Part of Aliens of Britain sat in the drabbles folder for a long while. Mainly the section where Christopher was listening to the debate in parliament about the proposed legislation to identify and register aliens. I wanted to write a story that drew a comparison between the aliens like The Doctor and his Gallifreyan refugees and the problems of immigration to Britain over decades of our history.

Funnily enough, in my mind’s eye, Moira Greenwood, the President of the British Federation was always a coloured Scotswoman. I think somewhere deep in my subconscious I was thinking of Moira Stewart, the newsreader. I’m not sure where Moira Stewart’s ancestors come from, other than Scotland, but I made my President’s ancestors come from a volatile African country. There are plenty of those to come from. There are plenty of Irish and Jewish people in Britain and many other colourful ethnic origins making up a melting pot of cultural diversity.

So in the 23rd century, the idea of aliens from other planets adding to that diversity is not so peculiar, really. But all major influxes of immigrants have been problematic. They have been met with prejudices of various kinds. And it seems rather obvious that alien immigration would be met with opposition. Hence, The Doctor recalls Mrs Golightly, the Weymouth landlady, who, while being a nice, generous woman, might well hang a sign in her window saying ‘no aliens’ just as Mrs Smith, the landlady in Remembrance of the Daleks hung one saying ‘no coloureds’.

It isn’t an original idea, of course. I should probably mention at this point the 1988 film Alien Nation which was about the problems of integrating an influx of alien people into American society. That was a detective drama with a science fiction twist, though. Whereas this is something a bit more like a pastiche of a Jeffrey Archer political novel.

In the British House of Commons as it stands in the 21st, century, incidentally, I don’t think the public gallery has access to the floor, so what Christopher did, with help from Jack and The Doctor, wouldn’t be possible. But the Federal Parliament in the New Millennium Dome quite obviously does.

The scene with Jack and The Doctor on the carpet, simply was an indulgence. We all know there’s a bit of chemistry between those two, and it’s nice to let it out now and again. Adding Christopher into the group stopped it getting into something slash fiction writers could speculate about. Or, possible, it might have given them fresh food for thought. But in my stories, at least, it was purely PG.