Gallifrey; Chapter IV  - “A Blind Eye" by Alan Barnes

Gallifrey, at least the first season of it, hasn’t blown me away. Some people act like it’s the holy grail of Doctor Who media and so far, I’m finding that hard to believe. Luckily, the consensus seems to be that the first season is somewhat lacklustre, so maybe things will improve. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed it, it’s just that all the episodes land in that weird spot where everything’s good but nothing’s great, worthy of only a shrug and a “yeah, I liked it”. However, I’ve heard that A Blind Eye is by far and away the best episode of the first season and the first chapter that truly showcases what Gallifrey is capable of; and I whilst I don’t think it’s really all that different from its three predecessors in practice, I can say that it is most certainly the best entry yet.

On a long distance train travelling through the Austrian alps, Lady Cecilia Pollard, fascist sympathiser and sister of Edwardian adventuress Charlotte Pollard, is making her way back to England, despite having meant to have killed herself the day before. Also on the train is Romana and Leela, meeting with time hopping conman Arkadian, who says Cecilia is the key to finding Free Time.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

A Blind Eye is a pretty unique entry to Gallifrey it would seem due to the distinct factor that it is a historical story, taking place on an alpine train in the 1930s. First of all, great setting; the underlying uneasiness of Europe on the brink of war lends a great backdrop to a unique set piece with a palpable atmosphere that carries a lot of the story. And what helps is that we have India Fisher playing Charley’s nazi-sympathising sister who is just the worst. Fisher manages to play the abhorrent, privileged fascist incredibly well, capturing the casual and childish bigotry rampant at the time, and I especially love Leela highlighting the backbending logistics of her repugnant reasoning. Cecelia (or Sissy) really does feel like Charley if she fell to the upper class teachings she was brought up on and it's her performance that keeps the unstable atmosphere going. As for the story, once again we’re given a time bending mystery to run around in, this one involving split timelines and a whole lot of convoluted technobabble. The first half is a decently atmospheric beginning, as we get hints of something bigger happening, culminating in the train colliding with a copy of itself. It’s a fun opening and sets up the second half well. And as for payoffs, we get the shock reveal that the Torvald we know is not the real Torvald, and is instead a regenerated Andred. Great twist moment that I unfortunately got spoiled but still packs a decent punch.

Despite its first half being a decent, paradoxical enigma, A Blind Eye once again devolves into aimless exposition and running around, much like The Inquiry before it. The actual mechanics of the timelines crashing together are barely explored and mostly just exist to split are characters up, only getting dumped on us in long strings of exposition. A lot of the second act is somewhat meaningless action, having Leela and Sissy run away from a surprise alien nazi memorabilia collector that monologues for one scene to the audience before dying, making me wonder what its point was. In fact, a lot of these later set pieces just feel like ways to move the story along to the final reveal, a lot of wandering around and dull exposition. It’s not egregious or as confusing as The Inquiry but it's definitely a pace breaker that massively hampered my enjoyment of A Blind Eye.

All in all, I thought A Blind Eye was a simple but very fun way to end the first season of Gallifrey. Like most of this series, it’s nothing I’d call particularly special - it once again ends up as another bog standard bit of espionage - but it’s interesting and unique enough to keep my attention. Gallifrey looks to be very promising, and whilst this first season didn’t blow me away, I’m excited to continue with it.

8/10

Pros:

+ Great setting and period

+ Brilliant, nasty performance from India Fisher

+ First half posits a really fun mystery

+ The reveal surrounding Torvald was great

Cons:

- The sudden inclusion of a shapeshifting collector of nazi memorabilia was unneeded

- The time travel elements feel underutilised

- The second half flows down and becomes a lot of running around and exposition