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 | Reviews for Gallifrey: Time War - Volume Four |
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| Some of the very best of this series |
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| By: | Doug W, An Alternate Reality (formerly Pocono Summit), United States |
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| Date: | Monday 22 January 2024 |
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| Rating: |   8 |
Hey, Timelash.com guys! Reviewing four stories in one shot is kind of tricky! That could be part of why fewer reviews of these have been submitted. Having said that, I'm excited to come back and write about this final? "season" of the original Gallifrey series. It's at least the final volume of Gallifrey Time War.
I've listened to Volumes 1-3 also, and haven't been inclined to stop and review them, particularly Volume 3, which I didn't care much for at all, though I must say that the time war angle of time paradoxes and distortions of normal causality has been fascinating to listen to, and made me wonder how the writers managed to reach the level of multidimensional twisted strangeness present in some of the stories of the first 3 volumes.
Volume 4 seems like it may have had the first story or two carry over from what was among what had been commissioned for Volume 3, but even in these first two, there's a bit more that makes an impression. In Deception, Leela and Eris, and some Time Lord double agents, encounter deception fields, which are apparently deployed by the Time Lords in various places as part of their war efforts, and cause exceedingly creepy and frantically insane experiences, turning people's own minds against them. I'm sure the production team had a ball crafting the sound effects, but this is seriously unsettling stuff.
In Dissolution, Narvin and Rayo escape a Dalek ambush by taking an emergency TARDIS trip to the hidden Patrix Chapter retreat, which is Narvin's Chapter House, where they meet the Apothecary, who has a history with Narvin. This one is light on action and story, and is much more of a character-driven focus on some of Narvin's backstory.
The story in this volume that motivated me to write a review is the excellent Beyond, which is by far the best story in the Gallifrey Time War series, and the best Big Finish story I've listened to in quite some time. An amazingly enormous depth is written into this single episode. Our Brax and Romana journey into nested realities - a dimension within a dimension within a dimension, in search of The Parallax. Since these are outside of the "prime" universe, some huge and very divergent events can happen here that give the story an immense weight and leave a lasting impression. And the final revelation of what The Parallax actually is, where it actually leads to, and who the engineer is who created it is a very well crafted and meaningful resolution to the story.
With so much different Doctor Who media and so many different Big Finish releases, it's tough to get a good read on what comes before what. In Beyond, in the course of traveling through The Beyond, we get the first appearance of the Ravenous in the Gallifrey series (but apparently not their first ever appearance). These creatures were an aspect of Beyond that I found a bit too dark and disturbing, what with them devouring Time Lords and Time Lord energies, but which is ultimately a minor detraction.
The final story of this volume is Homecoming, which involves a plan to end the time travel aspect of the time war by closing off the possibility of time travel for both the Daleks and Time Lords. It's a fine story to close out this volume, with some fun crazy stuff from the Dalek emperor and Rassilon, and it leaves one wondering what the fate of a few of our regular characters may be after this.
In Homecoming, we have a very striking parallel to present day government madness (this was apparently released in 2021 though interestingly, this volume was in production some 18 months prior to that); the present day real world events I'm referring to are a President trying to exercise power far beyond what he actually has over his citizens, and directives made to throw away decades or centuries of medical science and disregard what is known and established fact. Near the end of Homecoming, as the time war is nearing its peak, Rassilon says, "If I say down is up or black is white, so mote it be. I paint reality with my words." It's a stark portrayal of mad, mindless authoritarianism. After this and after imprisoning the Doctor in his confession dial for billions of years, the Doctor would return to Gallifrey and exile Rassilon ("Get off my planet!") in Hell Bent. By the way, in Hell Bent, the Doctor was "hell bent" on *saving Clara*, if anyone didn't get that. That's what that story was really about. But by then, he'd had enough of Rassilon.
In this volume, we also have Rassilon speaking of the coming "ascension" of the Time Lords into beings of pure thought. This sounds to me very much like the Celestis of the Eighth Doctor BBC books series. I don't know if that reference was intentional or not.
The regulars here in Volume 4, namely Lalla Ward, Louise Jameson, Sean Carlsen and Miles Richardson are all such a treat to listen to, and Richard Armitage as Rassilon is a powerful presence here as well. Nicholas Briggs also does great work with the dalek voices, though I'm not sure I'd say daleks are ever really a "treat" to listen to. To me, Lalla Ward is particularly enjoyable to listen to here and throughout the many Gallifrey series, and continues to sound virtually the same as she did some 40+ years earlier.
Overall, Gallifrey Time War Volume 4 brings the Gallifrey Time War series to a kind of end, as we know there's more to come after this in other media, and does so with some solid stories, including the superb Beyond. I haven't yet listened to the Gallifrey War Room series, which appears to pick up from here.
