Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 1, Episode 7 – “Scientia Potentia Est” (2016)

An interesting episode, albeit one that at times makes me want to bash my head against the wall (but, like, in a narratively compelling way?) For a minute there, I thought this episode wouldn’t be part of Other Doctor Lives, but Matt Smith sneaks in for a quick appearance right at the end.

 

Elizabeth, feeling increasingly cowed by the well-informed politicians and experts around her, secures a private tutor to help her get on less unequal footing. Churchill makes plans to meet with President Eisenhower, convinced that it’s the only way to keep the U.S. from making a deadly error with the Soviet Union, but his poor health gets in the way.

 

It’s honestly kind of heartbreaking to see Elizabeth come to the realization that she was barely educated. The episode opens on young-Elizabeth flashbacks, where we see her schooled in French on proper table etiquette for royals and where the Eton teacher privately instructing her on the Constitution tells her that algebra wouldn’t be a “dignified” subject for her to learn. But she doesn’t fully seem to see just how messed-up that was until she has her first meeting with her tutor and she finds herself unable to give him any indication of what “level” she’s at.

 

This seems shockingly negligent, for any child but even more so for a future sovereign – although, as Elizabeth’s mother points out, Margaret is even less-educated than her sister! No wonder so many of the men surrounding Elizabeth, from the prime minister to her subordinates, seem to think nothing of metaphorically patting her on the head and going, “Now, now, Father Knows Best” (more on that in a second.) It’s admirable of Elizabeth, first, to recognize this issue and seek out a solution, and second, to keep at it when she realizes just how far at a disadvantage she is.

 

Now, onto Churchill and co. Maybe it’s a combination of a number of things I’ve been watching lately (as well as depressing examples from the news,) but I’ve had it up to here with dudes being macho, blustery, and entitled while simultaneously having such fragile egos. The men here behave shamefully toward their sovereign, and their paternalism is so ugly. It makes me sad that Elizabeth feels intellectually-inferior to them because, although they had the opportunity to be educated when she did not, they pull some seriously bonehead moves.

 

As I said, just a quick glimpse of Phillip today, largely him dressing up for a banquet he doesn’t realize is no longer happening and then griping about it (an ironic contrast with how men in the government deliberately conspire to keep Elizabeth ill-informed about important matters of state, when she’s the frickin’ queen.) It’s probably a good thing he isn’t around much here. Given the way he’s been in so many episodes, I don’t think it’s too likely he would’ve been sympathetic to Elizabeth’s insecurities and her desire to improve herself, and I didn’t need that from him today.