Forever

"Our conquest of space and time is at hand!"

Writer: David Wise

Format: Audio

Released: March 2011

Series: Gallifrey 4.04

Featuring: Romana II, Leela, K9

Synopsis

Gallifrey stops.

Romana has been assassinated... The Time Lords have never existed... Gallifrey's secrets are lost.

On a world they barely recognise. Narvin and Leela find themselves fighting to stay alive. Against all their expectations, brutality and barbarism reign. And Gallifrey's slaves are rising up to face their masters.

Before this day is out, their lives will change forever. And the world they know might end before it has even begun...

Verdict

Forever was a very good story to conclude the fourth series of Gallifrey! I have found this series a nice and much needed shift from the political complexities of the first three series and I have enjoyed serval different takes on alternate Gallifreys. This was another intriguing version and things started with a bang (pun intended!) as Romana was assassinated before the credits even ensued. Of course, this was the Romana of the alternate timeline but that was still a pretty big occasion! It was a fun twist to have our Romana get instantly involved in the affairs of this Gallifrey as they quickly realised that this was a version where brutality was very much the common way of life and the history of Rassilon's involvement in the Eye of Harmony spoke volumes. I really enjoyed the prominence of the alternate Narvin as Chancellor and the true version's distain for that role and how it was the worst position to hold on Gallifrey was terrific, especially when Romana gave him that very promotion by the episode's close. That was a lot of fun. I liked how there was a threat of losing access to the portal back to the Axis for this adventure and I think that kind of jeopardy was needed at this point when it comes to the story arc as a whole. The concept of slaves on Gallifrey just doesn't seem right in the modern era and having Carole Ann Ford play one was quite something! It was a loose and subtle insinuation that the Doctor's offspring, and perhaps even the Doctor himself, amounted to nothing on this Gallifrey. A stark reminder of where things had gone wrong! I thought the fact that her character got referred to as grandmother at one point was wonderful though. I could really appreciate that. The ease in which Narvin got Romana to admit that she didn't actually have a double that was assassinated and was a different version to his President was so amusing and made Romana look like a real amateur. He would never stoop to marrying her! That was great. I liked exploring Gallifreyan history there, even if it was an alternative version, and learning of how things went sideways with Rassilon and the Eye of Harmony was very intriguing. Here, there was something living at the heart of the black hole and it scared Rassilon so much that he had prevented the power of the Eye ever being harnessed. That was until our Romana came along with her Time Lord knowledge and revealed all about the role of the transduction barrier. Once again, she had caused death and destruction and that's a theme I really am finding intriguing. Leela noticed that Romana was not herself and I'm keen to explore that further as the spinoff roles on into a fifth series. The fate of Leela at the end here was emotional and a good cliffhanger to leave us on as she was devastated to see that K9 was sacrificed and lost. She had already seen enough in recent times with so much death and even Braxiatel having to make the ultimate sacrifice, and so she ran off with no intentions of seeing Romana or Narvin again. I'm fascinated to hear where things go from here and if we will be staying put on this brutal version of Gallifrey. Overall, a very good end to the series!

Rating: