In The Beginning… was inspired by a programme I happened to catch on the History Channel. It had the most beautiful graphics with which to demonstrate how the moon was formed when the Earth was still molten. Not long after that, Runaway Bride aired at Christmas, 2006 and that had The Doctor showing Donna the creation of Earth from bits of rock melding together. The two ideas seemed mutually exclusive. But anyway, I decided to work on a story that takes place around the newly created moon.

Natalie’s question, where is God in all this, is of course a fundamental one. Most people, I think, would have heard about the 1924 “Tennessee Monkey Trial” in which a teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolutionary theory. Runaway Bride would have seriously disturbed those who brought that case to court. So would this story.

It was always a question that puzzled me, growing up. On Sunday in church, God made the world. On Monday in science class it was the big bang theory? The question was never really answered until I went to RCIA to become a Catholic, and the current position of the Catholic church is that the Book of Genesis, while undoubtedly the word of God, is allegorical, and the theories of evolution are perfectly acceptable to Catholics.

So, where is God in all of this? I don’t know. And Chrístõ isn’t going to claim he knows any better. But the words of that him that he sings provide an acceptable answer.

The manoeuvre by which Chrístõ and the pupils of Lord Azmael manage to force the moon back into orbit after the accident that pushed it towards disaster is seen again in a New Lords of Time story in which Davie Campbell has to organise a means of preventing Coreworld from splitting apart. The two stories were written simultaneously and complement each other deliberately.

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/evolut.htm

http://www.allaboutgod.com/how-great-thou-art.htm