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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. Leslie L
    January 28, 2019 @ 1:58 pm

    I’ve wondered why this was set up the way it was, as I seem to be one of the few people to see it live (relatively ).

    If they had set it for the following week, maybe-

    But speculation has long past.

    My feelings at the time, were marred in tragedy, but I really sympathize with Ram’s arc in this episode.

    Miss Quill’s subplot… less said the better.

    I feel bad for Armitage , little he appeared on Doctor who proper.

    Reply

  2. FezofRassilon
    January 28, 2019 @ 2:07 pm

    I think that because it was the non-Doctor one of a two episode pilot, I didn’t really take much of this in. My main memories of this were them pulling the “kill the headmaster” trick from Buffy and the fact that this was the second episode in a row for Ram to get showered in blood. I think that last one got a laugh in our house, actually. But this does make me want to revisit it.

    Reply

  3. Kazin
    January 28, 2019 @ 6:08 pm

    I watched this on DVD long after the fact and really enjoyed this episode, but I can imagine how weird this episode would be as the back half of the first showing of the show, with a week’s break before the next. I just hit “next” on my remote.

    For the most part, the show kept getting better each episode until falling flat on it’s fucking face for the last two. Still, I really enjoyed Class overall, and your assertion these past two entries that Class is the Chibnall era done right is spot on (and depressing).

    Reply

    • TomeDeaf
      January 28, 2019 @ 10:55 pm

      Ooh, I really disagree with both the idea that it got better each week (the Shadow Kin two parter in the middle of the series has massive problems) and the idea that the last two let it down (I think the Quill centric episode 7 was great). But blog posts enough and time to discuss that!

      Reply

  4. TomeDeaf
    January 28, 2019 @ 10:59 pm

    On one level, it’s a bit daft killing off the one remaining character who linked the show to Doctor Who, Mr Armitage.

    On the other hand, it’s not like anyone watched this show because they were fans of actor Nigel Betts or the headmaster guy who appeared in Series 8 for a few scenes. And killing off the old white guy for a female headmaster feels like quite a Class thing to do.

    Reply

    • TomeDeaf
      January 29, 2019 @ 8:45 am

      (Continued after comment fail…)

      There’s also something rather delicious about killing off the one figure who still presents something of a link to Doctor Who (a character Moffat bothers to insert into the Day of the Doctor novelization when he could’ve gone for Ian, after all). It is a strong part of Class’ aesthetic that the absence of the Doctor leaves a wound in the world, and sometimes that wound means people die horribly and permanently. Even bumbling but genial headmasters who look a bit like Guy Garvey.

      Reply

      • Sleepyscholar
        January 30, 2019 @ 8:35 am

        I admire the way you elbowed that reference in…

        Reply

  5. Przemek
    January 29, 2019 @ 8:18 am

    After reading about “Class” as the Chibnall era done right I decided to check out the TARDIS Eruditorum entry on “Dinosaurs on the Spaceship”… and it’s depressingly accurate in its assessment of Chibnall. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a quote from “The Tsuranga Conundrum” review:

    “The problem is that it’s a Chris Chibnall script, and is perhaps too faithful to the Baker and Martin inspiration. Ideas are piled on with little regard for how they’re going to fit together. This may be a story about understanding the rules of the spaceship, but those rules really just amount to Chibnall introducing a new concept whenever he needs one. Nothing in the spaceship fits together in a particularly coherent way – it’s just a series of narrative patches.”

    Reply

  6. phuzz
    January 29, 2019 @ 9:43 am

    I noticed the other night that iPlayer is pushing Class as a ‘boxset’. The timing is interesting.

    Reply

    • Aylwin
      January 29, 2019 @ 11:24 am

      “If you were only mildly disappointed by Chibnall Who, you’ll be marginally less disappointed by Class!”

      Reply

      • Przemek
        January 30, 2019 @ 8:42 am

        “However, if you love Chibnall Who, you’ll probably hate it because it’s too close to Moffat Who and you clearly don’t care about quality”.

        Reply

  7. Paul F Cockburn
    January 29, 2019 @ 12:48 pm

    Excellent review, putting into words why I was beginning to feel hopeful about Class as it (somewhat bloodily, I admit) started to put some distance between itself and Doctor Who, trying to become its own thing.

    Shame it didn’t last.

    Reply

  8. AuntyJack
    January 29, 2019 @ 10:24 pm

    For some reason I’ve been putting off watching the last episode – how long has it been since it was originally “broadcast”?

    Reply

  9. Rodolfo Piskorski
    January 31, 2019 @ 2:14 am

    All I remember was that the coach was hot.

    Reply

  10. Daru
    February 1, 2019 @ 10:31 am

    I remember this episode when I watched it originally on airing, and it is still one that really sticks in my long-term memory above a lot of the other episodes.

    It really rang true and felt very, very resonant for me as it touched on my own difficult experiences being forced to do sports in a toxic and bullying atmosphere in a Scottish school.

    Now, I don’t have anything against sports as a thing, but the atmosphere of those periods – especially in the changing rooms was really aggressive and full of bullying (from both other kids and PE teachers) – all of which were not occurring because of sports, but due to the very toxic masculinity discussed above and in the episode.

    Tying the themes on masculinity in with trauma I thought was bloody brilliant and I think for me, this is still one of the standout episodes of the show, that at the time left me feeling that the show (sadly in retrospect) was going to add up to being a lot more than it ended up being (I still enjoyed it all in general for the experiment it was tho!)

    Reply

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