Roots: The novel Futility, by Morgan Robertson (a fictional account of the sinking of a steamer called Titan, which nevertheless shares several elements with the real-life sinking of RMS Titanic). A Night to Remember, And the Band Played On, the song Nearer My God to Thee. The Doctor recites Sir Walter Scott's 'Hie Away!' from Waverley on believing Jamie drowned. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and its sequel The Mysterious Island. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor plays on the Nautilus. The Doctor and John discuss Ellen Wheeler Wilcox's Solitude ("Laugh and the world laughs with you...") The story of Jonah and the Whale. The Doctor says "This is rapidly turning into an episode of The Waltons!" and ironically calls himself Jane Eyre to Nemo's face. The ship's library books reference doomed vessels Medusa (M&eagrave;duse - 1816) and the George (1817) as implied settings for their fictional heroines, as well as the Marie Celeste (see: Links).

Goofs: Can Jamie read? The Doctor doesn't bat an eyelid when it appears that he can without difficulty.

Dialogue Triumphs: "Sight is a deeply overrated sense. Now, what do your ears tell you?"

"No point in being Homo sapiens if you're not prepared to exercise the 'sapiens' bit!"

"Permit me to introduce myself, I am Captain Nemo" "-And I am Jane Eyre!"

Continuity: Time fissures occur all the time and create divergent realities. Most are tiny and barely affect the space-time continuum, but large events such as the sinking of the Titanic 'create' large fissures. Crossing a fissure via its nexus point allows one to cross from one reality into another. Temporal nexus points cannot be seen, but a time-sensitive being can sense them.

The Pleiades Cluster is home to many rich youths after decadent fun, and includes Zanak IV, "home of the holographic holiday."

The Doctor wears a white tuxedo (and is still somewhat anachronistic because of it) in preparation for the cruise.

Untelevised Adventures: The Doctor, after rendering "some trifling services to His Majesty" received two first class tickets aboard the Queen Mary as a reward.

Location: The Land of Fiction (the Doctor variously imagines the date to be May 1936 on the Queen Mary, and later 14 April 1912.)

Links: Jamie's mention of an encounter with a 'kelpie' is a reference to the previous interlude related in the Companion Chronicle Night's Black Agents. The Doctor refers (obliquely) to Drashings and miniscopes (Carnival of Monsters)

The Bottom Line: "That's the trouble with titans, they make titanic mistakes!"

A journey, literally, into the fantastic from the semi-historic with piles of questions thrown in. Edwards is, as ever, perhaps a little too much in love with his source material to push it to the limit (watch for the next instalment instead), but the cliffhanger revelation to this tale wipes all blame away