February 24, 2011

Square One (2004)

The second release of Gallifrey Series 1 is set immediately after the events of Weapons of Choice. Romana despatches Leela and her K9 to where a historic temporal summit is about to take place to see if there is any evidence of the terrorist Free Time group. After setting things up in the opening story it was time to get straight into action with Stephen Cole’s offering. The story sees Leela have to be an exotic dancer and they don’t go very well when a body is found and Leela is framed for the murder because she is a dancer and a savage. Things then seem to go back to an earlier part of the story which Leela seems to find familiar. When things don’t go the way they want then time gets wound back to the beginning.

The political unrest is something that very interesting and it seems perfectly suited to the Gallifrey series. The story is written by Stephen Cole who also wrote The Apocalypse Element and in the early stages of this story I did notice there was a faimilarity to that story. It took me a while to fully understand what was going on but after a while it started to make sense and the main scene where it is all explained is done quite well. Cole has managed to make the story quite smart but not complicated that no one would get it. I think that the relationship between Leela and Romana really shines in this story but its Leela that really pushes the story for the early part. It does seem quite an adult idea that Leela becomes a salacious dancer. It’s not something that would have been attempted in the main range.

Lalla Ward is very good as the President. I have always thought that Ward was the best of the two Romanas and she is believeable as the President. Her frustration is something that the Romana on TV did quite well and its nice to know that some 20 odd years later she hasn’t skipped a beat. Likewise with Louise Jameson who’s voice is slightly different to that of her TV time but its still sounds like Leela and its nice to have these two working together. Miles Richardson (Cardinal Braxiatel) and Sea Carlsen (Coordinator Narvin) are two well written characters and the two actors are very good.

Square One is an interesting idea but I didn’t find it as engaging as Weapons of Choice. The actual ending is slightly disappointing and that a shame because the rest of the story does a good job in keeping the listener entertained. Stephen Cole has written some interesting characters and the Gallifrey series is really starting to take shape.

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