Gallifrey review: Emancipation brings the Doctor Who spin-off back to politics
By James Aggas
After travelling across several parallel worlds in the last series, the fifth series of Gallifrey returns to its political storytelling roots with Emancipation.
Emancipation continues very neatly where Forever left off. Despite being set nine months later, Romana, Narvin and Leela are still in the same position: stuck on a parallel version of Gallifrey that’s more savage than the one they know, with no way to get back home. However, they’re determined to do the best they can on it.
One thing I appreciate about Emancipation – and series five in general – is that, after the “parallel world of the week” format in the previous series, we’re finally getting back to the politics that made the series so great.
It isn’t exactly the same as it was in the first three series, though. This is partially because this series isn’t set on the real Gallifrey. But it’s also because of the fact that this series is only three episodes long. And while this particular Gallifrey features in episodes of both series four and six, the politics of this world are best explored here.
Emancipation returns the series back to one of the series’s greatest strengths: political storytelling. But does that make it a strong episode?
(Image credit: Gallifrey/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Rushed potential?
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As a result, even with Emancipation, there’s a sense that characters aren’t explored quite as much as they should be.
For example, there’s a powerful woman introduced in this episode, Allora, who has the potential to be the new Darkel. She’s venomous, dangerous and eager for power, just as Darkel was. However, Darkel had time to develop over three series and was built up to be a genuine threat. Allora’s story, on the other hand, is pretty much wrapped up by the end of the episode. It’s a little bit of a shame, really.
That’s not to say that Emancipation isn’t enjoyable at all. Like I said, it’s wonderful to return to the world of dirty politics that made Gallifrey such compelling listening in the first place.
And there are great hints of where the series is going. There’s a brilliant moment where we get our first hint of a possible cure for the plague that made Panacea‘s cliffhanger so huge. It’s been a while since that major ending, so it’s fantastic to be given clues that the series is finally leading back to it. More importantly, it also feels like Gallifrey, the original era of it, is slowly coming to an end.
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Have you listened to Gallifrey‘s fifth series? What did you think of Emancipation? Did you enjoy the return to the political storytelling that made the first three series so loved? Let us know in the comments below.