The Lovecraft Invasion

 

DISCLAIMER

Discussing the Lovecraft Invasion is basically discussing politics. You have been warned. I do not wish harm on any of the people involved in the production of the Lovecraft Invasion. In fact, I love and respect pretty much all of them. I'm merely critiquing the actual result and the product of things, and nor do I relish being this mean. 

The Lovecraft Invasion by Robert Valentine

Okay, so, this may be a controversial one. But I have more to say about it than I do most boxsets, so I suppose I'll get to it. ...The Lovecraft Invasion says that Lovecraft was a racist prick. In my opinion, this is very good. It's important to portray historical figures in a realistic light, and not erase their flaws. 

The problem is, the Lovecraft Invasion seems to loathe Lovecraft to the extent that it feels like it doesn't want to do a story about him whatsoever. The Lovecraft Invasion hates Lovecraft, and several author tracts will let you know precisely how it wants you to feel about him too. The Lovecraft Invasion is an abomination of a story, because it always sacrifices an opportunity to do anything else and inserts another speech about how Lovecraft is a heinous fool. The thing is, is it already sounds like I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. Colin Baker is positively vengeful towards Lovecraft in this story, and treats him in a more hostile manner than he has towards villains who commit genocide - It doesn't fit with the character. There was an opportunity to do something subtle with Lovecraft here, but it doesn't make sense for the Doctor to treat Lovecraft as worse than Davros. It doesn't make sense for characters like Constance and Flip while within his presence to also just sort of lose it towards him. The story doesn't have narrative focus. It has distain. Which would almost be fine if Lovecraft was chiefly an antagonist - except Lovecraft isn't even the villain in this story. He's the celebrity historical figure, serving the same function that Charles Dickens might in the Unquiet Dead. He doesn't do anything villainous in it - he doesn't even act racist. It makes his very real and very vile racism seem like an informed attribute. 

I already feel like a broken record discussing it, but really, that is the problem with The Lovecraft Invasion, it's a broken record about it's message. It's a good message, but it falls victim to the problems that say, Orphan 55 did - a story that also had a good message but ended up a preachy and vacuous tale.

 The story begins with The Doctor, Constance, Flip, and new companion Calypso (we'll get to them) tracking down a mind parasite alien which has travelled back in time and attached itself to the greatest source of fear it could find, HP Lovecraft. This is a great hook. Even greater is the notion that The Doctor and Flip are going to travel inside Lovecraft's brain and come face to face with his unimaginable monsters from his stories, which the parasite is trying to make real. Everything about this pitch is rad as hell. It has the opportunity to do some really cool horror stuff, analyze Lovecraft in a manner that showcases both his faults and why he became famous, why he became one of the most popular and influential horror novelists in history, and how that is rooted to his fear of the "other." But from the start, the story makes it's position clear with the character of Calypso, one of the tales' largest faults.

...As a non-binary person, Calypso just may be my least favorite Doctor Who companion. This may change considering they have only had two stories, and I've currently only done this one, but Calypso is actively damaging as a character. They're actively insincere, a sort of parody of what someone thinks the LGBT community is like. The fact that they are Non-Binary, Pansexual and Mixed Race would be astonishingly good representation if they had a character trait beyond that. Calypso feels like a prop, a strawman used to make Lovecraft seem worse. They have no personality beyond their gender, race and sexuality. They're the opposite of what makes other popular LGBT characters like Orr or Tania Bell so compelling, their three dimensionality.

 Orr has character traits that make them appealing as a character first. They're portrayed as an unambiguously good person, empathic and caring in a world of cynicism, open with what they are to people and an intelligent and natural person. You can see why Jack wants Orr to join Torchwood. Tania is a character first in that we don't even learn that she's transgender until she's already been around for two episodes - she's only revealed as trans in the last scene of episode two and before then we learn to like her through her wry sense of humor, their clever nature. Calypso, conversely, sort of forgets their character traits unless they're important to the scene. They initially seem like they might want money out of this whole thing at the start but that never goes anywhere. Their defining moment is two parts in, yelling to Lovecraft that they ARE Non-Binary, Pansexual and Mixed Race, which is, well, the first time that it's mentioned. 

For that matter, they're also consistently misgendered in the text. It would make sense for Lovecraft to do that, but no, he doesn't, it's The Doctor, Constance and Flip who refer to them using she/her pronouns. Calypso's ...I think it's a coming out scene... feels like it comes out of nowhere. It's not built up like Tania or revealed casually like Orr as they are introduced. Both choices have power and say things about those characters. If you wanted to make a clever and attractive character like River Song, or a brunt and loud character like Tegan and make them LGBT, that'd be lovely. But I can list those characters and their traits, but I couldn't tell you anything about Calypso but what they are. It's appalling representation. Not only that - it's harmful. 

The way the story currently is written results in the opposite intended effect. We're supposed to hate Lovecraft, or at least that's the way it seems. But the way that he's constantly attacked by the members of the cast has the opposite intended effect. It makes you sympathize with him, and that's the thing. You shouldn't be sympathizing with the man who named his cat the N-word and supported the Nazis. You shouldn't ever be doing that, but the story drives you to that conclusion because of how cruelly he is treated. It's unintentional, but the way the tale is written makes you support the person being attacked, the racist, not the LGBT+ character. I can't even verbalize how dangerous that is. 

The Lovecraft Invasion has an enormous amount of potential hidden within it's vile script. It's even got a few good cliffhangers, and the smart idea of characterizing Lovecraft through his literary alter ego, Randolph Carter, a character who within the tales is an author-insert. Indeed, you can SEE that the Lovecraft Invasion indeed could have been astonishing, because at least some of it is still there. Listening to the Lovecraft Invasion's Part One and the Part One that was released before the BLM marches in June is a radically different experience. A really bold course correction, and you can actually see how it happened. I'd love a "Snyder Cut" of the Lovecraft Invasion and see a balanced portrayal of the story done, to see a Calypso who isn't harmful and a Lovecraft you aren't driven to sympathize with, a story that largely focuses on it's concepts of exploring a troubled man's mind than saying repeatedly that he's bad. But that isn't going to happen. And also the Snyder Cut is bad. Don't @ me. 

As it is, The Lovecraft Invasion is piss poor, and saying "If someone does choose to read his work then they do so with the knowledge that it was written by a racist..." is a pretty bold statement from a company that once employed G*reth Rob*rts and J*mes Dr*yfus and made a fourteen part series starring the guys from Talons of Wheng Chiang. Sometimes it turns out well like the latter and you get a series that starts to remedy prior upsetting material, but other times, you have a black mark you can't really get rid of. Quite frankly, it's a big fricking lot of questions, and I don't truly feel prepared to answer it? I sure can't enjoy Harry Potter anymore and people should know about the bad things that authors do, but are they required to just hate it now?? It's up to you really, it's murky waters in general. But regardless, they could have cut pretty much all of the Lovecraft insulting and kept Six's final speech which is quite powerful, and made the ultimate cut work really well. I have so much to say about the Lovecraft Invasion, and you know, I probably could say more. I don't think it's the author's vision though. Something about how thoroughly they course corrected Lovecraft Invasion does make it seem the company's vision. Just like Six says to Lovecraft, I'm going to say the same to the Lovecraft Invasion. "You could have been so much better than you are." 3/10