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Post by Star Platinum on May 12, 2022 5:14:11 GMT
What did you think of this story?
I rather enjoyed this one. While I felt season one could be a bit on the stuffy side, Lies feels more confident and a little more pacey.
We get an explanation for Romana's regeneration back from Destiny of the Daleks (one of several) and the set up of this seasons story arc. It's a delight seeing hearing Mary Tamm and we finally get a multi Romana story. Seán Carlson isn't quite the Narvin we all know and love, but hearing his character arc progress is always enjoyable.
The story address a plot threat touched upon in Neverland, but not followed up in that story. I do think that the imperiatrix storyline has more potential to it than the Timeonic fusion device did.
It's been a long time since I've made it through the Gallifrey early years, but I'm looking forward to it.
An hour well spent.
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Post by Digi on May 12, 2022 6:01:39 GMT
It’s been quite some time since I’ve listened through all of Gallifrey…maybe something to consider when I’m done my Survivors relisten.
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Post by Kestrel on May 12, 2022 6:56:49 GMT
I'm also a bit keen on a Gallifrey relisten. Easily among my very favorite ranges.
Though from the few conversations I've had with fellow fans, I seem to be in the minority when it comes to the Imperiatrix arc that started here. I kind of... didn't really like it, though maybe my opinion of it would improve on a relisten. I recall Lies as being a decent opener, but the arc itself being a bit too convoluted and long.
But it does lead into the AU arcs, which I loved.
I think maybe the reason it didn't work for me was that the arc was a bit too insular... dealing exclusively (IIRC) with internal Gallifreyan politics, whereas the first set felt more dynamic because it dealt both with internal and external politics.
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Post by Star Platinum on May 12, 2022 20:24:47 GMT
You know, all this talk of Gallifrey relistens, I was pondering the idea of arranging a listen through for the forum a few days ago, do you all think it would be a worthwhile endeavour?
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Post by Digi on May 12, 2022 21:59:34 GMT
I seem to be in the minority when it comes to the Imperiatrix arc that started here. I kind of... didn't really like it, though maybe my opinion of it would improve on a relisten. I recall Lies as being a decent opener, but the arc itself being a bit too convoluted and long. ... I think maybe the reason it didn't work for me was that the arc was a bit too insular... dealing exclusively (IIRC) with internal Gallifreyan politics, whereas the first set felt more dynamic because it dealt both with internal and external politics. Yeah I go in the exact reverse direction on series 1 and series 2, personally. I do enjoy series 1, but there are a more than a few times when it feels to me like they're trying way too hard to be oh-so-clever, whereas with series 2 I feel like they learned from that and figured out that it's better to just get to the point and tell the story. I think my biggest gripe with the entire range though is that one episode (which actually is in series 2 IIRC, naturally lol) where everyone is in the council chamber and people are quoting different clauses in the Gallifreyan constitution at each other. "OH no, per [article x], THIS! Aha!", "oh ho ho, but wait, per [article y], THAT! Ha HA!" "Ahhhhh but that only applies if Z, therefore..." It's a tedious, exhausting scene to listen to, and no matter how many times I hear it I find myself rolling my eyes. |
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Post by Kestrel on May 13, 2022 12:15:48 GMT
In full fairness i should probably say that I remember the physical experience of listening to the Imperiatrix quite vividly, because I'm disabled w/ chronic health problems and wound up going through those sets on a particularly bad few days. I dunno if you have much experience with prolonged, sever pain... but it can really affect your perception of time. Basically, it slows to a crawl. So when I say I found the arc tedious, that it overstayed its welcome... that may be partly due to me perceiving every real hour of time as around 10 hours, subjectively. So it's definitely among the releases that I don't think particularly well of that might benefit a great deal from a relisten (Doom Coalition is also there, for similar reasons). You know, all this talk of Gallifrey relistens, I was pondering the idea of arranging a listen through for the forum a few days ago, do you all think it would be a worthwhile endeavour? Actually, I think that's a really good idea. I actually started a "relisten" last year, but only made it through the first set before getting distracted. Hell, I still haven't finished my Mary Shelley relisten, which similarly stalled out after Comoanynif Friends. A forum rewatch would be a great incentive to go through Gallifrey more regularly... provided i could keep up. Like maybe one story a week or one boxset per month would probably be doable for me, but much more than that and I think I'd fall behind sooner or later. |
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Post by Digi on Jun 20, 2022 14:12:39 GMT
A month on from the conversation above, here we are!
