Roots: Coma (medical misuse of catatonic patients) The Doctor quotes from Andrew Marvell's The Garden ("Fair quiet have I found thee here") — it must have been those bio-domes. Mel calls Jenner "double-oh seven"

Intertextuality: For other appearances by Killorans, see: Arrangements for War.

(The parallel meeting of Mel and Evelyn in Gary Russell's Previous Doctor Adventure Instruments of Darkness is not acknowledged)

Dialogue Disasters: Mel's reaction as-it-happens: "He's poisoned himself!"

Double Entendres: It's all in the delivery, from Rossiter's "the patients are pawing into the corridors", to say nothing of Mel's later "Jenner told me"

Continuity: Three years have passed since the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn were involved in Vilag's resistance against the Killoran invasion (see: Links), and two have passed since they parted company, Evelyn having chosen to stay and marry Rossiter, who has a daughter Sofia from his previous marriage. Rossiter has been elected Principal Triumvir and Susskind, much reformed since the events of the invasion, helped to draft the Triumvirate's constitution. Despite great reconstruction debate continues among the population as to how or indeed whether) to make use of abandoned Killoran technology, with almost 85 per cent of the population wishing it to simply be destroyed. A memorial garden has been created for Princess Kriztina (suggesting that the location is Galen) Szabo appeared to be tending to the wounded Killorans, but was doing something quite different. Despite this, was reviled by many and subject to death threats. Sofia was 'best friends' with Kriztina.

A blade shuttle is an airborne craft which (by the sounds of it) is propelled by rotors.

Evelyn's heart condition continues despite exploratory surgery which (due to a transfusion of Killoran DNA overwhelming her system) has instead given her severe migraines and increasingly uncontrollable irritability. She has taken Rossiter's name.

Mel has heard all about Evelyn before from the Doctor, though they've not met (the Doctor told her that she left him to run off with a man, but not the full circumstances of their parting). She doesn't think she has ever really been in love before. Mel always was good with dogs. The Doctor has in the past recommended Evelyn to her as a calming and balancing influence on himself.

The Doctor claims that his Gallifreyan immune system can rapidly manufacture antibodies against foreign material, which can then be introduced safely into Evelyn's system.

The Seventh Doctor shows Evelyn a photograph of his new travelling companion, Hex, aka 'Tommy', the son of the ill-fated Cassie (see: Links). He claims that, unusually, Hex just happened to stumble across him, and chose to travel with him of his own volition.

Links: Arrangements for War. The Apocalypse Element and Jubilee (Evelyn tells Mel about seeing Daleks), Project: Twilight and Project: Lazarus (and mutant vampire hunters ), The Harvest (The Seventh Doctor discovers the circumstances of Hex's birth), The Twin Dilemma (the Doctor mentions his aggressive post-regenerative phase), A Death in the Family.

Qv: 'The Doctor as Healer'.

Untelevised Adventures: Evelyn and the Doctor "eventually" visited the court of Elizabeth I. At the beginning of this story he and Mel have just saved a group of colonists on a planet with moors.

Location: Vilag (Galen), three years after the events of Arrangements for War.

The Bottom Line: Earnest, but not a complicated story. Mel inevitably has little to do but be punched, slapped and pushed down a lift shaft. There's timely and good closure for Evelyn though, and the unbilled Seventh Doctor cameo is a nice touch.