With this episode, I think I can sum up my feelings by saying that it was a mixed bag of ideas….but it was also consistently strong with the execution.
First off what really worked…
Once again, I think it was wise to keep the focus down to a couple of animal oriented stories so that they felt complete and resolved. In this case, Tricki Woo being a horse race expert and Tom Maxwell’s pig troubles. Mrs. Pumphrey and Tricki always add a welcome element of odd humor to an episode and this was no exception. Also, the story with Maxwell and with James’ struggles to deal with the extreme winter conditions of the Dales give a real glimpse into the hardships country vets had to deal with at that point in history. And once again, Timothy did a lovely job conveying the physical and mental toll that James experienced during these times.
Also, special kudos to Helen and how the writer, director and rest of the cast handled Bellingham being sidelined into her bed for the duration of the episode. I think they did a good job working Helen into the story with the limits they were given. Also, Bellingham did a great job bringing plenty of warmth and quiet humor to Helen in her interactions with the guys. I really loved her scenes with Tristan in particular as their close friendship was put on full display here.
And of course, Byrne did bring in some of the typical humor that you’d expect from Tristan running schemes and James, Siegfried and Calum being all too aware of the impish side of Tristan’s nature.
Still, there were some problems for me. Perhaps the main one being there seemed to be far, far too much reliance on putting Tristan through the mill as a source of humor for this episode.
James and Calum seemed consistently exasperated and annoyed with Tristan’s presence. Granted, Tristan did try to pull a prank on both of them, but they had this attitude even before they could have been aware of this. Then you had Tristan’s latest love interest, Verity, appearing at best only mildly interested in him and at worst having almost as much disdain for him as her father does. The one job we see Tristan do in this episode involves a farmer who is 100% fine with letting Tristan freeze outside and labor all alone with no help or comfort offered whatsoever.
Then to top it off, there’s that cruel charade that James and Siegfried pull on Tristan. Yes, I get that it was supposed to be humorous and yes the audience probably isn’t meant to take it too seriously, but it still seemed to go much too far and there wasn’t the needed moment where Siegfried and/or James make amends with Tristan afterward.
Although, going back to what worked for me, I do think Davison did a wonderful job of conveying Tristan’s hurt, dismay, and frustration during all of these incidents while also balancing it with Tristan’s tendency to keep moving forward and stay as positive as he can…at least on the surface…until that optimism can have a chance to take a firmer hold inside him.
Overall, I think there was a lot that worked, but the parts that didn’t as much, unfortunately, left an impression that’s hard to ignore. It’s a case where the writers really did benefit from having such a strong cast who could add some depth and warmth to the material when needed.
From what I remember from this episode, and the bits I just rewatched, this fits pretty well with my impressions. The Herriot books have a warmth that the best of the TV series’ episodes captured. (By ‘warmth’, I mean not just feel-good fluffiness but Herriot’s generous-spirited attitude towards the people with whom he shares his life and a respect for the farmers trying to make a living in difficult conditions, even when these people have somewhat irritating foibles.)
However, not all the episodes were successful in conveying this warmth and sometimes the irritation comes across without the underlying respect and affection.
For example, the friendship between James and Tristan is often taken as read and only the irritation (usually James’s irritation with Tristan) is shown. A few more brief scenes to counterbalance this and remind us that these are good friends would have helped. In the event, as you said, it just comes across as if everyone apart from Helen finds Tristan annoying. This takes away any fun element to these scenes and actually makes him come across as a rather sad, lonely figure here, which I’m not sure was the intent - this is surely supposed to be a mostly fun show with some wistful elements about the harshness of farming life, the sadness of losing a beloved family pet etc. rather than some kind of psychological drama about Tristan dealing with ambivalence or disdain from his love-interest and borderline abusive behaviour from his brother and supposed friend. It makes me wonder whether Davison brought more nuance and wistfulness to this than he was really meant to, by working things through to what was clearly, to him, their obvious emotional conclusion rather than being some kind of cartoon figure who re-emerges, unscathed, from whatever kind of battering he has been subjected to. (In which case, I think the writers should have figured out by that point that Peter Davison doesn’t really do ‘unscathed’ acting.)
