Gallifrey Time War Volume Four

 Gallifrey Time War Volume Four

Gallifrey Time War Volume Four for the most part, (we'll get to that), does retain the level of quality of the previous three sets. It's focus is primarily not on Romana, but on Leela and Narvin, and this is perhaps a strong move given the cliffhanger from Unity. Time War Four has an immense scope, wider than any of the previous sets in the series. The rise of the resistance against Rassilon gives the series a lot more quality work to do in the vast cosmos, which helps to mitigate some of the meanderingness of set three and give the set a conclusive focus, even if the series has lost a good deal of it's political edge since volumes one and two. Now the series is a monumental space opera with an ensemble cast of many characters to work with.

 The volume delightfully has the return of Eris, Rassilon, Mantus and Livia, although that was indeed expected. What wasn't was the returns of Braxiatel - who flits into the series very nicely for an episode. Leela, Narvin and briefly Rayo are excellent leads as per usual, and I like that this set almost makes you think that the cliffhanger from Volume Three isn't exactly going anywhere. The gorgeous boxart for this volume may be the most frustrating thing about it, unveiling the presence of both Romana and The Ravenous, surprise appearances. Still, there are a lot of things to say about Volume Four, perhaps more than most volumes in this Time War. This series is a bastion of light that really proves to me the Time War can be explored well as a setting, which is so often a VERY difficult thing. I may even (gasp! sacrilege!) look into further series set in the era.

Deception by Lisa McMullin 

The set opens in fairly normal Gallifrey fashion, with Leela, Narvin, and Rayo arriving at a base for the resistance against the Time War. As the story goes on, however, Leela and Eris soon find themselves trapped in a TARDIS in a high concept thing called a deception field, which causes intense, vivid hallucinations generated by something called the Neverman. 

Deception is very busy and very hard to describe out loud - for that matter, it would be next to impossible to even do in anything that's not audio. The Neverman is one of those delightfully creepy "you never know what the heck this even is" concepts that Doctor Who doesn't do often enough. It works especially well considering the bombastic off-screen descriptions Russell T Davies often gave the Time War. Leela is the main focus of the story, Louise Jameson acquitting herself quite well, however it's not the sort of script that allows her to deliver a gorgeous powerhouse performance that will be long remembered. It doesn't very much care about interpersonal character drama, most of that saved for the following (frankly gorgeous) episode.

 A lot of the problem in this story is that it's in the middle of an arc, and in order for Leela and Eris to do their cool space high concept story idea which Lisa McMullin, of course, writes masterfully, there has to be around twenty minutes of setting up the resistance and what it's like and plot threads to be followed up on later and all sorts of nonsense. That's not anything McMullin could do anything about, and it's good she tries to make Deception have it's own twisted little identity in the first place, but thanks to the resistance, the tale doesn't necessarily have the time to explore the lovecraftian horror that drives everyone mad. 

Still, it's got the same quality production you can come to expect from this series and the brilliant minds behind it. Deception has some very brave ideas which it acquits wonderfully. With the pacing necessary to it's plot, A writer lesser than Lisa McMullin may have given us something disastrous. Very much worthy of your time. 7/10

Dissolution by Lou Morgan

Dissolution is a big juicy little character drama episode, where the only threat is a single Dalek that shows up for a bit in the middle and causes trouble before we go right back to the juicy character drama. Yummy. 

Dissolution is my favorite kind of Gallifrey script, the kind of story that is built off of opposing juxtaposition, how two different characters have to work together. From Braxiatel and Ace in Soldier Obscura to Romana and Leela in Unity, these stories that exist solely to prod at drama with a sharp stick are very much my favorite thing. This time it's Narvin and oddly, Rayo, a character who I hadn't seen much a point to up until this point. But how wrong I was! Omar Austin is seriously good, and so is Sean Carlsen, who oddly has decided that 14 episodes in, THIS will be the episode he gives the best performance to. Dissolution is the Narvin show - as expected, considering, Narvin, Rayo, The Apothecary and a Dalek are the only characters to appear throughout the runtime. This is very bold, to give an episode in it's entirety to entirely original characters - mind you, Narvin has existed for quite a while, and he is the anchor point of the piece, but even he hasn't ever appeared on television or in print elsewhere. Narvin has long been the heart of Gallifrey, which makes it feel all the more special this is 100% his episode.

