We stared into the untempered schism and all we saw was this dodgy CSO effect

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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.

9 Comments

  1. jane
    October 28, 2013 @ 5:46 am

    Surely the thematic glue of this episode is that Gwen has gotten perilously close to treating Rhys as a piece of meat, as opposed to engaging in a real relationship. It's got that reversal of polarity, of course — Rhys is a gift of the ordinary world, not the wondrous space.

    Reply

  2. Theonlyspiral
    October 28, 2013 @ 6:51 am

    " To his credit, Chris Chibnall had the good sense to poach her for six episodes of Law & Order: UK."
    Which if you like that sort of show is an absolute treat. Fantastic work. We would be lucky to get her on Doctor Who proper.

    I don't know why but something about this episode deeply unsettles me. I can't watch it and get a good night of sleep afterwards. There is just some quality that puts me out of myself. I think it's the idea of the creature being tortured and brutalized so unknowingly. That we can drain away the wonder from the universe. The idea that there might be something wrong with humanity on a fundamental level is disconcerting.

    Reply

  3. liminal fruitbat
    October 28, 2013 @ 8:24 am

    That we can drain away the wonder from the universe. The idea that there might be something wrong with humanity on a fundamental level is disconcerting.

    Given how much SF uses the idea of wondrous spaces to tell stories about how much better and more special we are than anything not like us, you may be onto something here…

    Reply

  4. elvwood
    October 28, 2013 @ 9:26 am

    This is actually the first episode of series 2 I remember beyond (at most) a soundbite summary: (1) two rogue time agents kiss and fight; (2) some woman is an alien agent without knowing it; (3) er, no, got nothing (though to be fair I recalled enjoying it more than the first two once your post reminded me what it was about). I thought at the time that Meat was a step up. A horrible step, but a step nonetheless.

    Hm, I really need to find time to rewatch these!

    Reply

  5. Alan
    October 28, 2013 @ 7:34 pm

    Horrible people have always done horrible things. What makes this episode unsettling to me is the fact that apparently lots of people had been unwittingly eating from a sentient alien life form with God knows what side effects. It's like Countrycide, except the cannibal villagers maintained a butcher shop in London where they passed their kills on to unsuspecting customers.

    Reply

  6. Alan
    October 28, 2013 @ 7:40 pm

    The thing that amazes me the most about this episode is the absolute dearth of Jack/Rhys slash fiction that resulted from it. I DID find it somewhat arousing when Rhys got into Jack's face and revealed that he had already infiltrated the bad guys. In that one scene, Rhys and Jack seemed to have better chemistry than Jack and Llanto did in all three of their shared seasons.

    And I think the best move the series made was allowing Rhys to know about Torchwood without really being a part of it. It injected a human element that had been completely lacking, just as all the Powell Estate "domestic" drama made Doctor Who more human than it had ever been before. Frankly, I wish every cast member had had someone at home so that their characters could be more well-rounded and less "I work at Torchwood so I'm a detached weirdo."

    Reply

  7. BerserkRL
    October 28, 2013 @ 8:13 pm

    This episode has a certain affinity with "The Beast Below."

    Reply

  8. Theonlyspiral
    October 29, 2013 @ 6:20 am

    It's not horrible people do horrible things that I worry about; it's that there might be an innate quality to humanity that makes the wondrous and magical become lessened and diminished.

    Reply

  9. reservoirdogs
    November 24, 2014 @ 1:30 pm

    "I’ve no idea why people who talk about how Moffat should hire female writers keep making pie in the sky wish lists topped by Jane Espenson instead of pointing out that Catherine Tregenna has worked on Doctor Who related stuff before and is brilliant."

    Spooky.

    Reply

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