New Beginnings was never meant to be an action story. It wasn’t really going to be a story at all. The scene in which The Doctor sees his newborn twins for the first time was written long before I had a story for it to go with. It wasn’t even going to be connected to this invasion story arc originally. I also had a small paragraph written in which Susan meets the Tenth Doctor for the first time, in the aftermath of the war. That paragraph was never used. The meeting took place in completely different circumstances, on a completely different planet.

What was clear, though, was that it had outgrown itself and needed to be a separate story to Liberation. So, it became a winding down story after the action. In fact, there is an action story, Invasion, followed by a sort of ‘eye of the storm’ in Exiles of SangClune, then action again, Liberation, followed by the winding down story.

After writing this protracted story about Earth being invaded and badly affected by the Dominators, I was worried that it would be difficult to present ‘normal life’ afterwards, the Lœngbærrow family in their home, the school the girls go to, and so on, without some kind of period of reconstruction. But this story, in which David, Christopher and the two incarnations of The Doctor, talk about the work ahead for them all provided a way of implying that it would all be done without having to show it. The fact that it would be several weeks before The Doctor, Rose and the newborn twins went home to Earth meant that a lot of it would be done without them being there. The next three stories all touch upon the problems of picking up the pieces after the war in various ways. But this story skips over the most painful immediate aftermath and allows them all to have their “new beginning.”

Jack and Hellina were not forgotten, of course. Initially, Hellina was going to die and Jack come and spend some compassionate leave with the family. When I changed by mind about that, having her recover at Mount Lœng House, with Jack at her side, seemed a better idea.

Yes, obviously, the title comes from the DVD box set that covers the transition between Tom Baker and Peter Davisson.