In which I put off being a good host...
Jan. 21st, 2013 07:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regndoftMonday evening, the night before uni starts again. Am currently trying to fill the hole where my talent should be with tea and sandwiches after another unsuccessful attempt at writing.
In more exciting news: hello and welcome, new friends! I should really type up a proper introduction post to link to on these occasions. As you can see, I'm posting this from DreamWidth, so if you've also migrated feel free to add me here as well. But suffice to say I wouldn't participate in friending memes on LJ if I didn't still hang around there. :)
I might do a proper introduction post when no more people will be dropping by (ssshh, it hasn't even been 24 hours!).
For now, an entry that's been a long time coming. Kind of. I think I promisedaralias some Mike Yates meta ages ago and never got around to typing it down.
So, as I was bedridden last week, I re-watched Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
I think the first thing that struck me is how good this serial is. The basic idea is very much a gimmick: "children like dinosaurs, right? This is a children's sci-fi show, let's give them dinosaurs!" and yet the real story is something different entirely. The plot twists are great and not any I saw coming the first time around, and the Mike Yates subplot, despite being introduced very early, manages to keep us in suspense for the better part of the serial.
(This is overall something that Doctor Who always has and still does very well, managing to sell these absolutely absurd plots that no one would normally take seriously by playing them completely straight. Central London is invaded by dinosaurs? The city becomes a ghost town full of looters and military personnel.)
So about Mike Yates.
One of the first things we find out about Mike in this story is that he's been on sick leave since the events in The Green Death. He also mentions how much he actually likes the evacuated London, the clean air and the silence. Almost immediately afterwards, it turns out he's actually working with the people causing the invasion in the first place and that it's some kind of distraction from the real plan; Mike informs them about the Doctor and how he plans on trying to find them. He protests vehemently when they say that he needs to be disposed of.
This is important, and something that remains present in the episodes that follow: Mike outright refuses to take another person's life, and particularly not the Doctor's (he even suggests revealing their entire plan to him, saying he might sympathise with them). In fact, when Professor Whitaker deliberately sabotages the Doctor's stun gun, it's Mike who ends up saving them - and calls the Professor out on it. So over the course of the serial, we are kept in suspense whether he is truly aware of the real plot - that of reversing the planet earth to its pre-historic state, effectively erasing all of human civilisation that ever was.
The brilliant thing is, of course, that he is.
In the scene where the Doctor realises this, General Finch (unbeknown to them another conspirator) orders Yates to keep him in custody, and it's when he desperately hands over that responsibility to Sergeant Benton that the coin drops. Benton lets the Doctor escape, of course, and is threatened with court-martial by Finch because of it.
This is Mike Yates: a young man of average intelligence, designated Captain in a UN-sponsored military organisation, who won't take the Doctor's life to further his own agenda, who looks guilty when Benton is threatened with court-martial for a responsibility that should have been his, and who is part of a conspiracy whose ultimate goal is making sure that everyone in the entire world will never have existed.
And he doesn't expect to survive it. "I'm not important," he says; the ones who will survive it aren't even aware of what is happening.
And afterwards, when the entire business is over with, he is sent on an extended sick leave and given the chance to resign from UNIT quietly.
Why Mike acts like this is never really explained. The common idea in fandom seems to be that Mike is still affected by the mind control he was subjected to by BOSS, or more reasonably reacting to it (BOSS wasn't exactly environmen-friendly, after all). Personally I'm not entirely satisfied by this idea, or at least I don't like to give it full credit. What happened in The Green Death was most definitely a catalyst of some sort, but I'm the kind of person who likes chaacter development to come from the core of the characters (rather than being instigated by super-computers, you know). But since we know so little about Mike it's useless to speculate too much about it.
What we do know is that when we see Mike again in Planet of the Spiders, he has retreated to a Buddhist centre in the countryside and seems to be happy and recuperating well in this lifestyle, suggesting that the stress of the military life might've put a considerable amount of strain before and contributed to his breakdown.
What I find interesting in the end is this: not once is Mike Yates called out on his betrayal. Of course, it's revealed, and he's subdued, but there are never any cries of accusations, no "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal"s. The cast knows that Mike isn't a bad person (and so do we, knowing the acts he's refused to commit earlier in the serial) and that is why they treat it as a sad and regrettable incident.
