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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.

24 Comments

  1. Dave
    October 7, 2016 @ 9:11 am

    Aw. Disappointed about The Gunfighters. It was a toss up for me between it and Ghost Light for top place and I’m glad I used it to get Gunfighters into the top 100 now.

    Reply

    • Dave
      October 7, 2016 @ 9:19 am

      …Unless Ghost Light narrowly misses out on top spot.

      Reply

  2. Przemek
    October 7, 2016 @ 9:45 am

    A surprisingly high score for “Rose”. I wonder who voted for it: classic series fans who were extremely happy to see their favourite show return to television or new series fans who remember it fondly as the first Doctor Who story they ever watched?

    (Or maybe it’s just very good and I simply can’t see it. It was my first Doctor Who episode and I remembered it as weird, awkward and not very promising.)

    Reply

    • Max Curtis
      October 7, 2016 @ 10:24 am

      I think its awkwardness is kind of the point. A straightforwardly gritty, down-to-earth reboot wouldn’t have felt true to the show’s spirit. It’s certainly not a perfect episode or one I particularly enjoy watching straight through, but those same faults are why it was basically the perfect way to launch the New Series.

      Reply

    • Kit
      October 7, 2016 @ 12:23 pm

      The episode itself is a really awkward piece of television that hurts the eyes with its weird shininess. But as an introduction to Who, as a revival of Who, and as a story pitched at all ages of a family, the script is incredible. No episode of Doctor Who has ever carried so much on its shoulders, and the evidence shows that it achieved its aims magnificently.

      (I like very few of Davies’ own episodes of the show, and pesonally rank his entire era as one of the lowest in the last 53 years. Rose is one of the most impressive scripts the series has ever had.)

      Reply

    • Andrew
      October 7, 2016 @ 12:37 pm

      “Rose” is perfect, in that it fulfils its function/role brilliantly. Of course, it’s a bit rubbish, if set against all the rest of Dr. Who and/or television, but that’s not the point.

      I remember how felt l when I watched it for the first time (March 2006 – the bootlegged version). It was like an old friend was suddenly back. Exactly the same feeling I had with Remembrance of the Daleks back in 1988.

      Reply

    • prandeamus
      October 7, 2016 @ 1:55 pm

      I love “Rose”, but ….

      I remember thinking, “please don’t let the bin burp” and then it did. And since I was reading a lot of old grimdark NAs at the time I wasn’t happy at the tonal dissonance. And the plastic-faced Mickey.

      I used to complain about “anti-plastic”. Would it have been better if the Doctor had called it “zectronite”? I found it annoying at the time, but I’ve grown up since and become more childlike.

      Oh the good bits : the world turning speech. The London Eye halo framing Ecclestone’s head. The TARDIS reveal.

      Fantastic!

      Reply

    • The Not Quite Handsome Doctor
      October 7, 2016 @ 3:49 pm

      Another way to look at it: If you consider just the first outings for each Doctor, it looks like Rose is in 5th place, below Spearhead from Space, and ahead of Castrovalva. That seems spot on to me.

      Reply

    • Dan
      October 7, 2016 @ 4:20 pm

      It was an electric moment when it came out, and this context affected the way I viewed the whole of the first series. (Also having an overall arc was new, or the way it was done at least was new.) Now it doesn’t look the same. It took me a very long time to realise that the new series could be variable in quality just like the old one. Just not so much.

      Reply

    • Przemek
      October 7, 2016 @ 5:05 pm

      I guess you are all right about “Rose” – it’s all a matter of perspective. Most of what I can remember from watching it is calling the friend who recommended Doctor Who to me and asking: “Um… is the whole show about… fighting plastic mannequins?”.

      Reply

  3. David Anderson
    October 7, 2016 @ 9:51 am

    Have I missed The Mutants? Also Earthworld?

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Sandifer
      October 7, 2016 @ 1:55 pm

      You only sort of missed the Mutants – it was 277th, but apparently I accidentally skipped from 278th to 276th when writing that section up. Two points, one downvote, putting it between The War Machines and Time Heist.

      Earthworld did not get any votes.

      Reply

      • David Anderson
        October 7, 2016 @ 2:37 pm

        I thought I had (chiefly for Anji’s emails).

        Reply

      • David Anderson
        October 7, 2016 @ 2:55 pm

        (I thought I had used a non-televised vote for Earthworld that is.)
        The other classic story that doesn’t seem to have appeared in the poll yet, which I would have thought would have by now, is The Faceless Ones.

        Reply

        • Elizabeth Sandifer
          October 7, 2016 @ 2:57 pm

          Doesn’t look like you did, no.

          Faceless Ones is a mistake. I’ll go do the necessary fixing now. /sigh

          Reply

        • Elizabeth Sandifer
          October 7, 2016 @ 3:02 pm

          Ah, good, fixing for The Faceless Ones was relatively easy, as I had a “oh shit I don’t want to renumber all of this” fake entry in the 119-way (now 118-way) tie that I could remove, meaning I only had to renumber about 25 things.

          (What the other cheat entries are is a secret I’ll take to my grave, of course.)

          Reply

  4. Anthony D Herrera
    October 7, 2016 @ 11:40 am

    Holy Mother Of God I forgot about Ambassadors Of Death. I even looked at my list and saw no Pertwee and was all “There’s no law says there has to be.” WHY AREN’T THERE MORE LAWS!

    Reply

  5. The Not Quite Handsome Doctor
    October 7, 2016 @ 3:15 pm

    Huh, does this mean Kinda significantly beat out Snakedance? That’s a bit odd, no?

    I almost wish I had also thought of simultaneously upvoting and downvoting Talons, but then again I already had enough hard, late cuts to make for my Top 20 (including Snakedance), so I’d probably have squeezed Fang Rock in for my second Leela pick anyway.

    Reply

  6. CC0
    October 7, 2016 @ 3:54 pm

    At least The Night of the Doctor got into the top 100.
    Yes, I love it and I’ll defend it TO DEATH!!

    Reply

  7. Tim B.
    October 7, 2016 @ 9:16 pm

    It is prima facie evidence of us living in a broken world that The Ambassadors [Ker-Chow!] OF DEATH. is not the canonical title.

    Reply

    • The Not Quite Handsome Doctor
      October 8, 2016 @ 12:24 am

      It’s the televised title! Ergo, we must accept that it IS canonical, and everyone has just been referring to it incorrectly until now.

      Reply

  8. Max Wilkie
    October 8, 2016 @ 1:43 am

    Well, I’m also quite chuffed Ambassadors beat Talons. This is, bar none, the most interesting fan poll of Who stories I’ve ever seen. Which is an excellent thing for a fan poll to be.

    Reply

  9. crossaffliction
    October 8, 2016 @ 4:45 am

    Find it funny that, as I’m the guy who defended Colin Baker in general and “The Twin Dilemma” in specific, the highest rated (televised?) Colin Baker story is one I don’t remember voting for.

    Reply

  10. Brian Olsen
    October 9, 2016 @ 2:35 pm

    I put The Gunfighters in last place – it was me! I confess! And I feel no shame at all! I don’t care a bit for Bentham’s opinion, it’s just that song…god, that song… I’d listen to “Doctor in Distress” on repeat for a week rather than listen to “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon” one more time.

    Reply

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