Gallifrey: Time War 2

Gallifrey #10

by David Llewellyn, Una McCormack, Lisa McMullin

Rassilon has returned – summoned back from the dead, to lead his people through their greatest crisis.

But the Time Lords will reap what they have sown, and the consequences of this resurrection will determine Gallifrey’s fate.

And in among the schemes and strategies of war, Romana and Narvin are losing friends and allies, as they become ever more isolated…

Four new chapters in the Gallifrey saga:

1. Havoc by David Llewellyn

In the aftermath of Rassilon’s return, Romana finds herself at the heart of the War Council’s machinations, with the High Council, the CIA, and the Lord President’s new security force all vying for control.

But then, a mysterious stranger arrives in the Capitol itself. And they bring a terrible warning from the future…

2. Partisans by Una McCormack

When the world of Ysalus becomes a strategic target for the Time Lords and their opponents, Gallifrey takes an interest in the planet’s civil unrest.

But the CIA and the War Council each have their own strategy.

And, as good intentions only make things worse, the true horror of the Time War will be visited upon the people of Ysalus.

3. Collateral by Lisa McMullin

As the scavenging Sythes descend on Ysalus, Narvin discovers how far his people will go to protect their interests.

The universe is discovering that no place is safe from the fury of battle.

Every victory in the Time War comes at a price, and too often it is the innocent who will pay…

4. Assassins by Matt Fitton

Pushed to the brink by Rassilon’s actions, Romana is thinking the unthinkable.

A new threat has breached Gallifrey’s defences. And its target is clear. A race of assassins has evolved at the heart of the Time War, dedicated to one purpose. The Sicari are coming for Rassilon…

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, British Literature

Audiobook

First published March 20, 2019

About the author

David Llewellyn is a Welsh novelist and script writer. He grew up in Pontypool and graduated from Dartington College of Arts in 2000. His first novel, Eleven, was published by Seren Press in 2006. His second, Trace Memory, a spin-off from the BBC drama series Torchwood, was published in March 2008. Everything Is Sinister was published by Seren in May 2008. He has written two novels for the Doctor Who New Series Adventures: The Taking of Chelsea 426, featuring the Tenth Doctor, and Night of the Humans, featuring the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond.

In addition to writing novels, Llewellyn wrote the Bernice Summerfield audio play Paradise Frost and the Dark Shadows audio drama The Last Stop for Big Finish Productions.

Llewellyn lives in Cardiff.

Reviews

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gallifrey Time War 2 was certainly something.

I love the hints to the older series of Gallifrey like Narvin mentioning the Dogma Virus and Vansell and I do love Terrance Hardman as Rassilon and Samuel Clemens as Mantus was superb! They worked very well together.
I do love the Eris/Knyla arc and thought that was very well done.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the best Gallifrey they've done in a LONG time. I will admit I had been trepidatious about it as it was the first Gallifrey which had more men than women on the cover! And the first volume of Time War had been disappointing! But I was encouraged that it was the first Gallifrey which actually had 50 percent women writers! And it showed! It was back to Gallifrey of old, women involved in politics! With lots of intrigue! And higher stakes! And Romana was back to her bitingly sarcastic self. Poor Narvin was a little incompetent at times, and a bit of a traitor! But I enjoyed this SO much. Though it really needed Leela. But it was Incredibly shippy in that last line!

Listened a second time and loved it again!

[Taksya · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Havoc by David Llewellyn
Si riparte dalla fine del primo volume (Gallifrey: Time War) con il ritorno di Rassilon... maniaco, egocentrico e fuori di testa, proprio come lo abbiamo sempre conosciuto.
Dal futuro arrivano messaggeri di sfortuna, ma il nostro President Eternal inizia a fare un po' di piazza pulita.
Almeno ci prova.
2. Partisans by Una McCormack
Un mondo di confine, con la sua piccola guerra fratricida, diventa importante per i giochi di potere di Rassilon e del consiglio... fortunatamente la C.I.A. e Romana non sono d'accordo.
3. Collateral by Lisa McMullin
Sfortunatamente le manovre di Romana e Narvin non riescono a salvare la piccola pedina scelta da Rassilon per dimostrare il suo potere ad alleati e nemici.
Ma anche i perdenti riusciranno a mettere in moto eventi che risulteranno indigesti per Rassilon.
4. Assassins by Matt Fitton
La fine della C.I.A. sembra vicina e, nonostante i rischi Romana e la Presidente Livia cercano di riportare Gallifrey alla normalità liberandosi di Rassilon.
Ovviamente falliscono, cosa che porta alla rigenerazione di Rassilon (a Timothy Dalton dobbiamo arrivare prima o poi) e a grossi problemi per Romana e Narvin.

