The title comes from a song by Iron Maiden which struck me as a song almost written for The Doctor. It says, in the course of the whole song, what he encapsulates in “Come with me.”

If you had the time to lose,
An open mind and time to choose,
Would you care to take a look,
Or can you read me like a book?

Time is always on my side,
Time is always on my side.

Can I tempt you, come with me,
Be Devil may care, fulfill your dream,
If I said I'd take you there,
Would you go, would you be scared?

Time is always on my side,
Time is always on my side.

Don't be afraid, you're safe with me,
Safe as any soul could be ... honestly,
Just let yourself go.

Chorus:
Caught somewhere in time
Caught somewhere in time
Caught somewhere in time ... oh oh

Like a wolf in sheep's clothing,
You try to hide your deepest sins,
Of all the things that you've done wrong,
And I know where you belong.

Time is always on my side,
Time is always on my side.

Make you an offer you can't refuse,
You've only got your soul to lose...
Eternally...Just let yourself go!

Chorus:
Caught somewhere in time
Caught somewhere in time
Caught now in two minds!

Of course, such a tempting title HAD to get into one of my stories. And this one was already in the back of my mind. A story in which Earth is destroyed but Gallifrey still exists with all the emotional issues that involves as well as the problem that Wyn and even The Doctor himself should not exist if Earth doesn’t.

In the Unfinished Business story Rassilon’s Envelope the Ninth Doctor and Rose faced the possibility of Earth being destroyed, and Rose asked why she still existed if it her home planet was wiped from history. If didn’t consider that The Doctor, being part human, would also have problems. This story redresses that balance. When Wyn finds that the photo of her family is blank, The Doctor looks at a picture of his Human mother and finds that he has lost that.

Then he finds that his planet exists. But HE was never part of its history. He was never born because his father never met an Earth woman who he married and produced a half-blood son. He DOES meet his half-brother, but he believes himself to be an only child.

This part of the story relies, of course, mostly on parts of The Doctor’s history that I introduced in Unfinished Business, a pure-blood half-brother called Garrick, and his mother’s name – Marion. The TEN stories generally don’t rely too much on that history, but on this occasion I did let some of it cross over.

The idea that The Doctor is the reason why the Time War came to Gallifrey IS a rather horrible one, but it is quite logical. The only reason the Daleks know about Gallifrey is because The Doctor thwarted them. So if he does not exist because Earth was destroyed then his planet should not have been affected.

An emotional dilemma that troubles him for the duration of the story, and troubles his brother even more when it is realised that giving him the means to put things right spells doom for himself and his family. But Time Lord honour means he must do the right thing. So must The Doctor. And he does, of course.

The Genesis of the Daleks as the key event in The Doctor’s life that sets all others in motion is one I thought through. I don’t think many fans could disagree on that point.

The hairslide was inspired by the pink slide in a packet of mixed colours that I decided wouldn’t do for me. Pink has never been my colour. But I did think that it looked like one Rose might wear and having it as a relic of her, left behind on the TARDIS seemed to work. His using it as a tiepin afterwards just slid into place.