Soldier Obscura

Gallifrey: Time War #1.2

Released: 22 February 2018

Listened: 5/16/21

This story is kind of a quick sideline that deals with just Braxiatel and Ace on a mission to check on one of those bizarre Time Lord weapons that nobody should ever use, and which Brax always seems to know a lot about. In this case, he’s left it in the charge of his old military mentor, Danna, in a region of spacetime so damaged that even looking at it causes insanity, which is a very Time-War-ish detail. Most of the story involves Brax acting very Brax, enigmatic to the point of being untrustworthy, knowing a lot more than he really ought to, while still seeming pretty friendly. Brax’s overall behavior isn’t too far from the Seventh Doctor’s, so Ace falls into a pretty familiar pattern, operating on limited information and complaining about it. Brax even implies that he’s evaluating her abilities as an agent, and favorably impressed. However, Brax is willing to be a bit more ruthless than the Doctor, and is likewise unwilling to make the sacrifice play, even if that could have stopped the war early on. I haven’t read or listened to the Benny stories where this version of Brax appears most, so I’m not sure whether that’s consistent, but it’s an interesting character study. Spoilers: The end of this story leads to Brax wiping Ace’s memory of her time on Gallifrey and depositing her back on Earth, which ends her involvement in the Gallifrey story and presumably sets her up for the founding of A Charitable Earth and the handful of “older Ace” stories that exist. It’s probably good that Ace doesn’t get caught up in the War, because there’s no good escape for her in that direction, but it seems a shame that she’s out of the series so early. I like this one because it’s different from the other Gallifrey stories, but that’s probably not going to last.