I love it I love it I love it!
Impeccable performances by our leading ladies, just giving Romana and Leela a break before it all hits the fan next week. It’s primarily a character piece for Romana and Leela and yet it still pushes the plot forward with our broken man making an appearance.
Mate in 8.
This is definitely my current favorite of the Gallifrey Series.
I just love everything about it.
well, apparently I was very much not done thinking on this one because I just wrote like two pages of my thoughts on Leela, Romana and their relationship. They’re very messy though, so I’ll try to clean them up tomorrow because it is currently 2:30 am. still going insane about them <3
Gallifrey needed six episodes to finally prove its worth to me. Because Spirit is something else - one of the best-written and best-acted pieces of Doctor Who media I have come across and an intimate character piece that holds tension, emotional value and intrigue from beginning to end.
SPIRIT or A HOLIDAY FOR TWO!
The first half with only Romana and Leela is the most enjoyable part of this audio. The second half turns the attention to the mysterious Broken Man and the potential danger he instils - this is more standard fare but sets the stage for the next chapter. The mindscape scenes where Leela and Romana switch bodies are superb, and if anything, Spirit proves just how talented actresses Ward and Jameson are when given the right material.
This is the Gallifrey I was hoping for. If the rest of it maintains even a fraction of this quality, I can easily see how it is one of the best series BF has ever put out.
9/10
it’s making me so happy to see all you dubious first time listeners love Spirit <3 Gallifrey is one of those series that does have ups and downs but this is definitely an UP
So, I did write something of an essay on Leela and Romana in this episode. It got very long. It’s like six to seven pages on my laptop. But I think I structured it well. Obviously it could all be wrong since I have no idea what happens next and what might still be revealed. It’s also probably biased by my own experiences and headcanons and such. Anyway, here you go
So let’s get right into it and take a look at the wonderful Leela.
regeneration - the horror of change
This already gives us so much about her. So, regeneration, the sudden change of a Time Lord’s body, whether by violence or choice. Something to keep in mind here is that Leela has presumably never seen a ‘normal’ regeneration, and neither have we for that matter, rather only the violent ones. So for her, her husband, her friends have or could just become a different person at any moment, and this is different from the danger of them potentially just dying, the horror for her clearly lies in the change, in the broken continuity of a person in spite of memories for the most part remaining. She affirms, in the very first scene of this, that she has only one body, voice and mind and there is an alienation in that in contrast to the Time Lords but also a certain belonging. The one thing she knows is that at least she will not change like they do, her mind, her body might not keep up at times but they are reliable. Change, on the other hand, is unpredictable, and has the potential of being poisonous as she says.
relationship with andred - betrayal, love and heartbreak
So, what makes her think this way? Andred of course, or perhaps rather, Andred as Torvald. Leela has been through an emotional ordeal, has many feelings she hasn’t processed yet, that she might never be able to process, and for someone so fully led by her feelings and instincts this is a crisis of the highest degree. The framing of this is very interesting to me, because we see this reveal, and Leela’s experience after Andred vanishing predominantly from her point of view, and only in fragments. We barely see the relationship, only the fallout, the grief. And yet, Leela’s love and passion for Andred are obvious in every word when he comes up. From Leela’s point of view, Andred changed and became Andred as Torvald, a different person, with his memories, who betrayed her. At least, that’s how she’d like to see it, I think. Because if she truly thought so, she wouldn’t be conflicted. She would no longer search for him, just grieve him and move on. And yet, the very first scene shows us that Leela is trying to find him, in a perhaps more spiritual sense, she is not looking for Andred the body but Andred the person the man she loved. And she is quite possibly not mistaken because for all the changes Andred has gone through, all the way throughout seasion 1 there were moments, especially when he was with Leela, where Andred shone through the mask. She goes through anger and thirst for revenge to quiet grief (and I do so love the range Louise Jameson shows in those moments) to now this heartbreak. I think Leela’s struggle is a quite common challenge, if you learn new information about a person, if a person you love changes, is that then the same person? Was the love, the trust in them misplaced? This, the betrayal is the source of Leela’s upheaval. And especially for one who relies so heavily on her feelings for judgement, for orientation, for her sense of self, this then becomes a crisis of identity. Can she still trust herself if her feelings were wrong before? Or rather, the judgements she made based on these feelings.
feelings on romana -who were you before?
