The Time Lords’ President has a drastic scheme to restore this world to its former glory but can a cure for all Gallifrey’s ills really be found in the hands of entrepreneur, adventurer and self-confessed swine Mephistopheles Arkadian?
Rate and review below:
There’s so much going on in this series, but few have cliffhangers quite so ridiculous. Still, I like this one quite a bit, and I really love the opening in the ruins of Romana’s childhood home.
Finished this just now, and I just can’t get over this ending. This is how you end this series? For five years? This is insane. This whole chapter is quite frankly absurd and I love it. Zombies? Gallifrey falling to ruins? Pigrats? This one has it all. I adore Romana in this story (I mean, I always do, but especially), I think it’s really interesting how much better she fits in this outsider position. She has much less left to lose so she’s honestly doing much better mentally. I think she could really thrive in a powerful but ultimately not binding advisor capacity. And I adore the beginning. Leela. God, Leela made me cry in this one. She is so utterly alone and lost and the way she talks with Andred is so heartbreaking. At this point I just prepare myself to cry when that music comes on. And her talk with Romana too. Louise Jameson is amazing. It’s extremely interesting to see Narvin working under a different president, because you can really see the way he respects Romana but not Matthias. That’s not his president and you can tell. And Brax!! The ending with all the triple-crossing going on was very clever and slightly confusing but I love to have him back. Still, that ending. Who came up with that. Incredible.
I’d also like to hold a moment of silence for Leela’s knife. Meanest thing anyone has ever done.
Funny you should say that. Let us know what you think when you get to Time War 1. Can’t say any more because spoilers.
Ah, Panacea. Panacea. The episode that you are. I have a lot to say about this one (everyone act surprised)
I have tried very hard not to say too much about what I feel about s3 because I’ve been trying not to bias anyone, but I have to say it is one of my least favourite series and I do find this episode to be a letdown. More than anything, it frustrates me. The first time I listened, yes - the WAIT WHAT reaction is there and I will give it that. It is very exciting, and very funny.
However, the more you listen to it, the more it falls apart. The thing with the pigrats and the virus is basically nonsense and the way that will get ‘wrapped up’ in later episodes is… interesting and convoluted to say the least. But it is exciting and if you don’t think about it too much, it does sweep you along and you can have fun.
My biggest frustration with the whole thing is the character work. Or rather, anti-work. Yet again, Leela is criminally underused and sidelined - you’re telling me that after spending almost three series grieving/forgiving/hating/grieving Andred only to now bein exactly the same place she was at the start of s3. She literally says almost exactly the same things she says a handful of episodes ago, and I get that she would still be mourning him but to have any growth all season just wiped away? Doesn’t work for me. Louise Jameson though, is as ever, on toppest form and I love her.
Narvin continues to grow in interesting ways, especially now he’s Romana and Leela’s bestie, but Romana tooI find to be relatively stagnant in this one. The plot just happens to her. It’s been a moment since I listened to this one at all and I am struggling to think of a single plot driving moment she has in it.
Also don’t you love how any other female character in the series to this point is dead? (not to advertise myself but I wrote an essay about this)
And that end… I know they were going for like an Angel the Series type thing but I just don’t think it works here. Certainly it’s a shocker but after over an hour of chasing everyone around, Gallifrey in ruin, and no easy way out, not giving it an ending almost feels like taking the easy way out as a writer.
I don’t know. I feel very complex-ly about this one. I don’t hate it. But I don’t love it either. Certainly one of the weaker series finales in my view.
CHECK! MATE!
It’s a little weak but Leela finally gets to share center stage with Romana after being put on the backburner for the entire season and you can just hear Louise Jameson taking that with eagerness.
It doesn’t work extremely well but it works all the same and at least does something interesting.
Tbh, I can easily see myself adopting a similar opinion in the future, when I’ve listened to this more often and perhaps with the chapters closer together. For now, everything is definitely coloured in initial excitement for me, which is, in my opinion, one thing a good audio has to deliver, the second is to hold up over time, but I can’t judge that for myself yet. I feel like this series could have used a bit of tightening in the plot structure, it started very strong but after warfare I feel like the plot has been a bit meandering. And you’re very right in how Leela has been underutilized here, which is a crime because she deserves everything. Still, in terms of her character, I liked this a lot more than the previous two, because she did have meaningful scenes here.
Also, I have been waiting to finally reach the point where I could read that essay of yours without spoilers, and have now done so! You’ve done excellent work on it, and I very much agree with your assessment that these series as a whole aren’t feminist. Still, Romana and Leela are, to me, pretty close to the sort of female characters I wish we could see more often, because they are complex, weak at times, make mistakes, are strong and fierce and not always in the right (I dislike stories that proclaim themselves feminist with one ‘perfect’ female hero almost more than the outright misogynist ones). It’s refreshing to see characters like that and a big reason why I fell in love with this series. But especially the way Leela is treated, not by the other characters but by the narrative, makes it far from perfect, and definitely not feminist as a whole. A very engaging essay!
Now this I totally agree with! I love that they’re messy and terrible, and I too would love to see these characters with real depth too. It’s what really keeps me drawn to Gallifrey, if I’m honest.