The more I think about Dissolution the more it completely and totally impresses me. The Apothecary is not some overly obtuse old wise lady character, but someone with depth who actually has a personality to her, despite her plot purpose of dispensing some hard to hear truths. Rayo is in opposition to Narvin throughout, yet he never becomes unlikable or overly hammy in some of his (probably very difficult to deliver) monologues or two-hand scenes with Narvin. Omar Austin is just incredible in this role, and although he's not been present for much of the series, somehow gives one of the most compelling performances IN a series with all sorts of all-stars. Really impressive. Perhaps the best episode yet. 10/10 

Beyond by David Llewellyn

Beyond is strange yet wonderful. One episode before the end of the series, Gallifrey Time War is still doing whatever it wants to. It's understandable. You can't just wrap up the Last Great Time War, and I think Beyond does much more good than bad. 

Beyond begins, trying to almost do it's own thing. It very quickly reintroduces Romana into the narrative - perhaps the right move, so late into the game, as well as Braxiatel. Braxiatel has decided to show up for a resounding one episode. One could argue it gives the series more to do than it already had - but I think deep down, we all knew it was coming. We certainly couldn't just get rid of him. He's far too clever. Even in his home turf, the Bernice Summerfield series, or the VNAs, he flits in and out from time to time, disappearing to do whatever Braxiatel does when he's not onscreen, to plan and plot and be a little scrummy bastard. He's a very enjoyable character, and Beyond works quite well as a concept, playing with the multiverse once more and doing elegant character work. Before long, we're knee deep in alternative realities erased by various Time War shenanigans. There's a phenomenal little cameo from Sean Carlsen as an alternative Narvin, as if Sean Carlsen just decided he was going to be the best performer this set and did so. 

The whole idea of seeing realities erased by the Time War and having Romana confront the worst possibilities that her actions could cause are both very elegantly utilized. There are very little problems with Beyond. Even the Ravenous, which spontaneously decide to show up (although the cover of the set irritatingly spoils it) are used quite well. I think David Llewellyn really gets what makes this series work: 9/10 

Homecoming by Matt Fitton

...I don't want to say Homecoming is bad, because half of it is good, but I do have to admit it is my least favorite Gallifrey Time War episode. It's just exactly what I didn't want. Everything about this series is built up around Rassilon. Whether he's even there in the story or not, regardless, the entire series is objectively about the Gallifreyan side of the War. The intricacies of what he's causing. Then Homecoming is almost entirely a Dalek story.

 I like Dalek stories at their best - as a matter of fact, this series has two of my all time favorites, Soldier Obscura and Unity, which both use the Daleks perfectly, as a threat, yes, but with purpose and with a primary focus on the character work. Without a focus on the character work as much, and as more of an action piece, Homecoming is easily one of the more flawed pieces yet. The most annoying part of the entire thing is WHENEVER it is not about the Daleks, the episode becomes really good. I like lots of it. I like Livia and Mantus' return to the series, I like Romana and Leela's scene, even if it is a bit easy, and I love Armitage as Rassilon, who is nearly as good as the impeccable Hardiman. I like the conclusion of the story on paper too, with everything nearly as miserable as possible and a distorted end credits theme, but it's really rushed to get to this point.

 Everything just happens so quickly. Which is especially frustrating considering the majority of the story has been our characters shooting at Daleks. The Daleks don't contribute much to the plot other than to create a reason to not blow up the Untempered Schism. You could easily cut them, have Rassilon explain that to destroy the Untempered Schism wouldn't work and the war would go on anyway. There most certainly was enough runtime to work with - it's just poorly used. I wanted something so much more dramatic and personal than this. 

Our regulars, while astonishing, really only manage to salvage around half of it. I still feel quite charitable to this set as a whole. Dissolution may be the best episode yet. But what happened here?? I'm very happy War Room exists, and I wasn't really going to grab it until now, but Homecoming makes it really feel like a necessity. It's very odd. This is just disappointing when everything was right there to work perfectly. 5/10