stunt_muppet

Maybe because there's no fail-safe for consent in a parent-child relationship?

Yes, that is it exactly, and thanks again for articulating what I was thinking when I haven't the thinky-thoughts to do it. It's not as temporary as a sexual roleplay or even drug-induced infantilism (which still has consent issues up to here) - it'll be years before a child can properly push back or say no, and there's the whole diminished-capacity-to-consent thing even if we aren't talking about the parents. Also, yeah, I think you were around that one time to see how I reacted to "sex" and "parents" even being in the same paragraph. XD

I think what I love most about it is that I see the relationship between the Doctor and the Brigadier as ambiguously parental in some cases, with Two as the younger child (whose arrival on Earth leads to the Brig moving up from Colonel to, well, Brigadier, and thus taking on more responsibilities as head of UNIT), Three as the teenager slowly growing up (complete with I-hate-you-I'm-never-speaking-to-you-again tantrums), Four as the young adult leaving home for the first time and building a life for himself again, and...I really don't know where this metaphor goes once you hit Five, Six, and Seven, though you could make a case for Mawdryn Undead as wish-fulfillment fantasy of restoring the memory of a father who's forgotten you, say out of age-related brain deterioration, and wow that was way darker than I wanted that metaphor to go, backpedaling now. Anyway, the infantilization gives me a chance to nicely literalize that dynamic and play on the Brig's feelings of responsibility toward the Doctor. And why is it always the dark stuff I never end up finishing? One of these days I'm just going to get sloppy drunk, finish up every "hey, can you tell I've been mainlining Silent Hill Let's Plays?" fic fragment that drifts on my hard drive, and post them before I sober up and realize what a bad idea that is.

Remember Wellard getting the snot caned out of him?

Well, yeah, but that was Age of Sail British military; I thought you were referring to more modern British military. I got a bit confused, sorry. :( And yeah, Europe tends to be a bit harsher on it's kids, I've noticed; though I'd argue that the US rolled out some pretty terrifying children's telly, I don't remember any of it getting as bleak as, say, Inferno or Horror of Fang Rock. Except The Brave Freaking Little Toaster and its freaking nihilistic suicidal car song. Stupid movie.

It takes him months before he can talk to Pike again, though, and IT'S SO SAD because Pike had the best of intentions and the worst of options.

Oh, man, and to have Kirk react to him like that after he did the only thing he could to help him...ouch. :( Also I LOVE Act II, since it plays into (movieverse) Kirk's later habit of planning on the fly and turning his situation to his advantage. And he'd definitely want to turn things back on Pike if he could, as some sort of...proof that he could, I guess? And we know he's something of an adrenaline freak from that scene in the movie where he *drives a car off a cliff* and all, so really, your version of Act II fits perfectly in with who New!Kirk is. And it sets up that competitive dynamic that I adore in an ambiguously-parental pairing, with neither completely having the advantage because even though Kirk's forced Pike's hand Pike's still the one administering the punishment so it's all ~complicated like. And and and basically this idea is a bit perfect and is slowly becoming my headcanon. And I was sorely lacking in headcanon for NuTrek, so I'm quite grateful for that. :D