The two stories that appear as A Weekend Away/Swimming and Making Up were going to be just one story, which saw Marion and Kristoph arrive at the Lodge still at odds with each other and slowly make up their disagreement. But when I started to write it I had the idea of slipping in the story of the injured child and Marion seeing for herself how selfless and kind-hearted he could be.

I also wanted to introduce some more details of the Lœngbærrow estate, presenting it as something like a feudal manordom, with the village where the miners who mind the wealth of the family lived. Naturally, the Lœngbærrow family are generous, caring lords of the manor who see to it that their employees have healthcare and education and live in good quality houses with plenty to eat. The school, especially was something I wanted to feature since it will come up again in the future.

The Lodge, meanwhile, was an idea I discussed with my friend, Prue. We wanted a place, on Gallifrey, where Marion and Kristoph could get away from it all. The idea of a lodge built in an area with geo-thermal warming of the rocks and a nearly natural swimming pool around which the house was built came together. Again it is something new to add to the knowledge of Gallifreyan geography. Little by little I was piecing together the topography of the southern continent.

I’m not sure whether that kind of geo-thermal activity and the gold mines actually would happen in the space of a few hundred miles. I’m not sure they would on Earth. But then again, this is Gallifrey. So anything could happen.

Anything could certainly happen with two people alone in a romantic spot like that. This story does get a bit risqué in places. Marion deciding to swim naked is a clear indication that she has grown in confidence since meeting Kristoph. His reaction to her is proof of just how straight laced Gallifreyans can be. But later, when they go to bed, he also proves capable of extreme romance.

The ‘mental lovemaking’ has caused a lot of questions among readers. And yes, what he did was give her a kind of mental orgasm. In fact, an orgasm is a mental response to physical stimulation of a sexual kind. So all he has done is take out the sex and leave the sensation in her mind, satisfying her passion for him while remaining true to his honour as a Gallifreyan.

If anyone didn’t understand the reference to Professor Higgins, it is of course from Shaw’s Pygmalion, which ends unhappily for the Professor and his ‘creation’ Eliza Doolittle, or the musical play, My Fair Lady, which has a happy ending for them both. Marion, despite being a literature graduate, goes for the happy ending of the musical.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Fair_Lady