Obviously, I have been seeding the love triangle between Spenser, Davie and Brenda for months. It was first glimpsed in the story Power of A Time Lord when Spenser hugs Davie very profusely when the adventure is over. It is hinted at again in Winter Solstice, and then laid on very thick in Jekyll and Hyde Planet, when Captain Jack points out Spenser’s feelings and advises Davie about him. Then there is the big fight between Davie and Brenda about him spending too much time in Northumbria, and finally, this story in which Brenda has come to terms with the fact that Davie has a same sex admirer who won’t be pushed away easily.

Several people have pointed out on the forums that what we have here is the same triangle that existed between The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack. Davie, Brenda and Spenser now fill the same role. Of course, that was the intention all along.

The time anomalies that beset the trio are, to some extent, merely a device to hang that love triangle around. But that’s not quite accurate. The anomalies are important. They lead, eventually, after the series of horrible, gruesome murders and rapes through the ages to the one nice vision in which Brenda discovers that Spenser’s father wasn’t completely evil, after all, that he did love Spenser’s mother, and that there had been a time when he loved his son. Grief had driven him mad and led him to the desperate actions that were first described in the story ‘President of Gallifrey’. This was a late addition to the story, in fact. It occurred to me as I was writing it that I could make Spenser’s past a little less bleak and give him something precious out of this weekend with his friends.

One problem I thought I had when I started writing this, was that the monastery in The Time Meddler was a long way from the sea. Then I remembered that Northumberland is on the East Coast, which is subject to erosion, and of course, over a millennia, the landscape would have changed enormously. Now the monastery hangs over the cliff and Spenser is about to have his house moved. That worked out so well. I was initially going to have them all experience an anomaly where they found themselves standing on ground that is now sea, but abandoned that as an added complication.

Davie, again as many people have noted, is becoming more The Doctor every day. He approaches the anomalies scientifically, examining the blood on the sword, for example. He is behaving very much as the Third Doctor, in particular, was seen to react to situations.

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/028presidentofgallifrey.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/029amicushumanigen.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/045power1.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/046power2.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/047solstice.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/50jekyl.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/newlordsoftime/56femm.htm