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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.

12 Comments

  1. David Anderson
    March 20, 2013 @ 4:28 am

    In what sense do you mean Jubilee is 'the second story of the new series'? Are you making a condensed reference to Chimes of Midnight?

    It seems to me that talking about series here is a bit artificial? Big Finish are releasing one story a month. Although the Eighth Doctor stories are released as a consecutive block in the way the past Doctor stories are not, there's no formal demarcation. And given that some of the past Doctor stories that have original companions, there's a move away from the present and the past to a situation where there are multiple presents?

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  2. Daibhid C
    March 20, 2013 @ 5:34 am

    I took it as a reference to Jubilee being the same story as Dalek, although I'm not sure how we get "second" from that, since Human Nature and Spare Parts both came before it.

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  3. Elizabeth Sandifer
    March 20, 2013 @ 6:15 am

    Largely because I don't think any of the actually interesting bits of Spare Parts got adapted into Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, and that the writer didn't carry through, whereas Human Nature and Jubilee were both adapted by their original writers. Spare Parts inspired a new series story, Human Nature and Jubilee both became new series stories.

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  4. Daibhid C
    March 20, 2013 @ 6:51 am

    That makes sense.

    Reply

  5. jane
    March 20, 2013 @ 8:29 am

    But all Time of the Daleks really has is “Ooh, isn’t it kind of kinky to have Daleks quoting Shakespeare?” And then, after a few minutes of that, it’s out. It’s got nothing other than a very traditional Dalek story.

    I was wondering why I didn't like this one so much. I thought it might be the continual grating Dalek voices, the lack of emotional payoff to the Charley revelations, or the hard time I had visualizing what was happening. For all the alchemical elements, there really didn't seem to be an alchemical bent to the story itself, not even about the question of Identity. (All those mirrors! Alas.)

    Just as Shearman’s work in Embrace the Darkness is clearly waiting to really break out massively with Jubilee, it’s impossible to look at Time of the Daleks without feeling like its central idea is one that Jubilee did better.

    I think you mean Chimes, not EtD, right?

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  6. J Mairs
    March 20, 2013 @ 10:16 am

    I hate your cliffhangers. It can't be Neverland you're about to launch into…

    The connections between Learman, the Daleks and Extremist Militarism have always made see this as a thematic prequel of what I like to think of as Big Finish's cycle of stories dealing with 9/11 and post 9/11 – Neverland, Zagreus + Gallifrey S1.

    (You know, beyond the fact that it's before them in the ongoing arc)

    But I like the Daleks-as-fans idea – I mean you really don't have to go too far in DW fandom to find Fanleks – including a large segment of the fanbase who will consider Moffat to have RUINED THE SHOW FOREVER (again) if we don't stop for at least an hour in November to have EVERY DOCTOR (available) on screen – not matter how inappropriate it might be.

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  7. Iain Coleman
    March 20, 2013 @ 11:48 am

    Because it probably won't be picked up in proofreading for the book version: it's "Sugababes", not "Sugarbabes".

    As an aside, did the Sugababes / Girls Aloud / Xenomania thing ever take off in the States?

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  8. Ununnilium
    March 20, 2013 @ 12:47 pm

    Post-Ancestor Cell the line's defining author was, in many regards, Lance Parkin, a writer who was characterized in a large part by writing Julius Schwartz-style impossible premises and then finding a way to defuse them. Scaled back ambition was the order of the day.

    While I agree with your overall point, I don't see how that's an example of scaled-back ambition – surely the entire point of Schwartz-style impossible premises is to be as clever as possible in working them into your status quo.

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  9. Elizabeth Sandifer
    March 20, 2013 @ 12:50 pm

    Well, yes. But I still think scaling back ambition describes the Schwartz-style approach – huge ambition in the cover, but an active let-down on the inside. Still very fun, and I love them dearly, but there's very much a stepping back from the grand sweep of the premise implicit in them.

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  10. Nick Smale
    March 20, 2013 @ 1:09 pm

    If we're proof-reading, I should probably point out that Mars Odyssey is an orbiter, not a rover.

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  11. Ununnilium
    March 20, 2013 @ 2:54 pm

    Hmmmmmm. Yeah, I see what you mean. (The best can take an impossible cover and come up with a solution even more interesting than the one the cover implies – but even they can only do it every so often.)

    Reply

  12. 5tephe
    March 21, 2013 @ 12:40 pm

    As was probably your intent, I can't help but read the ALL CAPS above in a Dalek scream. "Fanleks" – well played.

    Reply

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