"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 1, Episode 4 – “Act of God” (2016)


Man, this was a hard episode to watch. Given the state of the world right now, much of it hit way too close to home, and I cried multiple times.

Unusual weather circumstances cause the smog from London’s coal-burning smoke stacks to travel downward, trapped throughout the city as a dense fog. As the toxic fog hangs in the air, hazardly-low visibility disrupts city life and causes traffic accidents, and breathing it in sickens a number of London citizens. Churchill fiddles while the city chokes, and Elizabeth wonders what her role is amid the crisis.

Just wow. Seeing people walking through the fog-stricken London streets in face masks, seeing a crowded hospital with beds in corridors, seeing overburdened doctors with not enough ventilators to go around. Obviously, that imagery resonates hard these days, but it’s more than that. Even more than the echoes of the present there in the past, more than the familiar images transposed onto the 1950s, it’s the sight of the leader of the government ignoring and downplaying the crisis while the city suffers. The weather that causes the toxic fog is not Churchill’s fault, but his past negligence of environmental reform allows it to be as bad as it is, and what’s worse, once it’s clear how dangerous the situation is, he doesn’t mobilize. He scoffs, “It’s weather, it’ll pass,” and abdicates all responsibility for getting aid to the hospitals that are straining under the weight of those affected. The crisis is the only thing on the cabinet’s mind, but he’d rather talk about anything else.

Elizabeth is much more immediately concerned about what’s happening just outside the doors of Buckingham Palace, but even though she’s the queen, she feels relatively powerless. Churchill continues to play the irascible Father Knows Best card with her, and whisperings reach her from Churchill’s political rivals that it’s her duty to involve herself. This is a great weight placed on the shoulders of a young queen who took up the throne far earlier than anyone planned, and it tests Elizabeth sorely. As much as she wants to do anything that will ease her people’s suffering, she’s also mindful of the need to recognize what her power allows, what her duty is, and what would constitute an overreach.

As for Phillip? Sigh…. More Riley Finn than Marty Ginsburg today. Admittedly, he has the excuse of going rather stir-crazy due to being housebound with the weather alerts (keeping him away from his new favorite pastime, practicing for his pilot’s license,) and Churchill seems to have a particular knack for thwarting his every notion, but he handles it badly, far worse than his wife who has much more to worry about on her plate. (If this were analogous to the present, why do I get the feeling that Phillip is just a few days from taking to the streets with a “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” sign?)

But it’s not a good look for him. At best, he’s maddeningly underfoot while Elizabeth is trying to work, and at worst, he’s short-tempered and snippy, making passive-aggressive remarks about “knowing his place,” which – it kind of seems like sometimes you don’t, guy. I’m not ready to give up on him yet, but I’d like to see Phillip turn it around quite a bit in the next few episodes, ‘cause Churchill gives Elizabeth enough trouble. She doesn’t need to be dealing with her husband’s sulks at home too.

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