Big Finish Doctor Who Audio Reviews: Gallifrey: Weapon of Choice - Alan Barnes
I decided I fancied something a bit different today and quite a few people on my FList have raved about this series too, which got me curious, so I grabbed the first of the Gallifrey series of audios Weapon of Choice by Alan Barnes.
The series stars Romana II (Lalla Ward) as the High President of Gallifrey, K9 (John Leeson) and Leela (Louise Jameson), and since I've been watching mostly Fourth Doctor serials the last few months, I figured this would be an interesting series to listen to. Also involved are Irving Braxiatel (a character I know from the Bernice Summerfield books that I've been reading on and off for a few months) and Arkadian, a rather lovable rogue who had some very funny moments.
The series specifically concentrates on Gallifrey as the centre of galactic temporal politics, and aims to show how the pressures of maintaining a coalition of the Temporal Powers affects the lives of the administration, led by Romana.
When the possibility of a catastrophic weapon called a Timonic Fusion Device is revealed, a number of time-travel capable races want to get hold of it, and this throws Gallifrey into instant conflict with the Warpsmiths of Phaidon, the Monan Host, the Nekkistani, and others, and it's down to Romana to try to defuse the situation. However, this proves increasingly difficult when it appears that the Free Time terrorists, a group which believes that Time should not be studied and guided but Free (obviously), have got hold of the Device and are quite willing to set it off in the Enclave of Gryben unless the temporal powers submit to their demands. Gryben is a sort of intergalactic holding camp where all illegal time travellers are sent for processing before they are either sent back to their homeworlds or, if they choose to claim asylum, remain on the planet. Gryben is important to Romana as it's an initiative that's been instigated as an example of her progressive policies, so its success is important to her - however, if the Free Time group can activate the Timeonic Device, the ramifications of the destruction of a planet of asylum seekers would mean the end of everything that her administration has worked for since she became President.
She decideds, therefore, to send a disaffected Leela (whose husband Andred has disappeared in mysterious circumstances) to investigate, along with her personal K9 unit (which will remain in contact with Romana's K9 unit), and Commander Torvald (of the Celestial Intervention Agency) to negotiate with Nepenthe, a Free Time group member who has stolen the Timeonic Device. Unfortunately Nepenthe recognises Torvald (who had initially gone to acquire the device only to have Nepenthe steal it from under his nose), and things fall apart, with the Device being activated. Romana persuades Arkadian to supposedly take her hostage and take a TARDIS down to Gryben in the hopes of persauding Nepenthe to deactivate the device. Romana's actions at this point reminded me of the Doctor (particularly the Tenth) - as she throws herself into the path of danger in the hopes of saving everyone else.
This was an interesting story which managed to hold my attention despite my innate dislike of stories that focus on political intrigue, and I am looking forward to listening to the rest of the series (there are in fact three mini-series - a total of 14 stories).