The moment when Cellian speaks and says,
'never had anything worthwhile to say" is a terrible crib from
Marvel's Fantastic Four comic. I believe it was during John
Byrne's excellent eighties run, he had the Inhuman's pet dog
Lockjaw utter the very same words when he spoke for the very
first time in twenty-odd years. I loved it and ripped it off
mercilessly here.
The final sequence in Regents Park ties in loosely with a
story I commissioned from Terrance Dicks whilst I was at
Marvel UK editing DWM. The reference to Sir Robert Marks is
from an old seventies TV ad he used to do about people driving
like maniacs unless they used decent tyres whereupon, one
presumes, it was okay for them to drive like maniacs if they
used said tyres. My comment about Trafalgar Square one day
being pedestrianised was scarily prescient it would seem!
I was very keen to find a good reason for Liz to leave UNIT
at the end of the book. Having her learn a new science, and
use her real training to some good with the Silurian genetic
problem was ideal. I could certainly believe she'd jack the
Doctor, the Brig etc in to go off and do something more
rewarding. The idea of just going back to Cambridge seemed a
bit unlikely, even though it was given as the reason in Terror
of the Autons. Therefore I wanted to ensure that what she went
back to do was relevant and important to her. I love the idea
of Liz trying to down a pint of Guinness at the UNIT Christmas
party, too, to win a fiver. She's a feisty lass who'd give any
bloke a run for their money. Maybe that's why she and the
Third Doc could never be real friends. He wanted a girly-girl
to boss around, and Liz was far from that.
And there you have it. The Scales of Injustice. I hope
you've enjoyed reading it in weekly instalments, just like it
might have been on the telly. Now go and track down Business
Unusual (my fave of all the Doctor Who books wot I wrote) and
Instruments of Darkness to see how the story ends.
