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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

17 Comments

  1. Matthew Celestis
    June 17, 2011 @ 2:54 am

    That's one very rich and delightfully written post.

    I go with The Invasion being set in 1979 or 1980 personally.

    Reply

  2. Guy Incognito
    June 17, 2011 @ 7:58 pm

    wow, nice job.

    Reply

  3. JJ
    June 18, 2011 @ 12:33 pm

    Excellent, unusual write-up.

    Where's the affiliate link for this one? (and for Mind Robber, while I'm at it)

    Reply

  4. Millennium Dome
    June 20, 2011 @ 2:17 am

    It seems unkind to criticise, but – what with the UNIT era fast drawing upon you – you should probably know that as an officer in the British Army, Lethbridge-Stewart's rank is "Brigadier", and not "Brigadier-General".

    The distinction is important because – although NATO considers the two ranks equivalent – the British Army considers the Brigadier to be the highest rank of field officer, and not of General Officer rank.

    (Some of the books series make a minor plot point of the implicit snub to UNIT by the British Army never promoting the Brig to General. Though at least he does get a Knighthood thanks to the new series.)

    By the by, what do you actually think of "The Invasion"?

    Reply

  5. Abigail Brady
    June 21, 2011 @ 8:31 am

    Apologies for the enormously trivial comment to your post (which I enjoyed reading), but you have Charing Cross Road turning into Tottenham Court Road too early – at Cambridge Circus – rather than at TCR tube station.

    Reply

  6. Elizabeth Sandifer
    June 21, 2011 @ 8:36 am

    Good catch. That should have been a "towards," and now is. 🙂

    Reply

  7. landru
    July 11, 2011 @ 10:39 am

    I do see that this story is a UNIT tryout (and it's been said enough that I don't have to prove or disprove it.) I guess I don't care.

    To me, the Invasion is simply a combo of Dalek Invasion of Earth and Dalek Masterplan … they even have the same actor as the Earth villan. The iconic shots are part of the same vibe that the Dalek Invasion story provided. In a lot of ways, that's the story's real problem … we've seen it before.

    And, it is too long. Even the annimated early episodes can't help it. It's the endless rocket countdown sequences that drag at the end. When the Brig says "its going to be a long 12 minutes" you really think they might wait 12 minutes in real time.

    Reply

  8. ferret4
    November 4, 2011 @ 2:51 pm

    Much to my dismay, it feels like you've skipped The Invasion, and I was rather looking forward to your analysis of it! I sadly haven't seen it yet, but a good (if standard) review of it at avclub.com left me thinking this was prime material for you with such rich pickings as:

    – The Qlippothic Cybermen attacking the minds of the earth's population – even Pat's Doctor succumbs, despite his attempts to stop them from again violating his very essence

    – A part-cyber villain: Tobias Vaughan and his magic box that drives Cybermen to emotional madness (using components from the Doctor's own magic box, no less)

    – The cyber-planner, and why the Doctor seems to totally ignore it when in it's presence

    – Any metaphorical relevance to the invisible TARDIS?

    – No bases under seige!

    I hope you re-visit this story at some point, even if we have to wait for it in your second book 🙂

    Reply

  9. Wm Keith
    February 15, 2012 @ 5:31 am

    You refer to "TJ Maxx" but for some strange reason the UK version is called "TK Maxx". Perhaps the owners wished to avoid confusion with either or both of Liverpool-based discount store chain "TJ Hughes" or, perhaps both more likely and more sadly, Shatner-based discount cop show "TJ Hooker"

    Reply

  10. Elizabeth Sandifer
    February 15, 2012 @ 5:36 am

    I remember being struck by that at the time. I probably had the clarification in the sentence at one point before discovering that there was no way to keep a decent cadence going through that section while acknowledging it.

    Reply

  11. Alphapenguin
    June 26, 2012 @ 1:24 pm

    Fantastic tribute to a fantastic city and a fantastic show.

    …I should probably buy a thesaurus.

    Reply

  12. Henry R. Kujawa
    August 9, 2012 @ 6:49 am

    What? Not even a comment about how this story takes place so many years before "THE TENTH PLANET", and yet the Cybermen we see in it appear to be a much-later design? How does this fit into their own continuity– if, indeed, they have one at all?

    Reply

  13. Nicholas Tosoni
    May 15, 2013 @ 7:54 pm

    My handwave is this: every time the Doctor defeats "the Cybermen," he's only defeated one specific cluster of them. Each Cyberfleet (in a manner of speaking) kind of bums around, deriving tech from whatever culture it infiltrates. Some are more advanced than others, but it's not a beauty contest: whatever works, works.

    Reply

  14. Nigel Carrington
    February 20, 2014 @ 10:41 am

    It's possible to speculate the cybernetic humanoids we see in The Tenth Planet evolved into more sophisticated types not dependent on the power of their itinerant planet , and that these left Mondas to colonise other planets.

    Reply

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    December 17, 2014 @ 1:10 am

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  16. William Silvia
    January 25, 2015 @ 4:09 am

    In my rereading of this post, I am actually delighted that your article and my yet-to-be-written one actually have no conflict and follow completely different paths. While I too will touch on lost futures and UNIT dating, a psychogeography of London is outside my wheelhouse, and I can enjoy writing about how "The Invasion" is entirely a happy accident without realizing that I missed something obvious that I now feel compelled to reply to.

    Reply

  17. Dolly Wood
    January 15, 2021 @ 4:03 am

    “now given his more famous rank of Brigadier-General”

    Just a small point – Brigadier General is a US Army rank. The British Army rank is simply Brigadier.

    Reply

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