Wotcher

Doctor Who Bechdel Test 

There is something called the Bechdel Test. It’s a scale you run movies through to basically see how conscious of female characters they are.

The test is as follows: 1. It must have at least two named female characters. 2. They must speak to each other. 3. They must converse about something other than a man. Anything with a score lower than 3 fails.

I’ve run all of the episodes of NewWho through this test and here are my results:

Percent of failed episodes written by RTD: 9.7%
By Moffat: 55.6%
Percent of episodes in which there were two named female characters, but they didn’t speak to one another by RTD: 9.7%
By Moffat: 16.7%
Percent of episodes without two named female characters by RTD: 0%
By Moffat: 5.6%
Percent of failed episodes with RTD as showrunner (including those written by other writers): 20%
With Moffat: 67.8%
Percent of episodes in which there were two named female characters, but they didn’t speak to one another with RTD as showrunner: 10%
With Moffat: 25%
Percent of episodes without two named female characters with RTD as showrunner: 0%
With Moffat: 25%
Total percent of failed episodes: 35.2%
Total percent of episodes in which there were two named female characters, but they didn’t speak to one another: 14.8%
Total percent of episodes without two named female characters: 8%

RTD did a lot better than Moffat. This is not a go at him, just facts.

Over half of SM’s episodes failed. RTD neither wrote or was showrunner to an episode with less than two named female characters. Moffat wrote one episode with less than two named female characters, and a staggering 25% (1/4!) of episodes with him as showrunner did not include more than one named female character.

My data is here. You can check it if you like, and please tell me if you find any errors. Thanks!