In this clip of doctor who we are essentially presented with two binary opposites, in this essay I intend to discuss and deconstruct the representational issues of gender. I also want to discuss how Martha is represented as a female figure and how the master is represented as the opposing male figure. Levis Strauss was the originator of binary opposites and his approach has been used in most film and TV activity to show the clear alteration between the characters and how it shapes the scene.
The first shot we see of Martha is a medium close up shot, so we are able to recognize her face and body language, from what we can see she is quite scared and uncomfortable, she is looking around as if she is unaware of her surroundings. It is taken at eye level, I think the director chose to do it at eye level because he wanted the audience to feel more involved and make them feel as if they were there.
Mise En Scene is the first area we are going to debate about how the characters have been presented and shown to the audience. The setting of scene is taken in some spaceship of some kind. We can see that the master is slightly higher above everyone else; therefore we can presume that he is of more power and has higher authority than the rest of the characters. The walls are silver and metallic, metallic walls make the place look cold and hard, this could be a description of the master’s character.
Martha however is dressed in a tight fitted coat and slim fitting trousers, her clothes show off her body and sexualise her image, and she is in the male gaze as she is objectifying herself to the male audience. Her coat is body-hugging and black, the material looks very leather – like, and it looks rebellious and has a “bad girl” type of representation. She gives off an edgy and fierce persona, therefore we expect her to do the unexpected and have something up her sleeve. Martha seems as if she has two sides to her, one being a rebellious side and one being a softer and kinder side.
The master however has a very smug side, he is content where he’s at but Martha seems to look down quite a lot as if she is ashamed or humiliated. We see a various amount of close up shots, we can tell that she is wearing makeup but has tied up her hair clumsily; she is not all glamorous but takes pride in her appearance.
The master however is presented as smug, and almost ecstatic that he has caught Martha; he looks clean cut and sophisticated, he seems to take more pride in his appearance than Martha. His posture is very straight and he holds himself very proud and high. We can obviously tell who holds the power between the two characters, it is the master, as he is not cuffed and gets to decide her fate, and he is also higher above than her. Martha looks down whenever the Master looks at her, as if she’s ashamed or humiliated. From these early scenes we can tell that the male is dominant, he looks as If he makes the choices and decisions, and that he views Martha as subordinate and weak.
The master makes no attempt to greet her but orders her to kneel down before him, straight away we take a disliking towards the master as he seems somewhat cocky and arrogant. The power at this scene resides in the male, but slowly we see it subside to the female character. As Martha kneels down I notice that she looks at the master straight in the eye, seeing herself as an equal to him, at the same time making herself endearing.
This consequently shows the stereotyped image of men being in command and having control over all females. As well as this, this particular scene highlights that men also have a stronger verbal approach, in comparison to woman due to the fact that the male character here speaks loudly and clearly down to the female character, where as she is more quie and looks a lot more vulnerable. The Binary Opposite of ‘power vs. weak’ is conveyed once again in the next few shots of the clip as the male character orders Martha to get down on her knees, and she stereotypically does what she is told, the master does not ask but uses an imperative, which is shows his authority over her.
As the scene progresses we see that there is a role reversal, this is surprising as we the power go in to Martha. We see her slowly becoming a threat to the master and someone who he sees as an equal. At the end the disruption is solved and things get better and we see Martha come out of the quiet, vulnerable person she was at the beginning, this is the new equilibrium, which comes under Todorovs theory. Martha is fighting the master in a very mature and calm way, which shows that she is different from the Master.
