All Creatures Great & Small (S03)

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Clearly, I remembered to toss a post up for series/season 3.

(This year I'm just adding episode remarks in the comments on this one post, especially with the season nearly being over. Contextual note: For the first two seasons on PF, I tried to have a separate post for each episode as my family watched the show each week. In this archival process, I might follow suit with season 3 and have a bunch of comments on just one post per season.)

Originally posted on Pillowfort on 15 February 2023.

Comments

S03E01: Second Time Lucky

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Recap.

It's some point vaguely in the spring of 1939. This episode is pretty much focused on James and Helen getting married, but the opening features a plane flying over the Yorkshire Dales, so there's very much a "war is coming" atmosphere. Like, one of the farmers' sons volunteers to sign up and Siegfried steers James and Tristan away from recruiters levels of subtlety.

Other than a decision meant to cause some Tristan comedy (giving him the box with the ring before going out to drink on the night before the wedding), there was the start of the TB concerns. It might not seem like a large issue in just this episode, but this will be a season long topic. Just accept it now.

Originally commented on 15 February 2023.

S03E02: Honeymoon's Over

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Recap.

So, Siegfried offered James a partnership in the practice for the explicit purpose of enticing him to not sign up for the armed services, but this episode really features some growing pains around that. Not practice ending, but you know, having an argument and eating in tense silence growing pains.

I did like Helen helping with balancing the books. My condolences for the math, but it was a nice touch, especially in light of a loud but obnoxious present day guy getting weird about farmers' wives doing finances in the comment section on something. I know, I should pretty much never read the comment section on most sites, but he was really particular about farmers being the people out working the fields and not doing the books in a way that was defensive.

I can't remember if the shot of a newspaper with a headline about conscription is in this episode or the next one. Timing wise, I think we should be near April or May. "In April 1939, an additional 34,500 men had been conscripted into the regular army and had only completed their basic training on the eve of war. [...] In May 1939 the Military Training Act 1939 introduced limited conscription to meet the growing threat of Germany." (Wiki)

TB progress is... Eh? James signed the practice up with MAG [Ministry of Agriculture] to do TB testing in Yorkshire, but like, Helen is absolutely correct that the farmers aren't interested in it. Helen's father eventually agrees to take part, though.

As one might guess from the episode's title, James and Helen return from their honeymoon at the start, and they settle into the bedsit [like, an attic living area] in Skeldale House. Helen doesn't have absolutely horrible cooking skills in a full size kitchen, but the itty bitty stove in the bedsit leads to burnt food. She takes leftovers from Mrs Hall's breakfast, James takes leftovers, and no one's disappointed when Mrs Hall invites them back down to eat with everyone else.

Originally commented on 15 February 2023.

S03E03: Surviving Siegfried

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Recap.

Siegfried has PTSD.

Due to a new horse at the race track developing a fear of the riding crop [the assistant hit him during transport], there's a 'fix the horse or he'll get put down' case. We are returning to Siegfried's experiences with the Great War, especially with euthanasia and horses [S01E03].

There's also a letter from someone he served with, who killed himself within the last month or so.

It cannot be any clearer that we're doing a PTSD and "war does not lead to good things" episode here.

Also: I think Tristan asks Florence Pandhi [daughter of a rival vet] out in this episode, but the actual date isn't until episode four. I kind of enjoyed them having a testy but reluctant acquaintanceship, so I didn't keep track of the exact details of their relationship. Farmers still aren't enthusiastic about TB testing, and there's some more hashing it out in the pub.

Originally commented on 15 February 2023.

S03E04: What a Ballsup!

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Recap.

What an episode title. The guy at MAG yells a lot, and James has messed up one too many forms. To be fair, that sequence for when to use which form had like six or seven of them. (Don't worry, Helen takes over on filling in most of the non-signature stuff, which will lead to this guy showing up later in the episode to congratulate James on the success of their testing.)

