The Women of Doctor Who

She's Such A Geek, a weblog about women and various geeky interests, just posted an entry about The Women Of Doctor Who. And I think that the contributions of both Verity Lambert and Delia Derbyshire were essential in making the series that we recognize today.

And while most of the recognition towards the new series has gone to Russell T Davies, there are a number of women involved in key roles as well with the new series.

At the top executive level of the BBC, both Lorraine Heggessey and Jane Tranter had (in the case of Heggessey) and still have a great contribution in making sure that new Doctor Who made it into production and supporting it.

And Julie Gardner's role as an Executive Producer is perhaps underrated. She wasn't a Doctor Who fan before she started to work on the show -- as opposed to Russell T Davies and Phil Collinson -- and that meant that she was a vital fresh pair of eyes. And I suspect that it was her involvement that really made sure that this new version of Doctor Who would be accessible for all of the people that weren't life long Doctor Who fans, especially women and girls.

Helen Raynor has been a consistent script editor for the new series, and will finally get a chance to be the first women writer for the new television series.

It has been a real oversight that the new series has yet to have women writers or directors so far, and it is good to see that change. It is especially unfortunate that it has taken the new series longer to find a woman director than it did for the original series.