Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Reviews: Gallifrey S1 - Parts 2 - 4
I thought I'd do a combined reaction post for parts 2 to 4 of the first Gallifrey series.
Square One - Stephen Cole
Despite a climate of mistrust and unease, the great time-travelling powers of the universe are holding an historic temporal summit on a planetoid that has been specially created and is impervious to outside attack or internal subversion in any way.
But while President Romana walks a political tightrope into dangerous territory, Leela and K9 find themselves attending the summit disguised as an exotic dancer and her 'pet'. They are there to hunt for evidence of Free Time activity, but instead they discover terrors of a different kind when they find themselves living the same day over and over again, but each time the day recurs, someone different dies.
What impossibilty is stalking the planetoid? And just who is manipulating time? Can Leela, Romana and K9 discover the truth or are they doomed to repeat the same day over and over?
This story got quite confusing - I feel that doing a Groundhog Day via the medium of an audio play rather than a film is much harder to pull off successfully, and I had to replay some parts a second time to be sure I'd followed what was taking place.
There's also the fact that the story isn't terribly interesting because the summit that Leela's attending isn't the real one - it's a smokescreen so that the real summit can take place quietly, out of the public eye. I felt that I quite understood Leela's bitterness when she learnt that the deaths she'd seen were all for nothing, because the summit was a sham.
The Inquiry - Justin Richards
President Romana has been called to account for her actions on Gryben (see Weapon of Choice). But the only evidence that she responded to a real and present danger at the time has disappeared and to clear her good name she is dependent on the testimony of the very people who particularly want to see her publically humiliated and her power removed. While Leela tries to discover more about the fate of her husband Andred, Romana is forced into an uneasy truce with her rivals at the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA).
The enquiry also focuses on the nature of the threat posed by the Timeonic Fusion Device (TFD): one side argues that the danger is minimal as it is an impossibility, but the other side argues that the danger is very real because of the TFD's devastating potential for destruction. This question comes to dominate much of The Inquiry as the hunt for answers exposes a threat within the Matrix itself.
The story also links Braxiatel (played by Miles Richardson) in his role of Cardinal to his role as the owner of the Braxiatel Collection (see some of the Bernice Summerfield stories for more on that), and Romana finds herself questioning whether she can trust her friend Brax.
This story was only marginally less confusing than Square One as it repeated some of the events of Weapon of Choice as the Inquisitor went over Romana's actions during the events that unfolded on Gryben.
A Blind Eye - Alan Barnes
It's September 1939 and as Europe is sliding towards another war a young Englishwoman named Sissy Pollard (the younger sister of the Eighth Doctor's Companion, Charley Pollard - and also played by India Fisher) comes to the terrible decision to kill herself. But just what does the intergalactic secrets broker Mephistopheles Arkadian want with the fascist sympathiser Sissy Pollard on the last day of her life?
Romana, who's been persuaded to join the passengers aboard the Vienna to Calais Transcontinental Express, along with Leela, is still searching for information about the Gryben debacle and in her attempts to find out more, makes a pact with Arkadian. Thus a chain of consequences begins that can only end in tragedy for the passengers aboard the train. By journey's end, the truth will be out, and Leela will discover the fate of her husband, whilst Romana will learn just who was byhind the Gryben affair.
Sissy Pollard is surprisingly upper-class, rather more so than Charley has ever seemed to be. She's also a nasty piece of work who clearly only cares about herself, so it was difficult for me to feel much sympathy for her situation.
On the whole this is an interesting mini series - but rather hard work to listen to plot-wise, although very enjoyable character-wise. I really love Romana, Leela and Braxiatel (and I love to hate Norvin and Torvald!). I shall definitely give series 2 a go soon...
Square One - Stephen Cole
Despite a climate of mistrust and unease, the great time-travelling powers of the universe are holding an historic temporal summit on a planetoid that has been specially created and is impervious to outside attack or internal subversion in any way.
But while President Romana walks a political tightrope into dangerous territory, Leela and K9 find themselves attending the summit disguised as an exotic dancer and her 'pet'. They are there to hunt for evidence of Free Time activity, but instead they discover terrors of a different kind when they find themselves living the same day over and over again, but each time the day recurs, someone different dies.
What impossibilty is stalking the planetoid? And just who is manipulating time? Can Leela, Romana and K9 discover the truth or are they doomed to repeat the same day over and over?
This story got quite confusing - I feel that doing a Groundhog Day via the medium of an audio play rather than a film is much harder to pull off successfully, and I had to replay some parts a second time to be sure I'd followed what was taking place.
There's also the fact that the story isn't terribly interesting because the summit that Leela's attending isn't the real one - it's a smokescreen so that the real summit can take place quietly, out of the public eye. I felt that I quite understood Leela's bitterness when she learnt that the deaths she'd seen were all for nothing, because the summit was a sham.
The Inquiry - Justin Richards
President Romana has been called to account for her actions on Gryben (see Weapon of Choice). But the only evidence that she responded to a real and present danger at the time has disappeared and to clear her good name she is dependent on the testimony of the very people who particularly want to see her publically humiliated and her power removed. While Leela tries to discover more about the fate of her husband Andred, Romana is forced into an uneasy truce with her rivals at the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA).
The enquiry also focuses on the nature of the threat posed by the Timeonic Fusion Device (TFD): one side argues that the danger is minimal as it is an impossibility, but the other side argues that the danger is very real because of the TFD's devastating potential for destruction. This question comes to dominate much of The Inquiry as the hunt for answers exposes a threat within the Matrix itself.
The story also links Braxiatel (played by Miles Richardson) in his role of Cardinal to his role as the owner of the Braxiatel Collection (see some of the Bernice Summerfield stories for more on that), and Romana finds herself questioning whether she can trust her friend Brax.
This story was only marginally less confusing than Square One as it repeated some of the events of Weapon of Choice as the Inquisitor went over Romana's actions during the events that unfolded on Gryben.
A Blind Eye - Alan Barnes
It's September 1939 and as Europe is sliding towards another war a young Englishwoman named Sissy Pollard (the younger sister of the Eighth Doctor's Companion, Charley Pollard - and also played by India Fisher) comes to the terrible decision to kill herself. But just what does the intergalactic secrets broker Mephistopheles Arkadian want with the fascist sympathiser Sissy Pollard on the last day of her life?
Romana, who's been persuaded to join the passengers aboard the Vienna to Calais Transcontinental Express, along with Leela, is still searching for information about the Gryben debacle and in her attempts to find out more, makes a pact with Arkadian. Thus a chain of consequences begins that can only end in tragedy for the passengers aboard the train. By journey's end, the truth will be out, and Leela will discover the fate of her husband, whilst Romana will learn just who was byhind the Gryben affair.
Sissy Pollard is surprisingly upper-class, rather more so than Charley has ever seemed to be. She's also a nasty piece of work who clearly only cares about herself, so it was difficult for me to feel much sympathy for her situation.
On the whole this is an interesting mini series - but rather hard work to listen to plot-wise, although very enjoyable character-wise. I really love Romana, Leela and Braxiatel (and I love to hate Norvin and Torvald!). I shall definitely give series 2 a go soon...