James gets his first positive TB test. It's not great, but also, there's this whole trying to chase down the cattle truck when the farmer reveals that the wrong cow was taken bit. It's obviously high stakes, but it's also a little funny because this is not a super fast chase. (The cow's saved, and they take away the cow with TB in the end.)

Mrs Hall goes on a Not-Date with Gerald, but he brought flowers and did think this was going to be a date. I did feel a bit sorry for Gerald at this level of miscommunication, but I personally don't mind that Mrs Hall wants to not move their friendship into a romantic direction. And it's not like Gerald runs for the hills. Sorry for the pun, the Yorkshire Dales are full of hills. It feels relieving that there isn't a mad dash to a supposedly more serious relationship.

[Some people may be looking at the "Mrs" in Mrs Hall and wondering if she's married. My family thought she lost her husband in the Great War, and we're pretty sure that's what she's told someone else before, but based on a later episode this season, Mr Hall actually might be alive - just an estranged alcoholic ever since he came back.]

In contrast, Tristan goes on a date with Florence. The setting was really nice. The picnic probably wasn't half bad. At the initial time of watching, I was worried that we were being led through a "Tristan settles down into a relationship as a sign of maturity" arc. [See also: My post about Tristan giving off aro vibes.] Florence's comment about Tris needing to find himself out from under Siegfried's shadow does give off 'he might join the armed services' vibes, though.

Originally commented on Pillowfort on 15 February 2023.

S03E05: Edward

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Recap.

Who is Edward? He's that estranged son of Mrs Hall's, the no show for Christmas [S01E07]. A fair bit of this episode is focused on Mrs Hall going to a train station to wait for him - I mean he's very late and we're led to think he didn't show up again Wait - because he's on leave before heading out on H.M.S. Repulse with the Navy.

Mr Hall gets brought up, and this is where we learn - or my family was reminded - that he's alive. (Alcoholic. Probably not faring well from the PTSD of serving in the Great War. Definitely out of the picture.) Edward has a line something along the lines of: "War destroyed him. Does it destroy everyone?"

I mean, of course the character who's his mum will lie, but I have a bad feeling Edward's going to die after sorta making up to Mrs Hall. Spoilers for history or whatever: H.M.S. Repulse will sink around 10 December 1941. That's a bit over two years from this episode, so it's entirely possible that Edward won't die in that specific event, but I cannot say I'm feeling confident about his odds of surviving.

Other things in this episode:

Jenny's 14 now, and she's made the decision that she's not going to keep going to school because she wants to take care of the farm. Considering that an earlier episode this season dealt with an adult farmer who couldn't read, there's very much a sense that Jenny thinks she's had enough schooling. Helen isn't enthusiastic, but she does wind up accepting Jenny's decision. [*]

Siegfried apparently agreed to let a 12-ish year old boy shadow him for a day. Andrew's not horrible or anything, but it is clear that Tristan is a bit jealous of how much Siegfried is encouraging him when he wasn't encouraged the same way. (They talk about this after Andrew leaves.)

Since Mrs Hall is wherever that train station is almost all day, Tristan is delegated to taking care of the cooking and cleaning. He wears one of her aprons, and I must admit that I was afraid there might be joking about it. Tris can possibly not cook his potatoes long enough for the casserole or cook entirely way too many potatoes for dinner or accidentally burn himself while making Mrs Hall's shepherd's pie, but I cannot stress how much of an initial relief it was that no one made any jokes about him cooking, cleaning, or wearing an apron [especially] in front of new male characters.


[*] I would guess this episode is some point in August, but I don't know if that's "my country's school system is still affected by children needing to help in the fields decades ago" stuff that's not applicable to Britain (or England in 1939). I did do a quick search, and 14 was the age of being able to leave school at that time. I was sort of expecting to feel more strongly about this plot point, but it doesn't really feel unexpected. Some of my relatives two or three generations back didn't go to school longer than necessary [making it to 8th grade is right about leaving at 14].

Originally commented on 16 February 2023.

S03E06: For Whom the Bell Tolls

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Recap.

