Earth's Woman President on Doctor Who

Vera Fusek as Earth's President in
Frontier in Space (Doctor Who, 1973)

Yesterday I was watching the Classic Doctor Who channel on Pluto and came across Frontier in Space, the six-part serial from 1973. The story is set in the 26th century where the third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and his assistant Jo Grant (perky Katy Manning) are caught in the middle of an interplanetary conflict between Earth and the Draconian Empire. The two forces are on the brink of war, but the whole thing is ploy by the Master, using Orgon mercenaries at the behest of the Daleks to divide and conquer the universe. 

What I found most interesting about this serial is the casting of a woman as president of the entire Earth 50 years before we even had a woman running for US President on a major party ticket or Great Britain having a female Prime Minister. In addition, this imagines a world government with the globe unified in interests (horrors!). Her gender is never brought up as a plus or a minus and she is not American or British, but speaks with a vaguely European accent. The actress Vera Fusek was from Czechoslovakia and lived in Britain, according to Wikipedia. 

The casting was repeated two years later in 1975 with Ark in Space. The Doctor, now regenerated into Tom Baker (my favorite Doctor), along with new companions Sarah Jane Smith (the marvelously expressive Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marten), materializes thousands of years into the future on board a gigantic vessel containing cryogenically frozen humans. The trio discover a recording from Earth's High Minister (again a woman), explaining the occupants of the ship are the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. The idiotic Harry exclaims to Sarah, “I bet that did your female chauvanist heart a power of good… Fancy a member of the fair sex being top of the totem pole.”

What's most remarkable is that Great Britain has had three female Prime Ministers since Frontier in Space and Ark in Space aired while we have had no women Presidents. Hopefully, that will corrected this November.

Other Random Dr. Who Thoughts: I've started taking out Dr. Who DVDs from the NYPL branches because my interest has been rekindled by the Long Island Dr. Who convention I attended. It's not to watch the old episodes, but the special features on the DVDs. So far, I've seen features on The Five Doctors (30th anniversary specials), The Green Death (an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures with Katy Manning and Matt Smith), The Visitation (Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton and Mark Strickson reunited), The Robots of Death (a history of robots), and missing episodes from the First and Second Doctors.