The Time War breaks across Gallifrey like a wave and sweeps everyone away. No one ends up where they expect to be. But everyone washes ashore somewhere…

Gallifrey as a range is 20 and this smartly designed collection takes us from the start to the end and back again. If you’re new to it, like me, you’ll struggle a little in spots but keep going, everything becomes clear. Gary Russell’s scripts bookend the piece and put us in the delightfully officious skin of Narvin, Romana’s occasional opponent and eventual fervent (or is that reluctantly fervent) supporter. Damned If You Do sees him on Gallifrey before it all goes wrong, working a simple case with CIA Cadet Kransa. Some of the first non-Gallifeyan students at the Academy have got lost in the catacombs and all they have to do is retrieve them. But nothing is simple in the catacombs and Narvin, head full of politics and officiousness, is about to find that out.

Seán Carlsen is a fantastic actor and this set is structured to show us just how good. This is Narvin at the start of the series, and the start of this life. He’s an officious little bully, a man whose huge Gallifreyan collar lifts his chin so high he almost buys into the story it tells him. That Time Lords are superior. That he, as a CIA agent, is superior to many. He’s not entirely wrong but he’s also not entirely lost to the hype and Carlsen and Russell give us some moments of surprising empathy. The sudden flash of almost painful nostalgia he feels when he recognises that his cadet is treating him like he used to treat his superiors is a standout but the entire story is littered with moments like it. Narvin is in no way especially likable, but he’s relatable and that’s very powerful. It’s also what Russell uses to balance the otherworldly elements of the story’s close.

Fio Trethewey and Georgia Cook’s ‘The Questing Beast’ is up next and it’s a standout in the set. The writers of excellent upcoming podcast The Holmwood Foundation give us a story between stories. Braxiatel (Miles Richardson), lost in battle with a dark version of the Doctor from the early days of the series, lands on an alternate version of Gallifrey which is both comfortingly familiar and alien. Richardson’s delightfully unctuous Brax has always been a highlight of anything he’s appeared in and this is no exception. Brax is, like Narvin, far from a hero but he’s also far from simple. Richardson’s constant wry humour and warm delivery is the perfect vehicle for Trethewey and Cook to slip the knife in and this is one of those stories that benefits vastly from the infinite ‘budget’ of audio design and Richard Fox’s excellent work. Brax battling a dragon is fun. The exact nature of that dragon and how Narvin plays into it is even more fun and poignant. As the authors explain in the excellent behind the scenes material, this is a story set between stories and one that feels absolutely worthy of its existence, making the lives of every character in it more fun and well-rounded.

Una McCormack’s work is always remarkable and ‘In Search of Lost Time’ is no exception. Ace was an almost off-hand casualty of the series and dumped back on Earth with an ambiguous level of amnesia about her time on Gallifrey and with the Doctor. McCormack and  Sophie Aldred pick that up and deliver an increasingly tense, uncanny descent into something truly horrifying: mundanity. Ace, flat sitting for a friend, makes her way around London. She’s Ace, determinedly cheerful, zero patience for nonsense. But she keeps meeting people. People who’ve seen her before but who she can’t remember… McCormack sits elements of espionage fiction, the Time War and the sort of clammy palmed uncanny that classic radio horror are based on and melds them all with Doctor Who. In the capable hands of Aldred the result is a story that plays like Gallifrey meets The Twilight Zone. Polite, friendly, uncanny and increasingly tense.

Russell and Carlsen return for ‘Damned If You Don’t’, which sees Narvin at the end of the Time War and a very different man. The priggish diplomat spy of the first story, a man whose racism was as cheerfully accepted as his robes, has been replaced by a battered pragmatist. Leading a squad consisting of the exact sort of students that he once sneered at, Narvin has become a better soldier than a spy and Carlsen allows us to hear him realize that. Russell also gives him a very Doctor-like cheerful fatalism. Narvin isn’t remotely expecting to live, and is more concerned with other people being in the same situation than saving himself. It’s a touching beat and one central to the story as he finds a surprising partner in this not-quite suicide mission. This is complex storytelling, Russell catching every ball the previous story threw into the air and the chances of it working aren’t high. The fact it does, and works so well, is a testament to the script, the writing and how durable and interesting this series is.

Verdict: I came into this with almost no knowledge of the last twenty years of stories. I struggled a little but as I gained confidence and understanding I enjoyed it more and more. This is a humane, compassionate, complex and witty quartet of stories and if they represent Gallifrey at its best then I need to do some catching up. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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