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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.

95 Comments

  1. ScarvesandCelery
    February 9, 2015 @ 12:28 am

    Haven't read the post yet, but had to say – of course that was the title. What else could it be? Perfect title choice, my congratulations.

    Reply

  2. Benjamin Cook
    February 9, 2015 @ 12:48 am

    Congrats, Phil! Wasn't expecting that. But now… of course… I shall read. As we have always done. Until, it ends.

    Reply

  3. SK
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:04 am

    Hang on, I thought it was stories which had River Song in them which were out of order. But Time of the Doctor doesn't have River Song in it.

    Reply

  4. Bennett
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:21 am

    There should have been a thud, the reader thought to himself. That's what he had been trained to expect at the end of a book. The chance to sweep a hand to the right and seal the words back into their forest of the dead. Of course, he knew deep down that words once escaped could not be recaptured. But there was a comfort in the decisive action of closing a book and returning it to the shelf that he found necessary to move onto the next one.

    He tried closing his laptop. It didn't help.

    So he made some tea. It did help.

    And yet there was still an unshiftable sense of something unfinished. The end had come quicker than the reader had expected on first sight of the miniscule scroll bar. Many of the words had already seeped through the cracks in the skin of the Internet, and in his haste to reach the beginning beyond the end, the reader skipped over these sections as a child would skip over crazy paving. One day he would come back. Yes, he would come back.

    But for now, for this moment, the reader knew what he needed to move on. He needed to express his gratitude to the author for all this blog had given him. And all he could think to give the author in return was a story. One small cutting from the reader's own story so that the author might know that he was, and would always be, a part of it.

    Reply

  5. William Whyte
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:27 am

    Congratulations, Phil. This has been a great journey.

    Reply

  6. arcbeatle
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:54 am

    The blog ends with a post so long I can't finish it before work ^_^. It almost feels like a present!

    Reply

  7. arcbeatle
    February 9, 2015 @ 2:01 am

    ….I just copy pasted it into a word document to print out to take to work, and I shant be doing that 0_0! Serious question here: Is this essay going to be its own volume as a print book? Its 99,154 words (including the title)!

    WOW.

    Reply

  8. Scott
    February 9, 2015 @ 2:06 am

    Hell of a ride. Well played, Dr. Sandifer. Very well played indeed.

    Reply

  9. Andrew Hickey
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:26 am

    Congratulations!
    One final minor nitpick — Beatles For Sale was the Beatles' fourth, not third, album…

    Reply

  10. Sean Dillon
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:27 am

    He thought the final episode of that season was going to be a River Song one when he started the out of order posts. But since it wasn't, he thought to himself "oh sod it." and kept the structure anyways.

    Reply

  11. Jack Graham
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:27 am

    Congratulations Phil, and thanks.

    Reply

  12. Sean Dillon
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:28 am

    Huzzah! The game is over. Or has it just begun?

    Reply

  13. unnoun
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:17 am

    Congratulations! I am really glad to have experienced this project, and feel it has positively impacted my life.

    I am so proud to have met all of you, and even prouder to have contributed to this in any way.

    Thank you.

    "What did you say, my boy? It's all over. It's all over. That's what you said. No, but it isn't all over. It's far from being all over."

    Reply

  14. dm
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:19 am

    Jesus fucking Christ. Thank you so much for everything, Doctor Phil. I think I love you.

    I'll engage with this post when I have time to finish it.

    Reply

  15. Caitlin Smith
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:22 am

    Congratulations Phil! Thank you, for writing this, and for letting me be a (very small) part of it. It's been wonderful.

    Reply

  16. Tom
    February 9, 2015 @ 5:06 am

    Well done Phil – a fantastic contribution to Who and pop culture criticism. Thanks for it all.

    Reply

  17. Frezno
    February 9, 2015 @ 5:09 am

    What a ride it's been since I first found a post about The Two Doctors, way the heck back in 2012. I've consumed every word, written some of my own, and even dropped a word or two into the bucket here.

    Ever onward we go. Congratulations, sir.

    Reply

  18. JJ Gauthier
    February 9, 2015 @ 5:29 am

    Well, this definitely isn't one I can read at work.

