Had a wretched final today, the kind that simply asks for too much in too short a time. My first essay started something like "Mike Davis's Late Victorian Holocausts - El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World's appropriation of 'holocaust' as a term that invites readers to drastically reevaluate the process of colonialism as genocidal reminds me of the literary argument propounded by Cynthia Ozick that Toni Morrison's Beloved functions as an appropriation of the holocaust narrative, to promote a similar reevaluation of American slavery." My last essay ended something like "And so ethnographicgovernanceisresponsible<indirectly!forthePARTITIONING OF INDIA ohgodshitit's5I'MSOSORRY!"
Head. DESK.
After that farrago I decided just to skip Russian Post-War History and watch the next episode in my Five Fest with Molly.
Unfortunately that episode was Caves of Androzoni, which I had never seen before. I have been avoiding Five and Three's death eps b/c they'll hurt. I knew my well-beloved Five was for the Axe (er, the sectrox nest). I had a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a warm cup of milky vanilla tea. I was prepared for that. I did not know the episode was going to be frankly brilliant, but dark, dark, dark and HORRIBLE. Augh! Five spends the first half of the arc angry and depressed (an arc ago Tegan left, and last ep he lost Turlough and killed the Master, and it hangs over the episode, particularly the last bit, but more on that in a sec) and so, so sharp. The writing's great here. But as he gets weaker it's increasingly painful to watch.
There's an amazing parallel that I wondered if I was just Being an English Major and reading in right up until the episode ended. Last episode Five betrayed the Master, who exhibited a sort of desperate trust in him, and let the other man burn to death in Planet of Fire, refusing to help him even when he begged and briefly lapsing into a sort of glass-eyed catatonia right afterwards. In Androzoni, Five and Peri are captured by an amazingly done villain who was betrayed by a trusted business partner, allowed to boil almost to death in the planet's super-heated volcanic mud vats. Five seems Pretty Damn Uncomfortable with this revelation. Guilty Five is Guilty. And very visibly still feeling affected by it, much more so than after Adric died.
He's determined to save Peri in an almost sickly desperate 'I can't cause another person to die/loose another person now' way. Then possible parallel becomes fact at the end when dying!Five, somewhat comforted by knowing that his friends would have wanted him to try to push through and regenerate, is undone by an image of the Master laughing at him (it's kinda reverse Mind of Evil), insisting that he should die. There's of course a doubling effect here, giving the Doctor watching the Master's death passively last episode. The image of his face overwhelms all the others. Five then regenerates into the harsh, less emotionally vulnerable Six, stating that he had to change (in a very "I had to let it happen" Evita sort of way-- "Don't cry for me, Gallifrey!" ;p Thought that joke was dead, didn't you GRITS?).
On a writing, plot, and especially characterization level, Androzoni is devastating. I even liked PERI. I had not really hitherto considered liking Peri.
Now, from a D/M shipper perspective, the episode is really, really rewarding in terms of amazing, intense emotional dynamics. I've said before this is the slash pairing that writes itself half the time, and in other episodes it does, but you can't surpass this level of well-done deep issues and relationship (even if you read it as a non-romantic relationship) angst.
TL;DR: I'm going to go cry to the b_e Anon Meme and see if someone will write me Five getting crackily nursed back from a cold by Ainley!Master with chicken soup, just to recover equilibrium.
ALSO TOMORROW I AM 22! YAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEE! Well, and![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bellsandblades , we're both the 18th. So TO USSSSSSS!
Head. DESK.
After that farrago I decided just to skip Russian Post-War History and watch the next episode in my Five Fest with Molly.
Unfortunately that episode was Caves of Androzoni, which I had never seen before. I have been avoiding Five and Three's death eps b/c they'll hurt. I knew my well-beloved Five was for the Axe (er, the sectrox nest). I had a tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a warm cup of milky vanilla tea. I was prepared for that. I did not know the episode was going to be frankly brilliant, but dark, dark, dark and HORRIBLE. Augh! Five spends the first half of the arc angry and depressed (an arc ago Tegan left, and last ep he lost Turlough and killed the Master, and it hangs over the episode, particularly the last bit, but more on that in a sec) and so, so sharp. The writing's great here. But as he gets weaker it's increasingly painful to watch.
There's an amazing parallel that I wondered if I was just Being an English Major and reading in right up until the episode ended. Last episode Five betrayed the Master, who exhibited a sort of desperate trust in him, and let the other man burn to death in Planet of Fire, refusing to help him even when he begged and briefly lapsing into a sort of glass-eyed catatonia right afterwards. In Androzoni, Five and Peri are captured by an amazingly done villain who was betrayed by a trusted business partner, allowed to boil almost to death in the planet's super-heated volcanic mud vats. Five seems Pretty Damn Uncomfortable with this revelation. Guilty Five is Guilty. And very visibly still feeling affected by it, much more so than after Adric died.
He's determined to save Peri in an almost sickly desperate 'I can't cause another person to die/loose another person now' way. Then possible parallel becomes fact at the end when dying!Five, somewhat comforted by knowing that his friends would have wanted him to try to push through and regenerate, is undone by an image of the Master laughing at him (it's kinda reverse Mind of Evil), insisting that he should die. There's of course a doubling effect here, giving the Doctor watching the Master's death passively last episode. The image of his face overwhelms all the others. Five then regenerates into the harsh, less emotionally vulnerable Six, stating that he had to change (in a very "I had to let it happen" Evita sort of way-- "Don't cry for me, Gallifrey!" ;p Thought that joke was dead, didn't you GRITS?).
On a writing, plot, and especially characterization level, Androzoni is devastating. I even liked PERI. I had not really hitherto considered liking Peri.
Now, from a D/M shipper perspective, the episode is really, really rewarding in terms of amazing, intense emotional dynamics. I've said before this is the slash pairing that writes itself half the time, and in other episodes it does, but you can't surpass this level of well-done deep issues and relationship (even if you read it as a non-romantic relationship) angst.
TL;DR: I'm going to go cry to the b_e Anon Meme and see if someone will write me Five getting crackily nursed back from a cold by Ainley!Master with chicken soup, just to recover equilibrium.
ALSO TOMORROW I AM 22! YAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEEEE! Well, and
bellsandblades , we're both the 18th. So TO USSSSSSS!