So, I find some of the expository dialogue in this to be a little hamfisted and awkward, especially when they're explaining things to Leela. Dialogue--in any medium--is at its worst when doing the proverbial "wow Jim, we've been friends for how many years now?" thing.
That aside though, I think this is a pretty good start to the second series. It does a really lovely job of picking up threads that were deliberately laid in series 1, and does an interesting job of somehow both expanding upon them and managing to keep them mysterious at the same time.
I quite like the sound engineering on this one too. I suppose this isn't quite when that started (the previous story, for one, also did a great job of this) but it's a noticeable improvement since the start of the Gallifrey range. No longer does it sound like people are just sitting around in rooms with just the barest of echoes (if that), now it actually sounds like distinctly different locations, like they're actually walking from point A to point B, etc.
Good stuff.
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Post by Star Platinum on Jun 21, 2022 20:47:03 GMT
Here we are, full circle since the beginning.
My opionion hasn't changed much on this story.
It's great hearing Mary Tamm, Her and Lalla ward are great together in their shared scenes. Lots of development for Romana, including a justification for the opening Tardis scenes of Destiny of the Daleks.
5 weeks later, still a great listen.
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Post by Kestrel on Jun 30, 2022 4:50:25 GMT
Full circle indeed. Where the first series consisted largely of self-contained, episodic stories with only the barest hints of a greater story arc playing out in the background, here we dive headfirst into the protracted morass that is the Imperiatrix Arc. It's a bit of a mess and one that I distinctly remember overstaying its welcome (and then some) the first time I listened to it. Will it fare better on the relisten? I dunno. So far... not particularly. Anyway, as I see it, this story suffers from two issues. First, it's very heavy on continuity, referencing various events from outside of the Gallifrey range. EG Leela says, "The Doctor is not here: he is gone forever." Well, neat--I guess everyone thinks the Doctor is dead. I wonder why. Eventually they'll learn otherwise, but both revelations occur off-screen and generally speaking the Doctor's existence is something that everyone just pretends to be unaware of so that these stories can happen without a familiar blue box manifesting. And then we get a brief window into Romana's past with her comment about succeeding President Flavia, which was apparently disasterous. But even if I've listened to an audio with Flavia (and I probably have) she was not a sufficiently memorable character for me to have any idea what happened. So I'm just sort of left scratching my head and wondering why these nonquitter references were made in the first place. But secondly and most importantly, the Imperiatrix Pandora is a bit of a crap villain. She's just a... ghost in the matrix, and not a very threatening one. Her ignorance about Rassilon's fate and the possibility of partitions existing within the matrix, coupled with how easily she's fooled... make Pandora feel more like a two-bit villain-of-the-week more than anything else. That said, the actual sequence where Romana deceived Pandora was pretty well done, and felt nicely Doctorish. Romana I's interactions with Leela were also pretty delightful (in general I think the whole Romana/Leela relationship is the bedrock of this range, which is possibly the only cause I have to be anxious about the upcoming War Room miniseries). And speaking of Romana's relationships, we get a bit more insight into her and Brax here. Him mentoring her as a student is... well, it's something. It's something. I'm not sure what, exactly. I'd forgotten about this detail, but I remember getting the impression from later stories that Braxiatel might be harboring certain unrequited feelings for Romana, and if that's the case... well, I'm not gonna think about it too deeply. In this story, at least, Brax's motivations are perfectly, characteristically, utterly ambiguous. I... wound up going through those sets on a particularly bad few days. Oh, god. This series must be cursed. The exact same thing happened to me this time, too. Goddammit. |
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