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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.

8 Comments

  1. Wack'd
    November 1, 2018 @ 9:16 am

    It’s got legs because it’s been genetically modified and left to sit in toxic waste.

    Obviously..

    Reply

    • Aylwin
      November 1, 2018 @ 10:41 am

      Yeah, but why is it doing press-ups on a mirror?

      Reply

  2. Aylwin
    November 1, 2018 @ 1:10 pm

    Mind you, parasitic wasps are also very important for pest-control. It’s true, but sometimes it feels a bit like the “creates employment” defence for the grisliest arthropods.

    Still, being pro-spider is something I can endorse in the abstract (and grieve that my niece has gone from spider-loving toddler to fellow-arachnophobe – I blame society, possibly). Pro-golf course though? I can’t really see that happening.

    Also, the best thing to do with Robertson would have been to have him survive the spiders and then somehow contrive to feed him to sharks. Bit hard to accommodate within the story though.

    On the likening of the way Chibnall has written this Doctor to the Tenth, I am always terrible at comparing and contrasting Doctors, but to me she feels more like the Eleventh here (who was, after all, the last Doctor Chibnall wrote for). That jitteriness, the layered ambiguity between actual childlike gaucheness and self-aware schtick, itself sometimes seeming like a cloak for actual social awkwardness. In my recollections there was a self-assurance and aplomb about Ten’s manner that sets him apart from that.

    Oh, and since I seem to be banging out bullet-points, I just remembered my most pedantic quibble with the episode – the bit when the specialist spider-scientist arachnid expert (er, at least I think it was her? Maybe my my memory is gilding the lily, or doing whatever the inverse of that is) described a spider as “poisonous” rather than “venomous”. Yes I know I’m ridiculous.

    Reply

    • Aylwin
      November 1, 2018 @ 1:33 pm

      (I realise that my perspective on golf courses is probably influenced by having been lucky enough to have grown up in a place where if land isn’t built-up it’s likely to be woodland or heath or meadow rather than poisoned agri-desert, so they feel like an environmental loss, not a gain. Besides obviously suffering by their association with, you know, golf.)

      Reply

    • Aylwin
      November 1, 2018 @ 2:05 pm

      (Speaking of childlike, I loved “Tea at Yaz’s”.)

      Reply

  3. Kazin
    November 1, 2018 @ 6:01 pm

    Holly’s reference to Bojack Horseman both made me laugh and made me wonder what Elizabeth would think of the show…

    Reply

  4. Ozyman.Jones
    November 2, 2018 @ 11:10 am

    Arachnophobia… in Australia we can be forgiven for this as we have a handful of arachnid species that will kill you stone dead. One species can kill an adult in a matter of minutes…. and it commonly lives in the dark places around the typical surburban home and garden.

    Reply

  5. knick-knack
    November 2, 2018 @ 8:45 pm

    What I really liked about the interactions between the Doctor and Yaz and Yaz’s mum in this episode was that in both cases the Doctor followed their lead and asked them to make decisions: After Najia is fired and her authority ridiculed in front of her daughter by Not-Trump, the Doctor greets her by complimenting her on her awesome daughter and then defers to her several times to ask where best to go because she clearly is the person who is the expert in the situation because she knows the building, not the guy who fired her. So after her authority is diminished at the beginning, it is transferred back to her by the Doctor. (I only noticed that after listening to another great podcast here: https://blackgirlscreate.podbean.com/e/tarbis-season-2-episode-4-arachnids-in-the-uk/) And in the scene where Najia is asking if they are seeing each other, the Doctor denies it but then asks Yaz and then waits for Yaz to react and goes along with Yaz’s answer, which again gives Yaz authority in the scene, not only the Doctor. I really like that, this version of the Doctor appeals to me a lot more than the Space Jesus “People Run When They Hear My Name” Big Sonic Dick Energy Doctor that we (occasionally!) had in the past…

    Reply

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