Hall of Lost Souls was an idea that came to me out of the ether. There was no particular inspiration for it. It was simply an idea that slid into place and practically wrote itself. Brighton seemed to me the most likely seaside resort for Londoners to visit, and the turbo-coaster at the end of the pier slipped easily in place as a ride a young girl like Rose might have wanted to go on with her father if it had been possible. Ironically, the most famous attraction on Brighton Pier at the moment is the Doctor Who Exhibition. Obviously Rose and her dad missed that!

Meanwhile The Doctor’s Lost Souls fantasy builds on the ongoing story of his Human wife and his love for her. We see him going to his special place with her and sharing a romantic picnic and a glass of wine and then lying with her in their love nest behind the waterfall, part way up Mount Lœng on Gallifrey. Here is a grown up idea in what is, by necessity, a PG story set. Yes, The Doctor is a man and she is his wife, and obviously he has sex with her in their love nest. Or at least he dreams of it in this very realistic fantasy. Why shouldn’t he, of course. She IS his wife. But as it is Doctor Who, the love-making is implied rather than described. It calls for a Mills and Boon style approach with the reader left at the bedroom door to imagine what goes on.

Jack’s background, at the time when I wrote this in Autumn 2005, was a mystery. I made him out to be an orphan with no family, no emotional ties at all except those he has made with The Doctor and Rose in recent times. This makes him impervious to the Hall of Lost Souls since he has nothing he longs for. In 2008, the second series of Torchwood revealed that Jack had a family, but that his father was killed and his young brother lost when an unnamed enemy attacked the peninsula where he lived. That would, actually, make Jack very susceptible to the Hall's influence. He would want to grasp the good memories of his family. This story has to be viewed in context, before that extra information was revealed about him.

That The Doctor can make a telepathic connection with him in order to see what he is seeing is a stretch of what is known about his psychic powers, but only a small one.