Pretty sure a docudrama shouldn't give me so many feelings...
So, the other week, whilst scrolling through 4OD for something to watch, I found Trafalgar Battle Surgeon, the title of which is fairly self-explanatory. As you can probably imagine, I pounced on it. And I ended up watching it again, because BEATTY.
The characterisation of Beatty was definitely a high point, because it was just so... Beatty. 8DDD Grumpy, snarky, swears more than the goddamn sailors, speaks his mind to superiors, "fuck the police" mentality, badass yet humane and compassionate at the same time... basically, it gave me warm fuzzies because it's everything I imagine Beatty to have been. At one point, the World's Oldest Loblolly Boy says something along the lines of, "Your problem is you care more about the men than you care about the rules" - to which I was just all, "YES. YES. PERFECT. THAT'S MY BEATTY. FLAWLESS DARLING SURGEON." :DDDDD And the fact that it chooses to focus quite a bit on Beatty's dilemma and eventual decision not to attempt to operate on Nelson... just... BEATTY FEELS, EVERYWHERE. ;____;
And they had Beatty and Ram being Irish BFFs who stand around being all wry about the English together. :') And the fact that it's Ram who lets slip some... sensitive information regarding Beatty's past ties in SO WELL with my headcanon that Andrew is a complete blabbermouth. XD
And legitimate feels when he dies. Andrew, y u pull your ligatures out? WHYYYY? ;______;
And, of course, lots of BADASS NAVAL SURGERY. :DDD And the aforementioned World's Oldest Loblolly Boy* who seems like he should be played by Phil Davis but isn't actually.
*Yeah, I know loblolly boys weren't necessarily boys, but c'mon.
Also appearances by William Rivers being awesome, and SARAH FUCKING PITT, who also gets to be awesome. Major kudos for actually featuring her at all, to be honest, but giving her something to do is even better. :DDDD
And John Castle putting in an appearance as Papa Rivers. So weird seeing him as an old man, because I know him as Postumus Agrippa in I, Claudius, when he was younger and hotter. XD
Props to them for actually managing to find a one-armed guy to play Nelson. He doesn't actually have a speaking part, but I think it probably worked out for the better, as it kept the focus of the programme on Beatty and his team.
Oh, and because I apparently forgot to turn off the fandom-y part of my brain before I watched it, I ended up shipping stuff all over the place, which is probably not meant to happen when watching a docudrama, so... oops? XDD I came away pretty convinced that Westenburg had a massive crush on Beatty. Just the way he gets all defensive of him, and when Ram dies... yeah. (At this point in my head, HMS Victory is just one long conga-line of angsty love mess XD). And Westphal/Whipple. And sorta Rivers/Roberts. And Nelson/Hardy is a no-brainer. XD
Not without some reservations, however. For one, Hardy was distinctly less awesome than he could've been. Maybe I'm just too used to HH fandom's version of Hardy, but he didn't quite gel with what I know of the real Hardy, either. So... there's that. :\
Also, this is more of a pet peeve, but why does everyone seem to portray Beatty as being older than he was? It's not anywhere near as bad as his cameo in That Hamilton Woman, where he was portrayed as some doddery old geezer, but he definitely looked older than thirty-two here. If the real Beatty's portrait is anything to go by, he actually looked quite young for his age.
The end also takes a bit of departure from the norm, in that it has Beatty eventually, at Nelson's request, turning him over on his side to put him out of his misery. As far as I know, this is a bit of a departure from Beatty's account in The Death of Lord Nelson (though, confession time: I haven't actually been able to bring myself to read that yet, so I could be wrong). The programme does make the point that Beatty's account is a "heroic memoir", giving a rather sanitised version of what happened in Nelson's last hours, and they make some attempt to counter this by going into the various dilemmas that Beatty would have been faced with at the time, but I don't think I'd have gone so far as to portray the surgeon actually having to help Nelson along. But YMMV.