    In a remarkably lucky coincidence, I think I'm feeling half a sick day coming on…

    Reply

  19. Katherine Sas
    February 9, 2015 @ 5:33 am

    So glad to be here for the end. What a monumental achievement. Congrats, Phil, you must be so proud!

    Looking forward to all that comes next…

    Reply

  20. Theonlyspiral
    February 9, 2015 @ 6:25 am

    Congratulations Phil.

    That being said…does anyone else feel like they're saying good bye to an old friend?

    Reply

  21. Adam Riggio
    February 9, 2015 @ 6:45 am

    So this is what I was seeing every few weeks for the last months thanks to my Kickstarter money. Best deal for $40 that I've gotten in a long time.

    I'm composing a more detailed thank you on my own blog for the last four years of fascinating and wonderful TARDIS Eruditorum, but I'll make the small version here. You've crafted one of the most creative projects in media studies and philosophy that I think I've ever come across. Frankly, you're an inspiration.

    Reply

  22. Doctor Memory
    February 9, 2015 @ 6:53 am

    To reach the Western Lands is to achieve freedom from fear. Do you free yourself from fear by cowering in your physical body for eternity? Your body is a boat to lay aside when you reach the far shore, or sell it if you can find a fool… it's full of holes…it's full of holes.

    I want to reach the Western Lands– right in front of you, across the bubbling brook. It's a frozen sewer– it's known as the Duad remember? All the filth and horror, fear hate, disease and death of human history flows between you and the Western Lands. Let it flow! My cat Fletch stretches behind me on the bed. A tree like black lace against a gray sky. A flash of joy.

    How long does it take a man to learn that he does not, cannot want what he "wants?"

    You have to be in Hell to see Heaven. Glimpses from the Land of the Dead, flashes of serene timeless joy, a Joy as old as suffering and despair.

    The old writer couldn't write anymore because he had reached the end of words, the end of what can be done with words. And then? "British we are, British we stay." How long can one hang on in Gibraltar, with the tapestries where mustached riders with scimitars hunt tigers, the ivory balls one inside the other, bare seams showing, the long tearoom with mirrors on both sides and the tired fuchsia and rubber plants, the shops selling English marmalade and Fortnum & Mason's tea…clinging to their Rock like the rock apes, clinging always to less and less.

    In Tangier the Parade Bar is closed. Shadows are falling on the mountain.
    "Hurry up please. It's time."

    Reply

  23. liminal fruitbat
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:54 am

    Absolutely delightful. Congratulations.

    Reply

  24. jane
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:55 am

    I'm sad. Also strangely relieved — strange because I'm not the one who was doing the writing, but it nonetheless feels like letting go. Which is a nice feeling when I think about it.

    Reply

  25. Andrew
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:57 am

    Never anything but wonderful. Thank you.

    Reply

  26. Alphapenguin
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:25 am

    It's the end, but the moment has been prepared for.

    I'm really looking forward to whatever comes next, but for now, congratulations!

    Reply

  27. Eric Gimlin
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:30 am

    Congratulations. On Tardis Eruditorum in general and on what may be the longest original content blog post ever.

    Very happy to have been following this for the past 3 years or so, glad I discovered it not TOO late in the game.

    Reply

  28. Nyq Only
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:38 am

    Sarah Jane looked up from the book frowning. &quot;That&#39;s all very nice but it really doesn&#8217;t tell us very much about what you were doing in that library with this Professor Song.&#8221;<br /><br />The Doctor didn&#8217;t pause in his reading but replied dismissively. &#8220;You don&#39;t understand the implications... I&#39;m not a human being; I walk in eternity&#8230;&#8221;<br /><br />&#8220;What&#39;s that supposed to mean?&#8221; Sarah interrupted - she had heard this monologue before.<br /><br />&#8220;It means I&#39;ve lived for something like 750 years.&#8221;<br /><br />&#8220;All right, so you&#39;re middle aged!&#8221;<br /><br />&#8220;Yes! About time I found something better to do than be blogged about by Sandifer!&#8221;<br /><br />&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<br />[Scene: an Edwardian school library in Coal Hill, London. Temporal archeologist River Song is examining a device that appears to be some sort of typewriter]<br />River: Well, Mr Sandifer, I really must congratulate you for inventing the web log 40 years early.<br />Sandifer: That, madam, is a psychochronograph. It&#39;s purpose is...<br />River: ...is to document the interface of an aspect of popular culture against the background of the socio-political contingencies against which it was seen<br />Sandifer: [beat] How could you possibly know that?<br />River: Well, you see, Mr Sandifer, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.<br />Sandifer: I see.<br />River: I&#39;m sure you don&#39;t but it&#39;s very nice of you to try.<br />_____________________<br /><br />Meanwhile&#8230;.<br />The Doctor-Donna: Deactivating an Eruditorum without the correct key is like repairing a watch with a hammer and chisel; one false move and you&#39;ll never know the time again.<br />Handles: Any more comforting thoughts?<br />The Doctor-Donna: No. Just let me know if it starts to get hot.<br />Handles: Don&#39;t worry. You&#39;ll hear me breaking the sound barrier!
    

