Nesistian Justice was written some weeks before at least five of the preceding stories. I had a lot of trouble deciding where in the narrative it should go. It is such a dark story I was having difficulty deciding where it ought to go at all. I almost decided not to run it at all once. But eventually decided to slot it in after the beginning of the building work on the Sanctuary as seen in Foundations.

Davie and Chris’s symbiotic relationship where they feel each other’s pain as well as their thoughts, has not been referred to before, but their telepathic connection is strong enough for it not to be a great surprise. The extent of Chris’s wounds comes across as quite shocking. This is one of those stories which possibly wouldn’t fit a 7pm slot on TV.

The justice system of Nesistia leaves much to be desired. That, of course, is the point. Davie is trapped in a situation where he has great difficulty proving his innocence in what is clearly a set up murder. Even early 21^st century forensics would have cleared his name easily. But the Nestistians rely on their witness technology. Eye witness testimony in any court of Earth is not enough for a conviction. It can so easily be misled. Many psychological studies have proved its unreliability. So it is quite obvious that an injustice is going to be done.

And it is QUITE obvious that the one labelled the Merry Widow is the real culprit. How she did it is revealed in the end, but not before Davie is convicted of the crime and sentenced to death.

This part of the story echoes slightly the story “Epsilon and Thete’ in the Theta Sigma series, where young Chrístõ, The Doctor before he WAS The Doctor, is convicted by an even more incompetent justice system and sentenced to death. The means of execution differs. In the Theta Sigma story it is burning at the stake. Here it is stoning. Some people asked if I was making a political statement about that method of execution as used in the Middle East. And the answer is NO. Although as execution methods go it rates as one of the nastiest.

Obviously they were going to rescue him! There was no surprise there. And obviously the Merry Widow was going to be caught. Alls well that ends well!

Incidentally, the monument in this story where the action took place is based on Newgrange in Ireland, which also has a waiting list to attend. Abu Simbel is another place where that happens on the solstice. There ARE some others around the world but those two are the best known, I think. 

http://agora.stanford.edu/sjls/Issue%20One/fisher&tversky.htm

http://psy.ucsd.edu/~hflowe/eyetest.htm

http://www.pearsecom.co.uk/thetasigma/07epsilonandthete.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newgrange