Leela’s crisis is further worsened by the revelations on Romana in the previous episode. Romana is the reason Leela came back to Time Lord society after Andred’s disappearance, she is her anchor in that unfamiliar world. And they share the connection of the doctor, of the removal from Time Lord society he brings. Romana is, after all, far from a typical Time Lord. Furthermore, Romana is the president and brings therefore another layer of protection. It stands to reason that they are quite close. This is also evidenced by the betrayal Leela feels upon learning of Romana I. Leela clearly feels that she knew everything important about Romana’s life before they met and is therefore surprised at this revelation. So, already shaken by Andred’s betrayal, she now looses her closest friend (apart from K9 perhaps) and ally with the Time Lords. This regeneration, at least how it is described to Leela in Lies, is also a very violent one: Romana I speaks of being murdered and the threat of Pandora hangs above all their heads. She cannot trust Romana’s future, she does not know Romana’s past, so how can she trust her present self?
doctor as a special case - face(s) of evil
There is however, a special case in regards to regeneration for Leela and that is the doctor. My first thoughts on this attributed this to simply the (fourth) doctor’s insanity, for lack of a better word. But I think this may go deeper than that. I think it goes right back to the beginning, to Leela’s introduction in the Face of Evil. She meets the doctor, thinking he is the ultimate evil, Xoanon. Right away, she experiences the doctor in different roles, with something else using his face and mind. And of course, with him being the doctor that continues on, being a teacher and a protector but also childish and irresponsible, using different names and eventually different faces.
culture and timelordification - the horror of perpetuity
So while regeneration as a whole, as Leela has experienced it so far, is a horrifying change for Leela, a betrayal of trust, deception and danger, I do think that it is not change itself that frightens her. How could it be? She is so connected to nature and what is nature if not change. It must be something essential in her culture, the young becoming old and wise, children growing, seasons changing. So, what does it mean then, that Leela has not changed since she moved to Gallifrey? That she has not aged, not grown old, not even been able to tell that this has been happening? I think that this, perhaps is all the more terrifying to her, to know that she has been changed, removed from her natural order of life to become something in between. She does not, cannot fit in with the Time Lords, she will always be different. But neither can she go back, not truly. She has learned, experienced things, felt things that would make her stick out in any other culture. And all of this is exemplified by the (lack of) physical change she has undergone. Her life outside of Gallifrey would be brief, yet what she dreads is not death, something so alien to Time Lords, but lack of purpose. What then is her purpose on Gallifrey? First, it was Andred, with whom she could experience freely, live as she pleased and be accepted. Now, her purpose is Romana. Not her protection, but her as a person. This is well evidenced by her reaction whenever Romana appears to be in danger, but also by her affirmation of friendship and struggle for autonomy. Her job may be Presidential Bodyguard, but her purpose is being Romana’s friend. This further explains why her wanting to leave Gallifrey so firmly comes in this episode and not the previous one. Her faith in Romana has been shaken.
feelings and worldview - nature as refuge
Leela has undergone quite the transformation since her television appearances. Not only has she travelled with the doctor, but she has lived for decades on Gallifrey. Why then does she appear more connected to nature, almost unchanged here? I propose that this is her way of protecting her identity. She cannot belong with the Time Lords, she is faced with bias and disgust by the Time Lords at every turn and she has next to no one in her corner. So instead of failing to fit in, she rejects Time Lord culture outright. Rejecting science in favor of the spiritual, yearning for nature. It is a place where she knows herself, her surroundings. She is competent and here it shines. When she takes Romana out into the wild, it is clearly her in charge, Romana is for once completely depending on her instead of the other way round. I think, after decades of being trapped in unfamiliar surroundings, this is where she feels safe.
