Gallifrey: Time War 3

Four more stories set during the Time War, following Romana and Narvin as they head into exile and try to meet up with Leela. The political and military themes of the previous volumes have gone, as has anything much to do with Gallifrey, but it's a change of pace and does manage to get some commentary in on the damage done by the War to the universe at large.

Hostiles – Following on from the end of the previous volume, we see Romana and Narvin arriving on a crippled Time Lord ship that they must traverse in order to escape. Naturally, there's a monster on board, and it all has to do with Gallifreyan experimentation and damage to the local timestream. It's a tense and somewhat claustrophobic story as the characters struggle to survive and to resolve the mystery of what the ‘monster' is trying to achieve. The soundscaping is very effective; considering that we're just hearing people the sounds of people clambering about through metal corridors and ladders I, for one, never felt confused about what anyone was doing or where they were. And, while time travel is key to what's happening, it's sufficiently low scale and localised not to get confusing. 4 stars.

Nevernor – Things move up a notch in the second episode as the pair reach a planet where it's immediately obvious things aren't right – and they only escalate as the timeline damage becomes more apparent. As in the previous episode, there is a very small cast of characters, which helps to keep the temporal damage more in focus, and the plot is linear and not overly complex. Once again, there's some clever use of sound, although here it's the fact that one of the characters is clearly hearing things that the other (and the listener) cannot, adding to the sense of mystery. Unfortunately, once the characters finally figure out the source of the problem, the resolution isn't terribly interesting, and the ‘monster' is dull – although as an exploration of the environmental damage caused by the Time War, it's a worthwhile story. 3.5 stars.

Mother Tongue – The third story feels unconnected with the rest of the collection. It features only Leela, and to that extent, is filling in some of what happened while she was away from the others, but it could just as well fit in anywhere else, and how she got to the location in the story is never explained (nor is it apparent where she heads once it is over). That aside, it's another story about time being jumbled up, although it's linear from her perspective and this time around the time travel elements are not directly connected to the War. There are a few nice twists in it and the jumping about allows for the story to play out over a longer period of time than would otherwise be possible but it's oddly detached, and we don't really know any of the guest characters for long enough to care about them much. 3 stars.

Unity – The final story is the most conventional of the four, with no more than a passing mention of time travel. It's here that Romana and Leela finally meet up and that the Daleks also make a (very brief) appearance. The latter are really only here to make a threat and hurry things up, with the story being more focussed on the life that Leela has made for herself before they arrive. It's not an especially remarkable story, feeling like a necessary bridge between the previous stories and whatever comes next, but not notable on its own merits. Having said that, the final scenes, which culminate in a cliffhanger, are powerful and show Romana at her best, so I'll give it half a star for those alone. 3.5 stars.