Lies

📝8/10 → VERY ENJOYABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

LIES, or TWO-HANDERS FOR THE WIN!

Lies begins with a fascinating scene taking us back to Romana’s time in the Academy, discussing the nature of her education with tutor Braxiatel. It’s a lovely little scene, which also introduces the villain of the piece, as the younger Romana first comes into contact with Pandora.

Lynda Bellingham is back in a larger role as Darkel, and I like how she stirs up things as well and begins scheming against Romana while Narvin is busy with his own schemes. This time, tension is created from Romana allowing alien species to study at the Academy if they have the potential to harness temporal powers.

I sort of like how things have calmed down in terms of the political scheming, but how the central characters continue to throw witty banter. Romana is as sharp as ever, especially when sharing scenes with Andred, Brax, or Castellan Wynter (a freshly graduated Castellan and an enjoyable new cast addition), and Lalla Ward and Andy Coleman shine in their roles.

It's lovely to hear Mary Tamm make her Big Finish debut here as Romana I. Her bickering with Romana II and Leela is enjoyable to listen to, though her role in the story remains small.

Leela is off on her own, exploring the Vaults below the Capitol with K9 while coping with the reveal of Andred’s regeneration in A Blind Eye. Her conversations with the tin dog are some of the better scenes written for the character so far. She then inadvertently unleashes a hidden force from ancient times, Pandora, who is desperate to return to full power through Romana.

Andred is still around and digs around for information on Pandora, which makes him go on his own mission against Romana and Leela.

Brenda Longman is great as Pandora. She makes the character sinister but fun. I still find it a bit difficult to keep track of every character, and the fact that the voices of the male actors sound so similar to each other doesn't help matters.

The plot is a bit more streamlined here and focused on delicious character relations on one hand and the tense Pandora plot on the other. I especially like what Lies is doing with Riomana, suggesting that she is similar to the first female president, who used her influence to overthrow ancient laws. This really builds great tension between Romana and those opposing her, believing her to be a threat to Time Lord society.

The final third, which sees the two Romanas banter while Leela tries to make sense of the situation, and Andred frames Narvin for murder, is truly enjoyable.

Lies then sets up the narrative threads of Season 2, which sound a bit more intriguing to me than the ones featured in the first season. Colour me intrigued to hear where this series is going next!

Setup, but done really nicely here.

I love the character interactions we get here, Brax and Romana, Leela and Romana, Romana and Romana...... Okay mostly I just love what we get of Romana here, but in my defence, Romana's really good.

Brax's interactions with Narvin here are also pretty nice, I like his confession of what he's doing with time travel, and then his, glee isn't the right word, but just how quick he is to suggest a mind wipe of Narvin after the events of the story.

Romana 1's appearance was an unexpected surprise, but it was great for the story. I love the backstory we get for Romana here, her childhood, Brax mentally manipulating her, the retconning her reason for regeneration in the main show. In another writer/actor's hands it could be a lazy excuse to retcon out a somewhat out of character moment for Romana from the show, but here it's elevated, adding a sense of intrigue about her origins, and setting up what I assume is the ongoing thread of this season.

Also a last note, I like the worldbuilding touch that the myth of Pandora is universal, that every world has some equivalent of it.

Gallifrey; Chapter V  - “Lies" by Gary Russell

Gallifrey Series One was not everything I had hoped it to be. Overall, I think it was a consistently fine affair that I was promised acted as an extended pilot, a sentiment I definitely agreed on after finishing it. The stories all followed too similar a formula and too similar a style. The themes, whilst there, were surface level and the characters all had their moments but really it felt like the build up to something bigger, something better. Good, but not impressive. I expected Lies to be the entrance to a new era for Gallifrey, the new wave, and that was, ironically, a lie.

Weeks following the time disruption in Berlin, President Romana is trying to keep a furious high council at bay after she implements numerous, controversial changes. Meanwhile, as Leela sulks through the subterranean Gallifreyan vaults, an old and cunning presence grows ever stronger.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

The thing that really bothered me about Lies is that it wasn’t bad, it really wasn’t, but it also felt like Gallifrey eating itself; a scripted ouroboros of sorts where the formula that teetered on the edge of being unbearable for the whole first season finally grips the whole story in its cold, dead hands. But then again, Lies isn’t boring, or infuriating or disheartening, it’s just so unimpressive. The plot is barely even there, as simple as you can get for a political thriller (with a slight sci-fi twist). All it really tries to do is set up Series Two, giving Andred a new plot line and introducing villainous intelligence Pandora as an overarching antagonist, as well as setting up some tensions within Romana’s inner circle. It’s enough to keep the interest, at least. I also think the performances helped hugely; we get extended sequences with Louise Jameson and Lalla Ward playing off a surprise Mary Tamm, which was predictably delightful and fun. Add in John Leeson as an increasingly more loveable K9 and this story’s real strength is just having these four argue it out in a dark, dank tunnel. However, at the end of the day, Lies is set up, plain and simple. Disappointingly brief and uneventful set up as it may be, it has a purpose and serves it well. This series seems promising, if they can step up the pace, the stakes and the ideas then we have some nice conflict on our hands that I think could lend to some really stellar character work. Hopefully a little stronger than last season across the board, but frankly anything’s better than more of this.

And that’s not to say Lies is bad - as I’ve already mentioned - but it’s formula to the max. Even the worst of Series One had some good ideas; Square One had a really cool time travel mechanic, The Inquiry had a unique set piece. Lies just feels like all the dull bits combined, all the exposition and the confusion and the poorly woven political trickery. It has no particularly great moments, no particularly strong bits of character work. I actually think it does some rather dull things with its cast. Romana and Leela apparently haven’t talked for weeks following the incident with Andred but they reunite and simply get on with what they have to do, no “where have you been?”s or “what the hell have you been doing?”s. Hell, there’s not even a “how are you?”. What could be some really interesting examination of the interplay between the two just turns into a plot convenience. But then again, what plot? This is a lot of exposition used to set up some arcs at the end of the day, extended conversations about the same thing. How, even when stripped of most ingenuity, Gallifrey still manages to have half its script be exhaustive exposition is beyond me. And, as is tradition, it doesn’t make much sense.

Lies is promising, I will say that. It gives glimpses of some tense and complex plot down the road, those plots just aren’t here. I don’t really think it deserves the score I’ve given it, but I’m taking into account the type of story this is: a whole load of nothing. Will I care about this in a month; a week; to the end of today? Maybe not. I should congratulate Gary Russell for making a plotless synopsis for future stories interesting, but really I’m just lukewarm and hoping for some turn around in pace later down the line.

5/10

Pros:

+ Simple but captivating plot

+ Jameson, Ward and Tamm all play brilliantly off each other

+ The set up for the season seems promising

Cons:

- In all aspects unimpressive

- Skips over the gaps in Romana and Leela’s relationship

- Relies heavily on more convoluted exposition