I listened to this for the first time a few weeks ago, and I feel like it got even better upon relistening today. I feel like the first time I was mostly following the kind of complicated plot (don’t get me wrong, I love those twists and the political intrigue, but it does require some focus), so now I was paying more attention to the character moments. Both Leela and Romana own my heart and I think they are wonderful in this. They also have such good voices for audio I think. And K9! Twice, even! He’s delightful<3
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Finished this one and it really does work to set up the series while still working fairly well as a standalone story. I do highly recommend listening to this series in order though as it’s very much a single serialized story and not something that can easily be jumped in and out of at random like most of Doctor Who proper (audio, TV, books, etc). We’re introduced to all the major characters (Romana, Leela, K9, Narvin, Torvald and Brax) in this. Yes there will be others that enter in as the series progresses, but I’d say those are definitely our main cast for the foreseeable future. I’m really appreciative of the planning that appears to have gone into this one as there are hints of what’s to come peppered into this first story that are fun to notice on repeat listens ( Imperiatrix, Torvald’s reaction when it appears Leela’s about to kill him, knowing in hindsight who’s behind Free Time). There are better, and worse in my opinion, chapters to come. But the strengths of this series fully comes from the characters and their interactions with each other. This is a slower series (though not without it’s action scenes) where the true standout moments are entirely character-based. And I think everyone gets their own moments to shine. There are some really good Brax and Romana ones that spring to mind. So, even if you’re not getting the appeal yet, stick with it (at least for the first three seasons because they do form a single arc) because chances are you’ll love it by the end.
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I have heard next to nothing but praise for Gallifrey, and you know what, this pilot gives me high hopes.
It’s very much a pilot, a lot of it is set up, but it was really fun, I like the cast and the direction this series is going. I’ll have to listen to more to get a full opinion, but I’m very into this so far.
Unfortunately, when I went to remind myself of a character’s name, TARDIS wiki decided to spoil what I assume is going to be a pretty big reveal. Thanks, TARDIS wiki.
Full review here. If you enjoy it, feel free to leave a like:
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I just listened to this 
I think, had I not seen the universal love and praise for this series here on the forum, I may have dropped it after this episode. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Romana and Leela, thought they were very well portrayed and I can tell it’s building up to something, but it was a bit slow and confusing the first time.
But I know everyone raves about this, especially @sircarolyn , and I’m intrigued about Narvin, so let’s goooo gonna listen to them all.
I’m tempted to re-listen straight away so I get more details but perhaps I will do that after the first series.
I really like that it is an hour-ish long single part without the breaks, glad they went with a “modern” format rather than Classic Who format.
I do kinda wish I’d heard Zagreus first, also that I knew a single thing about Brax, but I’ll get there eventually and then re-listening will be all the better for it. I’m definitely staying about from TARDIS Wiki, I hate spoilers!!
This is the most excited I’ve been for a “new (to me)” range of Big Finish for a long while! 
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I promise you I get it - series 1 starts slow but if you can stick it out to A Blind Eye, you’ll see what makes us so crazy about this series. S1 more than any other, I find, benefits from relisten bc a LOT is going on, and there are millions of characters and lots of teeny little plot threads that don’t 100% make sense and come from other parts of BF, but by the end of s1, it gets really good.
As for Brax, all you really need to know is that he’s devious and scheming and the Doctor’s brother (not that we ever say that, exactly). And we did Neverland in audio club already, right? That’s really the mainest context you need for s1, everything else kind of unfolds as it goes
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Whaaaaaaaa?!
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So here’s the Doctor, whose name is the oldest question in the universe that can never be answered or bad bad thing will happen. And here’s his brother, Irving Braxiatel, and he works in the government.
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Kind of the joke with that one is it’s implied very very strongly but we never actually say it. But it is either canon or commonly accepted to the point of joking about it in canon (I forget the finer details) that Brax is the Doctor’s brother
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Okay here we go… listening to it again <3
This is probably going to get long winded...
