why oh why do they cut to everyone except Thomas after Robert announces that Britain is at war with Germany???!?
you just know Rob would have brought so much to even a few seconds of screen time 😩
in some alternate reality I am watching for the nth time the spin off centred around the toomedical characters—Dr Clarkson, Nurse Crawley, Sister (?) Crawley at the village hospital, RAMC Private Barrow at the Front...
...I'm watching Sybil training as a nurse, how she brings around and befriends the other trainee VADs who thought she'd be a stuck up toff slumming it, and how she deals with the professional nurses looking down on her and the other VADs, how she deals with nursing and the horrors of war, her interactions with Corporal and then Sergeant Barrow, friendships she makes, patients she loses, a longer Lieutenant Courtenay plot, successes and failures, mistakes and growth...
...I'm watching Isobel return to nursing, deal with war nursing in a war like any other up to this point, manage the nursing staff, help the VADs settle in, mentor Sybil, clash and help and interact with Major Clarkson, and race to the Front when Matthew goes MIA, and I'm watching her efforts to find him, and how she helps at various field hospitals, Casualty Clearing Stations, and First Aid Posts...I'm watching as she wrestles with staying and helping at the Front or returning to nurse her son, I'm watching her and Mary and Sybil nurse Matthew and I'm seeing Matthew's long road to recovery...
...I'm watching Major Clarkson return to uniform, I'm watching him fight for his patients against the Army bureaucracy and despair at the terrible choices he must make, I'm watching him have private moments of grief and stress with no one to lean on, I'm watching him learn and teach the latest medical advances and mentor Thomas and deal with Downton Abbey...
...I'm watching Thomas go through training, and how he interacts with the other soldiers, he's too clever for some and too handsome for others, he makes friends and enemies, meets old acquaintances (one Major Villiers) and makes new ones (a cheeky sapper called Webster), is good at his job and mentors others, plays pranks and has pranks played upon him, has kickabouts with the other blokes and helps the RAMC team beat the ASC team at cricket, meets a dashing dispatch driver called Ellis (😁), saves lives (O'Brien's favourite brother—but he's killed later) and loses patients (such as one Private Kent—Jimmy's dad), is wounded and recovers, is traumatised and takes drastic measures, returns to Downton and is forever changed by the war...
there was so much potential 😩
edited to add: The Crimson Field scratched this itch somewhat, terrific storytelling but cancelled after one series by some arsehole (there were 5 seasons planned, and it was part of the commemorative programming of the anniversary of WWI).
and, of course, there's Alex51324's amazing work The Halo Effect / Soldier's Heart which I cannot recommend highly enough:
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