Bond of Betrothal is the story that has been coming for a lot of years, now. Chrístõ and Julia finally get engaged. Julia first came into Chrístõ’s life in story number 33, posted on August 4th, 2006. I actually wrote the first draft of it about eleven months before when I first decided to launch the Theta Sigma series. I ended up doing thirty-two stories before bringing in the girl who was going to be Chrístõ’s future wife. It took a further one hundred and seventeen stories for her to grow up from the eleven year old survivor of a disaster in space to the seventeen year old who was ready to accept his Bond of Betrothal. It has felt like a long haul, even allowing for the contraction of several years together during Chrístõ’s exile that allowed her to grow up a few more years. Apart from that, these stories have mostly been done in real time and Julia’s teenage years have been followed avidly by many readers who have stuck with it right from the start. Story number one hundred and fifty turned out to be a nice round number for the engagement party.

Exactly what sort of engagement party gave me nearly as much trouble as it gave Chrístõ himself. I thought of a romantic dinner for two, but they had that last year in Cambridge. I then considered a nice family party with Chrístõ’s parents and Julia’s guardians, but that seemed not quite special enough. Then I decided Chrístõ would push the boat out for once and have a lavish party.

So he had to book Platform One, the ultimate party venue, first seen at The End of The World in Christopher Eccleston’s second Doctor Who adventure. Platform One in that story seemed to somewhat resemble the Restaurant at The End of The Universe, being hauled into the right time and place to view the destruction of Earth in much the same way as Douglas Adams’ rather impossible restaurant teetered on the edge of time itself. Assuming it has some basic time travel capability, it is perfectly reasonable to have booked it for Chrístõ and Julia’s special day. Incidentally, there is no reason to suppose The Doctor hadn’t been there before when he brought Rose to Platform One.

Ice Garden, of course, have featured before. They’re becoming recurring guests. I rather like the idea of them and might do a story that involves them in more detail some time. The big thing to remember is that their manager is Tiboran. Tibora is a Dominion of Gallifrey and he would do anything for Chrístõ. So getting the band all the girls at New Canberra High School go gaga over to play at his engagement party is a cinch.

Gallifrey: Our Home, which I decided to adopt as the Gallifreyan National Anthem is a short version of the Murray Gold title Gallifrey: Our Childhood, Our Home, which featured in the Sound of Drums episode of Doctor Who. It’s a nice bit of music and it would play very well on electric guitars.

Across the Universe, it goes without saying to anyone who has been reading these stories, is Chrístõ’s mother’s favourite song, and therefore extremely important to Chrístõ and his father.

The problem with the ice storm is slightly similar to the problem The Doctor had on Platform One, in so far as somebody has to reset the shields once Chrístõ blows the window out and breaks the crystal wall that has formed. It is also slightly similar to what he had to do in the school gym when the ‘Toclafane’ had invaded the glass. But only slightly in both cases.

The important thing was that Chrístõ was going to have to sacrifice Julia’s engagement ring in order to save everyone. And yes, I wrote this story not long after New Year, when the ‘white point star’ diamond from Gallifrey proved so significant in End of Time Part II. I started the idea of Gallifrey being a place where diamonds come from long, long ago. It was rather gratifying to have it confirmed on TV. So naturally, both Julia’s new ring and the one Marion wore before her, were White Point Stars! What goes around, comes around.

So, a bit of adventure, a bit of romance and they’re engaged now. Six years till their wedding. What else can happen to them?

http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Platform_One
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Steward
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Raffalo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Restaurant_at_the_End_of_the_Universe