He is not crazy. Not really.

[sidney]

I was thinking an awful lot about Hannibal telling Face this about Murdock.

But I was thinking that maybe Hannibal was in denial when he was saying it. Maybe Hannibal can't admit it that Murdock is indeed crazy because he wants him to be alright.

[amyk]

You know that I still think of Murdock as being crazy...and if Hannibal had to explain to Murdock's best friend (Face) that Murdock isn't really crazy it does make you wonder if Face thinks deep down that Murdock is crazy.

[Katia]

I still think he's not... But, you all know my opinion on him. Some mental-health issues (including PTSD): yes. Quirky, funny guy (who exploits that fact): yes. Psychosis and stuff: totally put-on.

[sidney]

I think this is an episode we lost out on.
I would love to have had some explanation about why Hannibal let Murdock be in the VA. Some clarity as to what's going on there. They didn't have to answer definitively if he was crazy or not, but just let us know what happened and why it happened. That's why I love THE DOCTOR IS OUT and... Was it BEAST? Which one was it when he was accidentally declared sane? We get a little bit more information about Murdock being in the VA.

[HoudiniDerek]

I think Hannibal might have a different definition of "insane" than Face.

Maybe some of the stuff Tim Dunigan said in the pilot about him was technically true and Murdock uses his characters and humor to cope. To a therapist, maybe insane; but to what the guys might have saw or endured in Vietnam...maybe nowhere near insane.

[amyk]

Yes, it was BEAST when Murdock was supposedly released from the VA. And even in season 5, when he seems to have officially been released, doesn't he just have some strange little card that says "sane" with the S backwards? So was he really released or did he just leave?

[sidney]

In my opinion, he just left and made the sane card as a joke. Maybe he stayed there by choice all that time and could have demitted himself at any time.

He couldn't be that far from his team. He had to go with him.

[Katia]

Feb 9, 2024 18:12:10 GMT -5 HoudiniDerek said:

I think Hannibal might have a different definition of "insane" than Face.

Ha, yes.  Because it could be argued that Hannibal himself is a bit insane...

Feb 9, 2024 18:30:48 GMT -5 amyk said:

Yes, it was BEAST when Murdock was supposedly released from the VA. And even in season 5, when he seems to have officially been released, doesn't he just have some strange little card that says "sane" with the S backwards? So was he really released or did he just leave?

I think he was really released, but the card was just a bit of humor.

I've got bits and pieces of a story about him.  No clue if I'll ever finish it, no matter how much I like the bits and pieces, but I do have a part about why he stays at the VA/what makes him tick:

The reasons were many. No one would ever tell you that he hadn't always been quirky, so it wasn't that much of a stretch to take it that much further. It could sometimes serve his purposes to be underestimated as crazy or unintelligent. To an extent it amused him to either fool people outright or leave them wondering. And most importantly, he had discovered the old adage was true: if he didn't laugh, he'd cry. He'd done enough of that, at first, trying to make sense of the things he'd seen and the things he'd had to do; the fact that he'd come back, and in one piece, when so many had not. Enough of spiraling through the darkness, unable to turn off the thoughts and memories, all of it continuing at night when he'd close his eyes. He hit bottom on the day they found him with a piece of a metal strut broken off his bed, with a good start on a gash in his wrist that would take him on a long journey to exsanguination and beyond (remembering diligently what everyone always said regarding proper technique: it's down the block, not across the street). It was in suicide watch, sleeping on a bare mattress in a room that was never darkened and someone looking in on him every 15 minutes, that he decided: no more. If he was going to be crazy, he was going to be crazy. He was going to live it up, make crazy fun, so he could push all the hard stuff to the back of his mind and forget about it. Being naturally creative and eccentric, as well as having always had Adrian Cronauer on the radio in Vietnam, it wasn't that hard for him.

And the day that he pulled some silly stunt and in the midst of his antics, saw MacRae smiling... MacRae, who everyone said had seen things in Korea that none of them, regardless of what they themselves had been through, would talk about out loud; MacRae, who only ever sat and stared at the wall and never, ever laughed... but he was chuckling, at Murdock... and when some of the other guys told him he lightened up the place... Murdock decided he was never leaving.

