Other Doctor Lives: The Crown: Season 2, Episode 5 – “Marionettes” (2017)

This is an interesting episode, about a little tidbit of history I didn’t know anything about. That’s one thing I do appreciate about The Crown – it dramatizes events from British history that I’d never heard of before, both large and small.

When Elizabeth delivers a tonedeaf speech to workers at an auto factory, she finds herself on the receiving end of criticism from a lord who declares her out of touch with the working people of England. The incident grows into a dustup in the papers, and Elizabeth is torn between her desire to have the criticism shut down and the worry that he might be right.

For starters, it’s interesting that what we have here is a conflict over the dignity of the working class that plays out between members of the aristocracy. Even though Lord Altrincham’s words are prompted by his observations of “regular people” listening to Elizabeth’s speech on the radio, working-class folks aren’t actual participants in what’s going on here. It reminds me a little of news about congressional committees drafting bills about reproductive health, wherein the committees are made up entirely of men.

I also like the detail that Elizabeth feels somewhat thrown under the bus on this issue. She is the one who delivers the speech and understandably takes the heat for it, but she doesn’t write the words she says. Even if it’s true that, by virtue of her life and upbringing, she doesn’t know what ordinary people’s lives are like, she trusts her advisors to write speeches for her that are attuned to the sensibilities of the people, that won’t turn people off or offend them. She starts to realize that, if she’s surrounded by toffs, she won’t necessarily get thoughts or attitudes that are reflective of the country as a whole.

It’s another episode where there isn’t a lot of Philip, but unfortunately, he manages to be pretty annoying even with his limited screentime. His chief contribution to the episode is making fun of Elizabeth’s hairstyle, and he does it 1) in an incredibly blunt and tactless way, and 2) while Elizabeth is on her way to the speaking engagement in question. I imagine that, in Philip’s head, he probably thinks he’s just keeping it real, but it gets to the point that it’s like, “When was the last time you made an effort to make anything the slightest bit easier for your wife, who’s the monarch of a whole damn country?” Geez, guy.

At this point, I’ve fully stopped hoping for any kind of turnaround or positive journey of growth on Philip’s part. I’ve accepted that his character is going to be mostly aggravating/annoying, with flashes of his nice moments that make me wistful for the man he so frequently chooses not to be. Matt Smith still pulls some really nice acting out of this on occasion, but on the whole, I’d have wished for something better deserving of his talents (as I’ve said before, even Philip’s bad qualities aren’t narratively-compelling enough to make him enjoyable to watch as an unrootable character.)