Holy ■■■■.

This was just amazing. After the last two Episodes, while I really enjoyed myself, I must admit I wish they could have matched the Highs of the first two of this Series. And then this… Woah! There is A LOT to say with this Story, not only with it being the first longer Release (and goodness me, thank god it’s longer!), but also for being such a superb Finale.
I already mentioned this in other Places of the other Stories, but while the first Series was very Leela-centric, this one feels more Romana-centric and this Finale confirms it. Don’t get me wrong, Leela gets some amazing Moments in this, that Ending with her and Romana…  That said, Lalla is so good here! You can tell she is overwhelmed, you can feel that any Moment now she could have a Breakdown from all the Stress and Problems, it’s amazing, I love it!
In general, the Performances are really just strong here.

I ADORE how many Grounds we cover yet do all of them pretty satisfying in my Eyes, be it the uprising Tension in Gallifreyan Society, Darkel’s scheming and nasty Plans and so much more!

Narvin! I can’t believe it, I start to become more a Part of the Narvination…

Mary Tamm!  What a Performance! What a Voice, I always had a big Heart for her Romana, one of the Companions that I wish had at least another Season. So hearing her again was a delightful surprise to me here. You can really tell she is enjoying every Second of playing Pandora, probably my favorite Part she has taken in the World of Who?? It’s just so good!

Bombastic, dramatic, satisfying! Everybody is having their worst Time in their Life, and I am having a blast (this sounds SO wrong without Context…)
…I think I have my very own Stolen Earth/Journey’s End now!

I am simply in love with this series. Imperiatrix was amazing, I adore Romana toeing the line between evil and good, ethical and unethical in an impossible situation, Leela is wonderful and everyone needs to stop being mean to her, I am super interested where her relationship with Romana and Gallifrey will go now with Andred’s murder and K9 gone, which btw is so, so heartbreaking, I literally cried at Leela’s grief which is a very high compliment because I don’t cry easily. Louise Jameson and Lalla Ward are so good at voice acting. Also loved Narvin’s evolution here, this is the point where we finally see his true goals, and to see him discover who is more on the same side as him. Also he gets blown up for Romana <3 and is very good at doing audible suffering. And all the explosions in this made me gasp, because they kept being so sudden. And of course Mary Tamm is amazing as Pandora and I wish we could have this visually because I’m sure it would be incredible.

And I love that we’re getting behind the scenes interviews on this!!! I’ve been missing that a little with these older releases, and they are really wonderful here.

Wow, that was a blast. Totally fun, a very engaging story, and a lot of pay-off to stuff that's been simmering since the very beginning.

9/10, easily one of the better Gallifreys I've Gallifreyed yet! My only criticism is the music and sound effects. Up until now, I found the music and SFX of Gallifrey as pretty middle of the road - not as powerful or memorable as the stuff I've heard in The War Master, but no so bad it ever really stood out to me. Here though, I found myself getting distracted by it. I remember there's one scene where there's all this lofty, soft music playing, and Romana is meanwhile having a very intense conversation. It felt like a bit of a mismatch. Additionally, there are a ton of pretty repetitive sound effects I also found distracting. Still, it's a good and entertaining audio overall. Already has made this little journey worth it!

And what a cool twist ending! I'm very glad I never looked at anything promotional or the cast on this one because the ending with "Pandora" was one hell of a cool surprise!

Everything comes together for the cliffhanger very well. Romana’s character and story is more and more enjoyable.

What an ending. Wow, just wow.

This story starts off with a bang (pun intended) with the explosion at the academy, a set piece that's done brilliantly. Insurgency showed us the lives of those at the academy, and how it's all coming to ruin, now Imperiatrix doubles down on that. We get a brilliant peek into how most gallifreyans feel about Romana at the moment before the explosion through the use of a reporter talking about what's just happened, a great way to bring together the threads from Insurgency.

The different responses to it as well and the politicing that comes from it, everyone trying to spin it their own way, is great. Darkel is genuinely vile, saying the explosion wasn't a major incident because it was aliens affected, not gallifreyans, but it's just so so good.

I hadn't really gone into it before, but John Leeson does an incredible job in these stories, sleeper star of them to be honest. The difference in his voice when he's playing Pandora-K9 as opposed to regular K9 is just great... And now he's gone (not really but still). K9 is dead, and K9 is allied with Pandora :CCCC

Aftermath of Andred's unceremonious death is also just superb. In Insurgency you're almost starting to like him again, it seems like there's a chance his relationship could be fixed, which makes Leela's response all the more heartbreaking. Her talking to his body, vowing revenge, just, god, it really does just hit. That's the scene that brings this up from a 9 to a 10 for me.

And Lalla Ward's Acting here. It's just spectacular. I think Romana's heel turn to becoming imperiatrix could have felt out of nowhere, even with the setup and stakes against her, but Lalla Ward ***kills*** it. The Fury of a Time Lord is a phrase that's usually only really applied to The Doctor, but seeing it channeled through someone else here it spectacular.

The twist about who was behind the bombing was also fun, and the way it's done. It's right there in your face at the start of the story, but you don't think about it for even a second until it's brought back later.

Narvin is great here as well. They talk about it in the interviews as well, but yeah, you can really tell, especially in this story, where his loyalties lie. He hates Romana, but his loyalty is to Gallifrey, and Romana is what's best for it at the moment. He risks his life to save her despite some of this mess being his fault, and it's just brilliant.

And then that cliffhanger. A Gallifreyan civil war. Romana 1's reappearance as Pandora.

Bring on Season 3!