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Doctor Who: Whatever happened to Juliet Landau’s Romana?

By James Aggas

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Juliet Landau first played Romana in series six of Gallifrey. It wasn’t her last performance in the role, though…

(Image credit: Gallifrey/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

For a couple of years, Big Finish had their own unique incarnation of Time Lady Romana, a major character from Tom Baker’s era of Doctor Who, played by Juliet Landau. But what happened to that particular version of the character?

Romana has always been a popular character in Doctor Who. The smart and intelligent Time Lady was easily a match for Tom Baker’s iconic Doctor, both when she was played by Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward. So it’s unsurprising that the character eventually got a spin-off series with Gallifrey.

Created in 2004, and with the tenth series out next month, the series is one of the longest ongoing Doctor Who spin-offs ever made. Exploring Lalla Ward’s Romana as President as Gallifrey, as well as other major characters such as Leela and original character Narvin, have been major reasons why the series is so successful.

Another reason of course is the number of risks it takes. And it made a major one when, during Gallifrey‘s sixth series, it introduced a brand new incarnation of Romana, played by Juliet Landau. In a rather interesting way, too, as she had arrived from the future to meet Lalla Ward’s incarnation. So essentially, Landau’s first episode in the role was a multi-Romana story!

As for Landau herself, she was really great as Romana. Putting on an excellent English accent (one far stronger than the one she used as Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as brilliant as she was in that series), she played a Romana more cautious than her predecessors, and just a little bit more playful, too. She played well against Lalla’s incarnation, while at the same time, she still made the role her own.

Landau’s Romana next appeared in Luna Romana, a very special story that celebrated the many lives of the character.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Subsequent stories

The character and performance worked so well, that after Gallifrey had ended its supposedly final series back in 2013, Big Finish decided to bring the character back a couple more times.

The first was in Doctor Who audio Luna Romana, which was in itself another multi-Romana story. This one didn’t technically feature Landau’s incarnation, however. But she narrated portions of the story that involved the character’s first incarnation. Lalla Ward narrated the portions focused on the second.

During Landau’s portions of the story, we caught glimpses that her incarnation was involved in a major war. We didn’t learn too many details, just that it was huge, and that it was dark days for Gallifrey when she was thinking about her earlier adventures. So we can probably guess what the implication was meant to be…

Landau’s third appearance was even bigger. In 2015, Big Finish decided to bring back Gallifrey, this time with a completely fresh start. Jumping ahead considerably, Landau was now the “current” incarnation of the character, involved in an adventure of her own.

Intervention Earth was an interesting and brand new take on the series, and seemed to promise new beginnings. It also showed that the series could continue with Landau’s Romana, and that there was a lot of potential with the character.

And then Enemy Lines happened.

Enemy Lines created a major reset for the series. One that effectively removed Juliet Landau’s Romana entirely…

(Image credit: Gallifrey/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Erased from the timelines

In 2016, just a year after the release of Intervention Earth, the eighth series of Gallifrey was released…but without Landau’s Romana. Instead, the series brought back Lalla Ward’s incarnation, setting it considerably earlier than the previous series, but still some time after her last appearance in series six.

Even more surprisingly, it wasn’t a prequel, either. Enemy Lines was a major reset for the series, one that altered things so significantly that Landau’s incarnation was erased from the timeline. There’s the possibility that Ward could still regenerate into Landau at some point, but none of the stories featuring the character – with the exception of her stories in series six, in which she was a projection, anyway – never technically happened.

What caused the reset in story terms? The war that was hinted at in Luna Romana wasn’t the Time War after all, but an entirely different war altogether, one that was caused by the events of Intervention Earth.

It was no less devastating, however, and in fact, Romana was desperate enough to send her friend Braxiatel back in time to prevent it. She was even desperate enough to make sure he prevented Ward’s regeneration into her, thus undoing her incarnation’s entire existence.

Like I said, that’s the in-universe story explanation. And it’s a pretty good one, too. But at the same time, you have to wonder: why was it necessary? There was no hint that such a major reset was going to happen at the end of Intervention Earth, despite Enemy Lines continuing so naturally from it.

While there’s not been an official explanation for why this happened, there is one possibility I have considered. One that raises the following question:

“The final days of Gallifrey…”

For those of you who don’t know, the Doctor Who Experience was a huge and official exhibition dedicated to everything Doctor Who. Originally open in London before moving to Cardiff in 2012, it eventually closed its doors in 2017.

During that time though, it had some interesting features. One of the most notable, at least in terms of mythology, was a little presentation by Romana, one that described “the final days of Gallifrey”. This presentation was notable for two reasons. One, it was narrated by Lalla Ward’s Romana, specifically. Two, it was explicitly set during the Time War.

You can already see the problem here, can’t you?

The presentation was released back in October 2014. Intervention Earth was released just a few months later in February 2015, so it’s very possible that Big Finish had no idea that little feature was planned for the exhibition when they were making the seventh series of Gallifrey.

Regardless, their new incarnation of Romana didn’t quit fit with the version of Time War mythology presented at the Doctor Who Experience. This wasn’t quite as bad as contradicting the television series directly, but it was close.

Did this little feature at the Doctor Who Experience force Big Finish to shift direction and remove Landau’s incarnation completely? Keep in mind, this is nothing but pure speculation on my part, but it does seem to be the explanation that fits the best.

With the Time War in full swing, could Landau’s Romana possibly return in a future series of Gallifrey because of it?

(Image credit: Gallifrey/Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

Could Juliet Landau’s Romana return?

Not that I have a problem with the reset. In fact, my recent review for Enemy Lines covered a great deal about how brilliantly and smoothly the reset was handled. And Gallifrey: Time War has been the best series of the spin-off since its second and third over a decade ago.

But more than that, there is one little possibility. One that could provide some very interesting stories at a later point. Namely this: Juliet Landau’s Romana could, potentially, come back.

More from Winter is Coming

One way is by Ward’s incarnation regenerating anyway, perhaps at the very end of the Time War. But I think something even more interesting could happen. Namely, the incarnation we heard in Intervention Earth and Luna Romana could make a return appearance.

While she is from what is now a completely different timeline, considering we’re now hearing the Time War, anything could happen. Literally anything. This is a war which had a Could’ve Been King and his Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres. The War Doctor series introduced a group of people from potential times that never happened called the Unlived. Even the Gallifrey episode The Devil You Know showed two different alternatives of the same person existing in the same timeline.

So it’s not hard to imagine Landau’s Romana coming back into existence from a previously destroyed timeline. And I think that could be really interesting. Considering she wanted to change history to prevent a war, what exactly would she think of the Time War? More importantly, how would she judge her former self’s failure to prevent such a war, one that’s potentially worse than the one she wanted to undo?

I’m not saying it’s likely that Big Finish could bring her back. But it certainly is an intriguing possibility. More importantly, Landau’s incarnation of Romana was a brilliant one. Her performance in the role was one that respected previous interpretations, but still allowed her to leave her own mark on the iconic character. It would be a shame if she never appeared ever again.

Next. Gallifrey review: Enemy Lines resets the series in a big way. dark

What do you think? Do you think there’s a chance that Juliet Landau could return to Big Finish in the role of Romana? Have you heard her previous performances in the role? If so, what did you think? Let us know in the comments below.

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