Blonde Horror-Survivor Archetype?

[prixmium]

Another thought as I am watching some episodes of Buffy is that this is a few years before 2005 Doctor Who. Anthony Stewart Head guest-starred as an evil headmaster in an episode of Doctor Who S2, so there's obviously some cross-media/universe awareness there on RTD's part.

I remember back when I was a tween/teenager when I first developed a passing interesting in Buffy that a friend of mine who was a couple years older explained to me the underlying image/concept that supposedly inspired Buffy's character. Basically, it was supposed to be a subversion of the cutesy, popular blonde girl being dumb and incompetent and the first one to die in the horror genre.

While I'm long-since over Joss Whedon tooting his own horn about how he mastered and graduated feminism, I still think that's an interesting vibe, and I wonder if Rose Tyler is also greatly inspired by that. I know that one thing that went into inspiring Rose was her working class background and that she was a character who belonged "on a British soap opera," at the time, but Doctor Who dabbles in a lot of horror elements while softening them in the conclusion.

I definitely think that there's at least some food for thought there, though.

Comments

[mindstalk]

"Basically, it was supposed to be a subversion of the cutesy, popular blonde girl being dumb and incompetent and the first one to die in the horror genre."

Twin aspects to that -- Buffy herself (I guess the first aspect, from the movie I've never seen) -- and Darla, in the TV series first episode and I think scene: the cinematography sets her up to be the little blonde victim, but she turns out to be the vampire.

[singedsun]

I could absolutely see how Buffy might have had an impact on how Bilie was chosen for Doctor Who. She had this very girlie, pop reputation at the time and turning her into this sort of strong, assertive companion for the doctor definitely has Buffy-esque qualities.

[wheatear]

Yeah, Rose's working class background was one thing I really appreciated about her. I think it made the whole show feel very grounded, in contrast to all the sci-fi stuff going on. I can see the Buffy vibes as well. Take a character who might be the first to die in the hands of a different writer and make her the protagonist.