Hey, a Woman Gets to Write a Doctor Who Episode!

For the first time in six years, Doctor Who has enlisted a woman to write an episode. SIX. YEARS.

CultBox reports that Catherine Tregenna, who wrote several episodes for Torchwood, will pen an episode for the show. The last woman to write for the show was Helen Raynor, who was responsible for the Dalek episodes in season three and the Sontaran episodes in season four. That was back in 2008. Weird how they just can’t find women available to work on one of the most popular science fiction franchises of all time! One producer blamed scheduling conflicts. My face:

This is news in part because, as the Daily Dot points out, showrunner Steven Moffat has faced much criticism over the years for his female characters, whose lives always seem to revolve around his male characters (this Guardian article provides a nice overview). And the show’s fans have grown restless with the flirty cutesy status quo:

After more than 50 full-length episodes and a handful of minisodes, Moffat and the BBC are finally trying to redress the gender imbalance on the show. The question now is whether this will trigger further progress. Will hiring one female writer be treated as some kind of victory for gender equality, or as the baby step that it actually is? Every episode of the show relies on the humanizing perspective of the Doctor’s female companions, but catering to that perspective has not felt like a serious priority for several seasons now.