To me (though I am obviously biased due to personal experiences) the entire ordeal reminds me more of people reacting to a friend being revealed to have mental health problems; it's worth noting that while Yates gets a sick leave and chance to resign, General Finch is court-martialled.
Some general story notes: Invasion of the Dinosaurs was the last story written by Malcolm Hulke, who is also notable for, amongst others, Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death. Hulke's way of writing layered human characters, especially the villains, is very interesting; several parallells can be made between General Carrington in The Ambassadors and Mike in Invasion.
Besides both being military characters, they are both characters who do terrible things - and are yet met with sympathy by the Doctor. Considering that Three in particular tends to be brusque and something of a bully, this is rather remarkable and might have its explanation in the fact that both Carrington and Yates act as they do out of a misplaced sense of moral duty. And perhaps most importantly, they both suffer from some sort of trauma leading them to make the decisions they do - Carrington's xenophobia being rooted in seeing his colleagues slain by the aliens he then decides to use, and Mike from whatever experience in The Green Death that leads him to trying to purify Earth.
Secondly, in regards to their relationship to the other villains in their episodes, their crimes are relative. Carrington does what he thinks is best for the world while Quinlan acts out of greed - Yates refuses to stoop to murder when pursuing their goal, unlike General Finch or Professor Whitaker (likewise, the people who were chosen to survive Operation: Golden Age certainly protest when they find out the truth - but some of them were also willing to murder Sarah Jane if her presence would disrupt their plans for "paradise on earth").
Say what you want about the special effects, but in my opinion Invasion of the Dinosaurs is definitely the high point of season 11, and a very good example of Jon Pertwee era Who overall.
TL;DR when I watch TV about dinosaurs invading London I find mental illness metaphors. Death of the Author is a wonderful thing.
(Also this post it probably littered with mistakes and typos but I'll... deal with that when I don't need to sleep. Because uni tomorrow.)
In more exciting news: hello and welcome, new friends! I should really type up a proper introduction post to link to on these occasions. As you can see, I'm posting this from DreamWidth, so if you've also migrated feel free to add me here as well. But suffice to say I wouldn't participate in friending memes on LJ if I didn't still hang around there. :)
I might do a proper introduction post when no more people will be dropping by (ssshh, it hasn't even been 24 hours!).
For now, an entry that's been a long time coming. Kind of. I think I promised
aralias some Mike Yates meta ages ago and never got around to typing it down. So, as I was bedridden last week, I re-watched Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
I think the first thing that struck me is how good this serial is. The basic idea is very much a gimmick: "children like dinosaurs, right? This is a children's sci-fi show, let's give them dinosaurs!" and yet the real story is something different entirely. The plot twists are great and not any I saw coming the first time around, and the Mike Yates subplot, despite being introduced very early, manages to keep us in suspense for the better part of the serial.
(This is overall something that Doctor Who always has and still does very well, managing to sell these absolutely absurd plots that no one would normally take seriously by playing them completely straight. Central London is invaded by dinosaurs? The city becomes a ghost town full of looters and military personnel.)
So about Mike Yates.
One of the first things we find out about Mike in this story is that he's been on sick leave since the events in The Green Death. He also mentions how much he actually likes the evacuated London, the clean air and the silence. Almost immediately afterwards, it turns out he's actually working with the people causing the invasion in the first place and that it's some kind of distraction from the real plan; Mike informs them about the Doctor and how he plans on trying to find them. He protests vehemently when they say that he needs to be disposed of.
This is important, and something that remains present in the episodes that follow: Mike outright refuses to take another person's life, and particularly not the Doctor's (he even suggests revealing their entire plan to him, saying he might sympathise with them). In fact, when Professor Whitaker deliberately sabotages the Doctor's stun gun, it's Mike who ends up saving them - and calls the Professor out on it. So over the course of the serial, we are kept in suspense whether he is truly aware of the real plot - that of reversing the planet earth to its pre-historic state, effectively erasing all of human civilisation that ever was.
The brilliant thing is, of course, that he is.
In the scene where the Doctor realises this, General Finch (unbeknown to them another conspirator) orders Yates to keep him in custody, and it's when he desperately hands over that responsibility to Sergeant Benton that the coin drops. Benton lets the Doctor escape, of course, and is threatened with court-martial by Finch because of it.
This is Mike Yates: a young man of average intelligence, designated Captain in a UN-sponsored military organisation, who won't take the Doctor's life to further his own agenda, who looks guilty when Benton is threatened with court-martial for a responsibility that should have been his, and who is part of a conspiracy whose ultimate goal is making sure that everyone in the entire world will never have existed.
