Renaissance

"I've come to save the future."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: October 2013

Series: Gallifrey 6.02

Featuring: Romana II, Leela, Narvin

Synopsis

Gallifrey lies...

Returning to her original homeworld, Romana finds Gallifrey to be cold and empty... the corridors of the Capitol lie silent and the wastelands are populated only by a handful of primitive monsters.

Her only hope lies with the appearance of a strange young woman: a woman with a masterplan so devious it makes Romana's own masterplans look decidedly not-devious-at-all...

How far would Romana go to save her world? Would she risk the Web of Time? And who is the mysterious stranger watching from the shadows...?

Verdict

Renaissance was another strong episode to continue the sixth series of Gallifrey! I thought this followed on from Extermination nicely and finally saw our Gallifreyan lead trio of Romana, Leela and Narvin return home to the correct Gallifrey after quite a lengthy absence. It does seem quite some time since they all stepped foot on the true version of the planet of the Time Lords and it was great to have them back. A lot seemed to have changed as there weren't very many other Time Lords present, but one that did intercept Romana's transmat beam was of particular interest. Lady Trey served as a fascinating future incarnation of Romana which was brilliant and a fine idea as it does indeed seem that the Time War is looming. If that is the war that she referred to in coming back from the future to try and avert, then I do question how she managed to escape the time lock, but there still remain unanswered questions so I won't fully comment on that just yet. It was clear that this version of Romana was going to be a little more than she seemed as she did have that aura in her personality of not given the whole truth, but I thought there was enough of the Romana that we knew there to also keep listeners confident that she was acting for good. Narvin having issues with Romana doing a deal with her future self was fantastic and provided some good tension between the pair, and the very idea of Romana borrowing a Gallifrey from the future was terrific. I liked how the intentions were to smash down the Web of Time and essentially restart to ensure that Trey wasn't the last of her kind, even if that was a position Leela understood. The conversation between Leela and Trey regarding friendship was poignant and it was also nice that the noble savage now considered Gallifrey her home. The mystery of the stranger lurking in the shadows was very good and I liked how it was both Leela and Narvin that witnessed the figure on different occasions. Leela actually conversing with the figure without getting an audible reply back was intriguing and I do hope we get some more answers regarding that in the finale. The subtle and slow way in which the manipulation of Trey developed was magnificent as we heard Narvin inaugurating her as President before his own version of Romana was forced into exile. The fact she was going along with it all despite not really understanding why was good, and the instincts of Leela being what swayed her into accepting something was off was marvellous. For a moment, I thought we were on track for an entire new spinoff with Romana and Leela as they looked to embark on adventures in a Type-40 TARDIS which would have been fine with me! Romana recounting her own version of the famous farewell speech from the Doctor in The Dalek Invasion of Earth was sublime and another shining moment for Lalla Ward. The ending was fast paced and full of action that led us to quite the cliffhanger with our version of Romana seemingly regenerating next to the Eye of Harmony, something that would cause the destruction of Gallifrey as we knew it! Leela earlier prompting Romana into admitting that in Trey she only saw future death was excellent, and maybe now is when she will regenerate into that incarnation! Overall, a fine audio adventure. 

Rating: 8/10