I've been so incredibly normal about StEx Wembley closing, and by that I mean I've been periodically having That's So Raven flashbacks to things that happened during the Muck Up Matinee and feverishly writing them down.
I'll probably make a masterpost of all the visits, notes, cast lists and Megamixes I got at some point. In the meantime though, here's a list of funny moments from the Muck Up Matinee in chronological order. I emplore people to tell me things they noticed that aren't on the list, so we can collectively remember as much as possible!
The engines copying the coaches' choreography during Crazy.
(I've been informed that Tassita ended up in the splits at the end of Crazy, but there was so much going on during that song, I missed it.)
"Call me Rusty if you dare." "Rusty!"
Tassita and Pearl whispering, "I'm the quiet coach." "How do you do?"
Tassita introducing himself as "Tassitaaaaaa!" (apparently in reference to Renz falling down the ramp and doing the same thing).
Dinah doing a 'Call me!' sign to Greaseball during, "Without us you don't go nowhere."
Rusty staring at Pearl the entire time he's leading the coaches away in the intro to Whistle At Me, until Belle points by his head in the direction he's supposed to be looking.
The coaches making the intro to Freight as dramatic as feasibly possible.
Hydra shouting, "I can't hear you!" because the audience wasn't singing along during Hydrogen.
Greaseball when everyone started cheering during the pause before the end of Pumping Iron: "You already know what I'm going to say. I'm soooo.... pretty."
Belle and Tassita hovering as close to Dinah as physically possible when she's telling Pearl to "be decisive".
The components leading the engines during the brief skate they do in the intro to Make Up My Heart.
Hydra pretending to leave using the entrance at the top of the bowl during Bye-Byedrogen.
Slick and Porter 'helping' Lumber to get ready for Race 1 by repeatedly wacking his arm and back during the intro.
Pearl and Dinah celebrating their win in Race 1 by taking off their helmets and skating around in just helmet caps.
Lumber combing through his hair and finding his harmonica during Momma's Blues.
The audience joining in with Slick's oil chant, so Momma had to shout, "Oil?! OIL?! Oil is the work of the diesel himself!"
Slick determinedly sitting on the stool and leaning over Rusty during Momma's Starlight Express, rather than being nudged off and sitting on the floor.
Tassita using a spray-painted training(?) helmet during Race 2.
Orange Flash stringing out, "Clear my traaaaaack!" during the intro to Race 2.
Hydra kicking rocks and sadly skating away after being told off by Porter post-Race 2.
Momma holding her hands over her ears in pain when Electra starts singing in Laughing Stock.
Rusty overextending the "STOOOOOOOOOPPP!" at the end of Laughing Stock.
Slick lying on the speaker and Lumber wheeling her away after The Rap.
Belle and Tassita just staring at Dinah collapsed on the floor at the start of Uncoupled, refusing to help her get up, so she had to awkwardly drag herself up.
Belle taking the tissue from Tassita for once rather than batting it away. She also did not know what to do with it and eventually tucked it into her costume.
Just generally a lot of people looking at each other and randomly hugging or high fiving - the specific examples I have written down are Tassita & Silver Bullet and Porter & Belle, but there were others!
I can't remember when this happened, but the freights were lined up along the right-middle line and Hydra just. Randomly started spinning for as long as possible.
Great show, 10/10, would end up with a surprise special interest in it all over again. 👍
In all honesty, I just keep thinking about what a joy this show has been, and how lucky I am to be in this specific place in the world and this specific place in life, which allowed me to see the show 11 times in 2 years. Seeing the show in the Troubadour Wembley Park will always have a place in my heart, and hopefully with the World Tour, many more people will be lucky enough to experience the same feeling!
As the Bochum cast said in their video, StEx forever. <3
Rewatching the new episode, there's definitely something interesting in the subtle ways the Doctor undermines Belinda throughout the episode, as well as the fact she immediately clocks onto it, having dealt with the same bullshit in other relationships (Alan and her housemates) and her job.
The most obvious is when the Doctor scans her DNA without asking and she immediately pulls him up on it. There's also the fact he:
Glosses over her concern about him knowing where she lives and following her everywhere.
