Two
stories about mountains in a row. But Montagno Tavolo is a different kind
of mountain. The name, is roughly, Italian for
It starts simply enough, of course, with Julia’s birthday. Everything is nice and sweet. Her birthday presents are a rite of passage in their own way. Chrístõ gives her some more Gallifreyan diamonds, continuing to seal his bond with her. Natalie gives her a diary to record her future adventures, knowing, of course, that she, herself, has only a very short future. And most importantly, the allowance from Chrístõ’s father that seals her connection with the Lœngbǽrrow family.
Then the dramatic
bit. Of course, as soon as the idea of avalanches was mentioned on the
trip downhill, it was obvious there would be one. And it had to happen
while Chrístõ and Julia were on the cable car. The double problem of the
stranded car and the buried hotel, with Natalie trapped, gave Chrístõ
impetus.
His climb up the wires is in old fashioned disaster movie tradition, of course. Similar things have been done in various TV disaster movies with American daytime TV stars in jeopardy. But a Time Lord walking the cable in the snow, to get to his TARDIS, is another matter.
This story WAS written not long after Runaway Bride aired on TV, with those great sequences of the TARDIS chasing the taxi. I wanted to do something that would emulate that for a TARDIS stunt. Carrying the cable car down to safety on its roof in hover mode is my answer to ‘TARDIS meets Speed’. I was quite proud of it, really.
After that, it was all over bar the shouting. The TARDIS becomes a tool in the ongoing rescue of the people in the town, starting with the hotel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalanche
