Class 1.03
Oct. 30th, 2016 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which we get Day of the Dead, the darkside version, and also our first character exploration episode.
Quite a good one. The Whoverse generally does well with episodes centred around loss/grief , though mileage may differ - Father's Day has both lovers and haters (I'm on the yay rather on the nay side myself), otoh I truly disliked the SJA two parterfeaturing Sarah Jane's parents whereas most people back when it was broadcast seemed to love it; and one of my favourite Torchwood episodes pairs up Owen Harper (mid resurrection depression) with a suicidally grieved almost jumper he has to convince life is worth living after all.
Here, the episode makes no bones from the start that our regulars aren't really talking to the dead but to a creature/creatures pretending to be same, but that's not the emotional point (safe for some icky special effects); the point is that the grief they feel, and the different ways they deal with it, tells us something about the characters. Tanya longing for her father while being aware the creature isn't him manages to be powerful for the entire episode despite nothing truly happening until the end; the young actress is good. The reveal that the reason why April's mother is an wheel chair is that her father tried to kill his family along with himself (and went to prison, since he survived as well), and that April's determined niceness and sensibility are a result of this doesn't come via an encounter with a dead person but via her and Ram having to team up since neither can reach Tanya. This is the first cross connection I was wondering about a review ago, and results in some attraction of opposites, which okay, I'm willing to buy. Meanwhile, Matteusz, Charlie's prom date from the pilot, turns out to be recurring, and it's worth noting both the first few kisses and the first lovers-in-bed scene is an m/m one while we learn more about Matteusz and Charlie both. Not just character wise, it establishes a few things about Charlie's culture.
(Incidentally: I idly wondered about the consent question with aliens like Charlie and Miss Quill who have assumed human shape, when they pair up with human partners. It's academic with Matteusz now since post pilot he's aware that Charlie is an alien, though he may or may not know Charlie's current shape isn't his original form. But if Matteusz didn't know, and still had sex with Charlie, would this be dub con despite both partners wanting to have sex with each other?)
We find out even more about the Quill, including Miss Quill's true name (Andrath, if I understood it correctly), and the way they're raised. Miss Quill's interaction with her Not!Sister proved an efficient contrast to Tanya's with her Not!Father, with one shared element: in both cases, the menace of the week was somewhat mistaken about the complexity of what their target was feeling about their dead people. In Tanya's case, it fed on the grief but missed the anger. In Miss Quill's, it overdid the pandering to her wishes and by this wrecked the effectiveness of the illusion. It also was another illustration in her practical ruthlessness as she didn't simply kill the Not!Sister but trapped it and tried to interrogate it. (BTW, since I've complained about the by now very popular cliché that interrogation torture when used by the good guys somehow always gets results, I note that while Miss Quill gets Charlie to nail the Not!Sister's hand to the ground, this doesn't result in them finding out anything useful.)
Lastly, on a flippant note: clearly the what was their name again is the creature from Star Trek V. a few years earlier, before it switches to masquarading as God. What Sybok does is the updated version of the Class episode's MacGuffin; after all, Vulcan telepathy removes the need for slimy tentacles connecting to an illusion of the Dearly Departed who cause maximum emotional pain. But the offer of pain removal is the same, and Kirk's eventual reply certainly isn't dissimilar from Tanya's (that creature never learns). :)
Quite a good one. The Whoverse generally does well with episodes centred around loss/grief , though mileage may differ - Father's Day has both lovers and haters (I'm on the yay rather on the nay side myself), otoh I truly disliked the SJA two parterfeaturing Sarah Jane's parents whereas most people back when it was broadcast seemed to love it; and one of my favourite Torchwood episodes pairs up Owen Harper (mid resurrection depression) with a suicidally grieved almost jumper he has to convince life is worth living after all.
Here, the episode makes no bones from the start that our regulars aren't really talking to the dead but to a creature/creatures pretending to be same, but that's not the emotional point (safe for some icky special effects); the point is that the grief they feel, and the different ways they deal with it, tells us something about the characters. Tanya longing for her father while being aware the creature isn't him manages to be powerful for the entire episode despite nothing truly happening until the end; the young actress is good. The reveal that the reason why April's mother is an wheel chair is that her father tried to kill his family along with himself (and went to prison, since he survived as well), and that April's determined niceness and sensibility are a result of this doesn't come via an encounter with a dead person but via her and Ram having to team up since neither can reach Tanya. This is the first cross connection I was wondering about a review ago, and results in some attraction of opposites, which okay, I'm willing to buy. Meanwhile, Matteusz, Charlie's prom date from the pilot, turns out to be recurring, and it's worth noting both the first few kisses and the first lovers-in-bed scene is an m/m one while we learn more about Matteusz and Charlie both. Not just character wise, it establishes a few things about Charlie's culture.
(Incidentally: I idly wondered about the consent question with aliens like Charlie and Miss Quill who have assumed human shape, when they pair up with human partners. It's academic with Matteusz now since post pilot he's aware that Charlie is an alien, though he may or may not know Charlie's current shape isn't his original form. But if Matteusz didn't know, and still had sex with Charlie, would this be dub con despite both partners wanting to have sex with each other?)
We find out even more about the Quill, including Miss Quill's true name (Andrath, if I understood it correctly), and the way they're raised. Miss Quill's interaction with her Not!Sister proved an efficient contrast to Tanya's with her Not!Father, with one shared element: in both cases, the menace of the week was somewhat mistaken about the complexity of what their target was feeling about their dead people. In Tanya's case, it fed on the grief but missed the anger. In Miss Quill's, it overdid the pandering to her wishes and by this wrecked the effectiveness of the illusion. It also was another illustration in her practical ruthlessness as she didn't simply kill the Not!Sister but trapped it and tried to interrogate it. (BTW, since I've complained about the by now very popular cliché that interrogation torture when used by the good guys somehow always gets results, I note that while Miss Quill gets Charlie to nail the Not!Sister's hand to the ground, this doesn't result in them finding out anything useful.)
Lastly, on a flippant note: clearly the what was their name again is the creature from Star Trek V. a few years earlier, before it switches to masquarading as God. What Sybok does is the updated version of the Class episode's MacGuffin; after all, Vulcan telepathy removes the need for slimy tentacles connecting to an illusion of the Dearly Departed who cause maximum emotional pain. But the offer of pain removal is the same, and Kirk's eventual reply certainly isn't dissimilar from Tanya's (that creature never learns). :)
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Date: 2016-10-30 07:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-30 07:59 pm (UTC)Thank you!
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Date: 2016-10-30 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-31 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-30 11:43 pm (UTC)I think this was the best episode so far, despite my general principle that if I never saw another SF story about an alien that feeds on grief/fear/anger/other-negative-human-emotion again it would be too soon.
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Date: 2016-10-31 05:27 am (UTC)Thanks for the spelling!
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Date: 2016-11-01 06:37 pm (UTC)http://www.metrolyrics.com/long-lankin-lyrics-steeleye-span.html
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Date: 2016-11-02 05:27 am (UTC)