And he doesn't expect to survive it. "I'm not important," he says; the ones who will survive it aren't even aware of what is happening.
And afterwards, when the entire business is over with, he is sent on an extended sick leave and given the chance to resign from UNIT quietly.
Why Mike acts like this is never really explained. The common idea in fandom seems to be that Mike is still affected by the mind control he was subjected to by BOSS, or more reasonably reacting to it (BOSS wasn't exactly environmen-friendly, after all). Personally I'm not entirely satisfied by this idea, or at least I don't like to give it full credit. What happened in The Green Death was most definitely a catalyst of some sort, but I'm the kind of person who likes chaacter development to come from the core of the characters (rather than being instigated by super-computers, you know). But since we know so little about Mike it's useless to speculate too much about it.
What we do know is that when we see Mike again in Planet of the Spiders, he has retreated to a Buddhist centre in the countryside and seems to be happy and recuperating well in this lifestyle, suggesting that the stress of the military life might've put a considerable amount of strain before and contributed to his breakdown.
What I find interesting in the end is this: not once is Mike Yates called out on his betrayal. Of course, it's revealed, and he's subdued, but there are never any cries of accusations, no "curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal"s. The cast knows that Mike isn't a bad person (and so do we, knowing the acts he's refused to commit earlier in the serial) and that is why they treat it as a sad and regrettable incident.
To me (though I am obviously biased due to personal experiences) the entire ordeal reminds me more of people reacting to a friend being revealed to have mental health problems; it's worth noting that while Yates gets a sick leave and chance to resign, General Finch is court-martialled.
Some general story notes: Invasion of the Dinosaurs was the last story written by Malcolm Hulke, who is also notable for, amongst others, Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Ambassadors of Death. Hulke's way of writing layered human characters, especially the villains, is very interesting; several parallells can be made between General Carrington in The Ambassadors and Mike in Invasion.
Besides both being military characters, they are both characters who do terrible things - and are yet met with sympathy by the Doctor. Considering that Three in particular tends to be brusque and something of a bully, this is rather remarkable and might have its explanation in the fact that both Carrington and Yates act as they do out of a misplaced sense of moral duty. And perhaps most importantly, they both suffer from some sort of trauma leading them to make the decisions they do - Carrington's xenophobia being rooted in seeing his colleagues slain by the aliens he then decides to use, and Mike from whatever experience in The Green Death that leads him to trying to purify Earth.
Secondly, in regards to their relationship to the other villains in their episodes, their crimes are relative. Carrington does what he thinks is best for the world while Quinlan acts out of greed - Yates refuses to stoop to murder when pursuing their goal, unlike General Finch or Professor Whitaker (likewise, the people who were chosen to survive Operation: Golden Age certainly protest when they find out the truth - but some of them were also willing to murder Sarah Jane if her presence would disrupt their plans for "paradise on earth").
Say what you want about the special effects, but in my opinion Invasion of the Dinosaurs is definitely the high point of season 11, and a very good example of Jon Pertwee era Who overall.
TL;DR when I watch TV about dinosaurs invading London I find mental illness metaphors. Death of the Author is a wonderful thing.
(Also this post it probably littered with mistakes and typos but I'll... deal with that when I don't need to sleep. Because uni tomorrow.)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-25 10:19 pm (UTC)i also think, i should think more about the classic who writers as collections of work, because i do very strongly for big finish and new who, but almost not at all for classic who. but what you say about tracking malcolm hulke's preoccupations is also interesting.
so, thanks for writing this post.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-25 10:39 pm (UTC)I admit to having a soft spot for Mike, mostly because of Invasion; it's a rare bit of character development in a minor character, and a very layered one to boot. I'm not sure how much of it was intentional, but it remains compelling even today. And I want to write fic about it. But I have too many plot bunnies already (so many I forgot I wanted to write this one!).
I don't do it nearly often enough, tbh - Malcolm Hulke and Robert Holmes are the only ones I tend to notice these things about, presumably because they have very strong political messages and also very good episodes.
Though sometimes I remember that Malcolm Hulke wrote The Sea Devils, and then the mind boggles. Was he tired of multi-layered characters and villains and just went "AND THEN THEY FENCE"??
It was nothing; I thoroughly enjoyed it. <3