That's a great story; as you say, a very impressive take on Gallifrey and its strange, twisted society. And Romana I doesn't get enough fic (from me, for instance; I've only ever done II for some reason). I think it's sort of funny, if understandable, the way Ten pines for the old homeworld, when we know that really it was as corrupt and sterile and hypocritical as hell.

Yes, I agree, the Doctor should be special because he chooses to be, not due to some strange mystical destiny, either genetic or all that "lonely god" stuff. As a bigtime Seven fan who generally approves of the Cartmel Masterplan, I still think they laid it on a bit thick in some of the NA novels with all of those revelations about his past.