Written by Lou Morgan David Llewellyn Alfie Shaw Fio Trethewey

Starring Louise Jameson and Ken Bones

Originally released: August 2022

Listened to: June 2026

Episodes:
1.1 The Last Days of Freme by Lou Morgan

1.2 The Passenger by David Llewellyn

1.3 Collateral Victim by Alfie Shaw

1.4 The First Days of Phaidon by Fio Trethewey

Context: intrigued to see what this new series is like, excited to get up to date with the Gallifrey series, and to see how this series might differ from the Time War sets. Onward.

THE REVIEW

What I thought

1.1 The Last Days of Freme by Lou Morgan – So, a new format, sort of, for the Gallifrey series and a new theme (bloody love the new theme, perfect and already sets the scene for a different foci for this series). This episode we see Leela sent on a mission with the General (great role and performace by Ken Bones here) to the planet Freme, with the Timelords attempting to stop the inhabitants becoming vassals and allies of the Daleks in the future. This results in lots of spying and mooching around by the team, with Rassilon really wanting the Fremians destroyed. Our team, some of them anyway, think different. It ends up Leela plays the pivotal role and ends up recruiting the Fremians to the Timelords cause. Great episode for Leela this one and the General shines in this one.

1.2 The Passenger by David Llewellyn – I loved this episode. The story kicks off with Leela investigating a smashed up ship in some kind of Dalek ship. On which she finds one lone survivor, a timelord who can’t recall who he is. Back on Gallifrey it turns out this is a Timelord scientist called Cato Kilgore, a member of an experimental battle TARDIS that went missing mysteriously, all crew presumed dead. Cato isn’t quite the hero that he initially seems. A retuning Cardinal Rasmus is most skeptical of this mythical timelord, with good reason as Cato turns out to be the villain of the piece, and turns out has brought a bomb with him! It’s a great episode, that leads to lots of timelord deaths, a brutal ending for Cato, a dead Cardinal Vibax, no one really comes out of this episode unscathed. Very much enjoyed this one.

1.3 Collateral Victim by Alfie Shaw – this one is an interesting episode, with Leela and Vecklin investigating some weird time based shenanigans which leads to an interesting episode, starting with two characters discussing how the Timelords have killed them, with one telling the other what happend. It turns out that these characters are so pissed off with the timelords that they are trying to find a way to save everyone…and they do this via using the fact they are both TARDIS! It’s a cool idea, sentient TARDIS that are sick of the war….great idea.

1.4 The First Days of Phaidon by Fio Trethewey – a planet/system thought destroyed has returned and our team rush to find out what is going on. The Daleks are back in force, with some very cool Dalek emperor stuff going on in this episode. The Warp Smiths (cool name) are back and fighting with the General and Leela, and we get some great battles here, as well as lots more Narvin in this one. The artifact, a sentient thing, taps into the motivations of Narvin and Leela and this leads to some brilliant stuff around our beloved characters motivations, fears and needs…very lovley way to end this first set of War Room adventures.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5 Warp Smiths – God I love the new theme, so good! And sets the tone for these episodes, in contrast to the last series (Time War) there is far more urgency in these stories, even more jeopardy and far more action, which I like very much. Leela is the standout here, with Narvin playing a significant role as well, with Rasmus and Ollistra also great chatratercs. Overall a great start to this new run of Gallifrey adventures!

What am I left thinking?

• How is the resistance ever going to realistically stop both the Timelords and the Daleks!
• Rassilon, still not clear what he is exactly up to but I do feel he is definitely up to something!

Memorable bits

• Romanace hints between Narvin and Leela?!?!
• Great battles throughout this set
• The general, Rasmus, Rassilon…all playing each other/trying to stay ahead of the others
• The Resistancve buckling/struggling with Narvin and Eris playing key roles
• Love the warpsmiths of Phaidon! Coolest alien species name ever