Chiv and Mac, the two brothers from Cornwall, featured heavily in one story, Samhain Blood, and have been in the background in a couple more. This story brings them back into the picture. The last story with Davie, of course, had him travelling with Brenda and Spenser. Both of them, we presume, are otherwise engaged this time. Spenser has his own home in Northumbria and Brenda still lives on Tibora. So the twins take a different crew on this trip. Hopefully it isn’t too much of a jump between the two.

The devastation in the village is actually toned down a lot from my original idea. I was planning something very biblical on the lines of Herod’s massacre of the Holy Innocents. I decided against it on the grounds that a) it was too nasty. And b) I didn’t want EVERYTHING that occurred in this story to be a biblical allegory. Some of it would be, deliberately so. But I thought that was too much.

People packed inside buildings and then burnt is a nasty idea, too. It has featured in a couple of films in recent years. Mel Gibson’s Patriot is one which showed very effectively the aftermath of such a mass murder, with the site of the fire strewn with ashen remains but nothing recognisable as Human. That was what I was aiming for here. Whether people COULD survive in the crypt of such a building is another matter. I may be underestimating how hot it could get.

Having rescued The Pashivas and his mother, as well as all the other young children and their mothers, our heroes are faced with destiny. “It is written…” And Mac has the book where it is written – and being written as they travel. Initially, their whole journey was going to be set out in the Book of The Pashivas, but then there were be no element of mystery for the reader OR for the characters. They were given just enough knowledge to begin the quest and the rest was filled in as they went along.

Chiv and Mac, of course, become increasingly personally involved with the fate of the Children of Tem-Enara. Chiv gets closer to Mishiko, the mother of the child, while Mac, having read the Book, starts to believe in it. That is the crucial thing, of course. Chris and Davie HAVE their destiny. Chiv and Mac, who in some ways mirror the twins, find theirs.

The story is in no way meant to follow exactly any part of the Bible. But there IS a virgin birth of a child destined to lead the people. There IS a journey, though not on the scale of the one the Israelites took. There IS a parting of the waters, though science achieves it rather than a miracle. I remember listening, a long time ago, to somebody discussing the Bible in scientific terms, and saying that it WOULD be possible with some kind of localised gravity force, to hold back a river. But since no such gravity force is even available now, let alone in Old Testament times, scientific theory actually falls down and the miracle has to be left alone.

Similarly, the Children are protected by science when the Enemies of Peace ride by them and they are hidden by the perception filter.

But there is already the Book, writing the story as it goes along, and there is no scientific explanation for that. So a miracle has to happen sooner or later. And it happens when Chris gets the Pashivas to the altar and he begins to  manifest his Destiny by growing to manhood in seconds, defeating the enemy and restoring to life all who had died in his defence.

And yes, the idea of a glowing, floating person does come from Last of The Time Lords, just a little bit.

Chiv staying behind to be with Mishiko, now she is released from her duty to The Pashivas, is in the long standing tradition of Doctor Who companions finding love or a purpose a long way from home Susan, Vicki, Steven, Leela, to name but a few, never went back to their old lives. The difference, of course, is that in New Doctor Who people have consequences. Mac has to explain all of this to his dad before he, too, can make his life on the planet of Tem-Enara.