Although the changes between the first and final drafts of Heritage were minor, there were some bits that had to be chopped.

The first of these was the over-written opening, which you can read here for your amusement. The second was the epilogue, which originally looked very different to what was published in the novel.

Although Mike Tucker did give me a brief run down of what was happening in Loving the Alien - which was the explanation of Ace’s death and who was behind it all - he didn’t have time to talk to me until after I’d written the first draft.

One thing I did know was that some people had interpreted Mike’s mistake (saying Ace’s surname was Gale, when the New Adventures had said it was McShane) as an editorial decision that the NAs were to be removed from history. My first epilogue was an attempt to show that this wasn’t the case.

Justin didn’t like it, partly because it would have meant Mike would have been forced to alter his book to tie-in with mine, but mostly because it didn’t actually close Heritage in any real thematic way. I tried again, but the second attempt was just as problematic and in the end I decided it was best if I just played in subtle: the entire section was reduced to a brief reference to UNIT finding a letter in Ace’s desecrated grave at the start of the scene of the Doctor and Ace preparing to leave Heritage for good.