The End of the World

Episode 1.2 of Doctor Who

Directed by Euros Lyn
Script by Russel T Davies
45 minutes 2005

Christopher Eccleston plays the Doctor
Billie Piper plays Rose
Zoë Wanamaker voices Cassandra

Country of finance: UK
Nationality of director: Welsh
Location of story: a spacestation
Filming location: Cardiff
Channel: BBC Wales


Synopsis

The Doctor takes Rose billions of years into the future to witness the end of the Earth as the Sun expands and destroys it.  Observation is from a space station, and the guests are the super-rich.  One of the guests is Cassandra, who has had 708 operations and is now just a stretched face.  She is described as the last Earthling (which of course ignores the two minions who move her frame and frequently moisturize her). 

Cassandra is also the bad guy.  She releases robot insects which destroy the station's protections so that all will die and she will make a killing having bet against the other guests on the stock exchange.  She teleports out at the last minute, but is brought back by the Doctor.

Incidentally, Casandra who uses makeup and mentions various ex-husbands is obviously to be taken as female, started out as  boy.  This makes her one of the more rococo specimens of the old film favourite, the transy killer.


Trivia

Zoë Wanamaker was unable to be in Cardiff when the episode was filmed.  Cassandra was originally voiced by Eve Myles, and Zo's voice added later. 

Of course referring to this series as number 1 is high revisionism.  The original season 1 of Dr Who was back in 1963.

Earthlings Welcome Here

Episode 2.13 of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (SCC)

Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá.
Script by Natalie Chaidez
60 minutes 2008

Lena Headey plays Sarah Connor
Dinah Lenney plays Eileen/Alan Park

Country of finance: USA
Nationality of director: USA
Location of story: USA
Filming location: USA

Synopsis

Sarah, chasing the image of three dots, goes to a UFO convention where she hears about a blogger, Abraham, who has written of the three dots.  She is approached by Eileen who says that she knows about Abraham.  Her trailer contains maps of sighting of Abraham and of UFOs.   At a restaurant, Sarah follows Eileen into the ladies room and demands that she must meet Abraham.  Eileen takes off her wig and confesses that she is Abraham.  Her real name is Alan Park, and as an MIT graduate was employed on a secret project with an unknown metal.  Park fearing for his life went into hiding and disguised as a woman so as not to be recognized.  Park never knew where he worked for he taken there each day in a closed van.  Sarah takes Park to a regression therapist to go over memories of noises etc.  She records the session, and although an assassin kills both Park and the therapist, Sarah is able to deduce the location of the plant.

Who are they?

This is the only episode of SCC directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá.  He has directed episodes for a lot of television serials.

Natalie Chaidez wrote 30 SCC episodes.

Dinah Lenney is in only this episode of SCC but is a regular as Nurse Shirley in ER, and has played small parts in many television series, almost all female parts.

Conclusion

A cross-dressing drama for the cis-gendered.   Passing in gender role creates problems of its own, extra problems that a person hiding from bad guys does not need.  How did Eileen rent a car without a drivers license in her female name?  The script avoids these problems.

• Antonio Cuomo.  “The Sarah Connor Chronicles - St. 2, ep. 13: Earthlings Welcome Here: Recensione dell'episodio Abraham”.  Movieplayer.it. www.movieplayer.it/articoli/05229/the-sarah-connor-chronicles-st-2-ep-13-earthlings-welcome-here/

Trans persons acting in soap operas, telenovelas and other dramatic serials on television up to 2009

This is a first cut as such a list.   Feel free to add what is missing.


Guilda played Chevalier D’Eon in L'amour humain, 1970, Cinepix.
Carlotta played Robin Ross in Number 96, 1973, Network 10

Carlotta, then pre-op, was already a star in the Les Girls revue in Sydney.  She acted six episodes under the name Carolle Lea, and her identity was kept secret from cast and crew.  When Robin’s boyfriend asks her to marry him, she admits that she had previously been male.  The next day the switchboard at Channel 10 was jammed by viewers wanting to know whether the actor was male or female.

Christopher Morley played Sally Armitage in General Hospital, 1980, ABC

Morley played a friend of one of the main characters for three months, and attracted flirtatious interest of a male character.  This was played straight until she revealed that she was a “man”.  Some say that this was the inspiration for the movie Tootsie, two years later, where the Dustin Hoffman character impersonates a woman to get a job in the soap opera Southwest General Hospital.

Lily Savage played Roxanne in The Bill, 1988-90, Thames Television
Jahna Steele played Candace La Rue in NYPD Blue, 1995, Fox.
Karen Dior played Artiphys in Xena: Warrior Princess, 1997, Universal
Karen Dior played Monica/Dennis in Veronica’s Closet, 1998, NBC
Alexis Arquette played Cleo in The Strip, 1999, Warner Bros
Florencia De la Vega played Florencia de la Suciata in Amor Latino, 2000, Central Park
Alexis Arquette played Jim in Felicity, 2000, WB Television
Alexis Arquette played Caligula in Xena: Warrior Princess, 2001, Universal
Letitia Winter played herself in Emmerdale, 2001, Yorkshire Television
Alexandra Billings played Lois in Karen Sisco, 2003, ABC.

Alexandra’s Wikipedia page says “She is the first trans woman to have played a transgender character on television”.  Which is obviously not true.

Florencia De la Vega played Laisa Roldán in Los Roldán, 2004, Televisión Federal
Alexandra Billings played Ms Mitchell in ER, 2005, NBC
Alexandra Billings played Donna Gibson in Grey’s Anatomy, 2006, ABC
Candis Cayne played Carmelita Rainer in Dirty Sexy Money, 2007-8, ABC
Alexandra Billings played Joanna in Eli Stone, 2008, ABC
Alexis Arquette played lady in jail in Californication, 2008, Showtime
Pequeña P. in El ángel, 2009, Universidad Iberoamericana

This was terminated by Pequeña’s real-life suicide.