A Quick Adventure – Can The Doctor still be a prince of the universe with a baby prince in a carrier on his chest? Yes, he can. That is my belief and I’m sticking to it, and this story more or less proves it is possible.

The mission to take Li Tuo’s remains to join his ancestors is, of course, a closure on the Theta Sigma story, Time is the Fire, when Mai Li Tuo died and the casket containing his ashes was left in the Chinese TARDIS when it was decommissioned. In the Theta Sigma stories his last request was that one of his two hearts should be taken to Gallifrey and the other to the Shaolin Monastery in China. Those two requests were fulfilled, and now, finally, Li Tuo the Renegade who died in exile could be brought home in spirit at least in the simple ceremony witnessed by The Doctor’s family.

Although Chris and Davie are the pilots on the Chinese TARDIS’s first trip, The Doctor is in control when they find the community of Gallifreyan refugees.

Now, it has been said many times that there must have been other survivors of the death of Gallifrey. The only one to be seen on the TV so far was The Master. But this is another possibility. Gallifreyans who were on other planets. A precious few that managed to escape. But not the aristocratic Time Lords themselves. These are the servant class of Gallifrey, the Caretakers, people who worked on the sister planet in mining communities. And in them The Doctor sees the future of his people beyond his own family. He knows that he can train some of them to be Time Lords themselves. But this time they won’t be arrogant and short-sighted. They won’t make the same mistakes.

First they have to fight. And fight against an old enemy of The Doctor’s – The Sontarans. We don’t actually see the Sontarans. The story is mostly told through the refugees and through the action happening elsewhere. They are defeated, but not in a way that The Doctor can contemplate. He is naturally upset that the twins have armed their TARDIS and they have used them against the Sontarans. A hard lesson for the two boys and for him.

But at the end of the day, he had fulfilled another biblical promise. He has led his people out of the promised land, and henceforth the New Gallifreyans are also known as the young Israelites or the Children of Israel.

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/60timeisthefire.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/61timeisthefire2.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/62monasteryofthewoods.htm