(Series 13, Ep.17) Even by the weird staffing patterns of Holby City, there was a bit of a doctor/nurse imbalance going on in AAU yesterday. Four doctors of differing grades (Malick, Dr Penny Valentine, Dr Oliver Valentine and Goth Dr Frieda) and hardly any nurses. None with speaking parts, anyway (Chrissie was floating around, but is she on AAU or Keller these days? I lose track).
Being surrounded by all these junior doctors was sending Malick’s showy-offy, competitive streak into overdrive. He’s of the “treat them mean and keep them slightly intimidated” school of mentoring, which works to a certain extent with the Valentine siblings. Penny is slightly smitten with his smooth way with a scalpel, and Oliver is just scared. Of course it takes more than a surgeon with attitude to intimidate Goth Dr Frieda. When Malick told her to make him a coffee, she made sure it was a bad one. “He said I had to make coffee. He didn’t say I had to make it well,” she said. Atta girl. She also burst any romantic dreams Dr Penny might have had about Malick. He’s gay, she told the Valentines. “I have gaydar,” she pronounced, and of course she does – I have no doubt she has almost supernatural insights about many, many things. But as well as gaydar, she knows people who used to work with Malick.
So we know Malick is gay in the homosexual sense, but he certainly isn’t gay in the old-fashioned sense of being blithe and carefree (“Humour,” he observed. “I enjoy it but, like morphine, in small doses.”) He has anger-management issues, and when he had to treat a racist patient he found it hard to be professional. At these times an older, wiser head is what you need, and in this case it belonged to Ric Griffin, who advised Malick to ditch “the angry young black man routine.” Ric’s been there, done that, and these days it’s Michael Spence who makes him angry, rather than old ladies who don’t want to be treated by black surgeons.
Meanwhile, Irish Dr Greg decided Sacha needed a bit of romance to cheer him up, and asked Marie-Claire to set him up with someone. But Sacha and Marie-Claire turned the tables and pretended they’d got together, and Irish Dr Greg was rather upset to find that he cares more for Marie-Claire than he thought.
Next week: Laila Rouass arrives, playing a new registrar who has history with Hanssen. And, speaking of Hanssen, do not miss Saturday’s Casualty, when he will be clashing with Nick Jordan – an encounter I’m very much looking forward to.
Posted by PLA (more Holby posts here)
HOLBY CITY BEHIND THE SCREEN
pauseliveaction 
I know I take these things rather too literally, but how exactly did the lovely Dr Frieda swing the whole F1 thing so quickly? I mean she never really said why she was slumming it as a nurse (apologies to nurseys who are offended by the verb) other than she’d had to leave eastern europe because she was a bit bothered by all that eastern european stuff.
I s’pose this niggles because it is another example of the HC story team missing out on a feelgood ending (or any kind of climax) to a good storyline. To have Nurse Goth eased out only to return as Dr Goth completely wasted the ‘omigod she wasn’t just a nurse with something of the night about her all this time,’ or ‘golly’ from members of the cast beyond a smattering of Valentines and another chap.
Also, having inexplicably slipped from being the boy genius of HC to a state that was marginally less reliable than a Trabant driven by a brace* of mackerel, why is Oliver V now climbing out of his slough of despond with equally little by way of explanation? I guess it could be that, for this episode alone, he is sore afraid of angry black men with scalpels.
I know that good film and TV writing celebrates the art of allowing the audience to fill in the gaps so as to keep the story moving and interest alive, but I really think the BBC guys have bought into the purity of this a little too enthusiastically.
Incidentally I take your earlier point about careless character swerves but I don’t think that applies in the examples above. I need some happy closures, PLA, and I need them next Tuesday (I’ll accept the Monday small hours with sign language).
* You need one fish to look sideways; the other to handle the front & rear-view and both to operate the pedals.
All perfectly reasonable points, CL, but I’ve given up trying to decipher standard story- or character – arcs from Holby. TV critic Jim Shelley always called it Planet Holby, and that’s the best way to think about it. It’s a place where people can shift jobs, roles, attitudes and personalities from one week to the next; where one tiny, under-populated coffee bar is supposed to be the entire catering offering of a major NHS hospital; a place where disturbed patients always end up in the basement while their (ground floor) Casualty counterparts always end up on the roof; a place where you can always park your car within sight of the Window of Regret unless it’s your first day, in which case you’ll have to compete for space with another cast member.
It’s a mad old world, but I can’t help loving it.
PLA, you’re absolutely right of course.
It seems I’ll have to suspend my innard-munching taste for continuity and attend an anger management class with ‘the’ Malick.
Don’t watch Holby, though that doesn’t stop me from enjoying these posts!
Am encouraged by HC introducing a black gay lead character – will be interesting to see if they give him any proper, realistic storylines…
Enjoyed all the nonsense, but missed the long tall string bean this week.
You need to watch Casualty on Saturday then!
I’ve got my invite.
Gonna bring your records? Oh! Will do.
Apologies for late night long-tall- Mott the Hoople reference.
Corumba