Perfect Society was initially inspired by the really pretty architecture in the computer game ‘Age of Empires’. This is a game which highlights the folly of war in a stark way. Men and ships are created by the dozen and thrown against the enemy until victory no matter the consequences. Death tolls are huge. If military strategists in real war had casualty lists like AOE produces they would have to think again.

But war is only one part of the game. Civilisation building is also a part of it. Academies and Temples are created in the cities, and learning is important. And although the buildings are only a half inch in size on screen they are beautiful. I wanted to create a society with that sort of beautiful planning, but with some sort of hidden flaw.

Because anyone who has read or heard about the early days of Doctor Who, when it was still in the planning stage. A memo sent to the immortal Sydney Newman talked about The Doctor being a disaffected scientist who was in search of a perfect society where he could put down roots and live out his life in peace. Sydney scotched the idea as a bit too over-sophisticated, and possibly too restrictive as a story line in the long term. But it is an interesting proposition, and it became the basis of the attraction for all of the travellers.

I set this story immediately after The Aztecs, one of the seminal stories of the Hartnell era, one familiar to all classic Doctor Who fans. It was an adventure that emotionally affected all of them in different ways, and I used that as a basis for what plays out in this story.

Yes, The Doctor has sex. And why not? I don’t as a rule write slash fiction, and the elderly, white haired First Doctor is an unusual sex symbol – or is he? In The Aztecs he actually proved a romantic figure in his relationship with Cameca. Another point to remember is that William Hartnell WAS a physically attractive older man. In Doctor Who they made him up to look much frailer and older than he actually was. His press pictures from the time show a man with an inviting smile and a twinkle in his eyes who could certainly attract a woman of his own age and intellect.

Susan discovering him in bed with Sadie is very, very, very slightly inspired by the scene in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code where Sophie, at very nearly the same age as Susan, found her grandfather in a group sex rite. Susan reacts far less extremely, simply telling Barbara, the adult female in her life, about it. But Sophie Neveu in Da Vinci Code, Susan Sto-Helit in Discworld and Susan Foreman in Doctor Who all have something in common – problematic and very enigmatic grandfathers. Comparisons are inevitable.

The nasty secret behind this perfect society is one that has occurred in science fiction more than once before. The best known example is Logan’s Run, where people over thirty were executed to control the population. This is a more subtle variation on the theme. A lottery determines which of the population should die. The method is a simple pill taken in private and in as much dignity as possible, but still a horrific idea.

This story ultimately was meant to focus on the relationships between The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara touched upon but never explicitly explored in those 1960s episodes. At the time of writing it had not been established if Ian and Barbara became a couple. In fact, in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode, Death of The Doctor, Jo tells Sarah Jane that they are still alive and are married. I’ve always gone with the idea that Ian is a widower, now, in keeping with the fact that Jacqueline Hill died some years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aztecs_(Doctor_Who)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Empires
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Death_of_the_Doctor