COLIN BAKER IN MY GALLIFREY???

Okay now that we have that out the Way, I must admit while this isn't as strong as the previous one, I still enjoyed it and find it a good 'Epilogue' to the Event that happened in the last few. The Standouts here are definitely Narvin and Romana II. The Former gets some of his most sympathetic Moments since the Finale of Series 2, while the latter plays the exhausted Romana so well. I do admit that the political Intrigue is lacking here sadly, which ranks this Story a bit lower to me, but some great Character Moments help this Play massively.

Side Note, which has nothing to do with that Story: But isn't it funny that if you show somebody who listened to Gallifrey a Picture of Darkel, they will probably say how hateable they are, compared to somebody who has only seen Trial, who will probably shrug at you? Again nothing relevant to this Story, just a funny Thought I had.

This is above the standard for general doctor who audios I’d say, but definitely under the very high standard that Gallifrey so far has set. I enjoyed it and the Romana stuff was amazing, Lalla Ward is really good at that breathy exhaustion, and I loved the way she sold those political twists, appointing herself her successor but honestly, someone give Romana a break. There was a lot of use of law and legalities in this one and to be honest, I found that very confusing, I’ll see if I get that better after a second listen but quite honestly I think I’ll need to start drawing diagrams if I want to get that. I missed Leela, it felt like she was barely in this one, but her moments with Narvin were wonderful. Narvin in general is wonderful here, he’s really started to shine in his loyalty to Romana.

I liked it a lot more on a second listen, knowing where Matthias' plans go made him stand out a lot more.

Darkel is starting to really annoy me. It was fun having her around for a bit, but she’s overstayed her welcome and it’s time for her to be written out.

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 s**t 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.

Too good of a story. Love the themes. This is my introduction to Paul Sutton, and so far... he's a pretty great writer! [spoiler]Return of Colin Baker was very pleasing. I think everyone by now knows this theory, but I still got to say that Colin Baker's appereance is just one of the standart appereances of Time Lords. He could play any Time Lord! So let's presume the next incarnation of Rani is played by him... /j[/spoiler] Tense political thriller with great character development... It's 10/10 in my book!