The Bodysnatchers was, first and foremost, a vehicle for introducing a new boyfriend for Spenser. His relationship with Davie has run its course for the time being. Of course, they are going to race cars and fight alien menaces together. But since Davie is marrying Brenda, he needs to ease off on his relationship with Spenser. Enter Stuart Harrison, landlord of the Ship Inn, Embley.

The village of Embley, incidentally, is made up, but is similar to the names of some Northumbrian towns and villages roughly in the area where I decided to place the fictional village. It is somewhere around Embleton Bay, which is north of South Shields, Newcastle and Sunderland and south of Berwick upon Tweed in the far north of Northumberland. The real village of Embleton is a bit bigger than the place I envisaged.

A recap about Spenser is perhaps overdue. The reason he lives in Northumberland, is because he is the son of the Meddling Monk from the old Doctor Who story ‘The Time Meddler’. He was used by his father in a macabre experiment and lived for several centuries with his own consciousness suppressed while his father’s brain controlled his and lived through him. He was freed from that oppression when his father’s living brain was destroyed and Davie Campbell befriended him, helping him come to terms with his new freedom and the possibility that he could be a Time Lord in his own right. Slowly it became apparent that Spenser had romantic feelings for Davie, who, despite being engaged to Brenda, found himself attracted to the idea. Fighting together in the war against the Dominators cemented their relationship and Davie acknowledged that he was in love with Spenser as well as Brenda. A platonic three-way affair continued, but it was obviously going to have to end some time.

And there was no way I was going to let that relationship end badly. Of course, Spenser was going to find a new love, leaving Davie able to marry Brenda with a clear conscience.

I am aware, of course, that some people might be critical of the fact that a homosexual love affair had to give way to a heterosexual one. It does seem very much like the status quo asserting itself at the expense of the gay relationship. And perhaps they are right. I always intended Davie to marry Brenda, and it would be out of character for him to be unfaithful to her once that happens. What I do intend, though, is for Spenser and Stuart to be a new combination for the New Lords of Time, and they will be unequivocally a gay couple.

Against that, the aliens almost seem unimportant. To be honest, they are just a vehicle for the developing Stuart/Spenser story. Alien beings taking over Human bodies is hardly a new or revolutionary idea. Just about the only original bit was the fact that the first aliens were, themselves, being used as hosts by the real enemy, the parasitical creature within them.

The main point of the story is that it is Spenser’s first time in charge of an adventure. He is the one making the decisions, and getting some of them wrong. He realises his limitations. He realises that he has made mistakes, and that he was, after all, trying to look clever in order to impress Stuart. But by and large he comes through and it is obvious he is ready to be more than just Davie’s sidekick.

And yes, as many people have noticed, leaving Davie with the abandoned baby, which he is so very comfortable with, does open up the idea that he might, eventually, remember something about his time as a parent on Mizzone.