We left Lee, the Renegade, in ancient China three stories back. Now we catch up on him. It is four thousand years for him, and a mere week for Marion.

Now, it has always been a little vague just how old a Time Lord can get. The Second Doctor actually said at one point that, barring accidents, his kind could live forever. Later we were introduced to the twelve regenerations, thirteen lives. The Doctor’s actual age nobody is entirely sure about. He was in his seven hundreds in the Fourth Doctor era, and then in the Seventh he claimed to be nine hundred and fifty. But by the Ninth Doctor he was still only in his nine hundreds and that was considered middle aged for a Time Lord. But The Doctor has been quite careless with his lives. A Time Lord living a quiet life such as Li had done in China could, I think, rack up a few millennia.

So Mai Li Tuo by the time he abandons communist China and becomes an exile, is now about seven thousand years old. Kristoph says that he is one of the oldest living Time Lords. And he is living, now, in Chinatown, in the herbalist shop that readers first encountered in Theta Sigma.

Now, there is a bit of a discrepancy in the relationship between Theta Sigma and Marion and Kristoph. Marion is here visiting Li in the mid 1990s. Chrístõ, her son, get to know Li in the early 2000’s. There is very nearly a clash of generations. I think it’s probably best not to worry about the logistics of it. Just take it as read that Li is a lifelong friend to Marion and then becomes a friend and mentor to her son long after she is dead. Try not to worry about it.

I made Li unable to have children of is own mainly because his description of having hundreds of lovers in China would be more complicated if he had half-Human, half Time Lord descendents scattered throughout 4,000 years of Chinese history. It also allows him to become a father figure to Chrístõ in turn.

Kristoph’s regenerations are a little subplot I wanted to get in there. One day it might be interesting to go into them in more detail, but I haven’t really had opportunity to do so, yet.

http://www.liverpoolcityportal.co.uk/attractions/china_town.html

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/lcba/ba/history.html