Slaves of Byza Rom was essentially born out of the necessity to occasionally include a story featuring the Ninth Doctor in the New Lords of Time series. While most readers seem happy to embrace the adventures of the New Lords themselves, Davie, Chris, Spenser, Tristie, Earl, Sukie and Vicki, there are still some who want to see the Ninth Doctor in these stories. Increasingly, there is less reason to do so, though. The twins, Chris and Davie, particularly Davie, have become the central characters of this series little by little and there really isn’t a lot for The Doctor to do. It is time to hand on the baton, and it is likely that this will be the last Ninth Doctor story for this year, at least. There are more than enough stories to tell about the other characters. The Doctor admits as much in the last part of the story:-

“We’re the Lords of Time. We can do things like that. At least... you and your brother can. When I have to be rescued by you... I can take a hint. I should do the same as the other one. Time for me to retire. This time I mean it.”

So really there is no need, in the immediate future, for more than token references to The Doctor in these stories. It is probably time, really. It is now five years since the Ninth Doctor was on our TV screens. More importantly, we’re now on our Eleventh Doctor. It really is time he retired and left it to the young ones.

The story itself is essentially about a rather nasty society based on slavery and stratified social order, with the slaves at the bottom, kidnapped and stupefied with drugs, and the military in the middle, subject to random cruelties such as the decimations, and the Elite on top. All, in fact controlled by airborne drugs. The Elite are conditioned never to question whether their society is just. The military don’t question the justice of the decimations.

Incidentally, decimation is a term which originates from the Roman Empire, which apparently actually did kill every tenth man in its legions as punishments for failed campaigns or to save on food bills. Nobody seems to have asked the soldiers what they thought about being culled in that way. That was the way it was in the Roman Empire.

Interestingly, I found out about that practice after the Master used the phrase in The Sound of Drums episode of Doctor Who. There was a small article about it in the official website and that led to further research. So Doctor Who at least continues the Reithian ideal of informing, educating and entertaining. The same idea is probably behind the ten per cent of children demanded in Torchwood; Children of Earth. Any way you look at it, the idea is horrendous, and I really wanted to get that across in the scene where The Doctor and his son both hope neither of them is the tenth man in the line.

The most significant part of this story, really, though, is that Chris and Davie Campbell come to their rescue. For all their efforts to escape, they need the boys. And that is the reason why The Doctor finally admits it is time to hand on the family business of saving the universe.

The story went online the week before the last Ten story, and the conversation with Vicki crosses over into that story and explains how Vicki and Sukie acquire a TARDIS for their personal use in future NLOT stories.