Day One is Science Fiction meets Tom Brown’s Schooldays! Even though I never wanted Theta Sigma to be set in Chrístõ’s schooldays as such, I did want to write some kind of flashback story about his years as a Prydonian. The occasion of his four oldest students going to their university interviews was a good excuse to let him remember back to his first day and the ups and downs of a shy young man who wasn’t completely sure of himself.

Now, as I have mentioned elsewhere once or twice, I went to boarding school. A girls boarding school is a bit different from a boys’ one, in various respects that we won’t go into here. But the experience of having to learn to live with a lot of strangers who you probably wouldn’t choose to know if you had a choice is much the same.

I have, actually, presented the Prydonian Academy as something like a boys public school. I have always felt that it was. But really, it probably ought to be co-educational. Otherwise, where did female Time Lords like Chancellor Flavia, Councillor Thalia, Rodan, Romana, the Inquisitor, and others, qualify? They are probably a minority in the Academies, but they must be there. They don’t really signify in this story, though.

Chrístõ’s terror at the idea of eating in the refectory with so many people around him, is directly taken from my own school experiences. After going to a small school for several years I transferred to a much larger one where the dining hall was packed every lunchtime, and as a result I spent a year skipping lunch. I wanted Chrístõ to feel that same sensation of fear of being surrounded by so many people and make a run for it.

Avoiding lunch, I ran for the library, myself, and discovered the works of Sean O’Casey, which led, eventually, to a joint honours degree in history and literature. Chrístõ, too, seeks solace in the library, but in his case, being a boy for whom science and space travel are the holy grail, he reads a book of astronomy and dreams of visiting Earth.

The idea of a young, naked Chrístõ in the rain, on top of the dormitory building, will, I think, appeal to some fans in quite the wrong way. But most will surely see it as a time of sheer anguish for him, and a part of the suffering he had to endure as a student. And no, that one isn’t from personal experience. We didn’t do things like that in my school.

Pocket watches, of course, have gained new significance in Time Lord history since the TV episode Human Nature. Chrístõ’s first pocket watch, though, is much less sinister than the one featured there. It is a remembrance of his mother and her world. The watch will be seen, eventually, in a Marion and Kristoph story, as the anniversary gift, but at the time of writing this confidential, I haven’t actually written that story yet.