3c was, for a very long time, entitled ‘Voodoo Child’. It was going to focus much more closely on Mia, the girl who turns out to be at the centre of the storm. In fact, I broadened it out a bit and made it about her victims as well as the side story about Billy Sandler.

The wiped electronic board, is a mini-plot I have wanted to get in for a while. It is inspired by the Bionic Woman – the 1970s one. Anyone who remembers the seventies, or has seen re-runs, will know that Jaime Sommers was a school teacher at the Area 51 base school inbetween being an OSI agent. Her first day on the job she was confronted by a collection of misfits who hated being forces children with all the problems that entails, and who wiped the blackboard where she had prepared her lessons. Jaime, of course, turned the board around and rewrote the lesson in bionic time. Chrístõ’s equivalent was to use his sonic screwdriver to fix the electronic whiteboard. He also used it to fuse the gadget Billy used to do the damage, and to destroy the adult magazine the other boys were reading.

Chrístõ’s point about not wanting to use the sonic screwdriver as a means of instilling discipline is laughed at by his fellow teachers, but he does have a point. Teaching through fear is not real teaching, and he knows he has to do better than that. The sonic screwdriver was really just shock tactics.

One reader, as soon as this story went online, pointed out that Chrístõ’s problems in this story mirror the knife edge that gay teachers tread when dealing with difficult students. In fact, all teachers these days have to take care what they do with their students. Innocent gestures can be misconstrued. I wasn’t deliberately drawing those kind of analogies, but I think anyone who wants to see that in the story can do. It IS about the problems that false accusations such as those Judy made against Chrístõ can cause. And thinking about it, having the students reading To Kill A Mockingbird, which was also about somebody falsely accused could look like a clever sub-text. In fact that never occurred to me. It is the only book I know which children of that age might read in English literature that has the word ‘nigger’ in it. My point was more about racism than the accusations. A better choice of text for that would probably be The Crucible, but that really wouldn’t be a text for thirteen year olds, especially in the bottom stream where their interest in literature is limited. But, really, don’t get too tied up with that. It’s a non-issue. If I wanted to put in a sub-text, I’d tell you.

Chrístõ’s dilemma about being suspended from teaching are echoed by Cal, who realises that the possible prejudice against aliens teaching in school affects him, too. Indeed, as he has grown up as a Human, he feels it even more deeply. He feels even more alienated from the Human community and doesn’t even have the consolation of a Gallifreyan family to turn to.

Originally, I intended Chrístõ to be the one who would offer to help Mia cope with her extra-sensory abilities. Then I realised it was less predictable and more satisfying if Cal did that. Cal is, in any case, a better person to help her because he has gone through the feelings of being young, angry and frustrated much more recently. And Chrístõ addressing his own jealousy about his apprentice being the hero of the day is no bad thing, either.

And Chrístõ gets his job back. Admittedly, the solution was a bit sentimental. It is the least realistic part of the story, which otherwise dealt with some real issues that transcend science fiction. But what the heck. A bit of sentimentalism doesn’t hurt now and again.