- Arg, Torvald is so horrible… (do NOT unblur the following spoiler new listeners) And hearing him be so awful about aliens really boils my blood… sorry everyone this is an Andred Hater Zone right here
- “Someone’s going to suffer for this”
yes. you all are. - Brax is SO me lmao the whole Magic Flute exchange is hilarious and what I love love love is that every time Brax is in his office, even in the Benny audios, he has the same low res Magic Flute overture playing in the background. “You can be his star blazing queen of the night”
- “Above apoplexy but below incandescence”
- “Your own intelligence, such as it is…”
- Narvin is such a grumpy baby in this omg it always hits me now when I listen. Someone put him to bed and give him some friends stat
- LEELAAAAAAA that’s my girl
- Actually, this whole bit where she’s trying to cross the line breaks my heart. “When I am inside the city… now that feels like outside to me”. The thing that really gets me about Leela is the way she is trying so hard to escape Gallifrey - she never wants to stay, but she can’t ever leave because she always gets swept back up into their schemes. And it ruins her life. And no matter what she does, she will never belong anywhere
- Also I love love Brax and Leela’s relationship, because even though he’s notoriously slimy and manipulative, he’s the only one who actually treats Leela like a real, whole person. Sure, Romana does too to an extent, but Romana uses everyone around her at all times for her own missions, and sometimes she forgets that other people are people too. And Narvin is a dick right now. But Brax, he actually sees Leela for who she is. And I find that very interesting.
- “I don’t mind a squeeze if you don’t”
a. later context for this makes me crazy, b. I am not a huge fan of how they deal with Leela as a ‘savage’ in Gallifrey at any point tbh - at times, they almost do something interesting with it and show that the discrimination towards Leela is totally unjust, but often they forget to give Leela any forward direction in the story at all so it just ends up sounding like abuse for the sake of it. This is why I’ve been liking War Room so much, because it’s actually driving Leela’s character forward, something that tragically gets forgotten about (looking at you Panacea >:( oh man do I have a lot to say about that one when we get there) - Arkadian… he’s horrible. What a character. He’s the worst and it’s brilliant
- “I shall dangle your entrails before your dying eyes!” “That’s… really horrible
” did I mention yet that I love Leela - Nepenthe’s scheme is a little makes no sense, and I don’t think it ever does get explained to a satisfactory degree, but I do like that it brings out the hypocrisy of the Time Lords. That’s one of the things I think Gallifrey does really well - it never presents the Time Lord society as a particularly desirable place to live. I think there are times it could go further, but I like that it never presents the Time Lords as always perfect and right
- “Oh dear, are doggy’s sums too hard?” I love it when Narvin is a horrible grumpy old man <3
- Narvin’s “Why do you care about these refugees?” to leader of the Time War resistance pipeline this guy
- (new listeners don’t unblur!!!)The way Andred hates himself so much, urgh. Still, I cannot forgive him for all the awful things he says to Leela, knowing fully well how much that must hurt her. And the way Leela is trying to defend her husband… to ‘Torvald’… urghghghhhh
- “That’s the trouble with being a matyr. We don’t back down, do we?” oh Romana… please will someone get that woman some therapy so she doesn’t try to sacrifice herself every twelve seconds
- Yayyyy Darkellll she’s the worst <33
- This episode really does set up the duality of Romana as the head and Leela as the heart very well, and this is a theme that continues throughout. Oh I cannot WAIT to get to Spirit!!!
- “Coordinator, I am so pleased to see you…” the way they will eventually be so completely codependent… argh…
tl;dr, This is not my favourite episode by a long way, but I do enjoy it and I hold a lot of affection for it. I think it definitely gets better when you relisten to it with the context of the rest of the series and when you get used to the pace and style of the series overall, but certainly it could be worse.
On to Square One! And you’ll all be pleased to know that I have Lots to say about that one too
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@sircarolyn, wow that was a lot. I eagerly look forward to seeing your thoughts as this progresses.
The last time I listened to this was September 2021. And I’m finding it a lot more fun when I can discuss these with other people.
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That wasn’t even my every single thought 
I have spent wayyy too long thinking about this series haha
And you’re right! It’s way more fun to have people to discuss stuff with 
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Wow that’s a lot! Can’t wait to be able to unblur the text because I need to know!! But I will wait. There’s 50 of these so far right?! That’s almost whole year at one a week!
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Yeah, there’s exactly 50 (I just went to the wiki and counted).
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Wow is that true! Not that I doubt your counting, I just didn’t realise there was that much of this series!
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Yeah. Counting up each chapter and then each boxset disc as a separate story.
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And guess what! Even if we religiously did one a week from now one, we STILL would finish before the next War Room set! hahahahah!!!
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Well, glad to be joining one of these and just finished my first listen. This didn’t seem to transition as well from Zagreus as I was led to believe as far as Romana and Leela’s relationship. I might have to give it another listen as I am somewhat concerned about checking the Wiki after hearing that it has been spoiling stuff for other people. Still, it was entertaining enough with the political intrigue and the intro/outro music helped set the mood.
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Oh I just looked at the number here lol:
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Can we have a ‘Free Time!’ badge when this arc is over? 
It’s just that I’m not sure about the stories included…
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I tried. But no this ain’t for me. Just found it really boring.
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