Sea Life continues the quest for the relatives of the dolphin people of Aquaria. Nova Lancastria, the name of the planet and the city, Nova Lancastrius, are a reflection of the fact that the city resembled New York – New Lancaster being an obvious alternative.

Chrístõ’s student job, as Lady’s Companion to Lady Lilliana is the first reference to one of the people who helped shape him as a young Time Lord elect. A much later story, ToSA sees Chrístõ experiencing an extended flashback memory of her, and in the Marion and Kristoph stories she is a firm friend of Chrístõ’s mother before he was born. In all the references to her, I always imagined her as a very elegant and poised elderly woman, something like Dame Maggie Smith in the film First Wives Club.

The Sea Life Centre is based on such centres around Britain and the world. Sammie’s comment about hating aquariums after being scared by the one at Blackpool tower as a boy comes from my own childhood experience which has coloured my own dislike of such places. I’ve never actually been to the one on Blackpool sea front, a few doors up from the Doctor Who Exhibition!

The dolphin-people tank, with its underwater window and the top view, is slightly based on the one seen in the Star Trek Film, the Voyage Home, which was home to a pair of humpback whales. This story has quite a lot in common with that film, being about the liberation of intelligent creatures from captivity. It was quite difficult not to unconsciously take on board ideas from the film. Chrístõ’s dive into the pool rather mirrored Spock doing the same thing. There was no getting around it. The dive was the only way of getting the co-ordinate and properly communicaing with the dolphin people.

Another echo of Voyage Home came in the last sequence of this story when the TARDIS, disguised as a yacht went in search of other survivors. I deliberately wanted a scene with the same elements as the one in the film where Klingon ship materializing in front of the whaling boat and giving its crew the fright of their lives. In Sea Life the danger is, in fact, the ‘Man Eaters’ who are prowling. The solution was a little more mundane that in Star Trek. It only needed Sammie, his M-16 and a practiced sniper’s eye. But that tied right up with the discussion on the beach about doing things the ‘Time Lord way’ and the ‘SAS way’. Sammie’s SAS way proved the solution in that instance.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home