Time War: Beyond

"No solution to this war will come without compromise."

Writer: David Llewellyn 

Format: Audio

Released: February 2021

Series: Gallifrey 12.03

Featuring: Romana II

Synopsis 

Romana met her fate on Unity, but Braxiatel isn't ready to give up on her. In a forbidden realm, he offers one last hope to escape the chaos of a universe at war. 

First, they must enter the Beyond and confront the ghosts and monsters within...

Verdict 

Beyond was a very good and intriguing episode to continue the twelfth series of Gallifrey! This fourth Time War instalment really does seem to be building towards an empathic finale which I’m excited for, and picking up straight away with Braxiatel saving Romana was excellent. They were flying into a block hole into the Beyond which was a fascinating concept! I loved that it was a product of the Time War and contained timeliness that never were and essentially acted as a depositary of lost events. The potential there was brilliant! The description of layers of time was good and I liked the issues of only going down through layers rather than heading backwards to the TARDIS. Brax revealing that Romana may be the only person he trusted was a nice touch. He’s an intriguing character but it’s nice to know he has that kind of admiration for her. Zara was a good character who arrived quite suddenly and she’d gone through a lot in living the moment of an exploding star over and over again. She was more than trepidatious at seeing two newcomers! Brax wanting to use her TARDIS and heading for the Dreadnought Servia was a good story direction. I liked the horror in Romana’s voice when it was stated that in this timeline it was actually her who gave the order to destroy Cannovar, but she didn’t have much time to ponder on that after Zara was cocooned in the TARDIS with the paradox neutralising her. When she reverted back to the start, the inclusion of the Ravenous alongside her was a good surprise! They were aiding her and whilst I’m still far from catching up on the events surrounding the Ravenous, it didn’t feel like any prior listening was necessary here. Brax going to the Beyond in search of the Parallaxe was good and I always like the potential of something proclaimed to be able to end the Time War. The story of the engineer of the Beyond was fun to ponder on with it being rumoured to be a Time Lord. The elision to another man crossing paths with their TARDIS was good and whilst it was perhaps meant to be the Doctor it turned out to be Narvin. Gaining the access codes through Romana still being considered President in this timeline was fun but for Narvin there was a large emotional turmoil and I loved that he didn’t want Romana to tell the version of him that she knew about what was happening in the Beyond and the timelines that never were with the attack on Cannovar. Romana’s shock at being the one to give the order was good and I enjoyed the transformation of Zara into becoming part of the Ravenous. They were relishing the Beyond in feeding endlessly as timelines reset. The Parallaxe removing entire species from time and space in attacking the genome level was brilliant and a deadly weapon. The cameo from Leela as the energy source in the Beyond was good and I liked how it was alluded to that she may be the reason Romana gave the order in the first place. Hearing her last moments was full of emotion. The talks between Romana and Brax about the Doctor, whilst unnamed, was intriguing as they pondered on him changing for the worse. The Parallaxe weapon ensuring that Gallifrey was safe whilst other worlds were not highlighted the selfishness of the Time Lords but at least two Gallifreyans were needed to activate it. The moment they found the engineer of the weapon was great and Romana had worked it out already with it being an older Brax! That was a fun twist and the Parallaxe actually led to a universe without Daleks and the Time War. It wasn’t a weapon but a way out. Brax wanting to be the one to end the Time War was terrific and he’d used Romana to get her here. The younger Brax being oversaturated with temporal energy to kill the Ravenous was nicely done and I liked that Romana took the decision to head to Gallifrey and not use the gateway out. A frantic finale awaits! Overall, a very good episode. 

Rating: 8/10