Followers of The Doctor is Davie’s first chance to be The Doctor in his own right. He has earned the right to carry the burden and the honour into his generation. He isn’t actually going to call himself The Doctor. But for once, he just wanted to hear that name addressed to him.

He nearly bites off more than he can chew. On Dynosi II, The Doctor is a god – and a bit of a vengeful god at that.

The idea of a planet where The Doctor is worshipped is not new, of course. The most obvious reference would be Face of Evil, where there is a giant image of The Doctor carved into the rock face like Mount Rushmore. I was aiming for something almost as iconic as that with the fountain in the plaza where they land. I decided it ought to be Eighth Doctor who is pictured in it, just for variety, really. His adventures are a bit of a blank page, really. The only official one is the 1996 movie, while the audio adventures never seem to follow any logical progression. So he may well have come to Dynosi II and fixed their ozone layer, thereby becoming their god.

I should, of course, state, in case anyone thinks it, I’m not having a go at any particular organised religion or creed. It’s not an allegory of Christianity gone mad, or the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, although there is certainly room for both in science fiction. It’s what it’s for. I just thought it would be interesting to put Davie, who wants to be The Doctor, into that society, along with Spenser and Brenda.

The crucial thing here, is faith, of course. When the three of them were in the police station, Spenser and Brenda could easily profess their love, devotion and faith in The Doctor. Brenda does love The Doctor, for saving her life several times. Spenser loves Davie, and the crucial thing for him is when he tells Davie he IS The Doctor for him.

But Davie, though he definitely does love The Doctor, certainly doesn’t worship him and although he does have faith in him, it’s not that sort of faith.

The other crucial point is made by Spenser when he works out WHY the people of Dynosi II worship The Doctor. By mending their ozone layer and saving them from the harmful rays of the sun, he defeated their gods, the twin suns, and therefore became their new god. As Spenser pointed out, they couldn’t now take away their belief in The Doctor and leave a vacuum.

So Davie, having stood up and told them that he IS The Doctor, and he isn’t happy with them at all, gave them one commandment – Believe in each other. It was a simple answer to the problem. And it is very close to Christ’s commandment to ‘love one another’ without getting into trouble from Christians. Their belief in The Doctor is replaced with a sort of pantheism where they have to learn to respect and love each other and not hurt each other.

Will it work? Will Davie have to come back to Dynosi and do some smiting? Time will tell. Maybe he’ll have to come and fix the ozone layer again!

A couple of people did say when the story was first put online, that Davie is too young to be The Doctor. A week later, when the Eleventh Doctor was announced, we found out that, actually, he’s only a BIT younger. The important thing isn’t the age of The Doctor, but whether he can convince other people of who he is. Davie is The Doctor. So is Christo in Theta Sigma, both teen Time Lords. And I feel quite certain that Matt Smith will do it on TV in the same way.