My first motive for writing this story was a very off the wall one. I was watching the film Elizabeth, in which Christopher Eccleston plays the Duke of Norfolk, and thought he looked extremely interesting wearing a crown. So I had to work out a way of getting the Ninth Doctor crowned.

Enter his old friend Penne Dúre, King-Emperor of Adano Ambrado. Now, quite clearly, this is a cross over story with the Theta Sigma series. Penne was introduced as a character in those stories early on and his rise from Lord of one planet to King-Emperor of a solar system is told along with his relationship to the young Chrístõ and to Gallifrey over several stories as a recurring theme. I had not reckoned on just how many people had taken his character to heart when I put this story online, in which Penne dies of old age. It upset a lot of people even though they still had stories running concurrently in which he was still a young man.

And I think the Ninth Doctor WOULD look good in a crown. But it would not sit so well with him emotionally. And so the story becomes one of a man trying to abdicate while avoiding a civil war. Inevitably, there is going to be a line in there about him once writing an abdication speech – one about not wanting to rule without the woman he loves by his side. Well, why not!

The two brothers fighting for supremacy, the divided armies, all fell into place after that. And the resolution. Anyone who has read the Theta Sigma stories, knows that Penne Dúre was a bit of a ladies man. Marriage cured him for a while, but he was of Gallifreyan blood. He was bound to outlive his princess and go looking for satisfaction again. The twin brothers born of his liaison with a servant were inevitable. A bit naughty of him, but inevitable. And they gave The Doctor the solution to his problems. Abdication in favour of a president who was, still, of Penne’ blood, though that would remain a secret. It was one of those stories that wrote themselves.

Edward VIII’s abdication speech – drafted by The Doctor?

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/edward.htm

The film that inspired at least one moment in the story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(film)

The first Penne Dúre story.

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/10doppel.htm