Another story to fill in the lead up to the wedding. There were some details that I had to get in before the big day. First, the rings. The idea of The Doctor making them himself out of Gallifreyan gold just seemed right. I had already done a similar thing in Theta Sigma when the younger version of The Doctor made rings for four friends who were getting married. And he used most of the last Gallifreyan gold on making gifts for Christmas in Christmas Presence. Almost the last goes into making his wedding rings, and a little left over to make Rings of Eternity for the twins. So it goes.
Then there was a question of a home for them to live in. And The Doctor had that sorted. We visited Mount Lœng House on Gallifrey in an earlier story. Now, he found Longmount House and decided that would make a new home. When I wrote this story I was in fact making up the location. But on looking at Richmond upon Thames on Google Earth I found there WAS a house almost exactly as I imagined, in the location I envisaged, with its own grounds, backing onto the River Thames. It is Marble Hill House, a National Trust property open to the public. So if anyone ever visits it, think fondly of The Doctor and Rose making it their home in the 23rd century. But perhaps it would be better not to tell the museum staff. It might be disturbing to them.
As for the dark secret of Mount Lœng House, I had an idea for a while to have a story involving zombies, but I could not find a way to make the cutting down of zombies through a house stretch more than a few pages. Weaving it into the story of them buying the house, learning that it has a sinister history, going back in time simply to plant the Cúl nut trees, and finding out the secret made it into a much fuller story. It does make for a rather gruesome start to what they hope to be their happy home, but The Doctor is philosophical about such things.
Some critics have complained that they can’t see The Doctor living in a house. The reaction of the Tenth Doctor in Impossible Planet to the idea of having a mortgage is presented as evidence. My contention is that The Doctor would, indeed, go stark raving bonkers living in a three bedroom semi with carport. It would be almost as ludicrous as the Terry Pratchett discworld story in which War from the horsemen of the Apocalypse had got married and become a henpecked husband. That was not what I had in mind at all. What buying Longmount House and renaming it Mount Lœng House represented, rather, was The Doctor becoming Lord Lœngbaerrow again, reclaiming his aristocratic heritage, the life he led before he became an exile. Coming, in his way, full circle.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.108
