Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-1506468-20180414104725/@comment-188432-20180417011312

I don't see it that way at all. Copyright is key here. The DW production office/BBC had copyright over the home planet of the species to which the Doctor and Susan belonged. It was central to the concept of the show, and would never be relinquished. The fact that it doesn't get named until The Time Warrior is unproblematic, because the BBC always owned the concept. Doctor Who starts from the notion that the Doctor and Susan are exiles from their own planet.

That's not the case here. Lance Parkin has no claim whatever to the Moment, because he, nor the BBC, could have in any way anticipated its creation by RTD or any subsequent show runner.

Think about where we were on TV at the time. There was nothing in any previous script which foreshadowed a single weapon as the instrument of the end of the Time Lord. All we knew is that somehow the Doctor caused the end of the Time War by destroying both sides. We didn't know how, at all.

Basically, though, it's very simple. If Agatha Christie describes a ruggedly handsome, no-nonsense British secret agent in Murder on the Orient Express, she's not talking about James Bond because Casino Royale hadn't been written yet.