The Codex of Rassilon is a catch up story. Chrístõ had been in exile for months now, with no news from home. So enter a friend to bring him up to speed.

I had a bit of trouble deciding at first who the friend would be. I had in mind Penne making a royal visit to the Beta Delta colony. But that didn’t seem to work. Then I thought, who else would be out there? And it had to be Hext.

I had originally intended for Hext to die at the end of the first story he featured in. He was only invented to spite one of the MSN ‘technical assistants’ whose name was allegedly Hext and was of no use whatsoever to me when there was a problem with the MSN Groups. That was why he was just a bit incompetent and cowardly. But people seemed to like him, all the same. So he stayed around and grew a little from his original character.

And now, Hext has to go and be a hero. This is going to be his defining moment. How he manages, we won’t find out for quite a while. I haven’t even decided at the time of writing what is meant to happen in the final liberation of Gallifrey, but Hext will be there.

The action of this story is all told third party, of course. Hext is there to tell Chrístõ about the destruction of the Capitol, the resistance movement and their efforts. It isn’t the first time a Theta Sigma has been retrospective. I did it with ‘Mount Loeng' where Chrístõ remembered the first time he climbed up the mountain to the Brotherhood. It was done in ToSA in a rather different way. I’ve done it in both New Lords of Time and TEN as well, with stories within stories where The Doctor tells his friends about something that happened in his past. It won’t be the last time. There is at least one more story ahead which deals with Chrístõ’s past.

What makes this one different, of course, is that it is Hext doing the talking and Chrístõ mostly listening.

The Codex of Rassilon was mentioned a VERY long time ago in Chrístõ’s history, in the story ‘Missing Years’ but Chrístõ didn’t actually remember anything about that. There have been hints here and there about Chrístõ’s destiny. This is the first time it has been gone into in any detail.

Incidentally, when I wrote the first story about the Codex I hadn’t read the Harry Potter book that goes on about the prediction made at the time of his birth. That’s a total coincidence.

Bringing Ice Garden and their manager in as a way for Hext to come in under cover was a way of bringing the story round to where Chrístõ’s exile began. They are minor recurring characters. They may recur again. It might be interesting to have an adventure in which the band are in some kind of trouble. Meantime, I wanted a nice, tearjerker end to this story, and getting them to play a couple of songs for Chrístõ and Hext was perfect. I originally had in mind Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, referring to their exile, but the actual lyrics really don’t fit their circumstances. Princes of The Universe from Highlander fits PERFECTLY. “fighting to survive/In a war with the darkest powers” is exactly what they are doing – and what Chrístõ will be doing all his life.

As for the Gallifreyan National Anthem, obviously they must have one. And it was probably never meant to be played on electric guitars. Just try to think of Brian May playing God Save The Queen and how strange that sounds and you might have the right idea. But then imagine you were an exile from England and how that anthem them would tear your heart out.

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Princes-Of-The-Universe-lyric

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Immigrant-song

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/57missingyears.htm