Author Notes

One of my better chapter titles.

I like the stuff on Mars, with the human astronauts. It’s something I perhaps should have developed more. On the other hand, it isn’t their story. They’re there as a pretext.

Chesterton Road is real, it’s by Ladbroke Grove tube station, and you went past it to get to the Virgin offices. Again, it’s an in-joke. Because, even if I’m the only one who admits it, every single Who author thought about Ian Chesterton when they saw the sign.

Note that Benny really fancies this new Doctor, but won’t admit it.

The John Smith and the Common Men album. They’re the pop combo that Susan’s listening to in the first ever episode on TV. I loved the idea that they were still going. The Who universe probably has tribute bands to them, and Britpop there was very subtly different because of their influence. Again, I’m bringing Doctor Who full circle – or at least referring back to its beginnings.

Storms Over Avallion (or some minor variation of it) was the provisional title of Battlefield, a TV story that is set a few months before The Dying Days. The joke (first introduced in Kate Orman’s books, shamelessly ripped off by me here and in Father Time) is that in the Doctor Who universe, there are just as many Doctor Who fanzines, novels and internet discussion groups, but they’re all discussing real alien invasions that the government wants covering up.