Philip Sandifer

When it came to sitting down and watching the classic era of Doctor Who, I experienced great difficulty in doing so. There were a number of reasons for this. Firstly, there was the fact that a majority of the stories were hugely dated. I don't mean this in the sense that I thought the special effects looked a bit pants. All special effects date with time and I had long grown accustomed to visuals which didn't match today's state-of-the-art standards. No, what I mean by this is the overall narratives and story execution felt considerably different to what I had become use to. The stories of the classic era were a lot slower in their pace than the post-2005 revival and often spanned between 4-7 episodes to play out (during the first six seasons of the show, some stories streched even further than this number). No matter how hard I tried, my attention span just wasn't fit enough to keep up with such narrative lengths.

The second problem I suffered when trying to catch up with the prior four decades of the show which I had learned to love was just how staggeringly different the whole experience was. In 2005, Doctor Who wasn't yet the confident extravaganza that it would soon become, but it certainly felt as though it knew what it was doing. By the time David Tennant came along, it was so sure of itself that I found it difficult to find another program which was this confident and in control of its own destiny. When you look back on the episodes which aired in 1963, the show is nothing like the brash spectacle that it would one day become.  It was almost impossible to look at the TARDIS control room and honestly believe that the frail elderly gentlemen at the console was the same leather jacketed alien who ran off in time and space with that young blond girl who once had a hit single called "Honey to the B". Then when the Daleks popped up, were we really suppose to believe that the bullet melting beast in Van Statton's basement was really a member of those wobbly pepper pots who couldn't even move from their own base in the original Terry Nation story? None of it made any sense to my none-cultured mind.

I made eight attempts at watching classic Doctor Who before giving up. It just didn't stimulate my mind in the way that the new series was able to. I never became excited or engaged in what was going on in any of it. But then Philip Sandifer fell into my life, and suddenly, I started to get it.

So, for those who don't know, Philip Sandifer is an writer who graduated with a PHD in English. Like many in today's economic climate, Sandifer struggled to find work with his admirable qualifications. He now makes a living by producing a series of Essays on his blog; originally titled TARDIS Eruditorum (his blog also contains a series of essays titled The Last War in Albion which is an intriguing and exceptionally detailed exploration of the British Comic Industry; focusing particularly on the "magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison").

TARDIS Eruditorum is a continuing critical history of Doctor Who from the 1963 series, all the way up to present day (though it will be ending with Matt Smith's departure on the 25th December 2013). Not only does Sandifer explore the historical and cultural phenomenon of every Doctor Who story in their own self contained essays, but he also focuses on a colossal number of the spin off novels, television series and audio plays which have been released alongside and in between the mother show.

TARDIS Eruditorum furthermore makes heavy reference to the practice of psychochronography; the study of physical spaces and their impact on personal, social and cultural spaces. The concept of psychochronography is based - if my understanding is correct - on the idea that individuals and societies possess an internal landscape which is known as ideaspace. This ideaspace is built up, both personally and communally, based on the memories of fictional narratives which we've consumed over the years. With the assistance of psychochronography, we can meander through this internal ideaspace, exploring the memories of both our personal lives and those which have occurred publicly within the time periods in which they were released in.

I've talked about the idea of memories and film/television experiences intertwining and impacting the memories of one another on this blog before (though I've yet to comment on how they've impacted the larger aspects of the public sphere) and I'm almost certain that all these ideas have stemmed from Sandifer's writings. Which is one of the reasons why I felt the need to write up a brief post on him here. Because I have noticed that an awful lot of the ideas which crop up in the content that I've produced thus far have indirectly been shaped by Mr Sandifer's own work.


But the fact that I've accidentally pinched a few concepts from Sandifer' blog is not the only reason why I have written about him. I'm also writing this as I am keen to inform others who may not yet have come across this person's work. Because it is the very reason why I managed to finally get into the classic era of Doctor Who; a fact that I am hugely grateful for.

As mentioned, I had experienced many failed attempts to finally jump on board and appreciate what the 1963-1989 series was doing, and it was thanks to TARDIS Eruditorum that I was finally able to overcome this hurdle. The subjects and ideas which Sandifer raises in each essay assists in opening up a doorway in my mind which allows me to see and understand the classic era in a way which I would never have been able to do with my own thought process. Like all great studies of film and television, he is able to make you see content in new and exciting ways. His writings up on the new series also helps me to view the show that I learned to love in a unique and fresh way; warranting each and every episode a further viewing.

I'm still learning about the classic and wilderness era of Doctor Who. The size and complexity of the series is so vast in scale that I doubt I'm even half way toward knowing all that I will be content in knowing with regard to this show. Much like the hugely ambitious About Time series by Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood, this blog is one of the most stimulating and entertaining ways of brushing up on the history of this series.

When I finally start putting more effort into my film/television blog, I am planning on focusing more on detailed episode-by-episode explorations of different television series which I have learned to love over my lifetime. I will start up by attempting discuss all the episodes of the post-2005 series and then hope to move on to look at the series from 1963, right on through into the wilderness years. If I do stick to my promise, then I will have TARDIS Eruditorum to thank for all of this (though I do plan on trying to come up with new ideas; as opposed to just shamelessly ripping off what another blogger has already had to say on the show).

TARDIS Eruditorum is a riveting read which I cannot give enough praise toward. Furthermore, if you like the blog, then I highly recommend popping over to Amazon to purchase the TARDIS Euriditorum ebooks. Hopefully you'll find them as beautiful as I did.