    Reply

  29. Jarl
    February 9, 2015 @ 9:19 am

    Some of us at a very different venue decided to make you something to commemorate this momentous event: http://imgur.com/a/pHE1L
    The fact that the URL is almost your name is weird, but in no way intentional.

    Reply

  30. Daibhid C
    February 9, 2015 @ 9:28 am

    I think Phil said somewhere that as the resolution of the whole Trenzelore/Silence thing, it's part of the River Song story, even if she doesn't actually appear in it.

    Reply

  31. Daibhid C
    February 9, 2015 @ 9:36 am

    He finished reading. Not just the story, which had taken longer than he expected (and, of course, would always continue), but the comments as well. As he got to the bottom of the comments section his hands paused over the keyboard.

    "The trouble is," he thought, "that others have already used this device in these comments. And in quite profound ways, as the piece deserves. Do I have anything profound to say?"

    He shrugged. He'd never let that stop him commenting before.

    In the end, all he could write was "That was brilliant. Thank you, Phil, and all your other contributors." He wasn't sure that fully expressed what he wanted to say, but it gave the gist, at any rate.

    Reply

  32. Elizabeth Sandifer
    February 9, 2015 @ 10:54 am

    Oh, heavens. Those are lovely. Thank you.

    Reply

  33. Elizabeth Sandifer
    February 9, 2015 @ 10:55 am

    That was my half-assed justification, yes. Sean has the real truth of it.

    Reply

  34. Alex Antonijevic
    February 9, 2015 @ 12:01 pm

    So when are you going to cover Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? 😛

    Man, I'm so glad I read these as the secret project since this entry would probably take me days to finish.

    I came here for this wonderful Doctor Who blog, but I'll stick around and see what's next.

    Reply

    • trenzalore
      December 10, 2015 @ 10:19 pm

      Wonderful, wonderful post, but it does feel like we’re missing out on a proper entry for SITL/FOTD. Will that be written for the Tennant book?

      Reply

  35. Terry
    February 9, 2015 @ 12:11 pm

    Thank you so much. It has been wonderful.

    Reply

  36. Anton B
    February 9, 2015 @ 12:30 pm

    I think the phrase is tour de force. Not only this post but the blog as a whole. Thank you Doctor.

    Reply

  37. James Pearson
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:02 pm

    I just wanted to say thank you and congratulations. The Eruditorum is a magnificent achievement and it has fundamentally altered the way I engage with Doctor Who for the better.

    I will miss the regular Eruditorum updates, but there are still the book versions to look forward to along with the continuation of Last War in Albion and all your future projects. Today I bought the blu-ray and book versions of Game of Thrones in anticipation of the insightful analysis you plan to kick off tomorrow, this time of a subject I am not at all familiar with. I can hardly wait.

    Thanks once again.

    Reply

  38. Matthew Blanchette
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:03 pm

    Wonderful! But I am completely lost, as I should have expected to be. 😛

    Reply

  39. Jarl
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:47 pm

    Nevertheless, Miles was hardly remiss in observing that the book at times seemed to have an active grudge against Moffat’s concepts.
    Holy Freudian slips, Batman!

