h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Okay then, in line with my habit of posting some comments on each episode as it airs on ch.5, here are my thoughts on these two episodes (I've put them together since I don't have a huge amount to say about either really).

Neither is really among my favourite episodes of s.1, though both are of course enjoyable. One interesting point is how it is in Teacher's Pet we first see Buffy as the out and out leader of the group in a crisis, when both Willow, and, more surprisingly, Giles, were leaning towards panic. This is also shown to a certain extent in NKABONTFD, in the funeral parlour, of course in an episode where Buffy is more at the emotional core of the episode, and in a less detached position to be able to be the impartial decision maker.

Haven't really got much else to say. If anyone else has any comments, feel free to add them.

Bye for now.

As one or two of you might know, I have a particular love of S1 and ‘Never Kill A Boy On The First Date’ is my all-time favourite episode. With this in mind, I thought I would take up Bud’s offer and respond to his message.

‘Teacher’s Pet’ is often cited as one of the ‘worst’ episodes in the history of the show, although it does have its supporters, possibly because it is the first of the Xander ‘comedy episodes’. What I find particularly interesting here is the central message, for which Dr Gregory acts as a kind of conduit.

It’s an episode that seems to get better each time I watch it. I think its reputation as one of the ‘worst episodes’ is undeserved, not just because there are no bad episodes in this show, but also because it is actually really good. As with all the S1 episodes, it has a dark core that is perhaps hidden by the perceived ‘cheesiness’ of the premise.

The episode is interesting partly because it does tell us a little bit more about Xander. This show might have female empowerment as its central theme, but it isn’t blind to the ways in which this affects the males of the species. Yes, we have it comparatively easy, but society places its own pressures on us about the way we should think and act. At my age it really doesn’t make any difference, but we are talking about a 16-year-old boy. The male ego is very fragile. In the opening pre-credits scene Xander daydreams that he rescues Buffy from a vampire. I’ve always thought this has many parallels with Riley in S4 and S5. One particular thing that always sticks in my mind is the fact that Buffy automatically assumes that Xander isn’t a virgin, even if it is obvious that (in truth) she knows he is. Effectively, the episode deals with teenage sexual politics, amongst other things.

Gregory Stevenson makes an interesting (and very obvious) observation in his book ‘Televised Morality’. ‘BtVS’ has often been heavily criticised for its supposedly reckless depiction of abandoned sexual activity. At the same time, other observers have pointed to the seemingly dire consequences that all sexual activity appears to bring with it, arguing that rather than promoting promiscuity, the show is advocating a total abstinence from sexual activity, an equally harmful message. Stevenson contends that critics repeatedly view scenes of sexual activity in isolation from the overall storyline and are guilty of wilfully ignoring the complex narrative that the show employs. He points out that although Buffy, Xander and Willow spend much of their time in the high school seasons thinking and talking about sex, something that all teenagers do as they go through adolescence, they do so in a largely naïve and innocent manner. They actually assume a great deal of personal responsibility for their own actions, and these characters each have sexual intercourse just once over the course of three years. This is hardly a reckless display of promiscuity.

‘Teacher’s Pet’ is not, I realise, about sexual activity per se. It’s about the way young people (male and female) are taught to think and behave. I think it achieves this very well.

This brings me to Dr Gregory. I really like ‘Teacher’s Pet’ as a whole, but it’s the sub-plot involving Buffy and her teacher that particularly interests me. I find the scene in which Dr Gregory makes it known to Buffy just how highly he regards her potential very moving. What is particularly important is the way she responds to this. Buffy has been lead to believe (whether deliberately or otherwise) that she isn’t very bright and should know her place (patriarchal society stamping its authority), but here is someone who is telling her quite the opposite. It’s all too easy to watch an episode like this one and dismiss it as a silly story about a giant insect, missing all the other stuff that is going on. Actually, I like the silly plot about the giant insect, but that’s an entirely different matter.

There is no way that I can be fully objective about any episode of ‘BtVS’ but that’s even more the case in respect of ‘Never Kill A Boy On The First Date’. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to satisfactorily explain why this is my all-time favourite episode. Quite often when I watch it tears start to well up in my eyes, for all sorts of reasons. It’s kind of weird, I know, but I am a very emotional person.

I’ve always thought of the episode as a turning point, the moment when Buffy accepts that she isn’t a normal girl, and I think the very frenetic pace of the episode is deliberate in capturing Buffy as she wants to be and Buffy as she really is. Teenage life is very immediate, lived almost exclusively ‘in the now’, and the pacing of this episode captures that perfectly. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s performance here is brilliant, one of her very best, because she absolutely locks in to what in some ways is the last throw of Buffy’s childhood. I am not explaining this very well but hopefully you will get what I am trying to say.

It is extremely unlikely that ‘Never Kill A Boy On The First Date’ would be the episode that I would choose to show to someone I was trying to convert to the Buffyverse. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t think it really is exceptional. When you break it down into its individual scenes they are all fantastic.

The last word goes to Willow.

“He reads Emily Dickinson? He’s sensitive, yet manly!”

I was moved to comment on the SMG finest hour thread about the moment where she sees Owen in the Bronze dancing with Cordelia. In her face, all the turmoil of unrequited love and then, on the following day, when Owen says that Cordy was a bit clingy, a complete reversal of her emotional state. A real insight into the way that the post adolescent lives in the now, but more importantly I believe we were getting a foretaste of just how good an actress Sarah was becoming. This episode coming well ahead of Prophecy Girl which I still think is her finest hour.

C

Some very interesting points, oldramon (perhaps you should be posting weekly comments on each episode rather trhan me).

I agree with much of what you say - and what especially interested me was what you said about thinking you might not really be able to explain why you love NKABOAFD so much. In any 'art' (god, how pretentious does that sound), I think the subtlties and nuances of things you love are so complex and subective, it is almost impossible to give an explanation other than a certain piece seems to chime with you. This is what I feel about Lie to Me, and perhaps partly somehthing you feel about NKABOTFD (though you have also put forwards a rather convincing arguement for why its great anyway).

Some very interesting points, oldramon (perhaps you should be posting weekly comments on each episode rather trhan me).

I agree with much of what you say - and what especially interested me was what you said about thinking you might not really be able to explain why you love NKABOAFD so much. In any 'art' (god, how pretentious does that sound), I think the subtlties and nuances of things you love are so complex and subective, it is almost impossible to give an explanation other than a certain piece seems to chime with you. This is what I feel about Lie to Me, and perhaps partly somehthing you feel about NKABOTFD (though you have also put forwards a rather convincing argument for why its great anyway).


Sorry for the double-post. I'll stop rambling now. (Incidentally, some fascinating oiints about Teacher's Pet as well - and s.1 is a favourite of mine as well).