments – making them both terrifying and beautiful.

Midnight is a ‘companion-lite’ episode and also a ‘bottle’ episode, which means it is set in a contained location/set in order to save money. Producers often believe that these episodes can be shot in less time and squeeze the schedule as well. In Midnight, 90 per cent of the episode takes place on a space truck/shuttle, which breaks down in the middle of nowhere and is attacked by a monster – which happens to be completely invisible. It’s a bodysnatcher and we never see it at all.

Alice Troughton was given the immensely difficult task of creating rising tension in a small but open space with an invisible monster. There are no creepy corners to hide in. And no visible monster to wow the audience. No easy eye candy.

The direction had to find ways to keep upping the fear and the claustrophobia. Alice adjusts the lighting, creates chaos with sound and editing, and makes lensing choices that keep growing tighter and more intimate, but also more skewed, as the monster takes over a passenger and then, to our dismay, the Doctor himself.

Everything about this scenario is perfectly pitched in Russell T Davies's script. The Doctor, our expected saviour, is paralysed by the monster, leaving us without a hero. Our fear is enhanced by David Tennant’s impeccable performance. Even in paralysis, he shows sheer terror. If the Doctor is afraid, the audience feels hope is lost.

As with the best science fiction, there’s a message underneath. The monster brings out the worst in the humans on board – their distrust of aliens, their irrational thought, their pack mentality, their reactionary decisions and delusions. And yet, humanity saves the day. It’s the perfect, and impeccably executed, locked room mystery. Saving money? Don’t even worry about it.

My episode, Heaven Sent, was also originally conceived as a money-saver, the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) was alone in a haunted house with Weeping Angels. One character and some stone statues that already existed. However, as Steven Moffat started writing, he re-worked the episode to take place in a clockwork, rotating castle, in the middle of a vast ocean of water, chased by a new monster, The Veil – a change which blew the budget out of the water.

Instead of the simplicity of the original concept, Steven created an ever-changing puzzle box of an episode, a complex meditation on grief and a testimony to how far The Doctor will go to fulfil his duty of care — with Peter Capaldi’s brilliant acting at its core.

The challenges were notable. Steven worried that this conceptual experiment might fall flat. He handed me the script and mumbled: “I’m not sure this can be made.”

I knew I had a magical piece of writing, but could I bring it to life? Was it possible to make an hour of the Doctor alone compelling to watch? Would the audience go along with a deep, dark episode that lacked a traditional storyline, action, etc? It turned out the answer was yes. The episode is much-respected and continues to touch many viewers. It brings them to tears, then gives them the power to move forward with strength.

So — did women directors make these episodes great? Yup. But why did they beat the statistical odds? One answer is that, with so few opportunities for women to direct between the years 2000-2015, we were forced to work harder. There was no guarantee of extra support and no room for failure. So we rose above the budgetary limitations instead of railing against them.

Has that kind of success improved the situation for women directors? Certainly not enough. A recent academic study out of Germany, the UK, and Canada indicated that it would take 50 years for the UK to reach gender parity within crews. Discouraged? Shocked?

But I am Tank Girl. In 1995 I directed a wacky, riot-grrrl-power comic book movie of this iconic character. It called out the patriarchy. Its b-storyline mirrors all the #MeToo harassment and bullying that was going on around us back then (and sadly continues). It did not break the glass ceiling for female action leads. It put me in movie jail. But it has found a wonderful cult following now. It has its acolytes. And, as happens with Doctor Who, fans tell me how much it means to them, how it empowered and energised and even saved them.

In the late 1990s, the steady improvements in equity and diversity in the film business stopped dead. The industry circled the wagons and started squeezing the women out. Statistics for women feature film directors dropped to four per cent. It was devastating. Many factors led to the slow bounce back that was starting to take effect in the mid- 2010s.

Working on Doctor Who in 2014 was one turning point for me. I found a work environment where I wasn’t a woman director. I was the director, a partner with the creatives and the crew. We worked together to make this show as great as its two hearts.

In 2017, I was on set for IWD and we hit the 200th setup. As is tradition, every hundred slates, the camera crew creates art for the clapperboard. This time they turned the slate into an IWD celebration of women’s power.

Every IWD, after I re-listen to Halsey’s 2018 poem-speech from the New York City Women’s march — and cry over its sorrow and its power — and give my daughters long hugs of support, I remember Halsey’s words “there’s a war to be won”. Then I look at that clapperboard and feel energised to pull on my teflon skin and continue the battle for all whose voices have been silenced or go unheard.

“We are all stories in the end,” so says The Doctor. We need to keep fighting to make the great ones.

See more of Rachel Talalay's work on her website.

Doctor Who returns to BBC One in May. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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