    Reply

  40. John Nor
    February 9, 2015 @ 1:59 pm

    This final blogpost is utterly gargantuan, as predicted by the blog itself on April 7, 2014 -"So here we are at the last entry of TARDIS Eruditorum. Nothing flashy, I’m afraid. I can’t possibly go bigger than I did for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, and the elaborate structural games of things like Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways or Ghost Light don’t quite seem appropriate."

    What an astonishing end to a blogging epic.

    Congratulations and thank you.

    Reply

  41. Patrick
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:09 pm

    I don't even want to engage with this post, I just want to drown in it.

    Thanks for everything Phil.

    Reply

  42. Matt Smith
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:22 pm

    Am I the only person crazy enough to spend my day off reading this whole thing in more or less one sitting? Because now I feel crazy. And catharsized.

    Utterly breathtaking, whelming, and joyous. When you said you had a good idea for the finale, you weren't joking. Congratulations, sir. Fantastic journey and so many more nice and kind things I can't even begin to say. That was just…. it was something else in a project full of wonderful something elses. Curse you for being so good I feel the need to follow your work forever.

    Reply

  43. Iain Coleman
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:35 pm

    Well that was bloody good. Always interesting, sometimes brilliant, occasionally exasperating. Congratulations.

    Reply

  44. encyclops
    February 9, 2015 @ 3:55 pm

    It's so fucking cool and generous of you to have incorporated passages from commenters, lurkers, and others into this really amazingly epic post. Like Adam, I'm grateful to have been able to read it in installments. I can only infer from the comments above how it must have bowled over anyone not already expecting it.

    I will of course leave my final thoughts on the blog on "Time of the Doctor"…although, knowing me, I'll probably end up just talking about the episode mostly and leave my gratitude in the form of, I don't know, an AbFab quote or something. So, at the risk of repeating myself, just in case I don't end up saying it properly:

    I comment most often to disagree, but because it's my (bad) habit, and not because you say things that demand disagreement. Lest I give the wrong impression, I've enjoyed the hell out of this blog and the community it's cultivated, and have been repeatedly inspired both by your level of engagement (which encouraged me to be more thoughtful in my own reviews) and by your level of ambition (which was a big influence on my far more modest and personal Forty Records project, still up at fortyrecords.com if you ever get bored of reading actual, you know, literature). Your vision of Doctor Who isn't precisely mine (A, duh, and B, how boring would things be if it were?), but it casts a long shadow and I can't imagine I won't now have it in mind, alongside that of Miles and Wood and just a very few others, when I read or watch the show in the future.

    So: thanks for all that. And congratulations. I'm chanting as we speak.

    Reply

  45. Terry
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:18 pm

    But of course the Eruditorium technically doesn't end here, does it? There's still the Logopolis book and the collected essays for the other Doctors, Davison/Baker, McCoy/McGann, and Eccleston/Tennant/Smith (at a guess). It's possible that more Doctor Who stuff may come via Patreon supporters voting for it. And of course it will remain here, infinitely and forever.

    Reply

  46. brownstudy
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:19 pm

    Thanks for opening a door to a very big room I didn't know was there. Congratulations on completing this fantastic piece of creative and critical work.

    Reply

  47. Anglocat
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:27 pm

    This is…no. No simple farewell, or expression of gratitude. Just this: In the end we're not all just stories. We are that, but storytellers, too.

    You have chanted a first rate epic, about others' stories, and your own, and ours.

    Thank you–and I'll still be following along for the ride!

    Reply

  48. Anthony Strand
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:29 pm

    Also Tasha Lem is basically a River Song stand-in.

    Reply

  49. Anthony Strand
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:36 pm

    Amazing job, Phil. I haven't read the entries for the TV stories I haven't seen yet (75 to go!) or the New Adventures novels I haven't read but plan to (15 or so), but I'll miss checking the site for updates. It's been my favorite thing on the internet, and tip my hat to you.

    Reply

  50. cmattg
    February 9, 2015 @ 4:44 pm

    Oh, man. The Alan Moore cameo(or Last War in Albion crossover?) was where I lost it.

    Reply

  51. Jarl
    February 9, 2015 @ 5:15 pm

    Just finished reading it.
    I seem to recall you saying something about how the anachronistic essays should be perfectly readable if read in either order… coming as it does between the name-game of The Unicorn and the Wasp and the Utopia-recalling madness of Midnight, it can at least be said they aren't overly long essays to put it up against…

    Reply

  52. Alex
    February 9, 2015 @ 6:43 pm

    "And so it was almost inevitable that the first story made as part of the second run of production would feature the return of the Daleks in The Dalek Invasion of Earth."

