Scribblings from the Mitchy Side

Which meant I had to go into work. Dammit :P However, I have had food today without feeling nauseous, so that's good.

I was going to post two days worth of meme today but have decided to post two tomorrow, because I want to spend some quality time on Day 15's topic and Day 16 and 17 go quite well together so...

I could cheat here and list two of Tracie Thom's characters but that would be more about the actress than the characters, although the characters do kick arse (Kat Miller from Cold Case and Mahandra from Wonderfalls, for the curious).

When I was a kid I was all about the male characters but in recent years, I've rejoiced in the strong, well-written female characters. They are slightly more common than they used to be although the ratio of male to female leads is still well out of whack. And, also, "well-written" is often a quality that is sadly lacking but that's a rant for another day.

I'm kind of glad I had an extra day to ponder this because there was quite a list. Honourable mentions must be made to the following:-

Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) - Do I need to explain the legend that is this character? Criminally underused in Star Trek by today's standards, that she was a significant character in a prime time TV show at all was something of a major revelation in 60's television and not just in the USA. I prefer the Uhura of the many ST novels, where she gets to shine, but she was still one of my favourite secondary characters of the original show :D

Kat Miller (Tracie Thoms) on Cold Case - snarky, kick-ass single mom detective. Cold Case was never a show that developed the secondary characters much but within the narrow parameters of the show, they filled in a lil' bit and gave her a couple of decent storylines. What I liked most was although she was a single (African American) mother, this was never a huge deal, it was a just a fact of her life and they didn't make drama out of it. (For the record, I loved the character before I really got to know Tracie Thoms' work.)

DI Maggie Forbes (Jill Gascoine)/Inspector Jean Darbley(Stephanie Turner) (The Gentle Touch and Juliet Bravo respectively). These two series debuted in 1980 and the ladies at last got to lead the way in prime time crime dramas, mirroring the slow (very slow!) progress of women in the real world breaking the glass ceiling in male dominated professions. Of course, they were surrounded by a male supporting cast, but it was a start! Nothing hugely groundbreaking about the way they were portrayed (sensitive, caring etc) but that women were bossing men around on Saturday night TV was something of a novelty in the UK at that point.

Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) - hee! She was a fun character, she got all the snarky one liners and was a terrific character. Ignoring the whole "Dax" part of her character, when that wasn't the focus of the storyline, she was written as a strong, capable Star Trek Officer who didn't need the men to bail her out. Excellent! I may one day forgive DS9 for killing her off. Maybe. One day. When the devil wears ice skates.

Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) - Oh I LIKED her! She kicked ass and took names and was a bad ass guerilla fighter in the Cardassian War and she beat up Quark lots and she was GREAT! Her evil twin in the mirror universe was one of the best alternate characters ever too :D Credit to the writers, while they occasionally gave her an emotional storyline, they never softened her or made her less than she was. She rocked! She was an excellent foil for Captain Sisko and didn't take any nonsense, just as any good First Officer should.

Chris Cagney (Sharon Gless) - Cagney and Lacey - still the best female buddy-buddy cop show ever. Actually, has there been a second female buddy-buddy cop show ever? :P Seriously, I always preferred Cagney to Lacey - Lacey was always whining about something. Cagney was a ballbuster who happened to be a hell of a detective, something they showed as often as possible. A woman who was successful at what she did without needing to sleep her way to the top. On 80's TV! A miracle!

OK, on to my top three!

1) Tara Cole (Jeri Ryan) from Leverage


*sighs happily* Simply one of the best female characters I've seen in recent years and she was maternity cover, dammit!!! John Rogers, write a spin off for this character rightthissecondnow!! Smart, sarky, snarky and sassy and many other s's :D She made me wish the main character wouldn't come back which is impressive.

2) Ros Myers (Herminone Norris) from Spooks (aka MI-5 in USA)


Ros is bad ass. She underwent water torture in one episode and the bad guys had her connected to various monitors - which weren't blipping frantically because she wasn't stressed. Apparently she has ice water in her veins and a stone for a heart. Smart too, she was a traitor who flipped again and somehow wound up being Section Chief. That takes some doing. Oh and she's officially dead, there was a funeral and everything. But she got better :D One of the toughest female characters I've seen on the BBC and they don't dumb her down. If they EVER kill her off, I will stop watching Spooks. I mean it!

3) Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) from NCIS


Talking of bad asses! *laughs* Ziva can kill you with her little pinkie and won't be the least bit moved by your demise. The only reason she's not first or second is the ongoing romantic subplot with Tony annoys the heck out of me smidge and I get fed up of the clumsy comedy "Oh she doesn't get our language" moments. Give me tough as nails Agent David every day of the week.