Deception

Gallifrey: Time War #4.1

Released: 4 February 2021

Listened: 5/23/21

After the interlude of the previous boxed set, it’s time to get back to Time Warrin’. This time, though, Romana is gone, assumed to be in Dalek hands, and also assumed (by Leela, not Narvin) to have Chameleon Arched herself into a human. The first thing Narvin does is hook back up with the Resistance. It’s being run by Eris, the idealistic former CIA agent, last seen in Volume 2, and he’s got some plans he thinks Narvin won’t approve of. The Resistance seems to be a real thing, opposing the Time Lord War Council, but also fighting against Daleks when necessary, and generally agitating for conducting the war in a way that doesn’t burn the universe down. Unfortunately, they’re raided and scattered shortly after Narvin, Leela, and Rayo arrive, so the three of them get accidentally separated. Which makes this mostly Leela’s story, as she’s dragged along with Eris on a rescue mission. The key point here is that Eris wants to save his friends specifically because they’re his friends, and he hasn’t lost sight of that yet, which goes a long way toward making Leela like him, and helping her come around to his cause. We can’t skip out on the politics entirely, enough, so we get intervals on Gallifrey with Mantus, who’s all-in for Rassilon, and Livia, who’s not, but is too afraid of him to do anything. There’s double- and possibly triple-agents, and it’s a bit hard to tell who’s spying on whom, but I’ll let that go for now. And finally there’s a new Rassilon, having regenerated after the assassination attempt at the end of Volume 2. He’s now played by Richard Armitage, who’s bringing everything he’s got to the role. Unfortunately, Rassilon has gone full authoritarian, and may also have become detached from reality, which is kind of unsettling given the real-world political situation in 2020, when this set was recorded. It’s good to have a Leela-centered story to kick off the set, but it’s not entirely clear where this is going.