Insurgency

Gallifrey #2.4

Released: July 2005

Listened: 4/1/21

I think this story may be an attempt at a bit of a “Lower Decks” episode, as a lot of it takes place in the Academy and focuses on a group of non-Gallifreyan students, which adds several new actors to the mix. Unfortunately, there’s more and more politics here, as various politicians want the alien students expelled from the Academy, and assert that they’re a security risk. Unfortunately, they’re kind of right, because the students idolize the Doctor and other Renegades, and want to “do something,” which doesn’t end well. Leela is a guest lecturer, and ends up advising the students to play it cool, which makes her disappointed in herself. Andred might be starting to have an epiphany, or he might be tricking students into incriminating themselves, or maybe both; it’s hard to tell, and we’ll never know. And Romana carries the Idiot Ball for this story -- robbed of her political allies, she thinks it’s a good idea to commune with the ghost of Pandora, as if she’ll get any good information from that. As a result, she becomes even more irritable, paranoid, and shrill, which I didn’t think was possible. And Darkel just continues being a straight-up baddie, eventually challenging Romana for the Presidency. The whole thing feels a bit over-stretched, and all the characters are miserable most of the time, so it’s not a very fun listen.