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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.

15 Comments

  1. elvwood
    January 17, 2014 @ 2:18 am

    Lovely, once again. Thank you.

    For people that do want a tribute story – and one which has more than a touch of that "car pulling away" feel to the ending – there's always Fade Away, a fan-made webcomic published before The Wedding of River Song. (It can be made to fit with just a little thought, for all the continuity nuts like me.) Worth a read, certainly.

    Reply

  2. Tony Macklin
    January 17, 2014 @ 2:28 am

    Beautiful words, for both men real and imagined. Now if you'll excuse, I need to sob like a child.

    Reply

  3. Theonlyspiral
    January 17, 2014 @ 6:26 am

    Gah! My heart! That was lovely. Thank you for sharing it.

    Reply

  4. Theonlyspiral
    January 17, 2014 @ 6:33 am

    God I've been dreading this. I knew this morning when I got up that this would be waiting for me. Since I started reading this blog really. You've said everything that needs saying really.

    Reply

  5. C.
    January 17, 2014 @ 11:58 am

    lovely stuff, Phil. Already bracing for the "Man Who Never Was" entry.

    Reply

  6. Adam Riggio
    January 17, 2014 @ 3:20 pm

    Thanks for the acknowledgement, Phil, as I've said earlier. You've touched on the simple beauty of the Brigadier's character: he's the Doctor's straight man (a term that's rather apt given your account of Pertwee's style as the drag action hero). I think that's a central reason why he's so beloved. He and the Doctor make a brilliant double act, not only for comedy purposes, as he could be opposite Troughton, Pertwee, Tom Baker, and McCoy, but also for dramatic goals, as opposite Pertwee, Davison, and McCoy.

    I actually thought the Brigadier was wonderfully used opposite the Sixth Doctor in The Shadow in the Glass. It was a tightly-constructed little time loop of a story. Its author, Justin Richards, reminds of me a proto-Moffat thanks to his ability to craft these sorts of stories. He wrote the Brigadier as a voice to sober up the OTT bombast of Colin Baker's Doctor, who in that story was written with the comedic pomposity that he displays in some of his funnier Big Finish audios. But the character also worked very well as a dramatic foil. I won't spoil the ending, because Shadow is one of those stories where not knowing the closing twist of the time loop hammers it home, but it's a gut-wrenching tragedy in the traditional sense. I found the Brigadier's military mentality provided a subtle contrast with the deflated imperiousness of the Sixth Doctor. Essentially, their closing exchange goes something like this.

    Brigadier: It was terrible, Doctor, but there couldn't have been another way.
    Doctor: There should have been.

    It's a side of the Brigadier that we don't see often, and it was a beautiful moment for it. I think if there's a further chance to submit requests for short essays in the Davison/C.Baker book, I may send you a commission for The Shadow in the Glass, just to see your take on it.

    Reply

  7. Galadriel
    January 17, 2014 @ 3:57 pm

    I can't say anything except brilliant

    Reply

  8. BerserkRL
    January 17, 2014 @ 8:02 pm

    For a project of this sort, then, there can be no other way to meaningfully approach this story.

    Your way was excellent, yes. But the ONLY meaningful way? I can't see why. A story that wasn't even intended originally to have the Brigadier could certainly be meaningfully read on its own merits.

    Reply

  9. Daibhid C
    January 18, 2014 @ 3:04 am

    I think the phrase "For a project of this sort" is significant. Certainly there are other meaningful ways to approach the story. And for a blog that's actually about The Sarah Jane Adventures, they would be the best ways. But for a Doctor Who blog to treat the Brig's final appareance as a side-issue? That wouldn't make sense.

    Reply

  10. BerserkRL
    January 18, 2014 @ 10:16 am

    The episode also had Sarah Jane in it.

    Reply

  11. Martin Porter
    January 18, 2014 @ 11:39 pm

    He may have been written in the the script late in the day, but at least RTD gave the old Brig some good lines, especially the put down to Major Kilburn with its thinly veiled reference to the War on Terror.

    Reply

  12. Tommy
    January 19, 2014 @ 10:02 am

    I still say the best 'final story' for the Brigadier was Masters of War. Shame it's probably not going to be being covered on the blog (unless we can possibly do a pop between dimensions on the Unbound audios between Name and Day of the Doctor, fingers crossed).

    Reply

  13. jonathan inge
    January 20, 2014 @ 10:30 am

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  14. Daru
    January 23, 2014 @ 9:34 am

    Adorable essay, thank you Phil.

    Reply

  15. Anthony Strand
    November 13, 2014 @ 10:01 am

    And now, less than a year later, the Brigadier has already appeared in the show's sixth decade. He'll always be with us.

    Reply

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