Gallifrey 2.02 Spirit (Spoilers)

I'm all caught up now! Huzzah!

Anyway, this is the one where Romana and Leela go on a romantic little holiday together. Or kind of. Okay, maybe it doesn't rise to the level of proper subtext, but the Romana/Leela relationship is the foundation of this range and whether or not there's any physical or romantic attraction there (which is largely irrelevant, I think) it's clear that the two are a bit more than your average, everyday friends.

I can't help but wonder, though, if there would've been a bit more there there had this story been produced, I dunno, 10 years later. 

...Moving on....

We finally get an explanation for why Leela is "still hot." It's very stupid--apparently the Time Lords' immortality just kinda-sorta-literally rubbed off on her. Why, Big Finish? Why? Though interestingly this comes with the caveat that she would lose this immortality should she leave Gallifrey, which would have implications if it were a throwaway detail that is forgotten immediately after its introduced. After all, not only will Leela leave Gallifrey multiple times in future stories... she's also been off of Gallifrey in several stories in this range already, including this one. Oh well.

In general this story is a bit wonky with the details. The one thing that leapt out the most to me as utterly incongruous was the SFX used for the rescue vehicle--a helicopter. Not that futuristic helicopters can't exist, but just that... it's an oddly mundane, modern technology. Not the sort of thing you'd expect to see (or, erm, hear) in a story set on an alien planet... particularly one like Davidia's, which is a semi-artificial world created to be a retreat for various planetary leaders. The most advanced technology the universe has ever seen or ever will see ought to be involved here... and we get a chopper. Oh well.

And then there's the mysterious arrival of the Broken Man, bearing a warning of some catastrophic danger involved in Time Lord regeneration. A danger that, honestly, doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me as part of any deliberate plan. Time Lords, we know, are effectively immortal, even without regenerating, so even if there is a danger lurking in that process... it'd be one heckuva thing to coordinate. And how would such a "virus" be disseminated in the first place, given that we're talking about a huge population strewn across a vast span of time and space? Oh well.

Perhaps I'm coming across as overly critical year, but such is, I suppose, the result of a relisten: what I remember, I remember because I liked it; what leaps out as new to me, I don't remember, possibly because what I enjoyed about the story the first time through overshadowed it, or simply because I forgot. That does tend to happen to me. Oh well.

That said, I do still like this story (indeed, all of the stories in this range so far). Romana and Leela are the beating heart of this range, something I've said already and will certainly repeat several times more before this relisten campaign concludes. Louise Jameson and Lalla Ward are incredibly skilled actors with great chemistry, and placing the two of them together in any scene--let alone a whole story--is always a recipe for a fantastic time.