The title of this story reflects the fact that I really couldn’t think of a better title for it. It’s about an abduction. Really, what else could I call it? But then I think something snappier might have done. But again, what else is there?

In some ways, an abduction story is a cop out. It’s been done again and again. It isn’t so long ago that I had a story in the Marion and Kristoph series in which Marion and Lily were kidnapped. And its not that long ago that Julia was grabbed by the Gallifreyan traitor who wanted to get to Chrístõ.

For a Doctor Who world story it is different in only one respect. It’s a plain and simple kidnapping about money. I probably could have called it Ransom, but that was the title of the Marion and Kristoph story and it would have been confusing. But basically I aimed for an old fashioned kidnap story with the whole standing by the phone routine in it. The fact that I have said, time and again, that Beta Delta IV is a low crime planet, means that the police were not going to be up to the New York’s Finest kind of standards when it came to working out what happened. So obviously, despite calling the police first, Chrístõ went alone in the end.

The idea of the taxi driver being in on it was easy, but deciding at which point Chrístõ would know she wasn’t an innocent victim was a bit harder. After a rough draft in which he actually thought she was innocent before he read her thoughts, I decided he would know from the first time she entered the TARDIS and would be playing it clever to get her to admit it. That seemed to work better.

The idea of Julia doing that stunt where she jumps from the chair over her kidnappers heads came about while I was actually drafting the rescue scenes. It was during the 2008 Olympics and I noticed just how high some of the tumbles in the floor exercises were. And since I have already mentioned before that Julia does that kind of gymnastics, she should be able to do it. The sonic screwdriver remotely unfastening ropes is, I think, just a little bit far fetched. But The Doctor did it in the TV episode Partners in Crime, so why not? At least it makes it more interesting than always using it as a ‘door handle’ as the Third Doctor called it in Inferno.

Notice, by the way, that I’ve introduced a new bit of Beta Delta IV’s scenery, Butterfield Lake. The name Butterfield has no significance at all. It’s a completely random name. But I just might do a summer story set there some time.

Chrístõ’s purchase of the Corr house for his own use is also part of a long term plan. Originally, I did envisage him moving into a flat in the city centre, but then I had some possible story ideas where he might want a bit more bedroom space, and I recalled that there was a house up for sale a few stories back. So two birds with one stone, and those as yet unrealised story lines have a setting.