The ring Dr. Smith produces is, of course, the ring that the First Doctor sometimes wore, and the tune he brings to mind is the Isley Brothers’ This Old Heart of Mine. The Isleys are a shared interest between Bernice, the Doctor and me, and actually appear in Happy Endings. I recently discovered, to my shock, that their mother’s middle name was Bernice.

The cat that Smith sees in his vision was the Doctor’s previous cat, Chick, a reference to Andrew Cartmel’s War trilogy of New Adventures.

Chapter Eight

The Martians Benny’s referring to are, of course, her favourites, the Ice Warriors. Her Dad, Isaac, was lost during a battle against the Daleks, when she was very young. Bernice’s quest to find him was resolved, in a manner you can probably guess at, in Kate Orman’s book Return of the Living Dad.

Timothy has acquired some of the Doctor’s Venusian Aikido, as demonstrated in Battlefield, and some of the Eighth Doctor’s precognition. We didn’t know that at the time, of course.

Rebecca Levene asked me, since this book was set in 1914 and was going to have soldiers in it, to create a soldier who could go on to appear in another book in the range. I think it might have been Toy Soldiers. But the book’s author decided not to follow up on that decision, I think, for reasons I never learnt.

Wrightson encounters something in his vision that may be the Timewyrm, still imprisoned, but existing eternally. Or it may be something entirely different. I don’t think anyone ever caught this particular ‘open continuity’ ball I threw into the air. If any authors are reading this, only in these later days has it become necessary to state clearly that they’re welcome to run with it. During the time of the New Adventures, that would have been taken for granted.

Chapter Nine

The chapter title is a line from Why Should I Love You? on my favourite of Kate Bush’s albums, The Red Shoes.

Jack Harkaway was the hero of the serials that the Master of the Land of Fiction, in The Mind Robber, wrote while he was still on Earth. The Hoothi were the monstrous threat facing the planet in Love and War, where the Doctor first met Bernice.

Chapter Ten

I don’t know why I’d want to do this to my old school. Actually, yes I do. Despite the fact that it was where I met the original Bernice, I didn’t enjoy my time there at all. The first Bernice was in my class, and she’s just got back in touch with me via Friends Reunited.