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TMA S1 relisten
I've only relistened through episode 18, "The Man Upstairs," but discussion and comments will include major spoilers through the end of S4.
Of course I'm struck by how cruel Jon is about Martin. He's not wrong to doubt Martin's competence in some areas (like Latin), but really, Jon? Really? Sending him off on the scariest bits of research, like going to find Angela from "Piecemeal," and then laughingly claiming that you don't really want to get him killed? I hope you feel terrible about that now. (He does. Of course he does.)
Jon's opinions of Martin vs. the Martin we actually will meet in episode 22, who survives a very bad situation and is far from a fool, is an interesting storytelling choice. It tells us a lot about Jon himself (namely, do not trust his opinions of people), but also a lot about how the story is going to build little by little, one person's partial viewpoint at a time. Nobody knows as much of the truth as they think they do, and their limited understandings cause them to make huge mistakes.
(I'm hoping this will turn out to be true of Elias as well. He is, after all, an avatar of a single Entity; Jon, who has been marked by fourteen, may in the end be able to see clearer.)
Returning to Martin (as you do), I want to know how he ever got hired and how he kept the job afterwards, because lying on your CV will only get you so far. Especially if you don't have either the smooth, plausible personality to bullshit your way through, which Martin doesn't, or the class privilege to get away with it, Boris Johnson style (or original!Elias style), which Martin also doesn't. He clearly learned to function in the job, to some extent; he's able to find out people's current addresses and things like that, but it would be blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that he doesn't have the academic training he claimed. I'm assuming Elias made Martin one of Jon's assistants specifically to slow Jon down and prevent him from working too much out too soon.
I started writing a little fic about it, and it made perfect sense, but then I had a closer look at the timeline and it won't work. (My second line of explanation is that the Institute's reputation is so bad that it's actually a haven for semi-incompetent misfits, and thus camouflaged, Martin went unnoticed.)
. . . now that I think about it, I'm also trying to figure out how Jon didn't know Martin before becoming Head Archivist, when Jon had worked in research for several years before then, and that's presumably where Martin was also. I suppose they could have known each other, but Jon just successfully avoided Martin most of the time. (I'd be tempted to think Martin actually started out as the tea boy, but not with that fake MA in parapsychology.)
Argh, I hate having to think this hard about tiny little plot details, but that's what happens when you start to write fic.
Hoping I can repurpose the bit where Elias tests Martin's Latin. Because I think it's hilarious.
Of course I'm struck by how cruel Jon is about Martin. He's not wrong to doubt Martin's competence in some areas (like Latin), but really, Jon? Really? Sending him off on the scariest bits of research, like going to find Angela from "Piecemeal," and then laughingly claiming that you don't really want to get him killed? I hope you feel terrible about that now. (He does. Of course he does.)
Jon's opinions of Martin vs. the Martin we actually will meet in episode 22, who survives a very bad situation and is far from a fool, is an interesting storytelling choice. It tells us a lot about Jon himself (namely, do not trust his opinions of people), but also a lot about how the story is going to build little by little, one person's partial viewpoint at a time. Nobody knows as much of the truth as they think they do, and their limited understandings cause them to make huge mistakes.
(I'm hoping this will turn out to be true of Elias as well. He is, after all, an avatar of a single Entity; Jon, who has been marked by fourteen, may in the end be able to see clearer.)
Returning to Martin (as you do), I want to know how he ever got hired and how he kept the job afterwards, because lying on your CV will only get you so far. Especially if you don't have either the smooth, plausible personality to bullshit your way through, which Martin doesn't, or the class privilege to get away with it, Boris Johnson style (or original!Elias style), which Martin also doesn't. He clearly learned to function in the job, to some extent; he's able to find out people's current addresses and things like that, but it would be blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that he doesn't have the academic training he claimed. I'm assuming Elias made Martin one of Jon's assistants specifically to slow Jon down and prevent him from working too much out too soon.
I started writing a little fic about it, and it made perfect sense, but then I had a closer look at the timeline and it won't work. (My second line of explanation is that the Institute's reputation is so bad that it's actually a haven for semi-incompetent misfits, and thus camouflaged, Martin went unnoticed.)
. . . now that I think about it, I'm also trying to figure out how Jon didn't know Martin before becoming Head Archivist, when Jon had worked in research for several years before then, and that's presumably where Martin was also. I suppose they could have known each other, but Jon just successfully avoided Martin most of the time. (I'd be tempted to think Martin actually started out as the tea boy, but not with that fake MA in parapsychology.)
Argh, I hate having to think this hard about tiny little plot details, but that's what happens when you start to write fic.
Hoping I can repurpose the bit where Elias tests Martin's Latin. Because I think it's hilarious.
no subject
Of course he reckoned without Martin's secret superpower, which is chatting with old ladies. My headcanon is that he did find the right Angela; she just blurred his memory of it afterwards because she liked him. And she gave him good tea out of a clean cup, because the instant coffee and dusty mugs are reserved for people like Lee Rentoul.
I assume that Elias met him
Elias has to have been involved somehow, although it's weird to imagine the director of the Institute interviewing candidates for every junior position. But then again, that makes sense when one considers the actual purpose of the Institute as opposed to its official purpose. One of the things I'm trying to make sense of is how the Institute actually functions as a workplace, because it must have a veneer of normality.
I had briefly imagined Elias hiring Martin specifically to frustrate Gertrude once she began to be an irritation, but (a) Martin was apparently hired ca. 2009, far too soon, and (b) Gertrude's assistants end up dead.
Not in the obvious way, maybe, but look at the way he successfully plays Peter in S4. Or Elias at the end of S3
Hmmm, yes, I see your point, and of course Elias does call him a manipulator. But Martin lies to people by seeming less competent or aware than he actually is, so they assume he can't have an agenda. I don't think we've ever seen him do the opposite kind of manipulation. My sense, too, is that his self-confidence grows a lot over the course of the show, starting with getting away from Jane Prentiss.
*shrugs* Clearly, he was confident or desperate enough to try lying his way into a job, so who knows? I agree that his lies must have been utterly transparent, so it probably was just a matter of Elias amusing himself and also scenting possibilities.
Must go to work now, but more later.