A lot of people were completely convinced that Li Tuo was dead at the end of the last episode. There was a great deal of relief when it turned out not to be so.

When I first started writing Theta Sigma, Chrístõ’s father was not meant to be such a large and influential role as he has become. He was really just meant to appear on the videophone from time to time. But I quickly realised that if every other episode had Chrístõ on the phone to his dad, it would be like Mork calling Ork, and in any case, I had decided very quickly to drop the idea that he would always be at odds with his father over his attitude to his stepmother and other teenage grudges. This, mainly came about because I found the teenage sulks in the later Harry Potter books so tedious and decided I WOULDN’T make them a feature of Chrístõ’s story. So his father became a more real figure, especially after ‘Lost’ when we first see him in the ‘flesh’ so to speak. And slowly more of his back story has come out. The Ambassador, was once The Executioner, the best assassin the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA) had. He gave up that life to be a family man, but when his family are in danger the old skills come in.

And Chrístõ IS in danger. He WAS the intended target of the attack that left Li Tuo near-fatally injured and taken to hospital. Of course, Li Tuo is not dead. It takes a lot to kill a Time Lord, even an elderly one. He recovers with some help from his friend and they make a humorous exit from the mortuary. Meanwhile down at Royal Seaforth Docks, Chrístõ and friends are getting into trouble.

Royal Seaforth is, of course, one of the biggest container ports in the UK. And it should have a lot more security around it than is displayed in this story. Terry and Sammie should never have got in there, let alone the two men they were pursuing. Small details like that tend to be glossed over in fiction. Chrístõ’s walk up the mooring rope is probably possible for a good tightrope walker. I had visions while writing it of the cartoon series of Around the World in 80 Days in which Passpartout does such a stunt. Sammie’s way of doing it is more realistic for an SAS man.

The fight between Chrístõ and the first assassin ends with one of the few ways to kill a Time Lord stone dead – damage to the Medulla Oblongata. This is the one part of the brain I can actually identify, having researched it for this story. It is a sure fire way to render humans brain dead and incapable of life without a respirator. As a method of killing a Time Lord it is pretty much effective.

Decapitating with a sharp sword also does it. And Chrístõ’s father is very good at that sort of thing, it transpires. Later, when Sammie asks him about it, the two men talk conspiratorially about the grey areas. Chrístõ is destined to walk in those grey areas, too. But for now his father wants him to be fully in the light.

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/nof/docks/access/dock_history1.html

http://www.merseyreporter.com/history/historic/dockseaforth/index.shtml