Having now examined Leela quite thouroughly in this episode (and yet, you could still go so much deeper), let’s have a look at her counterpart in this episode, Romana.
what does romana want - freedom and responsibility
This is the question I kept coming back to while thinking about her. What does she want, what is her goal here? Having been made to go on holiday by Braxiatel (I don’t think she would have made this choice by herself), what does she do with it? The first thing, of course, is to take Leela with her. So, she wants a chance to patch things up with Leela, to make her happy. We see this more clearly with her choices on how to fill this holiday. Not only does she let Leela pick what to do, she lets Leela pick first and go along with it. She knows Leela, she knows what Leela would choose to do. So, in spite of complaining most of the time while they’re hiking I actually think this is something Romana wants. This being freedom, and passion and feeling, the same things so central to Leela. I don’t think this is something she realizes though, as shown by her own choice of activity. The sensory tanks couldn’t appear more different and yet they do represent a similar goal for Romana in my opinion. I think what Romana thinks she wants most is a break, freedom from the responsibility of the office, peace in her soul. So the tanks seem an easy enough solution for that. What I think Romana does not realize herself is that this can only be a temporary fix. A more permanent escape, that cannot be reality without massive change. Therefore, letting Leela choose. Experiencing her world, the possibility of a different life. Romana, too, has searched for her purpose, and she has, for better or worse, found it as President. Protecting a world that has abandoned her, that she once feared returning to so much she stayed in a different universe. So, she does not fear responsibility, she cares for her people, but perhaps it is still too much for her to carry alone.
regeneration by choice - suicide and sacrifice
Earlier, we looked at regeneration from Leela’s point of view. But how does Romana look at it? To start with, Romana has a typical Time Lord view on the matter: it is a natural part of life, scientifically explained and does not fundamentally change a person. That is, if it goes to plan. She presents the trouble with Andred’s regeneration specifically as a result of sickness, something unusual and to be cured. The interesting part to me is her own regeneration though. In Destiny of the Daleks, Romana regenerates seemingly without cause, yet Lies presents us with a different view. (And given that the next episode is called Pandora, I suspect there may be further revelations on this, so take everything here with a grain of salt.) Here, it becomes a tactical move, a sacrifice to keep Pandora at bay. Romana kills herself to prevent her dark destiny. What does that do to her? Surely, even though she doesn’t remember it this influences her very essence. Sacrifice seems encoded in her soul, she returns to Gallifrey for her people, she saves who she can without regard to her own life. In fact, her solution to many challenges she faces seems to be to put herself on the line where another President would sit well back.
what is romana and what is time lord - trauma, upbringing and the doctor
Her very early self induced regeneration is one thing that forms her character in these stories, but there are other things at play. There is her imprisonment by Daleks for twenty years, and there are her travels with the doctor. Romana is far from a typical Time Lord. At a young age she goes to explore the universe with the doctor. She is eager to learn, to explore, to help , perhaps a touch naive but she sees the joy above all. This early Romana is strongly influenced by the doctor and very similar to Leela in her thirst for life. Just as Leela, she fears the stagnation a return to Time Lord society would bring. Still, she returns, eager for change, passionate. And then the Daleks. I don’t know much about her early presidency and I don’t think there is a lot about it out there either, but it can’t have lasted long. Instead, Romana returns from imprisonement, is left behind by the Doctor, and becomes President again. While all the previous influences are still at play, this Romana is much more Time Lord in her behaviour. She does not allow herself friends, acts tactically and at times manipulative and above all thinks and does not feel. Her feelings only shine through in split-second decisions.
control and power - her role as president and slave
Romana in this period of her life is a very controlled person. This episode tells you a lot about Leela directly, but Romana remains much more mysterious. She is very aware of her power, of what she can get away with and she will not let go of it easily. I think this is greatly influenced by her time spent as a prisoner of the Daleks, powerless, clawing for any chance to escape. And she does escape by her own power too, abandoned, at least from her point of view, by both the Time Lords and the Doctor. So it’s not surprising she doesn’t trust anyone else to do things that need to be done. (Except perhaps Braxiatel.) Ironically perhaps, the moment where I think her controlled self becomes most evident, is when she breaks the window for Leela. This is not the action of a person who has a healthy amount of self-control. One could easily imagine the Doctor doing this, but then he has the oposite problem. No, Romana is holding on so tightly to her feelings that in this moment, unable to do anything else to make Leela feel better, she chooses the first idea that comes to mind. The move, though clearly an impulse is thought-out, well within her technical rights as a president and gets the job done. This is the sort of unhinged behaviour only someone who keeps it all bottled up would exhibit.
dissassociation and knowledge - science as refuge
Now, where Leela seeks out the wild in response to her crisis, Romana instead finds her place with science. An area with clear rules, without feelings interfering, that is well controlled and has an explanation for everything. Feelings are unneccessary to make judgements, something not to be trusted. Romana is removed from her body and hearts, she is all mind and knowledge. It clearly serves her well in many occasions. And yet, her chosen field of politics is one that cannot be mastered by science, it is far too subjective with too many players at hand. And it is obvious that her reliance on science is failing her in her personal life as well, as shown by her inability to properly communicate with Leela. Science is not everything.
the broken (wo)man - torture, pain and purpose
This is shown once again in her reaction to the broken man. She pities him, yes, but does not see anything to be done about it. He has all the best medical treatment they can offer, so she turns instead to his identity. Meanwhile Leela does what she can to make his life less painful. I wonder if Romana’s reaction is influenced by her own return after her imprisonment. Was she just handed some painkillers and sent to her quarters? Healed in minutes but never comforted? How quickly did she return to work? It is not directly acknowledged by anyone in Gallifrey but I can’t help but think that this informs her character so much in this moment. Does she think of herself when she sees the broken man, of what she might have become had she stayed a prisoner longer? He has done everything to keep himself from communicating and she too resisted interrogation for two decades.
leela - asset, friend or lover?
The way we see Romana here is primarily through her relationship to Leela. Romana stands out as a Time Lord who regularily affirms Leela’s intelligence, never calls her derogatory names and treats her as valuable. And yet, in the beginning of this episode it becomes very clear that Romana does not truly regard Leela as an equal. She dismisses Leela’s views on the world, berates for not believing in science, and refuses to call her a friend. But while Time Lord attitudes probably influence this treatment, I do think a bigger part of it is due to Romana’s trauma. Leela is notably not the only person she does not call a friend, but rather the first she does admit it to. And dismissing her feelings and spiritual nature is perhaps a reaction to trauma as well. Though this is not visible to Leela, forcing Romana to find alternate means of communication, to admit her feelings. I feel that Romana wants very badly for Leela to be happy and to stay with her, whether this is platonic or romantic, and she does not know how to deal with these feelings. Or how to make Leela happy for that matter. She cannot heal Leela’s heart or make her stay against her will. In that regard, I think Romana shows a surprising amount of emotional intelligence in this episode, somehow choosing precisely the right way forward.
Now let’s put them together.
a couples’ retreat - a relationship in crisis
When I first started listening to this episode, I was surprised by how much similarity Romana and Leela show to a couple trying to fix their breaking relationship. Even the mention of possible massages fit the surroundings into this framework. And in many ways this is what they are at this point. Romana at least is desperately trying to fix Leela’s trust in her. And Leela too quickly starts to work with Romana in this pursuit, once she realizes Romana truly does try.
which of us is wiser? - the contrast
Romana and Leela have very different worldviews, relying on science and nature each, knowledge and feeling. And yet, neither of them is truly wise by herself because they are missing something vital. Leela needs knowledge to contextualize her feelings, to step away from her passionate but uncontrolled heart for a while and order her feelings so as not to be ruled by them and reorient herself. Meanwhile Romana fails to acknowledge her desires and is quite clearly overworked and badly adjusted to life, failing at interpersonal relationships. She needs to feel her feelings, to let her heart take control every now and then, to understand why she makes the choices she does and to make moral judgements that take into account the people involved.
melting into one - who is who?
This then, they both learn by becoming each other in the sensory deprivation tanks. Obviously they both take on each other’s defining characteristics: Romana experiences Leela’s feelings and lust for life while Leela’s head is filled with knowledge. And yet, they both remain themself as well. I think, for Romana especially, some of that which is uncovered comes from them. Romana, I think, experiences these primal desires just as much as Leela does, she just buries them so deep even she does not know them. The feelings then, especially are both of theirs: the loneliness Leela experiences at the end of the sequence, the panic, the care they show for each other, they act in unison.
the end - a new start?
The episode ends with both having learned to see the other better, understanding their point of view and going on together. Leela has regained her trust in Romana, she no longer feels all alone on Gallifrey and neither does Romana. She has discovered the merits of emotions and values Leela in a new way. So, together, they are now ready to take on whatever Gallifrey throws at them next! Well, hopefully, maybe…
Please feel free to tell me if you agree, disagree, have additional thoughts or whatever
This is absolutely beautiful analysis! You have such a good understanding of the characters and the text. I loved reading it– and it got me thinking about Leela’s relationship to the Time Lords, to this alien race that fundamentally does not want her here; about the sheer improbability of Leela and Romana’s relationship, thrown together by the random chance of travelling with the same person; of how Romana and Leela’s backgrounds and traumas are so different and how they’ll always clash and have difficulty understanding each other; and how important it is that they try.
Wonderful stuff!!!
Thank you! I think Leela’s place on gallifrey especially is so interesting and then how she and Romana, in spite or perhaps because they are so different characters, work so unbelievably well together, and this episode was just so full of stuff to explore
What an essay! You should get it on the review page!
I don’t think we ever saw a ‘normal’ regeneration for that matter, especially for us who got into DW through NuWho. The Doctor and the Master’s regenerations are always epic and more often than not, traumatic. The only other regeneration I can remember now is of the General’s. Yeah, also traumatic.
Closest thing I can think of is when the War Doctor regenerates in Day of the Doctor, he just does it because he’s “wearing a bit thin” - I guess old age?
(That scene bugs me a bit. Could have been done better I think. Moffat just really wanted to collect all the regenerations!)
I just read this - had to wait til I had time. Wow, some brilliant observations! I love this series 
That’s what I was thinking when I wrote that, like the Time Lords we know best and even most of them in this series are just so far removed from ‘normal’ and so are their regenerations, so we probably have a really warped point of view on their society. It’s interesting too, that although this series doesn’t have a point of view character, Leela is, as the outsider, actually the closest to us as the audience.
Tbh I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it since it isn’t really a review in the technical sense, but I might put it up later on the page anyways
Thank you! I too love this series as you may have been able to tell😆
We got him @sircarolyn - we got him!
I came for the Time Lord politics, I stayed for the strong female characters!
(It’s also making me want to re-watch Leela and Romana’s TV episodes now)
I feel the same. I was expecting a Time Lord West Wing. But yes Romana and Leela are great. Still don’t get why I should care about Narvin.
I was right about Spirit. Please trust me that I’ll be right about Narvin. If you are not a Narvin fan or at least understander after we’ve finished s2 then honestly I don’t know what to say. I’ll make you listen to Erasure 
Yeah exactly. Recently saw this post and another like it saying how the avg time lord probably regenerates in a zero room and it’s a planned thing after they’ve lived hundreds of years and just need to renew their body (with new blood time lords like romana even able to choose their appearance) etc and in Lungbarrow it’s established that when a time lord reaches the end of their cycle they pick a date to bring their House together to celebrate their life before their consciousness is fully uploaded to the Matrix. All rather boring compared to the utter Disaster that the doctor’s regenerations are
ALSO in the EDAs they have time lords deliberately regenerating in the vacuum of space so that their new bodies can withstand all kinds of extremes, becoming basically eldritch abominations in the process
I need to know which book does that come from 