Beneath the stones, the beach; beneath the beach, Cthulhu

Skip to content

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.

5 Comments

  1. danrachelcleasby
    May 12, 2011 @ 6:16 am

    As you touched on in one paragraph, according to wikipedia's entry of The Curse of the Black Spot, 'The historical pirate Henry Avery was previously referenced in the 1966 serial The Smugglers, which deals with the search for "Avery's gold"'.

    Another tip of the hat to the early years of Doctor Who! Thumbs up for continuity.

    Reply

  2. Stephen
    June 4, 2011 @ 6:19 am

    I'm not sure why you think there are only three "major" pure historicals set after The Highlanders. I get why you're discounting short stories, but why don't stories like The Church and the Crown, The Fires of Vulcan, or Doctor Who and the Pirates count?

    Reply

  3. The Lord of Ábrocen Landmearca
    June 6, 2011 @ 9:22 pm

    Doctor Who and the Pirates is everything Curse of The Black Pear- Spot should have been. Black Spot is my least favourite episode of Doctor Who ever, which I can sum up by saying that I fast forwarded through the ending because I was so bored (yes, I was watching it taped). I've never had to do that before- not with Tooth and Claw, not with The Voyage of the Damned, not even with anything that wasn't Forrest of the Dead/Silence in the Library in the otherwise excruciatingly bad Series 4 (Turn Left was alright, come to think of it. My issue with Series 4 isn't Donna, it's that the Doctor goes too far into become Jesus and all narrative tension just goes away. It's almost Pauline- The Doctor love us, and since through faith alone we are saved, then there's no need for action of any kind- the Doctor WILL save us. What I found so refreshing into something like The BEast Below is that, for the first time in ages, the Doctor is allowed to be complete wrong. it was incredible).

    All of which is a round-about way of saying that I love Doctor Who and the Pirates, and feel that historical can become very good stories. Especially with the incredible Evelyn Smythe, who just breaks my heart.

    Reply

  4. Daibhid C
    March 11, 2013 @ 4:16 am

    Or The Wages of Sin. Since Philip mentions the possibility of a Third and Jo historical.

    Reply

  5. Katherine Sas
    December 10, 2013 @ 12:38 pm

    Philip: Interesting reading your remarks about how the Doctor would confront the Nazis now that we've seen Let's Kill Hitler. Can't wait to see your thoughts on that episode.

    Lord of Abrocen Landmearca: I have to take issue with this: "What I found so refreshing into something like The BEast Below is that, for the first time in ages, the Doctor is allowed to be complete wrong. it was incredible)."

    Of course I can't contradict you if you didn't like series 4 of the new show – to each his own – but really, the Doctor wasn't allowed to be wrong before that? From where I'm sitting, Midnight, Journey's End, The Waters of Mars, and The End of Time are all explorations of the Doctor's failures.

    I do agree with you, however, about the boringness of Curse of the Black Spot. It's maybe the only episode which has that for its major fault, and in a lot of ways its a more damning fault than any other. Give me over-the-top grotesqueness any day.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.