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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.

4 Comments

  1. Seeing_I
    August 9, 2011 @ 5:40 am

    Ah, but did the Monk know about the Pandorica? I can see him allowing the Silence (or whomever) to install it underneath, rubbing his hands in glee and muttering "Oh, this won't half annoy that nosy Doctor!"

    Reply

  2. Seeing_I
    August 9, 2011 @ 5:43 am

    As far as the Monk being "fifty years later," I just always took that to mean that the Monk was probably younger than the Doctor and fled the home planet 50 years after he did. They are still more-or-less contemporaries. Doesn't really conflict with the concept of "Gallifreyan Mean Time" that I can see. Though their both treating 1965 as "the present" is, indeed, quite odd. But who knows? Perhaps it IS?

    Reply

  3. Wm Keith
    September 30, 2011 @ 12:06 am

    Having watched "The Watcher" for the first time last night, I don't see it as having a "repeated use of the same revelation". Not in quite the same clunky way as "Flight through Eternity".

    The cliffhanger isn't about discovering that there's another time traveller in 1066. Peter Butterworth has been prancing around the TARDIS and clearly knows what it is. From his actions, the wristwatch obviously belongs to him.

    The cliffhanger is about making the viewer feel wise and then foolish, while the pattern of the episode is suspicion-revelation-confirmation.

    1. The musical chant runs down. "That's surely a gramophone!" says the viewer.
    2. Steven finds the wristwatch. "Are we in 1000 or 2000?"
    3. The Doctor finds the gramophone. "I'm right, it was a gramophone."

    – but then the real cliffhanger comes and both the viewer and the Doctor find that they've walked into a trap. They're not so smart as they thought.

    Reply

  4. neroden@gmail
    December 14, 2013 @ 12:01 pm

    " This sort of repeated use of the same revelation has been a problem before."
    Part of it is semiotic redundancy. In theater, and television prior to the age of recording, you must show each important plot point more than once, because people may have to get up to use the bathroom, etc. I don't complain about this when it's at reasonable levels, because sometimes I have to do the same thing.

    In the age of "pause buttons" it seems less necessary, but it's important to understand the function of the redundancy. A plot point which is mentioned only once is bad writing in theater.

    Reply

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