War Room: Allegiance: The Last Days of Freme

"You need to let Romana go."

Writer: Lou Morgan

Format: Audio

Released: August 2022

Series: Gallifrey 13.01

Featuring: Leela

Synopsis

Leela is assigned to the War Room by Lord Rassilon himself. There, she finds an earlier incarnation of Ollistra, restored from the Matrix to oversee operations. She has a mission for Leela, and will go to any lengths to ensure compliance...

Verdict

The Last Days of Freme was was a great start to the Allegiance instalment of War Room, serving as the thirteenth series of the incredible Gallifrey spinoff! After such an eventful run in the four series of Time War, the ending to Homecoming with Romana being exiled and Rassilon taking Leela as his prisoner was tremendous. I’m not entirely sure that the stakes in this opener matched the ending of the previous boxset, but that would be incredibly difficult to achieve and I think we’ll have a good build up as this series goes on. It’s a nice change for the Gallifrey series and it definitely feels like we’re geared towards the latter days of the Time War with Rassilon’s continued talk of ascension. It’s a staggering goal and it’s clear he’s rather deranged. I’m a big fan of this incarnation of the infamous Lord President. He’s extremely chilling and doesn’t always feel like he’s in the room which is a huge compliment. It’s a fine villain. It’s a little strange to think that the lone savage of Leela is our only protagonist for this series with no Romana or Narvin this time around. She’s much more experienced now than when she was travelling in the TARDIS and I adore that her savage routes and instinct are attempted to be harvested for the benefit of the Time Lord cause. Leela’s devotion to Romana and her aim for Gallifrey is magnificent and I like that she was playing the game. She essentially did talk the people of Freme into blowing up their own planet in an effort to thwart the Daleks. The Time Lords having a lack of respect for their own Laws of Time is intriguing during wartime as they don’t seem to have a second guess when going back in time to stop the Daleks ever being in a position to take it. The Fremians were an intriguing bunch and whilst their planet was no longer their home, I enjoyed that its symbolism was important. Leela being the point of contact there was good and the only logical thing really. I’m really enjoying the continuity of having the General in the incarnation we saw on screen in Hell Bent present, but crikey he seems so inferior to Rassilon! It does add some credibility to the series which I’m all far. I was also delighted that Rassilon had extracted an earlier incarnation of Ollistra to see over some Time Lord operations. She was the one handing out the mission here which was great. I was a big fan of her return and I’m looking forward to hearing her direction for the series ahead. I think it’s quite fun that the TARDIS chameleon circuit failed upon arriving on Freme and that provided an almost instant sense of vulnerability. Leela was firmly in control in the forestry environment there despite the horror of her being controlled by a collar! She did please Rassilon in having them part of a Time Lord alliance which was good and there were some very Doctor-like elements in the conclusion there. I was impressed with her skill and intelligence. Overall, a really strong opener that has set things up with a nice sense of intrigue moving forward. A great listen! 

Rating: 8/10