Aliens of Whitley Bay was always going to be set on the north-east coast, simply because I have already used the north-west coast several times. My first idea was to use Scarborough as the setting, because it is a very nice resort town. Then I found the Spanish City fairground and the Dome beside it and decided they were a perfect backdrop for a story. I set it in the 1970s primarily because it was the heyday of both the Dome as a concert venue and the fairground which is now closed down completely.

It was a close thing between the Bay City Rollers and Showaddywaddy for the act going on in the Dome. I don’t actually know if either ever played there, incidentally. But there is no reason why not. I chose the latter mainly because I liked their music better in the early 1970s, because the name would raise a giggle with somebody from the 23rd century and because of the drummer’s exotic name. All of that was completely tongue in cheek. I don’t mean to disparage the band or their fans. They are, apparently, still performing with more or less the same line up, thirty years on. Who can fault that? Romeo Challenger IS a fantastic name, though. I just couldn’t resist giving him a cameo role in the story.

This truly is a NEW Lords of Time story. It has only one of my original characters in it – Sukie Campbell. But why not? This series of stories does NOT have to be tied to any cannon whatsoever. It takes up from the Ninth Doctor and Rose getting married and settling in London in the 23rd century with Susan and her family. But beyond that, there are endless possibilities. This story lines up Sukie and Earl, a young Time Lord from 26th century Earth, Tristie, who is Sukie and Earl’s future grandson, and Trudi, a Human shopgirl from the 1970s who became Tristie’s girlfriend and travelling companion, and Spenser and Stuart who are not related to The Doctor’s family at all. Spenser is Davie’s ex-boyfriend and Stuart is another settled alien living on planet Earth.

Is everyone following that? Good.

Stuart’s unique ability to tell species by smell is used again in this story. It is a limited kind of power and I might not use it again for a while. But I couldn’t resist the lines where Stuart says there’s an alien species nearby that smells of spiced meat and Spenser reminds him that they’re surrounded by hot dog vendors.

The weakest point of the story, to be honest, is the strange world beyond the portal in the Haunted Hotel. Having created it, I really didn’t know what to do with it. The aliens using trapped humans as sport was the best idea I could come up with. It’s not a bad one, perhaps. The idea works in the end, including Trudi and Romeo Challenger’s little adventure together. The main problem is Sukie’s deus ex machina homing device in her sonic screwdriver. This actually means that she can never really get into any adventures without her brothers turning up to rescue her. I will have to do something about that in future stories. But the important thing this time was that Tristie mounted the rescue in his TARDIS, allowing Sukie the satisfaction of knowing that her future grandson is every bit as heroic as every other man in her family.

Originally, I was going to have the Haunted Hotel burn down. But a fire in a place like Spanish City, mostly built of wood, really wouldn’t have been a good idea. I just had it collapse instead, during the Showaddywaddy concert.

http://www.showaddywaddy.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showaddywaddy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_Challenger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitley_Bay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spanish_City

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/image_galleries/spanish_city_gallery.shtml