Havoc

Gallifrey: Time War #2.1

Released: 20 March 2019

Listened: 5/19/21

After the last series, we’re left with just Romana and Narvin as protagonists, which means there’s lots of Gallifreyan politics going on. In this case, with a curveball, because Rassilon is back and installed as President Eternal (never mind that he essentially murdered the newly elected President Valerian to get here). Rassilon uses the excuse of the war to basically set himself up as an autocrat, sidelining the War Council, disbanding the Chancellery Guard, and setting up an Interior Defence Unit loyal only to him. While this is going on, Narvin investigates a murder, because of course there’s a murder, and of course the murderer is from the future with important information about how the war turns out, which is very much against all the rules, but hey, there’s a war on. All of this put together causes Romana to vow to create a resistance, which I’m sure won’t cause any problems in the middle of a war with the Daleks. Narvin doesn’t come off too well in this one, complaining of feeling old and being unable to run down a suspect. Clearly they’re sticking with the idea that he lost his remaining regenerations during their Axis adventures. I’m not sure I particularly like this version, stripped down to two characters, but I’m willing to see where it goes.