Night-time Tales – Sarah Jane and the TARDIS started with the idea of The Doctor and Jack talking together in the night while feeding the three babies. I wanted some quiet interaction between the two of them in a non-threatening atmosphere, and something far removed from the sort of scenarios that the average slash fiction leads to.

I also wanted a story about Sarah Jane Smith, to tie in with the fact that the youngest child is called Sarah Jane. I originally had in mind something where Sarah Jane got captured on an alien planet by some nameless monster. But I kept thinking of Morbius on Karn and couldn’t really get away from that image.

Then I had the idea of the TARDIS itself turning on her in some way and The Doctor having to fight it to reach her safely. But the TARDIS wouldn’t hurt anyone under its care, so I had to invent something that invaded it and changed its attitude towards the people aboard. I didn’t go into too much detail of what a Sistallaan Pod actually is, but suffice to say it gave the TARDIS a voice, and a much more sentient mind than it usually had. And a jealous streak

I have thought once or twice about a TARDIS with a computerised voice, but decided against it because it would tend to give the TARDIS more personality than it needed. And anyone who has read Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series knows how annoying a computer with personality is. But Jack asked The Doctor a question I would quite like to ask it.

“What sort of voice do you think that the TARDIS would have? Jack asked. The Doctor smiled.
“What sort do you reckon?”
“Something soft and sultry?”
The Doctor laughed and shook his head.
“My TARDIS isn’t a sex symbol. She’s more like a mature lady, a well-scrubbed, no-nonsense, nurse-nanny who looks after us all.”
“I think that explains a lot about me and you, Doc,” Jack said. “But what sort of voice did it have?”
“Actually, soft and sultry,” The Doctor admitted. “Which is why I knew it couldn’t really be my TARDIS speaking.”

And the soft and sultry TARDIS was in love with The Doctor. Now, we all know that it is semi-sentient, and it has a certain relationship with The Doctor. And he calls it a ‘she’, in line with cars, boats and planes that tend to be feminised. But for the TARDIS to be actually expressing love for him, and possessive, jealous love at that, was too much. Especially when it picks on Sarah Jane and tries to get rid of her.

A big fandom argument, of course, revolves around whether the Fourth Doctor was in love with Sarah Jane. In those days, pre-2005 and the Ninth Doctor/Rose relationship, the idea of The Doctor and romantic love, wasn’t really given much screen time, but fans thought about it all the time. The Fourth Doctor was the first one who was really young enough to be considered a love interest, and Sarah Jane was his first companion. Romana, of course, being his own species, might also have been a possible love match, but most fans were convinced that he and Sarah Jane were unrequited lovers. The 2006 story, School Reunion, when the Tenth Doctor met up with Sarah Jane again, more or less confirms it – or at least proves that Russell T. Davies was thinking on the same wavelength as the rest of us. But here, anyway, The Doctor has to admit it out loud, to the possessed TARDIS, in order to save Sarah Jane – He loves her. And I think, actually, his explanation to Jack at the beginning of the story is about right. He loved her, but knew she was better off with Harry in a normal life.

The TARDIS swimming pool was never seen in Sarah Jane’s day. It was, actually, only ever seen in the Fourth Doctor and Leela story, Invasion of Time, in which Leela bathed in it and later a Sontaran very nearly fell in it. So I thought it really ought to have an outing. In any case, a swimming pool provides the perfect place for environmental peril, making it freezing cold and risking Sarah Jane’s life from the start.