On the one hand, it's a shame they cut the Gallifreyan Civil War short. On the other, they cut it short for this which I adore.

I love a good political drama, and this certainly is that. Here we get not just the one major political meeting, but two occurring at the same time. Before diving into those though, I also want to talk about the ramifications of the previous stories.

I said in my last review that I think these would be much better binging through them, and I absolutely stand by that. I love how much this story builds off of what happened in the last. The characters are having to deal with the fallout of everything: Pandora's fall, the Matrix's destruction, the other temporal powers' reactions to everything that's occurred, Romana's weakness, Leela's blindness, etc. The way everything is just sort of thrown at the characters does a great job in making the civil war feel even more impactful, it may have been a little shorter, but the ramifications are going to take an age to deal with.

But with that said, lets then get onto the politics. First of all we have the meeting of the temporal powers, along with the 'invasion' of gallifrey. I love the brief glimpses we get of the invasion and the characters reactions to it, all hiding away because after everything that's happened they're mostly not in a fit state to fight. Also how can you not love the little cameo from Maxil. The actual meeting itself is great too with the other powers not taking any shit from gallifrey, but also most not wanting to start an all out war, but with the slow convincing to do so.

But then there's the debate over who the new president should be which is absolutely the high point for me. The twists and turns and technicalities. Darkel twisting the law in an attempt to seize the presidency for herself with the assistance of Valyes. Romana also using the precise wording of the law to her own advantage, and forcing the council to depose her as president, in turn acknowledging that she was the president. And then Matthias' coming in and also trying to take it, claiming his effective vice-presidency should put him in the running. All of it is just so fun and I absolutely adore every single new twist and turn that we get.

Love the politics, love to hate Darkel, love the series so far.