Gallifrey dies…
Romana and her comrades find themselves in the dank and grubby wastelands of northern Gallifrey, trapped between two forces in a long and ancient war.
One side bides their time within their nests, whilst the other draws up troops across the trenches. Both sides have their secrets, their means to win the war – and both want Romana fighting alongside them…
After millennia of warfare, the final assault approaches. The Ancient Enemy and the True Lords want this world. And before this night is out, there will be bloodshed.
Only the late Lord Rassilon holds the key…
GALLIFREY: ANNIHILATION
Right off the bat, in an interminably long, ponderous sequence involving the regular characters, Romana muses about whether her decision to journey into the Axis in search of a new Gallifrey was the proper one. Fine, but wasn’t she pissed off with Braxiatel in “Reborn” because he tricked them into thinking they were going to a deserted planetoid while actually taking them to the Axis? So whose plan was this? How do you allow such a massive failure of internal continuity to survive editing? Probably the same way you allow “Annihilation,” Scott Handcock’s third episode of Gallifrey IV, to make it to release. To this day, I think “State of Decay” is a fantastic Doctor Who story with some of the series’ most memorable villains on display – and “Annihilation” certainly wants to ape that story, even using an admittedly brilliant recreation of its score. But merely having vampires in a story does not make it good – “State of Decay” was a triumph of atmosphere, something “Annihilation” almost totally lacks. Casting Geoffrey Beevers as the lead vampire is a great idea, as he sounds even more evil here than he does as the Master – but all he does is talk and threaten and hiss. In “State of Decay,” Romana was visibly terrified; here, she’s unconcerned to the point of relaxation. And then there’s Katy Manning as a female Borusa: she’s fine in the part, but why Manning? Why Borusa? For fun? There’s more to storytelling than throwing a bunch of continuity references at the listener and shooting a thumbs-up and a grin. And then, to make matters worse, we take the best bit of character development of the entire Gallifrey series – Leela’s blindness – and cure it! Is this really Scott Handcock’s script? I know he’s better than this.
Lord, no.
3/10