Gallifrey: Weapon of Choice
Starring: Lalla Ward as Romana, Louise Jameson as Leela, John Leeson as two K9s, and Miles Richardson as Braxiatel, and Andy Coleman as Torvald
Format: One full-cast CD-length episode
Silly? No
Standalone? No prior audios are essential before listening; the ending has some significant dangling plot threads but the main action of the episode is resolved.
Recommended? Yes
My reactions to this story contain spoilers for it and possible spoilers for early Big Finish Doctor Who.
Before listening
Early Gallifrey was CD-only for quite a while and only became available for download relatively recently. As soon as it became downloadable I realized I'd probably eventually listen to the whole thing, but I've saved purchases for when episodes go on sale. My understanding is that, as of Weapon of Choice, the idea of Romana having somehow escaped from E-space and become President of Gallifrey had already been established in the monthly Doctor Who range, in for example Neverland.I've read Gallifrey described as a political drama, but from what I've read about the stories of individual episodes it sounds like that's more of a notional framework than an actual focus, in the same way that the first series of UNIT is notionally X-Files-like but only has one monster-of-the-week episode in it.
I enjoy Ward and Jameson on audio and I have heard almost entirely good things about early Gallifrey, so this is a listen I am definitely looking forward to.
After listening
Where political drama is present, it is very much in the context of an espionage story. There are also espionage-story elements that have nothing in common with political drama, with betrayals and fights and disguises.The first scene includes neither Romana nor Leela. A joint investigation team from four "temporal powers", including Gallifrey, are investigating potential unauthorized time travel technology. A great deal of setting exposition happens in the course of their jurisdictional bickering and the evidence they find.
The story then shifts to Romana, who has been president of Gallifrey for an indeterminate length of time, receiving the investigation's report. Braxiatel in this story seems to be earlier in his own timeline than other Braxiatel appearances such as Seventh Doctor novels and the Bernice Summerfield audios, and he is reporting to Romana.
As Leela's part in the story begins, her husband Andred (whom she left the TARDIS to marry on TV) is missing and presumed dead and Leela has left the civilized regions of Gallifrey to join the Outsiders. However, Romana has devised a plan that requires a non-Gallifreyan as an agent, and she sends Braxiatel to fetch Leela and ask for her help. The Outsiders are spooked by Leela having ties to the president and refuse to let her join, so Leela goes along with Romana's request, hoping that it's what the Doctor would have wanted. We then have a team of Leela, Torvald, and K9 investigating the trail of a dirty temporal bomb, while Romana, Braxiatel, and Narvin remain on Gallifrey dealing with the diplomatic entanglements this involves. We learn little about Torvald and Narvin in this story, except that Narvin ends up initiating impeachment proceedings against Romana, with clear legal justification but unclear personal motivation.
The cross-cutting between political espionage and spy action occasionally makes it hard to take both sides of the story simultaneously seriously, but overall it works well as an engaging listen, and everything that happens in the story basically makes sense. Twists remain suspenseful through to the climax without any of them coming too far from left field, and the denouement establishes what seems to be a stable status quo for future episodes as well as an unresolved threat to be faced in those episodes.
Weapon of Choice is reasonably satisfying as an episode in itself and bodes well for the series; it is certainly worth getting if the notion of Gallifrey-centric Doctorless espionage appeals.
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