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magicofthepen · 4 years

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Time War 3 Thoughts (Eps. 1-3)

Only the first three episodes because this is already long, and I have a lot of in-depth reactions and thoughts on Unity alone. These are based on my live reaction notes, with some “in hindsight” thoughts sprinkled in there. Fair warning, I’ve only listened once, so there are points of confusion that might be fixed with a relisten.

HOSTILES

The whole “on a ship with a core that’s going to implode” thing immediately gave me Enemy Lines vibes — and these vibes skyrocketed with Romana shouting “take my hand” down to Narvin. (Very disappointed in Narvin for not doing it, I will take any and all canonical handholding, even if it is for boring logistical reasons.)

Love that callback to Narvin almost falling off the roof :)

The way Narvin says “all this vegetation” is so funny, and really it’s hilarious how much of Time War 3 is “let’s make Narvin interact with as many plants and animals as possible.” No idea why this was the agenda, but I’m here for it.

I am 100% confused on the timeline re: the Sicari. If they didn’t show up until shortly before Romana’s failed assassination plot/the exile, but Trellick was sent to investigate their home a while before Romana was kicked off Gallifrey...that doesn’t line up??? Plus in Assassins don’t they mention that they’ve never caught one, and in Hostiles they have Sicari prisoners...generally I’m not too fussed about plot details but this one kept really throwing me off as I tried to connect the dots.

Trellick calls Romana Narvin’s boss at one point (not knowing otherwise), and really up until now those two have always had to navigate their personal relationship around their professional roles and hierarchy. And tbh I wish there had been more overt exploration of how the sudden absence of that hierarchy affects their dynamic.

“Narvin, this isn’t a shopping trip” — I enjoyed Narvin collecting all the tech, but in hindsight so annoyed at myself for not catching onto the chameleon arch being An Important Thing That Will Come Back Later

There are some really interesting moments of tension between Romana and Narvin (Romana wanting to trust and help Trellick vs. Narvin’s paranoia and focus on survival and escape) and the little moments of argument and tension that bubble up and fizzle out between them (”You almost went without me.” / “I knew you’d catch up.”)...the episode itself didn’t really dig deep and unpack them, but in many scenes it feels like there’s a lot going on under the surface and I love these layers!

I can’t believe these two had to swing on vines, this is iconic and amazing.

“Let’s replace the circuit together” is super cheesy and such a ridiculously technical way to express affection and I love it.

NEVERNOR

Re: the biodata tracking — how exactly did they get that info? Did Mantus give actual physical information to Narvin that he was able to hang onto? And how is that different from how they were trying (and failing) to track Leela before? (Since i think Narvin had mentioned tracking Ace through biodata in Time War 2...)

Narvin’s interaction with the goat? Yes.

Me, the instant they mention spending the night at the farm: Oh my god if there is Only One Bed, I might forgive this boxset for whatever horrible thing it’s going to do to Romana.

(That is a lie, of course, but I am extremely invested in bed sharing tropes.)

Tragically, this episode failed to live up to its trope-y potential (and Episode 4 remains unforgiven), although I do treasure the fact that we got to hear them share a sleeping space, complete with Romana waking Narvin up in the middle of the night because the ghosts are freaking her out.

On a related note: this episode was genuinely spooky and tense, and I was really into that atmosphere!!

Ooh I like this subtle reminder of how much time Romana and Leela have spent traveling in the Vortex...but not Narvin. This boxset doesn’t get into the whole “this is Narvin’s first time as a renegade but it isn’t Romana’s” dynamic too much, but I like this hint of it.

I really liked the moral implications the Nevernor test set up for the episode (the only way to pass is to not care), but it didn’t seem like it was actually relevant to the episode’s conclusion? Sure, Romana and Narvin left those people behind, but they were alive and they did their best to save them? I’m a bit confused about what the emotional beat here was supposed to be.

MOTHER TONGUE

Leela!! ...screaming in pain which isn’t great but still good to hear her voice.

The logistics of the whole consciousness transfer are still confusing to me. Did she take over someone else’s life on this world, someone who just happened to have the same name as her? If she only lived certain moments, did that mean the other person’s consciousness was in control the other times?

“How do you know they are wise when they do not speak?” That doesn’t sound like Leela

What is up with Leela bonding so quickly with Sholan and also being so harsh — “You need to be a man. You have a good heart, but you must teach it to be colder, harder.” The idea of her not being in a great emotional place to be a parent right now and messing up big time is so interesting in theory, but once Leela’s seen the future where Sholan is cold and hardened, I find it hard to believe she would actively push him in that direction. Also I don’t quite buy how quickly she embraces this mother-son relationship.

I do like how Leela keeps mentioning the Daleks as the main threat of the war, but of course in the end she sees it’s the Time Lords who are the antagonists here. There’s something fascinatingly awful about seeing the evil of the Time Lords completely from the outside, as opposed to Time War 2 which is all tangled up inside the system.

There is so much in these episodes about choice — it’s Trellick’s choice to try to escape even thought it could mean not surviving, it’s Agata’s choice to sacrifice herself to save the younger version of herself and her husband, it’s Sholan’s choice to die to save his cousin. And I have Thoughts about how this concludes in Unity, but I also want to point out that Leela is also given a choice at the end here, but unlike the other ones, she chooses to live.

#gallifrey spoilers #gallifrey audios #gallifrey #me: uhhh let's focus on the less emotionally traumatizing bits first #as i try to figure out how to talk about the last episode #also as an overall note i liked the small casts and contained stories!#it was cool to hear those kinds of stories plus it meant more main cast interaction which i'm always happy about #ramblings #emily listens to big finish #romana #narvin #leela

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