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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.

20 Comments

  1. Stuart Ian Burns
    July 30, 2014 @ 12:40 am

    Will you be covering Web of Lies, the iTunes animation which is on the dvd. That's really very interesting in the context of authorship, casting and the connecting tissue between Anglo and American Torchwood.

    Reply

  2. mengu
    July 30, 2014 @ 2:25 am

    Not having watched the episode since it aired: what is "the breath"? The moment when everyone stops being immortal, yes, but what happens on scream?

    Reply

  3. arcbeatle
    July 30, 2014 @ 3:41 am

    "the breath"

    …did you mean the blessing?

    Reply

  4. Katherine Sas
    July 30, 2014 @ 4:58 am

    "To, five years after you left the scene, be the obvious target that everyone is trying to outdo and surpass is the mark of a giant."

    Very true. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett's remarks about Tolkien's inescapable influence on the modern fantasy genre being like Mt. Fuji in Japanese art: It's always in there somewhere. Sometimes it's huge and overwhelms the picture, sometimes it's a speck in the distance, and sometimes you can't see it at all and that's because the artist is standing on top of it. Maybe Davies' influence on the series now is like that last one – we can't always see the correlation between his approach and the current writers', but that's because they're standing on his shoulders.

    My one quibble – I do think Davies successfully handled one death scene – The Master's. Yes, the climax of the Last of the Time Lords has its issues. And yes, Davies brings the Master back later (although at the time he didn't know he was going to do that). In the moment, for me anyway, the Master's death scene is powerful.

    Reply

  5. John
    July 30, 2014 @ 5:24 am

    Didn't Davies write the episode where Ianto dies?

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  6. arcbeatle
    July 30, 2014 @ 8:05 am

    nope, John Fay wrote it.

    Reply

  7. xen trilus
    July 30, 2014 @ 8:14 am

    I think it's this bit, Gwen's speech.

    "And that's what I did. In a pit in old Shanghai I brought death back to the world. They said it was like a breath. The breath that went around the whole wide world. The last breath. And then no more. We said goodbye to them then, the dads and the mums, the sick and the old, the friends and the neighbours, and the people we once met, and the people whose names we never knew. We said goodbye to them all on the day that death came back."

    Reply

  8. BerserkRL
    July 30, 2014 @ 9:14 am

    And sometimes it's like this.

    Reply

  9. Lewis Christian
    July 30, 2014 @ 9:20 am

    Russell pitched a Doctor Who graphic novel for the 50th. Shame that was rejected and turned down. He never said why, but I suspect it may've been Time War-related and they perhaps worried it would 'clash' with the upcoming TV special? In any case, Russell's a great artist and it would've been nice to see a story by him for the 50th as a big final 'hurrah'.

    I also want him to pen an episode for Peter Capaldi – even more so knowing that he's such a huge fan of him.

    Reply

  10. Jesse
    July 30, 2014 @ 11:53 am

    So, Phil, is it correct to say your opinion of Miracle Day took a plunge as you watched it a second time?

    Reply

  11. TheSmilingStallionInn
    July 30, 2014 @ 5:26 pm

    There is a rumor that he might for the tenth anniversary of the new series. (Or maybe more of a whispered half-hope. Like the Peter Jackson thing.)

    Reply

  12. Jarl
    July 30, 2014 @ 6:09 pm

    Everything I've heard says the Peter Jackson thing's moved past rumors and hopes and into serious negotiation at this point. Given that a New Zealand production would probably eat up the whole location shoot budget, they're wise to keep kicking the can down the road.

    It's clear they're hoping for Lord of the Rings Jackson, but I personally would love a look in from Frighteners Jackson. In a lot of ways, he has the personal range to match a Doctor Who episode in that sense, sorta like Danny Elfman.

    … look, I have certain allegiances, alright?

    Reply

  13. elvwood
    July 31, 2014 @ 12:13 am

    Great pterry quote, Katherine, and great photo, BerserkRL – thanks!

    Phil, I hadn't expected this RTD post here. Spot on.

    There – that's my quota of praise for today, I'll go back to being grumpy now.

    Reply

  14. ferret
    July 31, 2014 @ 2:27 am

    OMG does anyone think Capaldi's opener "Deep Breath" will be set around The Miracle then?

    I jest.

    Reply

  15. Katherine Sas
    July 31, 2014 @ 5:18 am

    @BerserkRL – Exactly!

    Reply

  16. Katherine Sas
    July 31, 2014 @ 5:20 am

    I agree, Jarl – I think he has the right sensibility to match the current show's cinematic visual sweep with campy over-the-topness. I'd love to see a PJ-directed episode.

    Reply

  17. Iain Coleman
    July 31, 2014 @ 5:41 am

    As I understand it, based on James Moran's blogging at the time, Children of Earth was done in a collaborative, writers-room fashion. Each episode had a lead writer, but all the writers contributed to all the scripts. Specifically with respect to Ianto's death, he said something like "We all had a hand on the lever".

    Reply

  18. John
    August 1, 2014 @ 2:51 pm

    Ah, right, Ianto died on Day 4.

    Reply

  19. Andrew Bowman
    August 27, 2014 @ 6:34 am

    The Shadow of Mount Fuji: that's a Vashta Nerada story right there! 🙂

    Reply

  20. TommyR01D
    August 13, 2016 @ 5:44 pm

    Torchwood: Miracle Day is something of a black sheep in the Doctor Who franchise. It doesn’t really fit in, either canonically or thematically, and the poor critical reception combined with the difficult-to-resolve cliffhanger make a sequel seem unlikely. Indeed, many fans (and many BBC writers) seem to have decided to just ignore MD’s existence.

    It was the odd coincidence of this series with the death of Elisabeth Sladen cause the removal of RTD from the “Whoniverse”, as both vestiges of his era died almost simultaneously.

    Reply

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