Doctor Who spin-off review: Gallifrey: Time War 3 is another fantastic set of stories

The third volume of Doctor Who spin-off Gallifrey: Time War takes the series in radically new directions. But it’s also an incredibly strong set of stories.

To say that Gallifrey is a strong Doctor Who spin-off is putting it mildly. Running since 2004, (while admittedly taking a five year gap from 2006 to 2011,) the show is not just one of the longest Doctor Who spin-offs still going. It’s also one of the very best. Featuring many complex characters, political intrigue and ambitious long-term storytelling, Gallifrey has always stood out for the very best reasons.

Even when the series headed into the Time War in 2018, it still maintained its exceptionally high level of quality storytelling. Volume 1 of Gallifrey: Time War gave us so many shocking moments, including the resurrection of Rassilon and the departure of major character and former companion Leela. Volume 2 explored Gallifrey under Rassilon’s rule, and how far he’d go to win the war. More than that: the box set also explored how far Romana would go to stop him.

The consequences of Romana’s actions sent her and Narvin into exile, fleeing from Gallifrey into the heart of the Time War. With such a major game-changing ending, what kind of stories would Volume 3 bring? Huge, epic battles fought between the Daleks and the Time Lords? Stories told across multiple time zones to give us the full scale of the war?

Gallifrey: Time War 3 features several fanastic stories, including Nevernor, which features Suzanne Bertish (Aldis), Seán Carlsen (Narvin) and Lalla Ward (Romana).

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

New genres

As it turned out, what we got was something rather different. The Time War is explored in this new box set, but in radically different ways to what we’ve seen before. The series not only explores how soldiers fighting in the war are affected, but also the innocent bystanders, too.

The stories also generally feature a small sense of scale. Gallifrey: Time War 3 isn’t a story of epic battles or entire worlds at war. Instead, the focus is either on individuals or families. The first episode focuses on a surviving soldier and a powerful temporal being that are trapped together. The second focuses on a family that’s effectively haunted. The third focuses on Leela having a family of her own. And the fourth focuses on one that she protects.

On top of that, Gallifrey: Time War 3 features some major dips into other genres. The series has consistently been told in the science-fiction and political genres. With the Time War, we were naturally given war stories, as well.

But this time, we head into wildly different genres, ones you might not expect to feature in a series that’s focused on the Time War. This is especially true of the second and fourth episodes. In Nevernor, we get something far closer to a ghost story than a typical war story, while in Unity, there’s an extremely strong influence from the Western genre that works well for it. For all these reasons, Gallifrey: Time War 3 stands out as being extremely different compared to the previous two volumes.

(L to R) Maxine Evans (Renucha), Sam Hallion (Sholan), Louise Jameson (Leela), Will Kirk (Kraumer) and Sarah Douglas (Drah) star in Mother Tongue, an excellent episode that features Leela’s return to the series!

Image Courtesy Big Finish Productions

Extremely strong stories

However, while Volume 3 feels like a radically different take on the long-running series, one thing that hasn’t changed is its level of quality. We’re given four extremely strong stories in this box set, each standing out for their own reasons.

Opening episode Hostiles by David Llewellyn establishes the new status quo well, as Romana and Narvin begin their new lives on the run. It also features some fantastic character exploration, particularly of the two regulars, who are given plenty of great scenes together.

As previously mentioned, Nevernor is a great little ghost story by Lou Morgan. It’s extremely atmospheric, and leaves you wondering how it ties into the Time War. When you find out the explanation, it’s simple and makes the episode feel like a natural part of Gallifrey, while avoiding to diminish the sense of atmosphere or horror that the story features.

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Shocking climax

The third episode, Mother Tongue, is an absolutely brilliant script by Helen Goldwyn. Exploring what happened to Leela since she disappeared back in Volume 1, Mother Tongue is a deeply emotional exploration of the former companion.  She’s thrown into a strange situation, and she’s forced to make some terrible choices along the way. An absolutely amazing story.

The box set is rounded off with Unity, also written by David Llewellyn. The episode features a clear influence from the Western genre, but more than that – it’s a wonderful reunion between Gallifrey‘s three leads. It also features some incredibly shocking moments, especially that cliffhanger.

Volume 3 of Gallifrey: Time War is a huge success. It takes the series in new directions, but still retains the same high level of quality that we’ve come to expect from the long-running Doctor Who spin-off. It’s an extremely strong box set for the series, and it’s going to be a long wait for Volume 4.

Will you be listening to Gallifrey: Time War 3? Have you listened to earlier installments in the series? If you have, what do you enjoy most about it? Let us know in the comments below.