Roots: The opening scene evokes that of Hamlet (two guards, followed by a ghost appearing to a young prince on castle battlements at night demanding its death be avenged), the Doctor quotes from Walter de la Mare's The Listeners, and Henry V ('once more unto the breach...')

Intertextuality: Zixlyr's ceremonial sword (a facsimile of the Sword of Tuburr) first appeared in Adrian Rigelsford's Monsters book (and subsequently in Gary Russell's New Adventure Legacy and the Radio Times Eighth Doctor comic strip).

Fluffs: Zixlyr seems to say "sh-t" at the end of episode two.

Technobabble: Zixlyr has a Xanthoid Volatiser (which is handy). Trisilicate is made up of negatively charged atoms (presumably 'atoms' means ions here)

Continuity: There are no lions on Peladon. The citadel was carved out of Mount Megeshra's living rock a thousand years ago. Other features of Peladon described are its forests (where Aggedor roams - presumably it is her natural habitat), the Cargas Mountains (to the east of the Citadel) and Lake Vanashor. It has more than one sun.

The name Zixlyr means 'twin of the ice' - perhaps his sister's name Alyxlyr is the feminine version? Martian ambassadors carry ceremonial swords (see: Intertextuality).

Blood-locks are among the strongest bonds in the Universe and only a specific type of blood (in this instance that of four Royal females) can unlock them.

The Osiran Sekhment is also known as The Avenger, the Eye of Ra and Queen of the Osirans. She first visited Erimem's people during a time when the sun god Ra lived among them as a human. As Ra aged his rivals plotted against him, so he summoned his divine eye which transformed into Sekhmet the Powerful One, the Avenger. Sekhmet slaughtered Ra's enemies and waded in their blood - but didn't stop there. She began slaughtering every living thing in an orgy of killing. Ra ordered the High Priest of his temple at Heliopolis to pour out seven thousand jars of beer, dyed red with pomegranate juice. Seeing the lake of 'blood' Sekhment drank deep until stupefied by alcohol, she was captured and imprisoned forever in a tomb of salt n Peladon. The negative charge of the trisilicate around her saps her energy while she is imprisoned.

Erimem wears a signet ring with an emblem of Sekhmet on it as a talisman against the god (in Eye of the Scorpion she says she doesn't believe in the gods - perhaps she's more intuitive than we thought?)

Links: The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon, Pyramids of Mars, Peri refers to having already met Ice Warriors (in Red Dawn) and (once again) refers to her step-father (Planet of Fire)

The Bottom Line: If Bride is the result of a shopping list - and every Peladon sequel thus far has been in one way or another, then it's a pretty well-followed one, not only managing to tick boxes for two televised stories, but bringing in an Osirian (without the fan cliché of Ice Warriors worshipping them) and convincingly writing out a companion to boot. The cast seems huge, having to juggle these various plot elements, but it works for the most part - Arktos' subplot is perhaps the only dead end, seemingly an excuse to include an Arcturan and little more. Faithful, nostalgic, and fun.