Quick! To the presidential TARDIS!
Dec. 17th, 2008 12:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bagheera_sanWhat?! WHAT?!!!! You cannot possibly end it there, Big Finish! *claws at MP3 player*
This cliffhanger is one of the most evil ones ever. Just when it got so good! Panacea is possibly the best Gallifrey episode yet. And yet I hear there will be no more Gallifrey?
1. Fractures
Is it just me, or is there a massive gap between Imperiatrix and Fractures? How did Romana escape from prison? What happened to Leela? How did Narvin choose sides? I do like the way this episode starts, though. At first you think it's an especially pathos-laden "Last Time on Gallifrey" summary, but then it turns out to be pro-Romana II propaganda, which is awesome. Also cool are Leela and Narvin working together as terrorists. Less cool is Pandora!Romana - I expected her to be a bit more fun and less useless. Blinding Leela is a strange choice, although it makes her seem even more badass.
2. Warfare
Romana and K9 preparing to die for Gallifrey is a cool moment, but other than that this is one of the weaker Gallifrey episodes.
3. Appropriation
Another not so great episode, because it is action-laden, and Gallifrey isn't good at action.
4. Mindbomb
Brax pulls a Gandalf! I suspected a connection between Matthias (what kind of a name for a Time Lord is that? Matthias is a perfectly ordinary human name! At least, it is in Germany.) and Braxiatel ever since Fractures when Romana mentioned that Matthias reminded her of Brax. What I didn't expect was Darkel's death, but it rocked. I also loved Leela and Narvin in the audience of the election, commenting on everything.
5. Panacea
Zombies on Gallifrey! The writing in this is superb. I love all the little references to various stuff - "How much for just the planet?" - and I love that apparently, Romana is the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. I love Leela's speech at Andred's grave, and Narvin being the "only senior Time Lord not to have been President this week" and, according to Arkadian, "always the bridesm-". Also funny was Arkadian Mephistopheles calling himself the master, because while his character is completely *wrong*, his name is the kind of alias the Master would choose. Somewhat frustrating was a bunch of senior Time Lords standing around and saying, "We need a biochemist!" and then going, "There is no one." Yes, there is. Your zombie virus was engineered by baby Rani Gillestes, how about getting the original to solve your problem?
And then the final couple of minutes are full of anvils of foreshadowing about the Daleks and the Time War, and Brax is being brilliant, and there's a really hard choice to make - and then: open end! Argh.
My personal ending to this is that Romana comes up with the brilliant idea to go find the Rani to solve their virus problem, and they do that, and Leela fights lots of zombies in a big dramatic final run to save Gallifrey and then the Rani finds a cure that does not require everyone to become mortal and Romana becomes an awesome renegade and everyone lives happily ever after. And then the Daleks show up and the Time War happens, and for a short period during the final days of the War Romana does become president again and she is brilliant at it, but they lose anyway.
Every single character has grown on me, which is pretty amazing, because to begin with I only sort of liked Brax. Now I smile at K9, and think that Leela is badass yet also want to give her a hug (poor thing), and Narvin is ♥ ♥ ♥(how much do I love that he grows from being the big meanie to being possibly the most loyal and upright Time Lord on Gallifrey?) and even though it took until the very last episode, I like Romana. One thing I really liked about Gallifrey is that it is so non-shippy, and yet at the same time it is full of unrequieted love and betrayal and subtext. Brax loves Romana, but in the end she feels he betrayed her and he has (several times, and yet always with her best interests in mind), Leela and Andred love each other yet can't have a happy ending, Romana and Leela are best friends and yet never quite as close as they could be, and you'll have a really hard time convincing me that Narvin does not grow *really* fond of Leela by the end, except she'll never ever notice it.
I'll miss this series, but luckily it is so complex and complicated that relistening is fun.
This cliffhanger is one of the most evil ones ever. Just when it got so good! Panacea is possibly the best Gallifrey episode yet. And yet I hear there will be no more Gallifrey?
1. Fractures
Is it just me, or is there a massive gap between Imperiatrix and Fractures? How did Romana escape from prison? What happened to Leela? How did Narvin choose sides? I do like the way this episode starts, though. At first you think it's an especially pathos-laden "Last Time on Gallifrey" summary, but then it turns out to be pro-Romana II propaganda, which is awesome. Also cool are Leela and Narvin working together as terrorists. Less cool is Pandora!Romana - I expected her to be a bit more fun and less useless. Blinding Leela is a strange choice, although it makes her seem even more badass.
2. Warfare
Romana and K9 preparing to die for Gallifrey is a cool moment, but other than that this is one of the weaker Gallifrey episodes.
3. Appropriation
Another not so great episode, because it is action-laden, and Gallifrey isn't good at action.
4. Mindbomb
Brax pulls a Gandalf! I suspected a connection between Matthias (what kind of a name for a Time Lord is that? Matthias is a perfectly ordinary human name! At least, it is in Germany.) and Braxiatel ever since Fractures when Romana mentioned that Matthias reminded her of Brax. What I didn't expect was Darkel's death, but it rocked. I also loved Leela and Narvin in the audience of the election, commenting on everything.
5. Panacea
Zombies on Gallifrey! The writing in this is superb. I love all the little references to various stuff - "How much for just the planet?" - and I love that apparently, Romana is the heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. I love Leela's speech at Andred's grave, and Narvin being the "only senior Time Lord not to have been President this week" and, according to Arkadian, "always the bridesm-". Also funny was Arkadian Mephistopheles calling himself the master, because while his character is completely *wrong*, his name is the kind of alias the Master would choose. Somewhat frustrating was a bunch of senior Time Lords standing around and saying, "We need a biochemist!" and then going, "There is no one." Yes, there is. Your zombie virus was engineered by baby Rani Gillestes, how about getting the original to solve your problem?
And then the final couple of minutes are full of anvils of foreshadowing about the Daleks and the Time War, and Brax is being brilliant, and there's a really hard choice to make - and then: open end! Argh.
My personal ending to this is that Romana comes up with the brilliant idea to go find the Rani to solve their virus problem, and they do that, and Leela fights lots of zombies in a big dramatic final run to save Gallifrey and then the Rani finds a cure that does not require everyone to become mortal and Romana becomes an awesome renegade and everyone lives happily ever after. And then the Daleks show up and the Time War happens, and for a short period during the final days of the War Romana does become president again and she is brilliant at it, but they lose anyway.
Every single character has grown on me, which is pretty amazing, because to begin with I only sort of liked Brax. Now I smile at K9, and think that Leela is badass yet also want to give her a hug (poor thing), and Narvin is ♥ ♥ ♥(how much do I love that he grows from being the big meanie to being possibly the most loyal and upright Time Lord on Gallifrey?) and even though it took until the very last episode, I like Romana. One thing I really liked about Gallifrey is that it is so non-shippy, and yet at the same time it is full of unrequieted love and betrayal and subtext. Brax loves Romana, but in the end she feels he betrayed her and he has (several times, and yet always with her best interests in mind), Leela and Andred love each other yet can't have a happy ending, Romana and Leela are best friends and yet never quite as close as they could be, and you'll have a really hard time convincing me that Narvin does not grow *really* fond of Leela by the end, except she'll never ever notice it.
I'll miss this series, but luckily it is so complex and complicated that relistening is fun.
