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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.

10 Comments

  1. Jarl
    May 26, 2017 @ 4:26 am

    The impression I kinda got from the Doctor’s explanation of what was going on is that the aliens are simulating all of human history to find the ideal time to invade, as well as the ideal way to invade. So it’s possible they were monitoring the Vatican because 500 years ago it was a significant cultural and military force?

    … but if they’re possible enough to have a Matrix, why would they be worried about the spears and cannons of the papal states? Or the ICMBs and assault rifles of the superpowers? God it’s too much.

    Also, the Doctor is remarkably unfazed by the fact that these aliens are able to accurately simulate the interior and operation of the TARDIS.

    Reply

  2. mr_mond
    May 26, 2017 @ 8:08 am

    Listening to the podcast, I realised series 10 makes the best case for Moffat Who to end. If it ended after series 9, we would have wanted more. Watching now, I’m thinking “this is good, but it’s also enough”.

    Reply

  3. William Shaw
    May 26, 2017 @ 9:04 am

    One thing I love about the episode, and have seen relatively little comment on, is the direct shoutout to Hitchcock in the bomb scene at CERN. It’s blatantly taking Hitchcock’s advice at face value (there’s even a five-minute timer) but by having Bill and Nardole immediately look under the table it gives you a clue that the characters are staring to realise they’re fictional. It’s simultaneously a fucking brazenly obvious gag and a really clever and deft bit of screenwriting. Classic Moff.

    Reply

  4. Anton B
    May 26, 2017 @ 12:15 pm

    My take was that the post Extremis number test suicides were a selfless act of self sacrifice to deny the aliens any more data. Not a morbid reaction to the existentialist horror.

    Still, I tend to agree with Jack on this one. If one bothers to analyse this episode on any deeper level than that of a Dan Brown/sit-com mash-up (AKA Moffat’s Sherlock default mode) nothing makes a damn bit of sense.

    Which shouldn’t matter. After all this is the Doctor Who era of ‘The moon’s an egg’ and ‘trees have taken over the world. Overnight. For some reason’ but somehow it does. Also the larky ‘Doctor is blind but no-one notices’ gag has rapidly worn thin. Managing to make Daredevil’s treatment of visual impairment sensitive in comparison.

    Reply

    • Aylwin
      May 26, 2017 @ 3:24 pm

      Yeah, I certainly saw it as defiance rather than horror or despair. And even if the latter does come into play, it’s rooted in the malevolent nature of the simulation rather than just the fact of it being one. This scenario equates not to the sort of proposition that is often sold as “philosophical pessimism” but is really just philosphical neutrality (that your existence is meaningless and purposeless and nothing out there cares about you), but rather to actual philosophical pessimism (that your existence is meaningful, purposeful and intended, in a seriously malign way). Mike Leigh’s Naked rather than Lovecraft.

      Though that does lead into a different not-making-sense problem: if they’re trying to sabotage the simulation, why not tell the world?

      Reply

      • Aylwin
        May 26, 2017 @ 3:33 pm

        I mean, there is a certain logic of not wanting to inflict this terrible knowledge and its logical consequences on other people, despite the putative greater-good benefits of doing so, but while some people might take that point of view, it would surely not convince everyone (and the CERN chap certainly isn’t shy about letting Bill and Nardole in on the secret before blowing everyone away).

        Reply

  5. Kazin
    May 26, 2017 @ 12:49 pm

    Laughed several times in this episode, particularly when you figured that the aliens created this giant simulation to study Earth to figure out that the best targets to select as the most dangerous to their invasion are… the White House, Pentagon, Parliament, etc. – no shit, glad we ran this giant simulation, we’d never think of that! Also Jack’s general indifference to the whole thing was pretty amusing.

    Reply

    • Jack Graham
      May 26, 2017 @ 12:56 pm

      In fairness to both Steven Moffat and Phil, my general indifference was at least as much due to the fact that I was sleep deprived when I recorded this. I should’ve (and could’ve) rescheduled, but said to myself “oh It’ll be all right!”. My bad.

      Reply

      • Kazin
        May 26, 2017 @ 1:00 pm

        That was not a complaint, I thought it was funny. It was a good episode, Jack!

        Reply

  6. Aylwin
    May 26, 2017 @ 3:26 pm

    Jack’s failure to come up with a Doctor-rating seems like a tragically missed opportunity for a “Just pick a random number!” gag.

    Reply

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