Stella Loves Robin sees The Doctor making that earlier visit to the Nuthutch. Regular readers will realise that there is an echo of an old joke when Jo kisses The Doctor. In the Unfinished Business story “Llanfairfach” Jo’s eldest son has the line “Mum, does dad know you’re having an affair with a younger man?” when she kisses Nine. This time it is Stella who says it when she kisses Ten. The Doctor feels happy to be ‘home’ with old friends and enjoys dinner with Jo and Cliff and the Grant-Jones family.

Of course, nobody knows WHAT happened to Jo and Cliff after The Green Death. A large and happy family is my idea, because I like the idea of a happy ending for them. Cliff is now an old genius instead of a young one. But he is still full of ideas.

Stella, of course, was a late addition to the family. Remember, in “I Enjoy Being A Girl” she was the child cloned by The Doctor from Wyn’s skin cells when they needed a body for the consciousness called Stella. Now she’s a teenager, and a very different teenager to Wyn. She swoons over bland pop stars and thinks about clothes and make up and dieting. But she isn’t quite as empty headed as the original Stella. Life in the Nuthutch has made her a better person the second time around.

Driving to the Millennium Centre in Cardiff is rather an irony for The Doctor. It is, of course, the place where he had his adventure in Boom Town, and where, on TV, Torchwood have their secret headquarters. But that is in the Tenth Doctor’s universe. Bear in mind that ALL these stories are in Nine’s universe. Torchwood DOES exist, but its origins may be different, and Torchwood Cardiff isn’t run by Jack Harkness since, in this universe he joined the 22nd Space Corps BEFORE Torchwood was announced as a spin off.

Robin Meyerson was based roughly on Paolo Nutini, who struck me as the most bland singer of 2007. He isn’t a BAD singer, but not worth getting excited about. Paolo also got used for the pictures on the web version of the story.

The royal connection is a bit of a presumption. I am presuming that some time before Stella, who is 2 in 2010, reaches the age of 17, Prince Charles will be king of England, William will be Prince of Wales, and neither he nor his brother will yet be married, but dating women who would be interested in a pop star like Robin. Duke of Cardiff is a made up title, because I really don’t know what Prince Harry would be called since Duke of York is the usual title for the brother of the heir and that title is in use.

When I started to write this story I actually thought Highgrove House was somewhere near London and that the helicopter scene would take place over the Thames. When I checked it out on Google, it is actually closer to the River Severn.

Which is ok, fair enough. The Severn has an amazingly beautiful, wide estuary. And the scene plays just fine. But the trouble is, having a pop star apparently killed in the Severn estuary is a bit too close to real life. Richie Edwards, The guitarist from the Welsh band, Manic Street Preachers is ALLEGED to have committed suicide by jumping off the Severn Bridge. I don’t, in any way, want to upset Manics fans by drawing any comparisons. That was very much NOT the intention. And I hope they will understand that.

Incidentally, Stella’s comment about Wyn being between girlfriends makes explicit something that was implicit in some of the earlier stories involving her. Yes, she is a lesbian. Get used to it.