    And yet, sadly(?), The Dalek Invasion of Earth was the final story of the first production block. The Rescue was the first story shot for the second block.

    Reply

  53. Ben
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:17 pm

    Stunning, truly stunning. Thank you and congratulations.

    Reply

  54. Ben
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:23 pm

    Funnily enough this kind of reminded me of Phil's "Logopolis" post.

    Reply

  55. TheSmilingStallionInn
    February 9, 2015 @ 7:31 pm

    (I still need to read this entire thing, but…)

    Courtney Woods wandered down a long, winding corridor, ornately decorated with trinkets and souvenirs from over a hundred different times and places, yet in blank spots it was plainly, mechanically adorned as well. Once or twice she thought she heard a stream flowing, a brook babbling, birds singing, trees sighing, or maybe some splashing in the pool. There were lots of pictures as well, scattered here and there, of people she had never seen before, yet she knew that she had met them.

    The pictures increased and steadily grew more and more confusing, the more she looked at them, and yet she was intrigued as well. Who were these people, and what stories did they have to tell? She was reaching the end of the corridor, or so she thought, when she came upon two dividing branches heading off in different directions, mostly left or right. She paused here at the intersection, wondering which way to go, when a sign that had been posted up on the wall in between suddenly lifted itself up, revealing itself to be a window.

    A man, she assumed, stuck his head out and asked, “Which way do you want to go?”

    Courtney Woods approached and said, “Excuse me, I’m lost and I don’t really know. Do you happen to know the way out or the way further in?”

    “That depends. Which way would you rather go, out or in?”

    “Can it be both?” She asked.

    “Fair enough.” He said, closing the window and opening the door.

    She marveled at the door and what was inside the box at the intersection, but then she paused as she asked, “I would like to know, though, are you a storyteller?”

    “Of sorts. What stories would you like to hear?” He asked.

    “Of the past and future and everywhere in between.” She remarked. “Full of amazing, monstrous, benign and mad humans, aliens, creatures, robots and more. With science, culture, history, technology, society, philosophy, literature, art, music, pop culture, drama, language, politics, criticism, alchemy, and maybe a touch of material social progress. Something with humor, bite, class, style, elegance, crassness, campiness, emotion, wonders and words, so many words. Something sweet and kind, but not overly sweet or kind either. Bitterly sweet at times, maybe full of rage, anger, and heat, but sadness as well for what is lost and found or never found at all. Something that will last for years to come with a lot of friendship and so much running involved. I think that is what I truly want.” She said.

    “I think you better turn left then.” He said, smiling at her.

    “Left it is then, always. Thank you so much.” She smiled at him. “Ever onward and upwards, outwards and inwards.”

    (Thanks…)

    Reply

  56. Jesse
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:08 pm

    So when are you going to cover Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead? 😛

    I think you might get a chance to read it in the Tennant book. At 99,146 words, this might not work so well in chapter form.

    Reply

  57. Jesse
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:09 pm

    Though either sticking it into the middle of the Tennant book or appending it at the end of the Smith book just might be Phil's ultimate gonzo move.

    Reply

  58. Spoilers Below
    February 9, 2015 @ 8:36 pm

    Just shy of 100,000 words. A book in its own right, this entry. The eruditorum in miniature, albeit a very large miniature. As above, so below. As within, so without. A fractal piece of the larger whole. As beautiful small as it was large.

    What could come next? Spoilers. Goodbye, sweetie.

    Reply

  59. Carey
    February 9, 2015 @ 9:53 pm

    I was up until two in the morning reding this: while I needed breaks in the reading, the text demanded finishing, no matter how late.

    I'll be sad to see the Eruditorum go: I started reading during the Hartnell era after a mention in The Wife In Space, and while I don't always agree with you (even in this entry, alas) the blog has been one of the things I look up at 10.00 every morning while having a tea break, and have thoroughly enjoyed every word. Whatever will I replace it wit in my life?

    Congratulations Phil, and I hope you had a nice rest after finishing.