You know what's not great? When they finally give you a very specific date. Friday, the 1st of September of 1939. There's an announcement that Germany has invaded Poland on the radio. (It's an archival clip, but I'm not sure if it's Chamberlain speaking or not. I do know the last archival clip is him, though. One out of three ain't bad....)

Did you think we were done with TB? Nope. Richard [Helen and Jenny's father] has a cow test positive, and he panics a bit about the farm needing to be shut down for a month. James can hold off on signing the forms until he does a test in the lab to confirm the positive result, and Richard tries to send the cow to slaughter the next morning. James and Helen convince him to call the MAG to explain, since this looks like a cover up for James' in-laws and making a mistake could cost him his job, which might lead to him being drafted [reminder that veterinarians belong to the exempt from conscription group].

To make this even more tricky, an unsigned form stating that there weren't any cows with TB on the farm was accidentally put into the post. (James didn't immediately tell Helen about the possible positive. Mrs Hall didn't realise that the stamp-less envelope meant that it wasn't ready to be put in the post, so she found a stamp.) James and Helen rushed off to the MAG to Mr Yells Everything, and things get sorted out. (Definitely more stressful with all the yelling than it sounds here.)

Operation Pied Piper and the first wave of children being evacuated from the cities to rural areas starts [in this] when James and Helen literally see a bus of children show up. At first my family was a bit confused, but that's more because we're used to the wave of evacuees after the Blitz starts being talked about. That should be late 1940 or 1941.

Anyway, war is totally looking imminent now, and Mrs Pumphrey is helping by growing vegetables (and I believe offering to open up Pumphrey Manor to evacuees if needed). Cue that lovely motivational bit about holding onto the people you love like a life ring in a storm. I don't think that was the only deciding factor, but Tristan tries to propose to Florence after he sees the stray cat at the manor. I absolutely do not blame Florence for being surprised. I mean, Tris just barely got done having dinner with her parents the day before. The writers actually gave Florence a more mature reasoning about how getting married to her won't help him to find himself [separate from Siegfried].

Emotions are a bit high in the aftermath of this, so I'm not sure how literal Tristan was being when he said that Florence was never going to visit Skeldale House again. I am not disappointed that Tristan and Florence aren't getting married, but I must admit that I was hoping they'd still be amicable. It's not like it's the worst thing ever to be friends with Florence instead of married to her. That's definitely a To Be Determined matter, especially at this particular high stress time.

Sunday, the 3rd of September of 1939. That archival clip of Chamberlain announces that Britain is at war with Germany. Tristan decides to join the queue of men in the town square signing up to enlist. After all the hints and not so subtle discussions with Helen this season, James has decided that he needs to enlist as well, so he joins Tris in the queue. It's the final image of the episode. [Part of that final image is the church bells ringing. Siegfried and Mrs Hall briefly talk about how the bells didn't ring in the last war until it was over.]

Originally commented on 16 February 2023.

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Pre-Xmas Special Musing, originally commented on PF on 16 February 2023.

James Alfred Wight, aka James Herriot, did enlist in November 1942.

The 1979 series ended the first portion in 1980 with Siegfried and James enlisting at the end of season 3 (not immediately after war is declared in episode 9). The 1983 Xmas special cuts to James returning from the war and having trouble adjusting to civilian life, and from the sounds of reading Wikipedia episode lists, the 1985 Xmas special and second portion starting in 1988 are all clearly post-war.

Quite frankly, I'm not sure what this series is going to do about James and Tristan enlisting immediately after war is declared. The writers aren't really beholden to 1942 or anything, but I also don't really know that we're going to see someone go off to war. I just don't really get the impression that the 2020 series is chomping at the bit to suddenly become a gruesome front-lines war story.

However, I do know there's going to be a series/season 4, so we'll get some view of the beginning of the war at least (probably spring of 1940 to Xmas 1940). [Yeah, the US series/season breakdown includes the Xmas special as our finale, so next week's episode for Xmas 1939 will probably answer some of these questions. For all I know, there's going to be a reserve list or whatever.]