Comments | cameca: Why I like Fifi

cameca

Why I like Fifi

Apr 01, 2017 13:49

Fifi is the horrible little rat dog belonging to Helen A, ruthless dictator of Terra Alpha and leader of the titular Happiness Patrol. I have talked elsewhere about how a good villain needs a good henchman, and this is something Helen A crucially lacks. In her Perfect World, her husband is plotting against her and eventually runs off with another ( Read more... )

i like doctor who, seventh doctor era

Comments 3

Misguided fanatics ext_4142758 June 1 2017, 11:08:12 UTC

I am so not ashamed to say I have shed tears every time I have watched this scene. Sheila Hancock completely sells us on the character's breakdown and her deranged sincerity, creating (for my money) the single best villain of the Seventh Doctor era, and indeed one of the best of the classic series. I always think of her a little like Hepesh in "The Curse of Peladon": fanatical, misguided, infuriating, cruel, and conservative, yet in spite of all that painfully sincere, sympathetic against the odds ... and finally taken down by a furry prop, of course.

Re: Misguided fanatics cameca September 18 2017, 23:39:19 UTC

When you put it that way - wow, yeah, you make an excellent point! Helen A has never really spoken to me the way she clearly does to you, but I shall watch her with new eyes next time.

What do you think of Kain, from "Dragonfire"? He strikes me as sharing a number of these traits, as well as proving to be an ultimately tragic figure

Re: Misguided fanatics ext_4142758 September 18 2017, 23:58:34 UTC

I may be seeing more than there is, of course. One can infer any amount of back-story. Knowing that she was based on Maggie Thatcher, I tend to see her in much the same vein - sort of a female version of The Marshal, having worked her way up the slippery slope of Terran colonial politics, having outlived less cunning and ruthless contemporaries, yet (unlike said Marshal) desperate at some deranged level to be something better, to use her power, her ruthlessness, and her cunning for good, to create a happy and moral society. Trouble is, as the Doctor eventually forces her to realise, those are not the right instruments for the task (even if it were a valid goal, which it isn't necessarily ( ... )