Somewhat uniquely among those on this list, Jessica Hynes joined Doctor Who's (extended) family as an actress rather than a writer, and is best known to Whovians for portraying Joan Redfern in the highly acclaimed two-parter Human Nature/The Family Of Blood. That said however, describing her only as an actress would be doing Hynes a massive discredit. Hynes initially proved her writing credentials when she co-wrote the cult sit-com Spaced (credited at the time as Jessica Stevenson) with Simon Pegg. The series was an award-winning mixture of twenty-something angst and pop-culture worshipping, and it gained her the recognition she deserves. More recently she also penned the BBC4 comedy Up The Women, a sit-com set during the women's suffragette movement in 1910. Compare this to the fact that Robert Shearman had written only one other television script before season 1's Dalek, and Hynes' portfolio is positively overflowing. Surely a knack for comedy timing, memorable characters, familiarity with the historical, and a passion for female equality are all the credentials any woman would need to be Doctor Who's next, but unfortunately still only second, female writer.
