This was the story that should have gone before Year of the Dog, emphasising Chrístõ and Bo’s relationship. It was switched around so that the Chinese New Year story coincided with the actual day on which it was set.

When it did go online people had one question. IS Epsilon the younger version of The Master. There is a clue, of course, in the story:-

“The Greek ‘gods’ were people from OUR galaxy who tried to teach the ape-life some culture. The so-called alphabet Earth people use is just a remnant. I bet you don’t even know what the words mean. Like why our Thete is Theta Sigma.”
“It means the Outcast One,” Cassie said.
“Epsilon means The exalted one, or the Master.”

He hadn’t started to call himself that, yet, but neither was Chrístõ calling himself The Doctor yet. The comparison with Clark Kent and Lex Luthor in Smallville is painfully obvious and I wish it wasn’t. But this story develops the idea that The Master was a bad one from the beginning. At first he just looks like a really nasty snob and bigot, but in the morning when Chrístõ is arrested for a murder in the village the suspicion is that he is far worse than that.

Chrístõ as an innocent man in the prison presents a pathetic and sympathetic figure. The love that Cassie and Bo both show to him as they prepare him for the trial is in contrast to Epsilon’s evil.

The trial is, of course, a farce. The evidence is completely circumstantial and based on the fact that Chrístõ is a stranger. As I constructed the sequence I kept thinking that the experts from any one of the currently popular TV detectives would make mincemeat of the prosecution. Any of the CSI’s or the lawyers from Law and Order would have Chrístõ free in minutes. But as his luck would have it, Epsilon was his defence counsel. And Epsilon had his own agenda!

Again, the long night when he was waiting execution was an example of the platonic love his friends have to Chrístõ even after a very short time knowing him. All of them stand by him, afraid for him, hoping he has a plan but not daring to ask.

The fight between Epsilon and Bo – mainly to demonstrate just what a real coward he is, fighting a woman, and the superiority of Gung Fu and Malvorian Sun Ko Du when performed together as opposed to Sun Ko Du alone. Or perhaps it’s the old fashioned Karate Kid logic that using martial arts for offence is doomed to fail.

Of course he doesn’t die. How could he? He’s The Master. He has a lot more trouble to cause yet. But meanwhile our Chrístõ had to get free from the burning stake. This proves troublesome but not impossible as he uses his time folding technique to get away.

This time folding, is something Time Lords are supposed to be able to do, but rarely seen on the TV show. It happened just once in recent years, in End of The World, when the Ninth Doctor got through the fans in the ventilation shaft by concentrating and slowing time. I have used it far more often in the Theta Sigma stories, because it strikes me as a VERY good skill for a Lord of Time to have. The danger is using it TOO often, maybe.

Rõgæn Koschei Oakdaene – If Theta Sigma aka The Doctor has a real name, then Epsilon aka The Master must also have one. In some obscure bits of mythology I found reference to the House of Oakdown which was supposed to be The Master’s family, but like Lungbarrow it sounded way too Hobbit to me and I had to make it sound more Gallifreyan. Koschei came from another obscure source, and sounded like something Russian or at least Eastern European, but at least seemed to fit The Master in a strange kind of way.