Secondo capitolo retto completamente dalla strordinaria, è il caso di dirlo, Lalla Ward. Gli altri reggono il ritmo, ma Romana è la Time Lady che tutti vorremmo (di nuovo) a capo di Gallifrey.
Il secondo boxset finisce con l'annuncio della rigenerazione di Rassilon in gallifreyvision e con i nostri eroi alla ricerca dei dispersi del primo volume.
La curiosità aumenta e, per andare in ordine, tocca tornare dal War Master per il suo prossimo box.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS IS WHY I AM TRASH FOR GALLIFREY.
A selection of ep 4 moments that made me very happy:

- Narvin and Romana refusing to give up their search for Leela even though all evidence says she's dead.

- Romana telling Narvin she wondered whether he'd follow her forever (excuse me while I go cry in a corner)

- The pure happiness and delight and hope in Narvin's voice when he finds out Ace is safe on Earth and that Leela is alive??! OUR LIL PENGUIN HAS BECOME SO SOFT™

- Narvin throwing away the chance to have his regenerations restored so that he can save Romana

- Romana straight up trying to murder Rassilon like a stone cold bitch

- THIS QUOTE:
"I thought we might have had a future, Narvin, but you'd really give up your lives for her?"
"I've done it before."

- I just love that Romana's the engineer out of out two of them?? Just ripping into a TARDIS console while they're hurtling through the vortex, we are truly not worthy

- AND THIS QUOTE:
"Leela's out there somewhere, we're going into the Time War to find her!"

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un départ de l'épisodique (et beaucoup plus self-contained) du précédent coffret pour se recentrer sur les intrigues politiques accompagnées des conséquences de chaque décisions prises par les protagonistes. Les bras de fer sont épiques puisqu'ils menacent évidemment le temps et l'espace, mais chaque décision peut coûter des civilisations entières, ce que Romana est prête à défendre, mais dont Rassilon, rapatriant tous les pouvoirs possibles en ses mains, ne se soucient pas et préférant faire des démonstrations de force coûtant justement la vie de ces civilisations.

Havoc par David Llewellyn
Un bon premier épisode qui arrive à reprendre peu après où le volume 1 nous laissait. Rassilon a pris le pouvoir, mais les gens qui l'ont porté à ce niveau se rendent compte qu'il n'est pas aussi manipulable qu'ils le croyaient et que les contre-pouvoirs ne suffisent pas à l'arrêter. Le cœur de l'épisode tourne autour de l'arrivée illégale d'un TARDIS du futur et de son occupant inconnu qui vient de tuer un Time Lord dans le présent, mais aussi porter un message.
Le tempo était bon, alternant entre les intrigues politiques et la recherche du Time Lord. Les choix que chacun des personnages ont fait revient les hanter pour la plupart. Les allusions politiques s'éloignent de celles américaines autour de Trump pour plus revenir à des similarités plus subtiles avec la deuxième guerre mondiale et la création de polices politiques (SS et KGB) au service du leader qui se débarrassent de leurs opposants politiques.

Partisans par Una McCormack
Un épisode qui suit tout aussi bien le premier. Où on voit les seigneurs du temps instrumentaliser une guerre entre deux factions avec des idéologies tout aussi malfaisante sur un autre monde dans l'espoir de gagner un avantage sur les Daleks. Ça montre quand même un petit peu d'espoir quand on voit une personne instrumentalisée se lever et refuser de poursuivre le conflit de la manière dont c'est présenté, il ne me semble pas que je vois ça souvent (en tout cas, pas de manière aussi violente?).
À part la très longue introduction de la mission, on se laisse porter par l'intrigue qui arrive à bien se séparer de la trame politique plus générale pour ne s'y inscrire qu'au début et à la fin (et diriger les actions des personnages).

Collateral par Lisa McMullin
Collateral poursuit sur la lancée de l'épisode précédent en mettant de nouveau en jeu l'instrumentalisation d'Ysalus, mais à un niveau supérieur: son annihilation totale de la lignée du temps pour éviter qu'elle tombe dans les mains des Daleks. Bien qu'un des protagonistes, Eris, passe un moment sur la planète pour aider l'évacuation de réfugiés, le gros de l'intrigue se passe sur Gallifrey avec un bras de fer entre Romana et le président Rassilon par personnes, et planète, interposée. Qui arrivera la ou le premier à ses fins? On est tenu en haleine tout le long de l'épisode et le sadisme de Rassilon ne semble que se déployer de plus en plus en le banalisant comme simple protection contre les Daleks. Un autre bon épisode du coffret.

Assassins par Matt Fitton
Peut-être l'épisode le plus prévisible (pour ce qui est de l'intrigue principal), mais aussi celui avec la tâche de devoir un peu tout clore et préparer une prochaine série (que je vais définitivement me procurer). Cette fois, ce n'est que des intrigues politiques avec une race qui émerge de nul part et tente de tuer le président Rassilon en envahissant Gallifrey. Beaucoup plus de couteaux dans le dos que prévus de mon côté.

