Arbitration (2013)

The final part of this fifth series has a lot to live up to and its brave of Gary Russell to give this responsibility of this to someone other than himself but he’s given this job to David Llewellyn who’s previous credits include a Bernice Summerfield and Dark Shadows both in 2012. The story starts off with Romana knowing that there is a possibility that they could get off the current Gallifrey but she wants to work on trying to improve the place but this good intention is ruined somewhat by Leela who is desperate to see justice done. I thought that the plot was quite good and it grabbed me from the beginning and continued to do so until the cliffhanger at the end.

In terms of performances, I must say that whilst they were both good it was Louise Jameson who just edged in my opinion. This story is the most Leela-like that Leela has been this series. She was angry and then it was followed by a rather nice emotional story from her past. Not saying that Jameson has not being good enough but this was the first time that the dialogue matched her performance. Lalla Ward gives another solid performance where she get to see the pressures that Romana has to deal with, she seems to want to leave this version of Gallifrey in a better state that she found it which is what politicians say all the time most notably by Margaret Thatcher when she left office in 1990. The supporting cast were all on fine form and do a great job in supporting both Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson with Barnaby Edwards being a particularly memorable highlight.

One of the things that have been part of the backbone of this spin off is the relationship between Romana and Leela. Having coming from compeletley different lifestyles (and also periods in the Doctor’s history) it’s not a surprise when they butt heads but in this story the relationship between Leela and Romana seems at its most strained. It’s been building up over the three plays and it comes to its climax here. Thankfully its bought back together towards the end but it’s good that their friendship was reformed in 10 seconds but it was done well and worked for me. The final 10 minutes of the story were arguably the best of the story, it was building up to the end and it’s the thing that most people will remember from this release. My despair at thinking the figure at the end was K9 quickly turned to delight when I heard the Dalek blaster followed by the voice of the Dalek. I genuinely didn’t see that coming, it’s very rare that I don’t see something coming but this was one of those moments. I can’t believe that we will have to wait until October for the final series but I think that it’s shaping up to be a fitting end to this spin-off series.

As a story it’s very tense and dramatic. It knows it has to serve a purpose and it does it very well. I cant say that as a series its better than Gallifrey IV but I still enjoyed it and enjoyed it because it reminded me of the earlier series.