Gallifrey review: The third series begins and civil war rages in Fractures

Civil war has broken out on Gallifrey, and as Romana is desperate to find any advantage she can, Leela loses something precious to her, as the third series of the Doctor Who spin-off begins.

At the end of series two, Romana made a desperate move to avoid a coup and hold onto power. Declaring herself “Imperiatrix” and removing all democracy on Gallifrey, she unfortunately found herself outwitted when the first Imperiatrix of Gallifrey returned from the dead, in a new physical form. Or should that be old, as Pandora took on the form of Romana’s first incarnation.

That episode ended with Romana’s arrest and civil war breaking out on Gallifrey, and Fractures continues with that story. But not directly, however. It becomes clear very quickly that some time has passed since then. Not too much time, but a few things have already changed.

Romana is no longer arrested, but trying hard to fight back through guerrilla tactics. Hundreds of Time Lords have already died from the war, and the number is steadily growing. Day by day, things are becoming incredibly desperate for her and her allies.

It becomes clear that this won’t tell the story of a war by giving us loads of full-on battle scenes. While Fractures does have a decent amount of action scenes, this isn’t a typical war story.

Partially, unlike the Time War, it’s because one side easily has more numbers and more resources than the other. But it’s also because Gallifrey is still a series that’s more focused on strong, character-based storytelling than of epic battles. This is especially clear in this episode with Leela.

Oh, Leela. She hasn’t had an easy time in this series. She’s lost her husband and one of her oldest friends. The war at least has given her something new to fight for.

But even that takes something away from her when an attack goes wrong. As a result, she’s forced to face a significant and difficult change in her life, something that we’ll see her continuing to deal with in the long term.

Desperate measures

That’s the first half of the episode. The second half mainly focuses on Romana trying to gain one advantage in the war. Not with a weapon, but with the only TARDIS left on Gallifrey capable of time travel.

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This was definitely a story element that I appreciated. On a planet where time travel has been created, and when war breaks out and one of those sides is willing to break every rule, getting a satisfying explanation on why neither side is able to time travel is more than welcome.

Besides, if time travel had been possible, this series would’ve become much, much more confusing very quickly. It also would’ve taken focus away from the characters as a result.

So seeing Romana try to find a way around this by heading into a weapons vault was an interesting way around this problem. Particularly when she accidentally disturbs something very powerful and very dangerous…

I love that even now, Romana is still uncovering some of the Time Lords’ dirty secrets. Particularly when it’s Narvin, who’s thankfully still on Romana’s side in the war. But what effect will this particularly nasty weapon have on her?

Overall, Fractures is a great way of kicking off the third series. One thing that was so great about the second series was that it wasn’t afraid to take risks and radically change things with each episode, and that continues to be the case here. Dark, gritty and shocking, Fractures continues to show us exactly why Gallifrey is one of the best Doctor Who spin-offs ever made.

dark. Next. James Dreyfus – Big Finish’s First Master

Have you listened to Fractures? Did you enjoy the civil war storyline in Gallifrey? Were you shocked at what happened to Leela in this episode? Let us know in the comments below.

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