The Longest Night was initially going to be an addendum to the previous story. But I felt that Natalie’s death ought to be more than that. As a stand alone story, it did need to be longer, but it was necessary to guard against obvious padding.

How well that was done, is debateable. A lot of it IS padding. But hopefully it is seamless padding. In effect, what we have is the equivalent of a ‘clip show’. This is a cheap way of padding out a 22 week series that is shamelessly used on American TV series. The worst culprit is Stargate, which usually manages at least two clip shows a season. Here, Natalie, quite naturally, thinks back over her year with Chrístõ. She asks for one last dance – created in her mind by Chrístõ’s power of Suggestion.

And she asks to see something she hasn’t seen yet. Whether the wedding is a real piece of precognition or just Chrístõ making it beautiful for Natalie is not specified. It may well be the latter. But as Chrístõ and Julia’s wedding is a long way off yet, this is a foretaste for those who want to see it happen.

Her death beside the Eye of Harmony was actually the first part of this story to be written. I envisaged the scene quite a while before I fitted it in with the rest. A few changes were made, but largely it is as I originally wrote it.

The last piece to go in was the conversation with Chancellor Remonte. It seemed to me unlikely that a death could be recorded within a TARDIS, especially one belonging to a student, without questions being asked. This short sequence sorts that out.

And then we discover that Natalie has become one with the TARDIS. Remember, that this semi-sentient machine spent half a millennia getting its owner lost in time and space. This is a reason why. Natalie’s bad sense of direction has affected the guidance systems.

Well, why not?