I was never a huge fan of Peter Pan, in any form whatsoever. It always felt a bit too middle class and a bit too old fashioned. As fantasy stories and fantasy worlds went I was always far more interested in the Narnia Chronicles. But I always found Barrie a fascinating man, even before the film Finding Neverland romanticised his life story and his relationship with the Darling family. Incidentally, I don’t believe for one minute some of the rumours of improper behaviour in regard to those children. Barrie comes across in the biographies I read as a child spirit who had a unique relationship with children. And that made him a perfect character for a New Lords of Time Christmas story.

The date of that immortal premiere of Peter Pan as a stage play was very easy to work out. The early part of the story was fairly easy to do, therefore. The Edwardian era is a very nice one for pretty dresses for girls and smart suits for boys.

It is, of course, a complete, but very nice coincidence that The Doctor’s baby son was called Peter. Also a coincidence was Jimmy Forrester sharing his first name with Barrie.

Jimmy, of course, has featured in two previous stories. The first was when Vicki first went to school and he was the class bully who annoyed her. Later, Vicki and Sukie stopped him from being killed in a car accident in ‘Jimmy Forrester’s Life’ which portrayed him as a misunderstood and abused child. Now, with his father missing after the Dominator invasion, Jimmy is a mixed up boy who finds himself drawn towards the two girls he once bullied. I wanted to bring him in as an ally for the two girls as they become teenagers and have future adventures on their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Barrie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_York's_Theatre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_neverland