By popular demand, Audio Club Extra is delving into the machinations of the Time Lords. Lord President Romana and her confidante, Leela of the Sevateem, face a threat from the Free Time movement.
Gallifrey Series 1 can be purchased as a download bundle from Big Finish for the princely sum of £16.00
Rate and review below:
Oh Weapon of Choice. It’s hard to be objective, as this story caused me to fall in love with the Gallifrey series, and it’s the one non-Doctor Who Big Finish series I regularly relisten to.
This time, I was struck by how well the story introduced its premise and core cast efficiently, as well as the main McGuffin for Series 1. I admit, as a stand alone story it is a bit thin, because it introduced so much. But it’s even labelled as Chapter 1, and I feel it should be considered as part of the whole.
Gallifrey
Best spinoff in the entire Whoniverse!
That main cast:
Leela of the Sevateem! K-9s! Madam President Romanadvoratrelundar! Narvinectralonum! Irving Braxiatel!
Weapon of Choice is a really good first chapter in the wider storyline of Gallifrey as it introduces all the main players and opens up for the overarching stories to come.
Just getting a feel of the political battleground of the Temporal Powers is great, stuff like that is just catnip to me 
Inquisitor Darkelatraquisterastred is such a fantastic character as well, steeped in political machinations. And Mephistopheles Arkadian is a sly old crook to boot. Torvald!
The fly in the ointment for me is the way Nepenthe yells “Free Time!”, it just irrationally annoys me (from what I can tell it is the same reaction others have to BENNI!! in Orphan 55 
)
Oh Narvin, Leela, Romana - the journey you are about to take 
It’s a 4,5/5 
from me 
Yeah, “Free Time” is a class A pun, but the first time you hear it is someone trying to be very dramatic about it, so it hits weirdly.
Free Time!! (yelling)
It annoyed me at first. But the more relistens I do, the funnier it becomes. 
Mortal Kombat!!!
Absolutely.
I’ve listened to these stories so many times. But that overdramatic “Free Time!” just annoys me every single time for some odd reason
YAYYYYYYYYY GALLIFREYYYYYYYY!!!
I just woke up and I have more to say than I can be bothered to type on my phone but l, well. You all know how I feel about this series 
What I will say now though is to new listeners, just stick with us ok?? You’ll be like wtf why do you guys love Narvin so much and why is this so slow?? but trust me ok. Just stick with us. This ep is good, but the series gets BRILLIANT later
I just remembered that I ventured into this series only kind of knowing who Romana and Leela are. I think I had heard that there’s a Time Lord named Andred and he got together with Leela. So when Andred was brought up in this episode I (falsely) realized I must’ve missed important plot with Leela and Andred, so I looked up his page on TARDIS Wiki.
Definitely a silly move, I know. Kinda got the whole first series spoiled… Especially The Blind Eye. 
I want to be able to add something to this discussion as I actually re-listened to the entire first season not that long ago (leading up to writing a review of A Blind Eye for my blog because of it’s chronological setting) and now I can’t remember much to say!
I will say bringing back the Inquisitor from Trial was a masterstroke and Lynda Bellingham is so good in these stories.
Listened to this today. I thought that it was okay. An interesting conflict and an interesting continuation for Lela, Romana, K9, and K9. I just don’t care that much for Gallifrey and Time Lords lore. To blow it up and make it mystic again was RTD’s best decision when making season 1. I rate this 3.5/5
Dangerous words. I’d sleep with one eye open in case @sircarolyn books a flight to Sweden…
They might be dangerous words but someone had to say the truth!
Yes, I will be relistening to this and will be giving more detailed thoughts. But, I look at Series 1 as laying the groundwork both in worldbuilding/plot and with the main cast. Chapter 3 is probably my favorite of this season. Seasons 2 and 3 are really where this series comes into its own.
Just you wait until you fall into the Narvin fanclub too… just you wait…
How do I have to wait? He did not leave any impression on me at all.
That’s how he gets you.
You will go from “Really? This guy?” to “Favourite Time Lord of all time” and you won’t notice it happening
Narvinectralonum FTW!
It really is a universal experience of Gallifrey listeners, the Narvin lover pipeline. It just becomes impossible not to adore him. It’s in s2 where it starts turning around for him, and I can pinpoint the moment in Imperiatrix where you go ‘wait, so he’s not a total horrible person!’
It’s really hard to comment on this without spoiling the future. I wasn’t sold on any of the characters apart from Leela and Romana, and K9, when I first started the series. Let’s say that the story arcs across the series as a whole are slow burns, but if you stick with it, so worth the payoff. I’ll admit that I was unsure of Narvin to begin with. But if you can stick with the series through to War Room, the relationship that grows between Leela and Narvin especially, is well worth the journey.
Mephistopheles Arkadian is such a fun character, it’s a shame he has so few appearances.
On a different note, it’s fun hearing future ideas and phrases pop up. What isn’t fun is being unable to really comment on them at the moment. Case in point being Arkadian referring to Romana as Imperiatrix.