I first wrote Wintermen as a script in 1991. It was a piece of creative writing coursework fulfilling the requirement to write in script format as well as prose. The basic idea, though, began in the 1970s during the Tom Baker era. I actually had a very vivid dream about aliens messing with the Earth weather, which The Doctor dealt with in some way. I can’t remember exactly how the dream went, now, except that just before I woke I remember a ‘scene’ in which the rain had stopped and the sun was shining and everyone was happy and relieved and enjoying the feel of the sun on their faces and a blue sky above. It was as simple as that.

In 2005, when I started to write Ninth Doctor stories, I found the old script and story version of Wintermen and adapted it as a Ninth Doctor/Rose/Jack story. It worked with only a small amount of adaptation. But when I decided to have a series of stories about the eight ‘classic’ doctors, obviously the original Wintermen had to go into it.

The story was written in chapter form and the script in episodes to match how the classic series would have been written. It is much longer than any of the short stories I write now, and it has ‘cliffhangers’ where the episodes would end. This is the strongest indication that this story was written long before the new series format was devised. My usual style and pace of story better fits the modern forty five minute story.

My 1970s dream, of course, isn’t the only source of inspiration for the aliens messing with the weather idea. There is, of course, the scenario at the start of the film Star Trek: The Voyage Home. That film was a lot newer in 1991 and fresher in people’s memories, but I think it still needs to be acknowledged. Obviously my aliens are different. The motive for messing with the planet is different and so is the resolution. But it gave me a few pointers about how to get this story started. The scene at U.N.I.T HQ is very much based on the Starfleet Command’s situation room early in the film.

The Frenchman, Lenoir, also dates back to the 1970s for me. His name comes from a character in an Enid Blyton Famous Five book, Five Go To Smuggler’s Top. There is absolutely no reason why except that I liked the name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home
http://www.enidblyton.net/famous-five/five-go-to-smugglers-top.html