Kinda glosses over her being the one who puts the plan of combining the certificates into action, while considering it a success due to Timelord biology alone.
Boxes her into this "mystery girl" narrative, which resonated perfectly with Ruby and many others, but Belinda is not impressed by in the slightest.
Continues to call her "Miss Belinda Chandra" on the TARDIS, even after she's made it clear she doesn't like being called by her full name.
And these aren't complaints about the episode in the slightest, because there is this underlying assumption that the Doctor, as much as they love humans, will always be smarter and more sophisticated than human companions could ever be.
I can definitely see the comparisons to Rory, because, as he said, the Doctor does put people in more danger a lot of the time! People put themselves in that danger to impress the Doctor! And considering Belinda has no way home if the Doctor does decide to take her on a whirlwind adventure regardless of her wishes, that's a pretty terrifying position to be in. Especially after almost being coerced into marrying her extremely controlling ex-boyfriend.
Overall, looking forward to seeing how this goes. If nothing else, maybe the Doctor will learn something new from all of this!
So I'm having Thoughts about Cloudward Ho (as has been the case for several weeks now). Specifically how the golden heart is going to continue to play a role in future episodes.
The most obvious impact is that without the heart, the beacons have gone out, so Tazgw'agwa won't be trapped blocking the way between Zood and Zern anymore (as proven by the fact they have gone from Zood to Zern via Ludmilla's influence).
It might very well be the case that Tazgw'agwa's out and about in Zood, but with the sea creatures pledging to keep Katur safe and the fact it lost 2 tentacles last time it tried to get through to Zood, could it try to go through Zern instead? And if that's the case, with Van's connection to it and the fact it was calling to her at the end of the Battle of Katur, could she call on it in a time of need? With the family tablet and Comfrey, I reckon she could probably give it a go. Not sure how well psychic creature vs metal bird would go, but it would buy them time to escape.
The other aspect I was thinking about was Ludmilla shouting commands to get the golden heart at the end of the episode - why? It could give Torse some autonomy back, but the potential freedom of 1 automoton isn't necessarily a huge threat. It also could be to stop Comfrey from trapping Tazgw'agwa and separating the 2 worlds again, but in that case getting Goldbeard' engine would be a lot easier, since no one's gonna try picking that up and running.
If Ludmilla gets the heart, what is she gonna do with it? As someone who's no longer human and rules with an iron fist and an iron heart, would the chance to change hearts be tempting for her? A chance to feel something other than hundreds of years of pain and grief and rage? I'm not sure, but considering how desperate Marya is to talk to her, it would be interesting to see if that's a possibility that crosses either of their minds.
I first watched Starlight Express in November and 4 months, 3 albums and a lot of tiktoks later, it seems that this special interest isn't going anywhere soon. Does anyone have any good, currently active discord groups they can recommend? Most of the ones I can find on here are either for artists or roleplayers, neither of which I am, so it would be good to know if there's any that are good for just rambling/chatting about the musical.
People who follow the cast/are just generally more aware than I am may already know, but if you have access to ITV and haven't seen it yet, Starlight Express did a performance of 'Light at the End of the Tunnel' at the Royal Variety! Not sure where abouts it was in the show (close to the beginning apparently!), but it was very nice to see a proper recorded performance.
(Yes, I'm going back to academia again and will do repeatedly. It's my entire degree, sue me.)
I want to talk a bit about the Queer Art of Failure in Video Games! This is a concept created by Bonnie Ruhberg by combining the work of Jesper Juul on failing at video games and Jack Halberstam's work on the queer art of failure. Reading about it honestly made me look at playing video games in a completely different way!
Ruhberg talks about how failure in video games is just as integral to the experience - if not more - than success. It keeps knocking you down so success feels that much more meaningful but it's also an entirely satisfying experience of its own, especially if you're determined to look at it queerly! The example I used to reflect this in my work was Minecraft, where the failure mechanics are significantly more straightforward than the success mechanics. Furthermore, you can turn that failure into a game of its own! I spent quite a while back over Christmas playing Minecraft with friends to try to achieve as many different death messages as possible. It's pretty fun - give it a try, on Minecraft or any other game!
