Dark Territory started out as a simple idea and grew so long that it had to be split into three parts. Essentially, the TARDIS crashes in the middle of the Red Desert, in a place called Dark Territory, where technology breaks down because of the magnetic properties of the metal ore there. Ferrous zirironite is a made up word, of course. Ferrous means iron, the rest just sounds vaguely like a metal ore. The phrase ‘Dark territory’ refers, or used to refer, to an area of mountains or other terrain where radio or satellite communication was difficult. It has been used in entertainment in a couple of ways. The film Under Siege Two is subtitled Dark Territory because the terrorists strike the train in the area of mountains where the train is cut off from radio communications. In the surreal science fiction/fantasy series Lost, there is an area called Dark Territory where sinister things happen. The Dark Territory of the Red Desert follows the same pattern.

Little is known of Gallifreyan geography, of course. The fact that there IS a desert is the one definite fact. Even that is a blank page apart from one idea – Sheboogans. Even these are only referred to once, in The Deadly Assassin. In The Invasion of Time, ‘Outsiders’ are also referred to, and putting the two together I extended the idea and created these tribes of dropout Time Lords which Kohb explains to his friends as a major embarrassment to ‘civilised’ Time Lords.

It is significant that Marianna thinks of the solar power that gives them some respite from the situation. She is the one domestic figure in their group, a mother and housewife, but she understands about solar power because their home runs on it.

The food synthesiser will be seen in the early Doctor Who episodes where they get food and drink in the form of bags of liquid and bars of food that taste of bacon and eggs or whatever is selected. Chrístõ doesn’t use it. Neither does The Doctor in later stories. Synthesised food bars are not a popular idea. But the TARDIS is equipped with one and the water and dried cúl nut protein are their lifeline until the solar power starts to work. Toilet breaks are one of the primary reasons for needing power in the rest of the TARDIS.

This idea that the rooms beyond the console room cease to exist when the power is down has been used before in these stories. I first used it in CO, when the Ninth Doctor, Rose and Wyn are trapped in a TARDIS dead in space. It also comes into the Tomb in Space story in the Theta Sigma series. It is a logical application of the way the relative dimensions work. In the TV series rooms have been jettisoned, most significantly in the Logopolis and Castrovalva episodes, showing that the interior of the TARDIS is a very fluid thing. What would happen to somebody trapped in one of the rooms? Lets not even go there.

Pazithi lions are the main predator of the desert. They are mentioned early on, and at night, they become a problem. The scenes where Chrístõ is forced to kill one are unpleasant, but realistic.

Essentially it is a story of endurance. Chrístõ, Terry and the womenfolk endure in the crashed TARDIS, Sammie, Penne and Kohb endure on their trek across the desert. How far they manage to walk in a day was something that came under question. Now, I can manage about twenty miles a day rambling with a back pack in fairly temperate climate. SAS men think nothing of forty miles up Brecon Beacons. Seventy or eighty miles forced march IS possible for a trained Human like Sammie. The two Gallifreyans, Kohb and Penne have better constitutions anyway. It IS possible.

Inbetween the endurance, Chrístõ being bitten by a native Gallifreyan snake, and the truth about Sheboogans, there are the conversations that people have in such situations, relationships formed or reassessed, and so on.

The resolution, Time Lords using solar powered vehicles, is a slight case of deus ex machina. But what the heck. It’s a solution. It got everyone home. And that was the important thing.