Square One

"Time belongs to no one race."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Audio

Released: April 2004

Series: Gallifrey 1.02

Featuring: Romana II, Leela, K9

Synopsis

"It's too late... time is coming for us!"

In a climate of unease and mistrust, the great time-travelling powers of the universe are holding a historic temporal summit. The meeting will take place on a planetoid impervious to outside attack or internal subversion.

But while President Romana walks a knife-sharp political tightrope into dangerous territory, Leela and K9 find themselves attending the summit in unexpected roles. They are hunting for evidence of Free Time activity, but find instead terrors of a different kind – time and time again...

What impossibility stalks the planetoid? Who is manipulating time? Can Leela and Romana discover the truth – or will they find themselves sent back to square one for all eternity?

Verdict

Square One was another brilliant audio to continue along the first series of Gallifrey very nicely! I liked how this followed on from Weapon of Choice and the idea of the Time Lords forming an alliance of sorts when it comes to temporal powers firmly seems set to continue which I am intrigued by. I am still not sure what the payoff will be regarding the Free Time movement but I get the feeling that all will not be resolved in just two episodes. I thought it was great once again to have Romana and Leela as the lead characters and I enjoyed their relationship a lot more here. There was mutual respect which was nice to hear although they both still seem set on arguing on which K9 is the better model! That's good humour though and I hope we get more of that. The focus being on a temporal summit between representatives of the temporal powers was really good and I liked hearing all the different species and factions together here. Interests weren't entirely aligned and that made for a good story. I enjoyed that Romana and her follow Time Lords believed the Free Time movement to be funded by one of their fellow temporal powers. Hearing Romana tackle the issue of Time Lords contemplating interference was really good and you couldn't do a Gallifrey spinoff series without having them involved in the affairs of others. I think that's where the alliance works well because it gives them a reason to get involved. I thought Narvin was another standout character from the Time Lord side of things and his reaction at the end in finding out that he a part of a rouse was terrific. I love how in both stories so far Romana has been triumphant in revealing the big twist and the one here was another I didn't see coming! The idea of a faux summit that was just for show and to draw out any traitors and enemies is excellent and Hossak's reaction to realising that was fantastic. She so badly wanted the summit to go smoothly and get the result she desired, so she had manipulated her way into being able to turn back time when things went wrong. I liked how the network itself was being used as a means of going back in time and Leela getting to remember the events to come the second time around was marvellous. Her reaction to realising what had happened and referring to it simply as 'another yesterday' was outstanding. I do love the noble savage and this was her at her very best. Judging by her disguise as a dance performer and some reactions from onlookers from other temporal powers, they were also loving what she was doing. I was a little taken aback by some of the sexual comments and innuendos there and also having the word slut said on a number of occasions was not expected! It was good realism though and I think more of that is needed, especially in spinoff series like this. K9 being limited at the summit was good but I enjoyed how having two of them was utilised to somewhat combat that. I'm enjoying the references to The Apocalypse Element when it comes to the Monan Host and hearing a faction of them not being too pleased with the Time Lords was quite intriguing. It's an interesting dynamic. I was a little surprised that there was no further mention of Andred given how much Leela wanted answers surrounding him in the previous story, but I guess there is still plenty of time for that. As a whole, I thought the plot worked well and I found myself amused when dialogue was repeated as part of the time slippage that I thought I had accidentally skipped back a few minutes on the Big Finish app! Thankfully that wasn't the case. Overall, this was another excellent listen!

Rating: 9/10