If you want an image of the future as we desire it, imagine a boot stamping on Jonathan Jones’ face… forever

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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.

13 Comments

  1. happy wheels
    March 25, 2020 @ 5:52 am

    “This is, of course, intensely compatible with glam, being the basic hook of Ziggy Stardust.) But these are both entirely fantasies” Really?

    Reply

  2. Christopher Brown
    March 25, 2020 @ 4:36 pm

    Another great entry.

    The really important question, though, is: what’s the coolest dinosaur/prehistoric creature in the story, either by prop (for a given definition of cool) or species?

    Reply

    • wyngatecarpenter
      March 29, 2020 @ 5:08 pm

      I’ve just asked my 8 year old dinosaur obsessed son who has watched Invasion of the Dinosaurs. His answer was cutting: “None. There’s nothing cool in it. They just look weird”

      Reply

      • Christopher Brown
        April 1, 2020 @ 11:35 pm

        That’s hilarious – and sadly pretty true. The dinosaurs lack the derpy charm of the Skarasen after them or the Silurian dinosaur before them and seem more like those single-color cheap plastic models that always wound up at the bottom of the dinosaur toy bin in my own childhood.

        Reply

        • wyngatecarpenter
          April 2, 2020 @ 12:38 pm

          The funniest thing is that Barry Letts had commissioned the story in the first place because he was approached by a company that said that they could produce very realistic dinosaur models! Perhaps he should have asked for some evidence of the claim.
          It’s the first Doctor Who story I have any memory of watching. Watching it on a tiny balck and white TV and my gran and grandad’s house aged 4 back in 1974 it didn’t look too bad!

          Reply

          • Tom
            April 4, 2020 @ 10:00 am

            One of the dinosaur models survives and now resides in the dinosaur museum in Dorchester. I visited the museum and the model is actually quite impressive in real life. Maybe it’s because it’s only impressive as a static exhibit, but it just didn’t transfer well to television.

          • John G. Wood
            April 5, 2020 @ 11:10 am

            Oh yes, I’ve been there too – you’re right, it looks much more impressive than in the show! I’ve got a photo of my son with it somewhere, when he was about 5…

          • wyngatecarpenter
            April 5, 2020 @ 12:32 pm

            Did you mean Doset? If so I’ve been there as well, but I didn’t spot it. It’s a funny little place , rammed full of stuff – obviously one man’s personal passion.

  3. Andy
    March 25, 2020 @ 7:19 pm

    I’d never thought of the baddies in this story being left-wing. They all seem like archetypal conservatives. Not so much the people on the spaceship, but the politician and the general, harking back to a golden age? Complete tories.

    Reply

    • tom harries
      March 28, 2020 @ 12:10 pm

      Yes, I’d agree with this, although I would include the people on the spaceship. I think Hulke is critiquing people who think they’re left wing, but are actually anything but. Their objective is the ultimate middle-class utopia.

      Reply

  4. wyngatecarpenter
    March 29, 2020 @ 5:04 pm

    I heard someone, probably on the DVD extras , saying that it was meant as a critique of the hard right consevatives who wanted to return to the “good old days”. At the time it was widely thought that Britain might be heading for a coup by the army with the support of the right wing of the Conservative Party. That seems to fit with the fact that those organising the conspiracy seem to be thoroughly establishment figures.
    That said, I thought this theory about the story might be wishful thinking. You can’t ignore the enviromentalist motivation. I wonder if Hulke, with his involvement in the Communist Party, might see Conservatives and enviromentalists as two sides of the same coin.

    Reply

  5. tom harries
    March 31, 2020 @ 10:24 pm

    “The specific goal of the evil leftists is to turn back time to before civilization ruined it so they can try again—a project called Operation Golden Age”

    It’s almost certainly complete coincidence, but I’ve just re-watched the Origins of Doctor Who extra on the Edge of Destruction DVD, and when they were first creating the character of the Doctor, that was going to be his secret motivation – he’d fled/escaped from the future and was searching for an ‘ideal past’. Once he’d found it, he planned to somehow destroy the future. Mr Newman vetoed that one pretty sharpish …

    Reply

  6. John G. Wood
    April 5, 2020 @ 11:12 am

    It’s been a while since there’s been a post – I hope you and yours are keeping safe and well, El.

    Reply

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