Davie and Brenda is a straightforward enough story. It’s the wedding of the year for the new Time Lord society. It has been a long time coming. The only relationship more drawn out than this one is that between Chrístõ and Julia in Theta Sigma.

And there have been some problems along the way. When I first put Davie and Brenda together I hadn’t even imagined the relationship between Davie and Spenser coming along. There is very much an organic element to these stories. Ideas come and go. Some of them stay. Spenser came along and his relationship with Davie got much bigger than I originally meant it to get. They never actually had a sexual relationship, it has to be said. Davie really did save himself for his wedding night. But it was all there. He very nearly did risk his engagement because he fell in love with a man as well.

But Spenser has a man of his own, now. He always knew he couldn’t keep Davie, and when Stuart came into his life he grabbed on tight and didn’t let go. And I decided to introduce the idea of the two of them getting married. Now, there is, of course, a distinction made in the present day world between marriage, defined as between a man and a woman, and a civil partnership between two people of the same sex. By the twenty-fourth century, it is to be hoped that such distinctions have been blurred and a civil marriage is the same for anyone.

Gay members of the forum rightly pointed out the injustice of it all. Stuart and Spenser got married quietly, without telling anyone. Davie and Brenda have a spectacular ceremony with guests from two planets. Spenser is the son of a Time Lord of Gallifrey. He deserved the same ceremony. It ought to have been possible.

I really want to make it clear, by the way, that in having Davie decide to marry Brenda, going back to the safe, dependable, expected, heterosexual relationship after the whirlwind of his love affair with Spenser, is not because I have a problem with homosexual relationships. The more the merrier, and I hope it doesn’t take until the twenty-fourth century for them to have real parity with heterosexual marriage. But Davie DID, really, have to honour his commitment to Brenda in the end. It was always made clear that he would. Spenser is going to continue to be a regular character. He IS one of the New Lords of Time. He is a young Time Lord along with the Campbell twins, and his husband who can distinguish races by their smell will be a part of storylines in the future. They have become a new partnership to ring the changes with in this ensemble cast.

The music played at the wedding actually took nearly as much planning as it would for a real wedding. I went through a couple of internet sites looking for the perfect piece. For a while I was going with Highland Cathedral, which really would be appropriate for a young son of a Scotsman. Then I came across Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. It is a tune most people have probably heard some time. It has a haunting familiarity about it. But I have no idea where or when I know it from. In the course of my research into the tune, though, I came across a you-tube featuring a young man called Zack Kim playing it on two electric guitars simultaneously. Zack Kim is a very talented Israeli youth who, at the time of writing, is doing his compulsory national service in his country’s military. When he has done that, hopefully his career as a highly talented musician will continue. But it was his performance of Canon that inspired the description of Davie and Brenda’s wedding music.

“Davie smiled wryly as he recalled Brenda’s insistence that she would not have her processional entrance accompanied by anything by Queen. His father had wanted Highland Cathedral and for a long time Davie had considered that nod to his Scottish Heritage. Then he and Brenda happened to spend an afternoon in Southern Germany in the 1690s and came upon a performance of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D. The tune, played by a string quartet, had captured both of their imaginations. Brenda thought of it played on a solo violin. Davie imagined rhythm and bass electric guitars. Careful inquiries around the Tiboran capital city found a young female violinist and an incredibly talented youth who played both kinds of electric guitar at the same time. The two of them were proud to accept the engagement, and the sound that filled the air as Brenda began her long walk to his side was magnificent.”

This paragraph was actually written before most of the rest of the story. Everything else fitted around it.

For me, the most fantastic, beautiful wedding dress I have ever seen was the one worn by Maria in The Sound of Music way back in 1969. I have never seen a dress to beat it. When Julia finally marries Chrístõ in the Panopticon, that is the dress she is going to wear. Meanwhile, every bride that features in a story is going to have to have something nearly as spectacular. Brenda has a long, long train and diamonds all over her outfit, because she is about to become the wife of a Time Lord. Let your imagination go about how fantastic she looks.

The story woven into the wedding scene of Chris and Davie almost losing themselves in the attempt to mentally prepare for the wedding is an element of suspense put in for those who really won’t find a straightforward story of two young people getting married interesting. I did think briefly of some sort of battle with an alien in the cave on the Malvorian mountain but decided on the mental battle, instead. It allows Spenser to be there for Davie one last time, showing his love and devotion to him, and it emphasises that close relationship between Davie and his twin brother before he leaves both of them to belong to Brenda from now on.

And so, back to the wedding. Highland Cathedral features after all. So does some other music. Keeper of the Stars is a modern country song with an old style country feel to it. Davie, who listens to Queen, is unlikely to be impressed with the tune. But the words fit him to a ‘T’ and it is a perfect romantic waltz tune for his first dance with his wife. Who Wants To Live Forever was poignant enough when Freddie Mercury wrote it, probably knowing that his own days were numbered. It was the only choice as the last dance Davie and Spenser are likely to dance together for the foreseeable future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zack_Kim
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmEoN1iKvnc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_Cathedral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7tW3dqYmDo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keeper_of_the_Stars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wngb5Mq1SQY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Wants_to_Live_Forever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L8-FTvSVxs