"This is the Doctor. Don't let him baffle you."

[dbskyler]

In case you don't recognize the quote, that was the Brigadier introducing the Doctor to a UNIT soldier in "Battlefield." And that means yes, it's time for another reaction post!



Believe it or not, I hadn't seen "Battlefield" all the way through before, because in the olden days I stopped regularly watching "Doctor Who" sometime during Six's tenure (due to a combination of change in my personal life and a general dislike for Six -- or Six's scripts if you prefer but the result was the same). So I'm not too familiar with Seven's era and am still picking up episodes I either never saw or, as was the case with "Battlefield," only saw a few pieces of here and there.

For some reason I have a hard time with Seven's stories in general -- I find them overly complicated, not just in the plot but also in the way they are presented (scenes tend to feel scattershot to me rather than building into a coherent narrative). So even though I like Sylvester McCoy's Doctor, and I like Ace, Seven's era is not my favorite. I had the same story structure issues with "Battlefield," but it didn't matter a bit because I wasn't there for the story, I was there for one thing and one thing only: Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. And in that respect, the story delivered, and it delivered in spades.

The Brigadier was so good in this. There were tons of scenes where he got to be all Brigadier-y (yes, that's an adjective, I declare it so). Tons of scenes where his relationship with the Doctor was shown off to full effect -- how well they both know each other, and respect each other, and don't always agree with each other, and just, well, like each other. They acted just as two people who've been friends for decades (or centuries) should act, and I love that stuff and could watch it all day.

Best moments:

--The meeting between the Brigadier and the Doctor (and it's so awesome that the Brigadier this time just knows it's the Doctor, and we don't have to go through all that are-you-really-the-Doctor stuff). "You recognize me then?" "Yes. Who else would it be?" LOL.

-- The Brigadier's litany of all the new spiffy types of armament UNIT has been stockpiling to deal with Daleks, robots, and yeti, including gold-tipped bullets for "you-know-what" (hee hee, that was great, and I still am sad that modern Cybermen don't seem to be affected by gold).

-- Bessie! Who would've thought I'd smile so much to see a little yellow car again? But I did. I was just as pleased as the Doctor was, I swear.

-- The Brigadier immediately firing upon the Destroyer thing as soon as he sees it, with absolutely no effect (as usual). Then the Doctor gently chiding him, and the Brigadier's rejoinder: "Well, nothing ventured, Doctor."

-- The Brigadier's final heroic stand against the Destroyer, one person alone defending the Earth. It was glorious, and it would have been a fitting way to kill the character off (but I am really glad they didn't).

Big surprise of the episode -- how much I really loved Bambera. Like, a lot. Why are they giving us these new UNIT people instead of letting us see her again? I mean, Magambo is fine, I have nothing against Magambo, but she hasn't had an alternate universe medieval knight call her "magnificent" as she's shooting her way through an ambush. Just sayin'. And as for Colonel Mace, she would kick his ass. : )

Comments

[lizbee.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that they originally were going to have the Brig sacrifice himself for Earth, but couldn't actually bring themselves to do it.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. Glad you liked it. It's not perfect by any means, but it is a wonderful Brigadier story, as you say. And I'm very glad you liked Bambera, too (and Ancelyn - you did like Ancelyn as well?). Yes, the latest UNIT lot have all been pretty faceless in comparison. However, I hold to the belief that Bambera and Ancelyn stole Bessie and went off to the other dimension, where they fight knights and dragons together, which explains why UNIT don't seem to know about Bessie any more and there's no mention of Bambera. :-D

(Seven is my Doctor; he was the first I saw when I was young and I have the opposite problem to you - in comparison the rest of TV seems flat and uncomplicated and something of a disappointment, after the wonderful weirdness of things like Greatest Show and Ghostlight. I should own that's probably my very favourite DW story of all at this point. If you feel the need to disown me here, well... I do love the rest of it, too.) Heh.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's a "making of" special on the DVD that goes into that. The writer did indeed ask for permission to kill the Brig off, and both JNT and Nicholas Courtney agreed to it, but then he couldn't do it. Obviously JNT (or script editor Cartmel) could have ordered him to go back and rewrite and keep the Brigadier dead this time, but they didn't.

The writer laughingly said that the story would have been better if he had gone through with it, though; he talks about how the ending in particular didn't quite work because the Brigadier wasn't dead.

[dbskyler.livejournal.com]

I hold to the belief that Bambera and Ancelyn stole Bessie and went off to the other dimension, where they fight knights and dragons together

That works for me! And yes, I did like Ancelyn, too.

I still haven't seen very many Seven stories, and I haven't seen any of them in order, so I haven't given myself much of a chance to "get into" the different style of storytelling, which would probably help. I see how other stories could come across as flat if that's what you got used to, though. As for me, my first Doctor was Four, so if you want to disown me for being old, I'd understand . . . ; D )

[thisbluespirit]

Good. Bambera and Ancelyn are high up on my list of favourite one-off characters. Their courtship by duelling, Bambera's snark and Ancelyn's unquenchable smugness are just such fun.

Heh, heh. Oh, not the rest of Doctor Who (except just very occasionally in the middle of a ploddy Three tale that could use a metaphor and it probably explains my great love for 60s Who that hasn't worked out the Rules for Being DW yet.)

I was a latecomer to DW, so I suspect I'm not necessarily all that much younger. (I had a slow start because when I was small - and Tom was in his last season - I used to stick my head under a cushion when the music came on and shout 'Turn it off, turn it off!' I had no taste, clearly.)

Seven is my first love for that reason (Sylvester does give a very magician-like performance, so his Doctor being Merlin in Battlefield seemed perfect at the time). But, given all ten Doctors and forced to put them in a list, I'd rather line them up and shuffle them about occasionally, depending on what I'd been watching!!

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

BRIG BRIG BRIGBRIGBRIG

NONSTICK BULLETS

BRIGBRIGBRIG BRIGLINESS (this is a word, Calapine says so)

and Bessie! ♥

[curuchamion.livejournal.com]

I finally saw Battlefield and now I want to read the one about Ancelyn and Bambera and Bessie, too. But I apparently can't write it.

(On another note, it absolutely kills me that Morgana in this one was apparently Sara Kingdom when the Brig was Bret Vyon? I don't know, that just amuses me for some reason.)

[thisbluespirit]

Yay. Of course 1970s UNIT is the best UNIT, but if we can't have them, Bambera and Ancelyn are awesome. (There is fic with them in - it has been recced on Calufrax, so it should be easily findable - but in which they stay on Earth and she has to introduce him to the family and so on.) I am still waiting for someone to write the one where they steal Bessie and run off to the parallel universe to battle evil and dragons and such. Yes.

Jean Marsh? Yes, she was. And she was Richard I's sister in The Crusade, and guess who was considered for the king, even though they got the amazing Mr Glover? ;-) It is kind of odd, yes.