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  60. Daru
    February 9, 2015 @ 10:52 pm

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    Reply

  61. David Anderson
    February 10, 2015 @ 1:00 am

    The only reason not to feel disappointed at the end of the blog is that the blog has to end when it runs out of Doctor Who to blog about.

    The history sections could have been made up of links back to all previous Eruditorum posts. But maybe that's the difference between Silence in the Library and Castrovalva.

    Reply

  62. Daru
    February 10, 2015 @ 1:10 am

    Oh my, I am feeling like I am really losing something with this last post – and at the same time something is loosening within as this epic essay is posted, the power of story, or the power of all stories. I haven't finished reading yet and I am only near the beginning, I just want to savour your writing Phil and be consumed as if I am a story being swallowed by the Pumpkin planet, and see where the story takes me. (I will comment more once I have digested, or once I have been digested?)

    What a heartful and wonderful experience it has been to travel with you Phil and everyone else in what I regard as being an amazing community.

    Thank you for such a rare treasure.

    Reply

  63. Daru
    February 10, 2015 @ 1:11 am

    David you are absolutely right about why we shouldn't feel disappointed.

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  64. Aylwin
    February 10, 2015 @ 1:33 am

    You know what they say: finish on a thesis.

    Thank you. And blimey what a marvellous lot of thinking that's been.

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  65. Adam Riggio
    February 10, 2015 @ 3:32 am

    And my own personal tribute, praise, and long-ish form thank you to you Phil, for TARDIS Eruditorum and everything else you've done in the four years since I first discovered you, your blog, and your work.

    http://adamwriteseverything.blogspot.ca/2015/02/the-end-of-beautiful-first-chapter.html

    Reply

  66. Jesse
    February 10, 2015 @ 3:42 am

    WAIT. IT'S NOT OVER. YOU ACCIDENTALLY SKIPPED A DOCTOR.

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  67. Ken Finlayson
    February 10, 2015 @ 4:01 am

    "Have you ever thought what it's like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension? Have you? To be exiles… ?"

    It's 9 February, 2015. The first recorded sighting of a previously theoretical body: a tesseract, an object bound in four dimensions. The seams of its material substance run along time as well as space. To plumb its limits requires a specialised tool. A psychochronograph.

    It's 23 November, 1963.

    Reply

  68. Ombund
    February 10, 2015 @ 5:10 am

    It’s February 9th, 2015. Ellie Goulding is at number 1 with Love Me Live You Do, with Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars, Kanye West, Rihanna and Paul McCartney also charting (and that’s across just two records). In the news, it emerges that HSBC have been helping clients engage in widespread tax avoidance, and the US measles outbreak spreads to Mexico.

    While in internet news, Philip Sandifer has finished his TARDIS Eruditorum.

    I was going to wait until I read it all before commenting but I think if I did I’d end up missing the boat by several days (plus I have already read the production biography chapters in their serialised form). So instead, I just want to echo everyone else here and thank you for this massive undertaking. The Eruditorum is a momentous piece of work and a hell of an achievement and I hope you feel as proud of it as you should.

    About a year and a half ago I chanced across this project when Googling whether or not I should bother reading any of those re-jacketed 50th anniversary novels (finding your entry on Gareth Roberts’s Only Human convinced me that I should, and so I did). And what started out as a mild curiosity in the second or third page of results to a poorly phrased Google search turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure. There have been very few days since then that I haven’t visited the blog; whether to impatiently hit refresh at 10am on a new entry day, to catch up on the newest comments on a previous post, to follow up the viewing of a classic episode to help explain what I’d just seen, or just to delve into some interesting corner of Doctor Who miscellany I’d yet to venture into first-hand. I only wish I’d discovered the blog earlier so I could have got more involved with the brilliant little commenting community you have here.

    I had a slightly rough time at university and made the unwise decision to exacerbate that with a poorly-chosen MA, so by the end of 4 years of study I was left with the feeling that any love of criticism had been well and truly beaten out of me. I fully expected never to pick up a critical work again and I certainly never expected to willingly engage with one to the extent that I have with this project. I’ve learnt a hell of a lot, discovered new writers and systems of thought, and rediscovered forgotten ones.

