Well, the funeral pyre for Idell Malthis is obviously inspired by the funeral of The Master as seen in Last of the Time Lords. It seems a reasonable assumption that cremation in open pyres is the traditional method on Gallifrey. It is one of the ways in which Time Lords are just that little bit alien to us. Their feelings about funeral arrangements are just like anyone else’s, though. Here, Marion struggles with her own emotions as she takes part in her first Gallifreyan funeral at the side of her husband. That was the first thing I wanted to get across in this story.

But there also had to be a bit of excitement. And it was time to wrap up the mystery that went back all the way to the sabotage of Marion’s car.

A gunman at a funeral is a dastardly idea, but one not taken up very often in fiction. It has happened once that I can think of in real life, in Northern Ireland in 1987, when a loyalist extremist shot at mourners at an IRA funeral. But that was very definitely NOT what I was thinking of when I wrote this story. What I vaguely had in mind was the wedding massacre in Dynasty. Don’t ask me to give references to the exact episode. Anyone old enough to remember knows what I mean! It was what I had in mind when I focussed on the blood spattered over Renita’s veil.

Oriana’s husband, Lord Lessage, and Idell’s brother, prove a little less useless than they might seem in this story. I had an idea in the back of my mind about using them again some time, but so far the opportunity hasn’t arisen.

Of course, nobody died except the gunman and everything ended well. They have their closure. But hopefully it was dramatic enough for a while.