Lady Astoria’s Jewel is a story I was rather compelled to write after the very successful Mystery on the Orient Express. One of the characters in that story, Cecelia Hayes, a movie star from Hollywood, mentions that she met The Doctor, aka Lord Peter Palmer, when he solved the mystery of Lady Astoria’s Jewel. Everyone who read that story fully expected to get a story in which Lady Astoria’s jewel featured. It was problematic in some ways. It meant writing another period piece set in the 1930s, and it had to include Cecelia and her husband prior to the events on the Orient Express. But I also had to decide who Lady Astoria was and why anything should have happened to her jewel. That was where the whole story got troublesome. The first part, right up to when the lights went out, was fine. After that, I was struggling for a while.

I set the story directly after the events of Warriors Of The Deep. The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough were emotionally affected by the death and destruction on board Sea Base. But it was also an episode where the two companions showed their metal. Turlough and Tegan both get a fair bit of criticism from fans, he for being a bit of a drip and she for moaning too much. But in this episode Turlough fought bravely and showed his loyalty to The Doctor. Tegan was courageous in the face of difficult and unpleasant events. They bonded well and some of the criticism is unfounded. Setting the story after those events gave them a brief respite from the stress, even if they were thrown into murder and mayhem again very quickly.

Mug-Dixi, the Eikilian secret agent was named using a random name generator. Having decided I liked the sound of the name, I used the same generator to create the Texi-Kago gang, and then their rivals, the The Faw-Las, Sis-Lez and Te-Jo gangs. The names were funny but they were downright nasty, murderous types who wasted life in a way that appalled Tegan. In a way, I am sorry that the storyline took such a nasty turn. It meant that she was again subjected to the sight of pointless death, and that was what, eventually, made her leave The Doctor. It would have been nice to give her a break for once, though.

It is true, by the way, that in Ireland a turlough is a transitory lake that only appears in wet weather and dries up in high summer. I’ve known a couple of very nice people called Turlough, and none of them are wet at any time. I think our Turlough needs a chance to prove he isn’t, either

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Warriors_of_the_Deep

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Tegan_Jovanka
tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Vislor_Turlough

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/eightdoctors/16orientexpress.htm