Docudramas tend to be a hit-or-miss affair, because they run the risk of focusing too much on either the "docu" or the "drama" part, but Trafalgar Battle Surgeon is definitely one of the better ones I've seen, and I think I'd say the same thing even if I weren't crazy obsessed with Beatty and co. XD
Basically, if you're interested in the Battle of Trafalgar or just history in general, it's worth a watch. If you're anything like me and adore William Beatty and everything he chose to be, GO WATCH IT. THERE IS BEATTY. BEEEEAAAAATTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYY. MOTHER OF GOD, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? GO AND WATCH IT RIGHT NOW. ASFKSLFJF;FKGLHKD;SA *rolls around in feels*
The characterisation of Beatty was definitely a high point, because it was just so... Beatty. 8DDD Grumpy, snarky, swears more than the goddamn sailors, speaks his mind to superiors, "fuck the police" mentality, badass yet humane and compassionate at the same time... basically, it gave me warm fuzzies because it's everything I imagine Beatty to have been. At one point, the World's Oldest Loblolly Boy says something along the lines of, "Your problem is you care more about the men than you care about the rules" - to which I was just all, "YES. YES. PERFECT. THAT'S MY BEATTY. FLAWLESS DARLING SURGEON." :DDDDD And the fact that it chooses to focus quite a bit on Beatty's dilemma and eventual decision not to attempt to operate on Nelson... just... BEATTY FEELS, EVERYWHERE. ;____;
And they had Beatty and Ram being Irish BFFs who stand around being all wry about the English together. :') And the fact that it's Ram who lets slip some... sensitive information regarding Beatty's past ties in SO WELL with my headcanon that Andrew is a complete blabbermouth. XD
And legitimate feels when he dies. Andrew, y u pull your ligatures out? WHYYYY? ;______;
And, of course, lots of BADASS NAVAL SURGERY. :DDD And the aforementioned World's Oldest Loblolly Boy* who seems like he should be played by Phil Davis but isn't actually.
*Yeah, I know loblolly boys weren't necessarily boys, but c'mon.
Also appearances by William Rivers being awesome, and SARAH FUCKING PITT, who also gets to be awesome. Major kudos for actually featuring her at all, to be honest, but giving her something to do is even better. :DDDD
And John Castle putting in an appearance as Papa Rivers. So weird seeing him as an old man, because I know him as Postumus Agrippa in I, Claudius, when he was younger and hotter. XD
Props to them for actually managing to find a one-armed guy to play Nelson. He doesn't actually have a speaking part, but I think it probably worked out for the better, as it kept the focus of the programme on Beatty and his team.
Oh, and because I apparently forgot to turn off the fandom-y part of my brain before I watched it, I ended up shipping stuff all over the place, which is probably not meant to happen when watching a docudrama, so... oops? XDD I came away pretty convinced that Westenburg had a massive crush on Beatty. Just the way he gets all defensive of him, and when Ram dies... yeah. (At this point in my head, HMS Victory is just one long conga-line of angsty love mess XD). And Westphal/Whipple. And sorta Rivers/Roberts. And Nelson/Hardy is a no-brainer. XD
Not without some reservations, however. For one, Hardy was distinctly less awesome than he could've been. Maybe I'm just too used to HH fandom's version of Hardy, but he didn't quite gel with what I know of the real Hardy, either. So... there's that. :\
Also, this is more of a pet peeve, but why does everyone seem to portray Beatty as being older than he was? It's not anywhere near as bad as his cameo in That Hamilton Woman, where he was portrayed as some doddery old geezer, but he definitely looked older than thirty-two here. If the real Beatty's portrait is anything to go by, he actually looked quite young for his age.
The end also takes a bit of departure from the norm, in that it has Beatty eventually, at Nelson's request, turning him over on his side to put him out of his misery. As far as I know, this is a bit of a departure from Beatty's account in The Death of Lord Nelson (though, confession time: I haven't actually been able to bring myself to read that yet, so I could be wrong). The programme does make the point that Beatty's account is a "heroic memoir", giving a rather sanitised version of what happened in Nelson's last hours, and they make some attempt to counter this by going into the various dilemmas that Beatty would have been faced with at the time, but I don't think I'd have gone so far as to portray the surgeon actually having to help Nelson along. But YMMV.
Docudramas tend to be a hit-or-miss affair, because they run the risk of focusing too much on either the "docu" or the "drama" part, but Trafalgar Battle Surgeon is definitely one of the better ones I've seen, and I think I'd say the same thing even if I weren't crazy obsessed with Beatty and co. XD
Basically, if you're interested in the Battle of Trafalgar or just history in general, it's worth a watch. If you're anything like me and adore William Beatty and everything he chose to be, GO WATCH IT. THERE IS BEATTY. BEEEEAAAAATTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYY. MOTHER OF GOD, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? GO AND WATCH IT RIGHT NOW. ASFKSLFJF;FKGLHKD;SA *rolls around in feels*