Christopher Remembers was a later edition to the New Lords of Time narrative. I decided to split the two stories concerned with the students at the Sanctuary with a story mainly involving Jackie and Christopher. There was a second motive to this story. After the glimpses into their family life in Fathers and Sons many readers asked for more about their history. This story has Christopher telling Jackie about a weekend he spent with his father when he was eight years old. A weekend that was, on the face of it, a pleasant time for father and son to get together and explore the Gallifreyan countryside, watching the wildlife. But there was a further motive for the weekend, and it was, basically, an excuse to get in one of my favourite revelations from David Tennant’s second series.

The Untempered Schism was one of the best revelations about Gallifrey for years. It was actually the FIRST revelation for decades. We have never really known anything about how Gallifreyans became Time Lords. We still don’t officially know, but the Untempered Schism and the ritual in which the eight year old children are taken and shown the universe in a thoroughly traumatising way has become a bit of a pet subject for me ever since I heard about it. I am intending to do a story or two surrounding it in the Marion and Kristoph series. I have already done one in Theta Sigma – Savang’s Paradox – in which a child who failed the test became a psychotic madwoman. This was a more gentle version of it, though the fact that Christopher’s mother is worried about it, and that Christopher has doubts in his own mind, prove how dangerous a ritual it is. The rumours about euthanasia and children disappearing afterwards are bound to add to the sinister air of it all.

I also use perception filters a lot. I think in that instance the rule needs to be the same as for the sonic screwdriver. It really shouldn’t be the solution to the problem, just a tool that helps towards the solution.

I wonder if I might have written a few too many stories centred around the schism? Maybe? Maybe not.