Je pense qu'il s'agit du meilleur coffret audio de Big Finish que j'ai eu l'occasion d'écouter d'où la note parfaite. À la fois plein de rebondissement, d'enjeux plus grands que nature, de revirements spectaculaires, d'une continuité qui laisse la place à chaque épisode pour se démarquer, de la qualité des échanges et joutes politiques (et leurs allusions à la politique de notre époque), du sarcasme de Romana. Un excellent deuxième coffret et série que je ne peux que recommander dorénavant malgré un premier coffret légèrement plus faible. La plus grande diversité d'auteur·es y est probablement pour quelque chose ici et l'apprentissage des erreurs du premier coffret aussi peut-être.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A second volume in the series about the Time War from the Gallifreyan perspective. This time around, Leela is absent and so are the Daleks, with any fighting taking place entirely off-screen. Instead the focus is on the early days of Rassilon’s new regime as Gallifrey slides towards an increasingly authoritarian dictatorship in the name of wartime security. The four stories form a single arc but each is distinct and has a separate writer.

• Havoc – The first story is primarily about the politics in the immediate aftermath of Rassilon’s takeover; he’s already entrenched in office and is seeking to enhance his grip on power. Rassilon himself (played by Terrence Hardiman in the obvious absence of Timothy Dalton) isn’t in it all that much, mostly turning up to make brief and ominous announcements before fading into the background again. There’s certainly no effort to develop his character or explain what he’s doing beyond him just being a bad guy. Some of the other characters from the first volume aren’t behaving very consistently, either, with Narvin, for instance, seeming a far less confident man than he used to be. There’s an intriguing side-plot with a killer from the future hiding out in the Citadel, but it mostly seems to be going through the motions. 3 stars.

• Partisans – The focus here is more on Narvin, better written in this episode but still not in the sort of story that really suits him. Furthermore, there’s an incredibly long info-dump of exposition at the beginning that means it takes quite a while for the story to get going. Once it does, it’s not bad, featuring the War Council and Romana having different plans for how to turn a world war on an alien planet to their advantage in the larger Time War. Here, it helps that some of the story is told through the eyes of a local soldier for whom a world-spanning war is quite big – and terrible – enough on its own but has no idea of the brewing larger conflict. 4 stars.

• Collateral – Following on from the events of the previous episode, although set some years later, this is the strongest story of the collection. It has much the same theme as its predecessor, with Rassilon and Romana taking different views as to what the appropriate course of action is - and, in this case, what they’re even trying to achieve. But it the theme of the futility of war is stronger, and we see Gallifrey actually using time travel to further its ends. There’s a sense of ticking doom, and some effective use of nonlinear storytelling that doesn’t fall into the trap of getting confusing (no more so than a typical flashback sequence, really). 4 stars.

• Assassins – The final story, however, suffers especially strongly from the problem that the collection as a whole does. Essentially, it’s a prequel to events already played out in the TV stories, so we know how it all ends, robbing it of much of the tension. We know that we’ll never see how the Time War ends, because we’ve seen that already, and we’ve also seen that Rassilon survives – and this particular episode is supposedly all about whether he will or not. We do get to see more of him than in the previous three offerings, but he basically turns out to be a gitt with little depth, wandering around confident that he can’t be harmed. Which, since we know he won’t be, doesn’t help with the tension. Yes, there’s some interest in seeing exactly how we get there, but the resolution at the end is a bit of a cop-out and for all of the semi-cliffhanger ending promising that Leela will be back in volume three, I don’t feel especially inspired to listen to it. 3 stars.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Romana and Narvin struggle to save the day after Rassilon is brought back from the dead and named President of Gallifrey; Leela is still lost in the Time War, and Ace has had her memory erased and returned to Earth. Somtimes, I can't help but wonder if the greatest threat to Gallifrey and its people isn't outside enemies like the Daleks, but the treachery of the Time Lords themselves as they all scramble to gain control, doing whatever needs to be done to suit their needs. This series ends with Romana and Narvin attempting to kill Rassilon once and for all, and, upon failing, being banished from Gallifrey in a TARDIS, a TARDIS whose coordinates are set for the heart of the Time War!

[Carol D · Rating 5 out of 5]

As fantastic as the whole series has been and with the Time War has been entering a new chapter in Gallifrey's history. The authors of this audio drama volume are all excellent and quite a few moments that might cause you to utter an expletive out loud - it did me -out of startlement. I've actually been listening to this multiple times. I'm up to my fourth or fifth round on it. :)

[Anne Barwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very political and dark - which this series does fantastically well.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit better than the first one, mainly at the start. This Rassilon was an interesting portrayal.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Havoc ****
Partisans ****
Collateral ****
Assassins ****

[Debra Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rassailon is back as lord president during the time war. What happens is gallifrey is put into more choas and divis ip on than the daleks could evrr do. An incredible adventures.

[Number Two · Rating 1 out of 5]

So incredibly boring