[sidney]

Just to let you know, Katia, and this is a HUGE compliment, I forced myself to read that.

I absolutely HATE, HATE, HATE other people's fan fictions.

I liked the idea of him enjoying making another patient smile in a more... Wanting to help way... He was pleased he helped the man. I like that.

One thing I've never done is made Murdock suicidal.

[amyk]

I also like that you wrote how Murdock made the other patient chuckle. I like to think that Murdock does help other patients.

[sidney]

It would definitely fit into his character, but canon and the one I've created for myself. I see him very sensitive and filled with empathy for others. Could Murdock be the least 'macho' of the team? That's a good thread idea.

[amyk]

Yes, I think if I had to pick one of them to be "least macho A-TEAM member" it would probably be Murdock.

[Katia]

Feb 14, 2024 7:03:49 GMT -5 sidney said:

Just to let you know, Katia, and this is a HUGE compliment, I forced myself to read that.

I absolutely HATE, HATE, HATE other people's fan fictions.

I liked the idea of him enjoying making another patient smile in a more... Wanting to help way... He was pleased he helped the man. I like that.

One thing I've never done is made Murdock suicidal.

LOL!  I usually do, too.  I'm so afraid I won't agree with it.  As a general rule, I don't read much fanfic, at least not about fandoms I care about.  I had a few writers on the Tron fan site whose writing I knew I liked.  Others I knew I wouldn't disagree with.  A few I wasn't into simply because I didn't think they wrote well, but didn't mind their ideas.  I luckily found very few that I hated.  I never really ventured into fanfiction.net.  (Truth be told, I agreed less with the post-Legacy Disney content than a lot of fan stuff...)

A-Team stuff... don't even really want to go there.

Another challenge: roleplaying stuff for a fandom/universe, like, text-based ones where it's a collaborative story?  I love original characters, but generally don't want to see anyone playing the canon characters because I'm unlikely to agree with how they're doing it...  (In some universes, that's easier than others.  Like, it works okay to do role-playing in Tron or Harry Potter or something where having the canon characters may not be so essential because you can get a lot of mileage out of the universe itself.  Wouldn't work for A-Team...)

As far as Murdock suicidal... of course, I've said before that I could see him being the type to have depression-- whether it's always been an issue, or just a tendency that was brought out by PTSD.  So it definitely wouldn't surprise me if that was the way he hit rock-bottom...

Feb 16, 2024 7:58:02 GMT -5 sidney said:

It would definitely fit into his character, but canon and the one I've created for myself. I see him very sensitive and filled with empathy for others. Could Murdock be the least 'macho' of the team? That's a good thread idea.

Oh yes, absolutely.  I don't think you'd have to stretch canon at all.  There are few times we see Murdock take on any macho posturing the way the other guys do (and when he does, it's usually an act).  B.A., IMO, is also not super-macho, to an extent.  He banks on the "tough" persona, but doesn't really go in for the "big man" or "ladies man" image the way Face and Hannibal do.  Like, my idea of the definition of "macho" has an element of pompousness or huge ego, and I just don't see that in B.A.

[HoudiniDerek]

If I had to choose, I'm not sure who would win as the least macho of the group. We know it wouldn't be Hannibal, but I think the others are all in a race for it.

[sidney]

Katia -

I know what you're saying. I really do.

I was writing with a friend a little while ago, but the way she saw Face was SO different from how I saw him. Her Face was the biggest tough guy! An old school John Wayne type of macho. He was in control of every situation. Quiet. Infallible.

My Face is more sensitive, I guess. My Face is concerned with his looks, sometimes can be superficial, and he's not perfect. He bends the law, whines a little, and is a victim to his addiction to love and a pretty girl. He means well though, and deep down is a hero and always wants to make up for his mistakes.

They were nothing alike. I had to stop co-writing with her. It was just way too conflicting. And no matter how much I used my imagination, I couldn't take what she was writing and make it make sense in my A-Team world. It was just too hard.