    Obviously, I love all the well-known Gonzo entries but I also wanted to highlight a couple of my personal favourites, stuff that I’ve read and re-read many times: from the Beast Below entry that made me completely re-evaluate an episode I’d previously struggled with, to the beautiful The Time of the Doctor piece that I think is one of the best things you’ve ever written, from the Now, My Doctor piece in the Hartnell book, to even something as recent as The Day of the Doctor. And perhaps best of all, the line that made me cry in your entry on The War Games: “It's time to face the reality that the bad guys aren't external monsters, but the people who want to send riot police to crush the sex deviants planting flowers”.

    TL;DR: Thank you, Phil. TARDIS Eruditorum has been marvellous, you’ve been marvellous and it’s been an absolute pleasure following this particular mad man with a blog.

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  69. elvwood
    February 10, 2015 @ 6:05 am

    Nothing witty or clever – I'm all out of witty and clever right now – but I wanted to add my congratulations and thanks. It's been a fantastic journey!

    Reply

  70. Judith Jackson
    February 10, 2015 @ 6:18 am

    Thank you.

    Reply

  71. Elliot R
    February 10, 2015 @ 10:40 am

    Chris O'Leary's 'The Shadow Planet' has made my week. Pure Pynchon.

    Reply

  72. Jesse
    February 10, 2015 @ 11:08 am

    Chris O'Leary's 'The Shadow Planet' has made my week. Pure Pynchon.

    Better still: After I read that part, and without my planning or thinking about it in advance, the music playing on my laptop arrived at Sun Ra's "The Shadow World."

    Reply

  73. Seeing_I
    February 10, 2015 @ 11:50 am

    Ironically I first found "Wife In Space" via this blog! 🙂

    Reply

  74. Seeing_I
    February 10, 2015 @ 11:53 am

    Thanks, Dr. Sandifer, it's been a great pleasure reading your thoughts on Doctor Who (I wandered in somwhere around the middle of Pertwee, I believe) and I hope to hear much more from you in the future!

    Now on to "Game of, friggin' Game of, Game of Thrones…" (those are the lyrics, you know.)

    Reply

  75. Elizabeth Sandifer
    February 10, 2015 @ 11:59 am

    No, no. They're obviously "Dinklage, Peter Dinklage, Peter…"

    Or, if you want to wait for the main strings line, "Once Eddard Stark had a head. Now Eddard Stark is rather dead." (With "Once," "Stark," and "Now" each being held over two notes.)

    Reply

  76. Daru
    February 10, 2015 @ 12:07 pm

    And I found this blog via the "Wife in Space" !

    Reply

  77. Sylocat
    February 10, 2015 @ 3:42 pm

    I thought for sure that the last words of the blog post were going to be, "Sweet dreams, everyone."

    Reply

  78. timber-munki
    February 11, 2015 @ 3:15 am

    Finally finished the post. Not much to add but thank you.

    So see you in about 46 years when you start Erudotorium part 2 getting ready for the 100th anniversary…

    Reply

  79. Seeing_I
    February 11, 2015 @ 3:33 am

    Haha, that's great. Now I have another line to sing!

    I have to say reading your blog was an experience somewhat akin to finding the "About Time" series lo these many years ago – they came along just at the time when I didn't really think there was anything new to say about Doctor Who. Thanks for proving me wrong so entertainingly and giving me new ways to think about our old favorites!

    Reply

  80. Daru
    February 12, 2015 @ 12:47 am

    Just finished reading. Bloody hell, that was good!

    Thank you Phil.

    Reply

  81. 5tephe
    February 12, 2015 @ 5:41 pm

    I'm one of the silly people who lives in Australia, and so receives your updates at about 9 or 10 at night.

    I am further, one of those silly people who can't bring himself to comment to he has read the whole post, and comments.

    And so I find myself offering my belated platitudes. But I'm used to that.

    Phil, I will forever be grateful to you for all you have taught me over the years of this project. It was sheer luck that I stumbled upon you here, but as I am fond of saying: you're allowed to be lucky. Let's call it serendipity instead.

    As I've said often before, I have no background whatsoever in media studies, or critical thinking. So forgive me if I've occasionally been a truculent pupil, but believe you me: you are the best teacher I could have asked for.