Eventually I will write essays on the rest of Gallifrey, and I will assert that the narrative does get more feminist (as I defined it) as it goes on. I want to get back to writing more essays - maybe once I finish school in three weeks (
)
But thank you for reading and I’m glad you got something out of it!
This felt like a coda to Series 3 rather than a conclusion - that was last week really wasn’t it. The pigrat zombies was just odd and I was really confused at the end about who was working for who to do what and why.
And the ending? It’s almost like this episode is trying to do two things at once - it’s an epilogue to Series 3 but also a prologue to Series 4. I’m not sure it properly achieves either.
But it’s still entertaining and a great way to spend an hour or so.
I’m looking forward to seeing what else happens in Gallifrey and your thoughts on that. I’m actually really hoping that I’ll soon be able to do things like write essays for fun again too, currently my studying has been completely overtaken with maths even though I technically study sociology equally. And that has so many interesting thoughts that I really want to apply to doctor who!
Please continue to share your thoughts when you listen! I enjoy reading the liveblog 
I love that there are so many essayists around here, it’s so fun to think too hard about the Whoniverse!
I will gladly admit that this is probably the weakest of the season. It’s still good, but does feel like epilogue with Mindbomb being the epic finale. On the other hand, we do get more Arkadian. I can’t imagine having to wait so long with that cliffhanger, especially when it seemed like there wouldn’t be any more.
Good point. That is exactly what it feels like.
Me too @Jae 
I like Panacea, but compared to the rest of this, to me, very strong season it feels sort of off.
I want to keep going with season 4, I really like that one (as well) 
I have loved to have so many experience the amazingness that is “Gallifrey” in these Audio Club Extras 
Same. It was a very weird finale and does not seem to quite makes sense, as if the plot twists exist for their own sake.
So, Season 3 ends with Panacea. It’s an exhausting chapter that brings together narrative threads from the past three seasons while delivering one shock twist after the other in its final third - perhaps a bit too many of them. Nonetheless, I was hooked. This was a great conclusion to the season and rhe ongoing conflict on Gallifrey, with intriguing setups for the future.
The Series 3 conclusion weaves the fallout of the civil war with the resurgence of the dogma virus, delivering a tense, layered story that ties together previous threads while setting the stage for future uncertainty.
Romana’s transition from President to renegade remains compelling, with her resourcefulness, moral clarity, and camaraderie with Leela and K9 offering standout moments. Her interactions with morally dubious figures, like Elbon, highlight her unwavering leadership.
Hugo Myatt’s manipulative Arkadian and Matthias’s ineffectual leadership drive much of the drama, while Narvin’s pragmatic efforts to stabilise Gallifrey shine. The jaw-dropping reveal of Braxiatel as the mastermind behind Free Time adds depth and moral ambiguity to his character.
Packed with political intrigue and shocking betrayals—including K9 working for Arkadian and Brax—the narrative balances strategic machinations with emotional beats, such as K9 and Leela’s departure from Romana.
The unresolved ending, featuring Brax’s ark, the anti-regeneration cure, and the looming fall of Gallifrey, leaves the fate of the Time Lords hanging in the balance, creating a thrilling lead-in for future developments.
Exactly my thinking as well
it’s strange that Series one has a story that’s basically a coda, and series three does, but series two doesn’t (iirc)
A finale to a season that’s given us civil war, political intrigue and machinations, twists and turns of all sorts and it’s… fine.
Admittedly, this acts more as a Coda to season three than a final chapter, but even then it ends up just kind of existing. There’s some great moments in here, don’t get me wrong, Romana’s visit to her ancestral home conjures images of Lies, not only a nice character moment, but a great bookend to this two season ‘era’ of the spinoff. The scene with Leela mourning Andred as well I think it quite effective, hearing her thoughts not only on Andred’s death, but on what’ become of Gallifrey and how he’d respond to it.
There’s also some fun character stuff for Narvin here, seeing him playing catch up to a president who won’t tell him anything, who he clearly doesn’t see as the right choice for the position and who doesn’t seem to care for him much at all.
But then the rest of it… pigrats and free time and zombies and and and.
There’s a fine story in there, but it very much feels like we’re seeing the plot play out, rather than experiencing it. I hate especially that because of it, I’m having to religate two of my favourite parts of this series (Brax and K9) to a mere ‘and’ in terms of the plot.
I like the plot, but our core cast are sidelined for most of it, and things just sort of happen to them, rather than them doing things. Also unlike previous stories where that’s been the case, it doesn’t feel like they’re trying here, you don’t get the desperate scrambles to catch up and try just about anything that you did in Mindbomb. Here they feel resigned to their roles as pawns.
Even then, you could do something interesting with that, give more focus to our characters and how they feel about everything going on, those moments we do get to just sit with a character and their thoughts are what keeps this story for being any lower for me. But there’s not enough of it, the plot’s got to plot… and and and.
This was okay but nothing more. I loved the last episode but I have been having a lot of problems getting through this one. I just keep getting bored. I agree with @deltaandthebannermen it feels a bit like a coda.