Gallifrey; Chapter VIII  - “Insurgency" by Steve Lyons

Gallifrey up to this point hasn’t lived up to the expectations set for me. I think it’s quaint, I think it has a lot of charm but I also think it’s drowning in formula and very often directionless. Especially when it comes to something like Lies, which I felt was an hour of banal exposition only tolerable because of its great cast, I simply do not understand the undying love for something that relies so heavily on everything but its plot. Maybe it’s just because I put the story over most other elements in a piece of media and Gallifrey’s simply more focused on characters I’m yet to properly connect with but I find the common approach for these stories fine but definitely not the masterpieces I’ve seen them be called. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to Insurgency because, whilst it remains primarily character-driven and without a traditionally defined plot, I think it’s the first real instance of this approach being executed well.

President Romana’s new reforms to the Gallifreyan Academy have not been short of controversy, but with internal relations breaking down, disagreement could turn to violence. With the threat of insurrection on the horizon, how will Romana and her confidants convince their students who is friend and who is foe?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

My main goal for this review is to work out why exactly Insurgency felt so much more concise and captivating than the previous stories have been for me. Because, at the end of the day, Insurgency is the same as the rest. There’s really no actual story here, it’s just a week in the life of our characters as race relations break down at Romana’s new, diverse academy. It focuses purely on our main characters, mostly following Leela, as is the norm. It also puts itself together as a series of long, drawn out conversations, hoping to make the dialogue good enough to carry the plot, just as previous episodes did. And yet, here it all comes together because, I believe, it actually leans into this style and makes use of it. Hell, in the past I’ve not been adverse to heavily character-driven scripts, Broken, afterall, is mostly just conversations in a pub but is still one of my favourite Doctor Who stories ever. Whereas in Lies, the main goal was to set up the series arc and in Pandora, half of the episode was a traditional but ultimately underbaked sci-fi runaround, Insurgency spends the entire runtime building subtle tension and using its strengths to full effect. For one, this might be Leela’s best story yet; Spirit was fantastic but it was more about the relationship between Leela and Romana, Insurgency just lets Leela be the absolute best for an hour straight and her job teaching in the academy makes for some really fun scenes. I find this to be the first episode of Gallifrey to outwardly show Leela as intelligent -  despite the prejudiced views against her - and utilise the characters smarts in a way that didn’t just make her seem like a fish out of water cavewoman. She’s the island in a stormy ocean, a reasonable person who sees the universe as one and who doesn’t have time for pointless differentiation, her ability to mediate and handle tough situations putting her far above some of the snobbish, unreasonable Time Lords of the academy. Especially in her scenes with Andred, another part of this season I haven’t really touched on, which are done with some real tact and care. As for our cast, we get a diverse friend group of different species getting caught up in the disintegration of relations in the academy and every single one of them is impressively fleshed out. From the frustrated and quick to revolt human Taylor to the cowardly but ultimately benevolent Time Lord Neeloc, they are all convincingly friends and easily sympathetic, which makes it all the sadder when they’re forced apart. I think the main other thing I loved about Insurgency is how it really made use of its premise and setting. For a series called Gallifrey, we don’t really get to see much Gallifrey and spend most episodes running around interchangeable corridors. However, Insurgency’s setting of the grand and prestigious Academy really adds some great world building and the little interactions and troubles the characters run into greatly help to set the political stage the series finale will take place in. Plus, this is really the first episode that has felt like a political thriller. We’ve had tales of espionage and mystery and grand old gods terrorising the living in suitably Doctor Who-ey ways but this is just a portrayal of how conniving politicians can use tragedy to weave a tale of hatred and fear mongering that successfully sweep up good natured people into a maelstrom of prejudice and spite. Seeing how the academy goes from a little tense but defusable to a powder keg of race riots and racist assaults is horrifically believable and incredibly saddening, especially when characters we know forsake their friends and become nasty, snivelling xenophobes ready to bite at the first sign of difference. The build up to civil war, Darkel’s bid for power and the unravelling peace of the new Academy feel terrifyingly natural and I really have to congratulate Steve Lyons for his incredible use of tension throughout Insurgency.

Despite the fact I think Insurgency is easily the best execution of Gallifrey’s traditional formula so far, it still manages to still trip up in quite a few spots. For one, Romana’s whole subplot felt incredibly detached from everything else that was going on and particularly boring. This is using endless droves of dialogue in the wrong way, making them all infinite streams of lore that never cease to bore me. I like the very natural breakdown of Romana’s reasoning and judgement as her predicament becomes more and more dire, pushing her more and more in the direction of Imperiatrix, but that fits into the same downfall the rest of the story posits too and I think having this subplot completely separate from Leela’s story in the academy was a mistake. Plus, everything that wasn’t to do with the Academy and the insurrection felt a lot duller to me. With the Wynter plotline over, everything surrounding the Pandora stuff just felt like interruptions in a really compelling story; the search for Rassilon’s key, Taylor’s underwhelming fate in the vaults, Andred’s apparent death by the hands of Romana (no idea what that was all about) just felt uninteresting compared to the realism and grit of the rest of the script. And eventually it all comes together in a somewhat loose ending that leaves me cold. The thing about Series Two is that it doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere, there’s no series wide tension; I genuinely find it hard to imagine that the finale is the next episode. Insurgency kind of just stops when it’s had enough, there’s no real resolution or climax, it just ends eventually, really feeling like a random day in the life. Perhaps it’s just to leave room for Imperiatrix but I truly don’t feel like this is leading into a finale that’ll particularly excite me.

All in all, I really liked Insurgency. It felt like the first story where I didn’t need a traditional plot for it to click with me, I could just enjoy it based on the characters and world. Whilst I still think that perhaps Gallifrey’s approach to scriptwriting may simply not entirely be my thing, I’m beginning to get more into it as it stops trying to weave in half-baked narrative through it’s characters, just letting the development and world carry itself without trying to juggle too many elements and coming out with a number of tiny, lukewarm bits of narrative. Whilst I would certainly enjoy some shake up of formula down the line, I’d be very grateful if the rest of Gallifrey followed in the footsteps of Insurgency.

8/10

Pros:

+ Nails the “Gallifrey formula” in a really satisfying way

+ Makes fantastic use of Leela

+ The main group of students were nicely fleshed out

+ Added a great deal more worldbuilding to Gallifrey

+ The degradation of peace was believable and horrifying

Cons:

- Romana’s subplot felt detached

- A lot of the non-political stuff fell flat

- The ending was oddly loose