The Quest of Kaitos started as a story that would feature The Doctor and Rose for a change, after several stories featuring Chris and Davie. I decided to include Jackie and Christopher as well and run parallel stories of the two parties struggling to reach the Citadel and recover their precious things.

Now, before anyone shouts, I KNOW that stealing loved ones and making people face a challenge to get them back was done in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This was different. No mermaids and nobody chained up in a lake which apparently has raw sewage from the school toilets running into it. Here we just have a fairy tale castle and a very unreal world full of android orcs and other assorted nastiness that gets in the way of our heroes. Not at all the same, is it? Well, if JK thinks so, let’s talk about portkeys/time rings and distinctly TARDIS like tents and cars.

The plot of people being trapped in adventure games has been done before, too. It has been done at least twice in Doctor Who in probably much better style than this. War Games in 1969 and The Five Doctors in 1983 were both very good variations on the theme. This doesn’t really stand up to either of those. But I had a stab at it, anyway.

What really got things complicated, of course, was bringing in a bunch of other characters. It becomes clear that The Doctor and Christopher are not the only Time Lords trapped in the game. Davie, accompanied by Spenser, come to The Doctor’s aid on an android dragon, just purely for the fun of putting in a dragon. Bear in mind, of course, that ‘Dracœfire’ is one of the names Davie inherited from his ancestors.

Meanwhile, Christopher, meets up with his father – sort of. Bringing Chrístõ and Julia over from the Theta Sigma stories is a bit of a cheat. Really they ought to stay put in that story arc. But I thought about the poignancy of Christopher riding a horse behind the sixteen year old girl who will one day be his mother, and the fun of Jackie riding with Chrístõ, the younger version of The Doctor, who will one day be both her son in law and father in law at the same time.

And I think everyone was following it so far. But then I really decided to throw in some spanners. And when they get to the citadel, they meet up with two more Time Lords. First, there is Tristie Gregory de Lœngbærrow, who is Davie’s great nephew, being Vicki de Lœngbærrow’s son and Sukie Campbell’s grandson.

And to top it all off, I threw in the Tenth Doctor, Donna and their friend Ben who is currently in that strand of stories.

Anyway, if you’re confused, have a look at the family tree. If you can follow that, then you’re there.

The one responsible for it all, Kaitos, himself, actually ends up being quite insignificant. The two Doctors establish that he is one of the Eternals. These were seen in the Fifth Doctor story Enlightenment, back in 1983 where they gave the impression of being quite powerful beings, but strangely finding their immortality a terrible burden rather than a freedom. The disposal of this particular Eternal with a swift thump from Jackie and a deus ex machina arrival of one of his own kind to take him back to the void for punishment.

And that was that apart from some mutual hugs. It was a romp, rather than a serious story, meant to be enjoyed, especially for the unlikely family reunion.

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/familytree.htm
http://www.rdwf.org.uk/doctors/D5/s20/05enlightenment.htm