alexwlchan

Spoilers for Star City s01e08

Everyone’s talking about the shot of Dylan with his head under Kier’s sword, but we shouldn’t sleep on this shot of Milchick from earlier in the episode.

There are plenty of things in his office, but there’s a gap between him and all of them. (Are any of them even within arm’s reach?) He’s isolated physically, just as he is emotionally by the end of this episode.

Cobel has been fired. The MDR team is lost in the wind. Miss Huang is banished. Drummond is abusive.

in the world of Operation Mincemeat, MI5 have taken a strong stance against generative AI and automation

So Hitler’s on the train, and he’s got a lot of freight He wants to move it quickly, he doesn’t want to wait

He puts it all in parcels, he puts it all in bags But frankly he’d be better off wrapping it in rags

He looks around, he asks his mates, how do I move this stuff? And one of them does say to him “my boxes are quite tough!”

This box it comes in one good size for that is all you need When cargo you now have to move with elegance and speed

You stack them up or lay them long, it’s really up to you This standard box of standard size it is a dream come true

On a truck, in a boat, this box can take the strain If you live in good countries it even goes by train

And because it is of standard size you really have no doubt Of whether anything will on its journey just fall out

And if we can all use one size and on this size agree A group of happy cargo haulers we are soon to be

So now you see, you really do, this box is a no brainer And let me introduce you to your new … Shipping Container

From another prompt by Liz in the Mincefluencers Discord.

There was a knock at the door. He looked around nervously, not brave enough to answer.

There was another knock at the door. More panicked looks, glances around the room for a hitherto-unseen exit.

There was another knock at the door, followed by a calm voice. “Please open the door. We will not knock a fourth time.”

Finally 2 got up from his chair, and cracked the door open. He could see two letters in sharp suits standing on the doorstep.

He couldn’t tell, but it looked like maybe a Q and an X? Both of whom were tricky pieces of work – not consonants to be trifled with.

“Good evening. May we come in? We’re looking for 0.”

2 shook his loop nervously. “They’re not here.”

“Well then you won’t mind if we come in and have a look around.” And the door was suddenly thrown open, and the two letters strode in.

After wandering through his apartment, the two letters returned to 2, still standing by his front door.

“We hear that 0 has been impersonating O again, and you know that just won’t do. No, no, no.” The letters were speaking softly, but with an unmissable hint of menace.

“They’re not here so we’ll leave you be, but if you see her, give 0 a little message from A. This is our patch. Our area. Our scrap of paper. She’d do well not to show her face in public for a while. It would be … such a shame if she were to have an … accident … while out and about.”

I've just had the truly spectacular mental image of Monty arguing with the ICT department and I feel it would end with a laptop going out of a window.

“What sort of clueless tool built this computer? I can’t get anything to work!”

“Yes Monty.”

“It’s not that bloody complex, I just need email and a few apps. Why can’t they make that work?”

“Good question Monty.”

“And now it’s completely frozen! This is useless.”

“Yes Monty.”

Jean sipped her tea as she watched Monty pace around the office, brandishing the offending laptop as he went. “What are you looking for?”

“A window, so I can toss this wretched thing out of it.”

“Mmhmm.” Jean took another sip of tea, waiting for him to spot the obvious. He walked in several circles before stopping in his tracks.

“Jean, where are the windows?”

“Hmm?”

“Why aren’t there any windows in the room?”

“You mean the room in the top secret government building? The room in the basement of the top secret government building?”

She could practically hear Monty roll his eyes as he stormed out to get higher. She took another sip of tea.

I love this moment in “Just for Tonight”. It packs so much into a single line – the sense of terror, the note of panic in Dave’s voice, the way the jazzy music and funky lights start to play before the second “Captain?”

We know that he’s not getting an answer before he’s finished asking the question.

It feels like such an intentional choice to juxtapose the helplessness of the submariner on the front line with the jolly japes of the spies safely back in Britain. The way so many men were sent out to be nameless cannon fodder by the officers at home.

(Spoilers for S2E9)

I watched S2E9 "Subspace Rhapsody" this morning, where the ending very heavily implies that Captain Batel is gonna be Gorn goulash in the next episode. Which I really hope doesn’t happen, because (1) I like Batel and (2) that feels uncomfortably close to fridging.

So I asked myself: if it was me, how would I pay off the portents of doom without doing The Most Obvious Thing? And it struck me: if you want to hurt Pike, don't kill Batel. Put her in the chain of events that leads to his accident.

There are various ways this could happen; but here’s one version:

It's pretty clear that her next mission is going to take her into peril, so have her be injured in the line of duty – something serious, enough that it's not immediately obvious whether she'd survive. (If you want a nice S2 cliffhanger, end with Pike standing over her biobed, unclear if she'll ever wake up.)

When she recovers, she decides she doesn't want to be a starship captain any more. Whether it's injuries or trauma or tiredness, whatever, she's done her time on the USS Cayuga.

She was already up for a promotion earlier in the series, it's time to move on… and she moves on to a more stable, safer desk job. Say, something at the Academy. Say, something where one might be working closely with cadets. Say, something where you might be inspecting cadet vessels.

And she suggests that Pike join her.

Because now the thing getting in the way of their relationship isn't “we're both on different starships flying around the galaxy”, it becomes “Pike is on a starship flying around the galaxy”. And if he was ever thinking of hanging up his captain's hat and settling down with her… well, now's as good a time as any.

For Batel, this is the chance for them to settle down and build a life together that they’ve always dreamed of.