    Thanks again, for this wonderful spell you have cast here.

    Reply

  82. Llamastrangler
    February 13, 2015 @ 3:59 am

    I know I haven't commented much over the last few years (has it really been so long?), but thank you for giving this avid reader so much pleasure:)

    Reply

  83. Andrew Morton
    February 14, 2015 @ 7:14 am

    I wanted to finish reading before I commented, hence the nearly a week later…

    That was epic. Both the post and the project. Congratulations for seeing it through and thank you for giving me so much free entertainment most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

    I am glad (and slightly smug) to say I have been with the Eruditorum since Day 1 and have enjoyed reading your take on Doctor Who. It is fair to say it has increased my enjoyment of (and hopefully ability in) critical reading, is why I follow(ed) both My Little Po Mo and Vaka Rangi and am interested in reading more.

    So thank you again and I look forward to all that is to come.

    Reply

  84. EclecticDave
    February 16, 2015 @ 4:12 am

    Finally finished …

    I cannot possibly add anything to the far more witty and dare I say it, erudite, commentators above, except that I couldn't possibly leave without adding my own thanks and congratulations to the growing pile.

    Here's to the next 50 years … what say we all meet up here again around the year 2061 to start part 2?

    Reply

  85. EclecticDave
    February 16, 2015 @ 4:22 am

    By "Finally finished" I of course mean I've finally finished reading the post, it wasn't intended as a criticism of it's length!

    Reply

  86. ferret
    February 21, 2015 @ 5:48 pm

    Finished at last – I've been savouring it! Despite reading the whole blog, seeing the history of Doctor Who in one long-form essay has made a few things clear to me, such as the (now obvious but previously puzzling to me) reason why Shada wasn't simply re-mounted in the next season.

    Excellent essay, a wonder to read – thank you for everything, and I look forward to reading them all again, slightly differently no doubt, on my kindle as they come out.

    Reply

  87. macrogers
    February 23, 2015 @ 6:19 am

    I only just finished reading today, as I've been parceling it out over my train commutes. Just marvelous. What a joy TARDIS Eruditorum has been. What a colossal achievement.

    Reply

  88. curlyjimsam750
    February 24, 2015 @ 10:02 am

    Thanks very much for this post. It's taken me two weeks to read the whole thing but I've very much enjoyed it. And thanks very much for the blog as a whole, one of my favourite things about Doctor Who fandom in the last few years. 🙂

    Reply

  89. Paul I
    March 3, 2015 @ 11:48 am

    I found this blog via Freakytrigger — it's also taken me a couple of weeks to read, but what a pleasure. Thank you. I guess I'll get cracking on your other posts now.

    Reply

  90. Youth of Australia
    March 9, 2015 @ 9:17 pm

    OK, please can someone explain the Shadow World bit to me? I am clearly missing something huge and obvious there… is this the Who equivalent of The King In Yellow?

    Reply

  91. Brent Holmes
    March 10, 2015 @ 5:03 pm

    Philip the way you have expanded my understanding of Doctor Who makes thank you a poor choice of words but nonetheless you have it. I'm rewatching the E-Space trilogy and while I remember all the iconic moments I saw on TVOntario when I was much younger; thanks to your insightful passion or even calling for the program I have a richer understanding of what I'm watching. Take out the green bathmats which no one could change and Full Circle is a subtle, gripping statement on '"the more things change". I'm more inspired watching the program since your analysis; watching beyond the onscreen literal to the shorthand, concepts and deeper meaning that your insights have inspired me to. Best wishes on The Last War in Albion and all your future projects.
    Brent

    Reply

  92. Brent Holmes
    March 10, 2015 @ 5:10 pm

    I forgot to ask; are you saying Mary Whitehouse was the real Deadly Assassin?Based on your analysis and the program's history it sadly appears so…

    Reply

  93. JohnB
    March 21, 2015 @ 4:02 pm

    I think it's Lawrence Miles' Enemy making a sideways entrance from 'The Book Of The War' .

    Reply

  94. John Binns
    June 9, 2015 @ 1:18 am

    Still reading and enjoying this, but a little disappointed (churlish I know!) at the omission of a chunk of series 2 (including The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit).

    Reply

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