Gallifrey review: Ascension ends the original era of the Doctor Who spin-off in a big way
By James Aggas
After twenty-four episodes, the original era of Gallifrey ends with Ascension. Does this provide a satisfying resolution to the first six series?
Justin Richards had a huge task when he had to write Ascension. Not only was it the last episode of series six of Gallifrey, one that needed to resolve a major cliffhanger from previous episode Renaissance.
It was also supposed to be the final episode of the series. While the series has continued since then, at the time it was written, Ascension was meant to end everything that had begun since Weapon of Choice. So was Richards able to end the series, or at least its original era, on a high?
From the very start of the episode, Ascension is an episode packed full of surprises. It also undoes a lot of what was set up in Renaissance. Not completely, and there were clues in Renaissance that not everything was as it appeared, anyway. While this may leave a few fans unhappy, especially as Renaissance was such a strong episode, Ascension avoids feeling too much like a cop out.
In fact, what’s fantastic about Ascension is that, for the first time since the end of series three, the characters feel like they’ve truly returned home. We’ve seen various Gallifreys over the last three series, and we thought they had come back home in the last episode.
But it’s here that we have many familiar voices like Valyes and Matthias come back. These were major characters in the first three series, but while we’ve heard parallel versions of them in series four and five, it’s incredibly refreshing to hear the “true” versions of the characters come back.
The story that began with Weapon of Choice ends with Ascension. Does the finale provide a satisfying resolution to the Doctor Who spin-off?
(Image credit: Gallifrey/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
A Gallifrey divided
Justin Richards also makes the smart decision of giving us two distinct storylines. There’s Romana’s unexpected return to the true Gallifrey at the very start of the episode, while Narvin, Leela and the future Romana are trapped somewhere else. But where?
This is how Ascension manages to avoid feeling like a cop out to everything set up in Renaissance, as it so neatly continues directly from its major cliffhanger. At the same time, while the world collapses around Leela and Narvin, we’re also learning everything that had happened on the real Gallifrey since Panacea. So there’s a nice balance of storytelling there.
It’s difficult to go into much more detail without spoiling it, because Ascension is an episode with a lot of surprises. There are a couple of neat little twists throughout (including one that’s perfectly hidden in plain sight unless you listen very, very carefully).
Series six of Gallifrey had a lot to resolve, especially Ascension. More than that, it has strong hints of how the Time War began…
(Image credit: Gallifrey/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.
Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)
Resolutions
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A lot of major ongoing questions are answered here, including who created the Dogma virus that caused Gallifrey’s society to collapse back in Panacea. The earlier episode even hinted at it, but it’s nice that it’s explicitly revealed in Ascension.
More than that: we also find out what – or, more specifically, who – caused the Time War. While the War truly begins in the episode Celestial Intervention, at least in terms of open warfare between the Time Lords and the Daleks, the very roots of it are revealed here. And it’s an incredibly satisfying moment, too. Without giving too much away, one of the characters makes a huge mistake, leading to a perfect “What have I done?” moment.
Ascension isn’t perfect, and it’s not quite as strong as Justin Richards’s earlier episodes for the series, particularly Pandora or Mindbomb. But it does an excellent job of wrapping the series up, and ending it in a truly satisfying way. While I’m grateful for later series – especially Gallifrey: Time War – this is an excellent ending to the original era.
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Have you listened to Ascension? Do you think it was a strong finale for the spin-off series? Would you have been satisfied if this had been the final episode of Gallifrey ever? Let us know in the comments below.