For Pike, this is the first domino in a chain of events that leads to his reactor accident.

However that plays out, I think it puts a strain on their relationship. If he stays away, I think he makes excuses that hide the real reason and she's upset he won't tell her what's really going on. If he goes to live with her, he'll be jumpy and looking over his shoulder for his fate, and she's upset for similar reasons. Maybe that tension is what eventually ends the relationship. (Or the fact that long-distance relationships don't always work close-up.)

Monty’s blog is chaos – a mixture of thirst selfies and reblogged compliments. He gets very miffed when they don’t get many notes, or when Ivor’s posts get more likes than his.

Charles is science Tumblr. He’s never posted anything with less than six graphs.

Jean is the Tumblr child who’s extremely feminist and “your fave is problematic”, in a way she will undoubtedly be embarrassed by when she grows up a little.

Hester has four different side blogs, all meticulously organised around special interests. Her posts about obscure stamps regularly goes viral, but she never checks her notifications so this fact goes over her head.

After the family of Willie Watkins arrange a snap Broadway transfer for Operation Mincemeat, the Fortune Theatre is left scrambling to fill some star-studded shoes. With the original cast and covers heading stateside, who would play our iconic heroes?

Luckily, Seán knew a troupe who were always looking for work – the Cornley Drama Society, with whom he’d performed briefly before being expelled on the grounds of excessive competence. He gave them a call, and what luck! They were available immediately.

And so a week of intense rehearsals begins…

(The idea of Mincemeat staged by Mischief characters was put into my head last night and it’s so fun; thanks to everyone in the Mincefluencers Discord for egging me on. More ideas likely to follow!)

—

“So we need to start casting”, said Chris, speaking loudly enough to be heard on the next street. (And yet still unheard by half the cast in the room.)

“The first protagonist is Montagu, a suave, handsome, intelligent naval officer. Naturally I will be playi–”

“Hold on”, exclaimed Robert. “How come you get the lead role?”

“And the next lead character”, Chris continued, speaking just a little louder, “is Charles, the lolloping sidekick who has a single good idea in the entire play. Robert, you wanted to have a lead part, here you go.”

(One critic described their performance as “more antagonistic than with the original cast”. A second called it “a war crime”. Other critics were less kind.)

—-

“Next we need to cast the women, Jean and Hester. Jean is the plucky young tea girl who gets her hands dirty in the mission, and sings about how women should take men’s jobs. Sandra, you will be playi–”

Sandra burst into a big smile, imagining how Jean would steal the show, lost in a world and not listening to what Chris said next.

“–while Hester is the uptight, stuffy matriarch of the MI5 office, who will be played by Vanessa–”

whose face dropped visibly at this description

“–and who gets one of the most moving numbers of the play, ‘Dear Bill’.”

Vanessa’s smile picked up at this news, while Sandra scowled at the thought of being upstaged.

(Vanessa’s rendition of “Dear Bill” would never reach the solemn heights of the original cast, a reflection more on Robert and Sandra trying to overshadow her than her own performing ability.)

—-

“Next, we need to cast Spilsbury, a bombastic and enthusiastic mortician. Max is the obvious choice.”

Max beamed, just delighted to be included.

(This casting choice would cause some consternation for Chris on opening night – Spilsbury always entered to rapturous applause, causing Max to burst into a big smile, leave the stage, and enter again. Three times. One reviewer called it the highlight of his night. Another said that Max had “perfectly captured Spilsbury’s energy”.)

“You’ll also be playing Willie Watkins, an American pilot crashes in Spain – make sure you practice your American accent.”

(Max produced a number of accents with great enthusiasm, even if none of them were American.)

—-

“Moving down the list… Fleming will be played by Jonathan. We’ll need some gadgets for him, can you arrange that Trev–”

“I can do it!” exclaimed Robert, before Trevor could open his mouth.

“Wonderful,” said Chris, in a tone that implied Robert was anything but.

(Quite how Robert acquired a real exploding watch from the dark web remains a mystery, to both Chris and the West Midlands police. Unfortunately for Cornley, it exploded in Jonathan’s face five minutes before curtain up, and he had to be rushed to A&E – via the stage of “NHS The Musical” playing in the next theatre.)

(Trevor was sent on to read Fleming’s lines, which he did so in a completely deadpan tone. “And then he snogs a sexy lady with full tongue” killed the mood in the theatre, as well as the three dates happening in the front row. One reviewer would later compliment the juxtaposition of exuberant music with the flat delivery as the only thing he liked.)

(“At this performance, due to a technical issue in the props department, the role of Fleming will be played by Trevor. Now there’s a combination you don't have on your bingo sheets!” Chris pretended to laugh at this ‘joke’, with the laugh of a man who has complete disdain for all he addresses.)

—-

“Annie, you’ll be playing Bevan, the stern senior officer who chastises Monty when the plan goes awry.”

Annie let out a wordless acceptance, too scared to speak aloud when Chris was in the room.

(This same lack of confidence carried into the performance, which rather undercut Bevan’s sense of authority.)

—-

Dennis was the last cast member to be given a role, and Chris found several small, mostly non-speaking parts. Finally, something Dennis couldn’t turn into a disaster!

(Oh, the optimism. Dennis had a line in the opening number, written on his hands an aid Memoire. Unfortunately he didn’t write down the order, so he came out with “I do love it when … me … want to kiss the … ladies.” Vanessa looked even more mortified than usual.)

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