Gallifrey; Chapter I  - “Weapon of Choice" by Alan Barnes

The Worlds of Doctor Who is the name given to every Big Finish property starring a character besides the Doctor. These stem from The Diary of River Song, to Jago & Litefoot and even The Churchill Years, if you ever wanted to listen to that for some bizarre reason. And out of all of these ranges, all of these stories, praised, revered and reviled in equal measure, there is one series that stands out, one series I hear nothing but praise for, one series that is held above the rest: Gallifrey. And, having just completed its backdoor pilot in the form of Zagreus, seeing it up next in Audio Club and finally caving in to all the requests, I’ve decided to begin this much adored series, beginning with a high octane spy thriller.

When a CIA mission goes wrong and a terrorist cell called Free Time gains access to a devastating weapon, President Romanadvoratrelundar of Gallifrey sends a K9 model, a CIA agent and savage ex-companion of the Doctor, Leela, in search of it.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

When I say Gallifrey, many people will think of mystical super beings, outside of time and space, conducting themselves in a way incomprehensible to us, keeping time and acting noble. But then again, you may have seen the classic series and know that in actuality it's a glorified system of bureaucrats with access to time machines. Rather than explore ancient mythology and mysticism, Gallifrey seems to be a series centering on political thrillers: espionage, duplicitous characters, power struggles, threats of war, terrorist cells, that sort of thing. I myself could not be happier, this is a style of story that I can never get enough of and always seem to be entertained by. The plot of Weapon of Choice is a clear indicator of this; Leela and CIA agent Torvald are tasked with finding a stolen doomsday device undercover, meaning we have a good old fashioned spy caper on our hands. It’s a really intriguing story and I found it to be like a mini Doctor Who James Bond (or some other, less extravagant spy film, I guess). Our cast, too, is great, as I had previously heard. I love a series with a returning main group (a lá Torchwood) so seeing we have a set cast of characters, I’m very excited for future stories. Romana and Leela are, unsurprisingly, great and bounce off each other really well. Two of my favourite companions both leading these sets pretty much sell them to me off the bat. As for the others, Braxiatel seems fun - I’ve heard a lot about him and whilst I haven’t yet got a full read on him, Miles Richardson plays him well. And then there’s Narvin, who I assume must have one hell of a character arc because I hear nothing but love for him and currently he seems to be the snake-like foil to the others, which is not the impression I got when I heard about him. Eventually, the plot ends up on the planet Gryben, a sort of temporal checkpoint where illegal time travellers are sent. The worldbuilding here is great and seeing Leela fight with a bunch of market salesmen or K9 stir up trouble at an alien bar is wonderful little bits of knowledge. Not to mention the insight we get to see on Gallifrey. I’m sure we’ll get bigger and better set pieces on the legendary planet but even now, it’s fun to see it so clearly. And in the final act, we a suitably tense ending for a story like this. Fast and fun, with a couple great twists and a lot of good tension. Romana proves herself, a traitor is amongst the cast and the world is on the brink of war. Good stuff.

However, Weapon of Choice has got one big glaring problem for me: it’s a pilot. This is something I’ve observed for quite a while, especially with ranges such as Torchwood: The Story Continues, in which the pilot ends up so preoccupied setting things up it forgets to focus on its own story. And I’d say something similar happened here; the story is fine, nothing much to write home about mostly because it’s used as a taster for what’s to come. It’s certainly one of the better pilots I’ve come across but I can’t help but feel it’s only half a story. The only other thing that I think I disliked was the antagonist - Nepenthe - who I think was bland. I wasn’t once threatened by her and every time she cartoonishly yelled “free time!” a little bit of me died inside.

So, I am very excited for Gallifrey. Weapon of Choice makes it clear to me that Big Finish took a really unique direction with this series. The cast is great, the stories seem fun, and I really can not wait to get into it. Don’t let me down, Gallifrey.

8/10

Pros:

+ Great cast, cannot wait to hear more of them

+ Really intriguing plot that felt oddly Bondesque

+ Fascinating worldbuilding

+ Tense third act

Cons:

- Suffers from pilot syndrome and feels like a lot of setup

- Nepenthe was a dull antagonist