Doctor Who - How gender is being represented through mise-en-scene.

In Doctor Who women are presented as generally equal to men, however in the stills that I annotated the woman was presented as superior to the man. Although the woman has a frightened expression and is standing behind the railing as if she has been put on a shelf by the man, she is higher up in the picture than the man, suggesting that she is more important. She looks as if she is looking down on the events and seeing them from a god-like perspective. This is partly due to the woman's costume. Her hair is styled in a naturally fancy-looking way, and she is wearing little make-up, the style of her dress is almost Greek goddess-like, with a modern seductive twist. The red of her nails and dress connotes power and possibly evil. She looks out of place in the scene as she is the only colorful thing there, and she is not simplistically dressed. The man  is dressed in a simple black and white tuxedo, which shows he is rich, however he looks untidy in comparison to the woman and their environment. He is holding a casual position, and looks relaxed. Where the woman is standing straight and powerfully, he is slouching informally and this ridicules him slightly. He looks as if he is comfortable in this environment, possibly because he thinks that he is in control, and is possessive towards the woman, however she holds a passive and strong position and is higher up, so may feel that she knows she is more important than the man.


Their surroundings are simplistically decorated with modern natural wood furnishings. However there are also high-tech scientific diagrams on the walls, and unnatural lighting. The wooden furnishings therefore seem pretentious. The ceiling is large and black, this looks scary and gives an underlying effect of tension and makes the scene seem more dangerous.


There is unnatural white lighting coming from the left onto the background and the man, the fact that it is not natural connotes that his power is superficial. However the lighting on the woman is coming from the right side, and is an unnatural pink/red light. This could show that she is a much-loved possession of the man, but also that she is seductive, powerful and/or evil.