#square one

This is my favourite Gallifrey audio drama so far. Maybe even one of my favourite audio dramas overall. (Yup. This is the second episode.)

So, firstly, there's the K9s. K9 mark II is insistent on calling K9 mark I an inferior unit. K9, whichever version, is usually 90% normal, logical robot and 10% randomly says something that could be construed as an opinion. E.g. "You are a very stupid machine." when talking to the TARDIS in 'The Invasion of Time'.

At best, the K9s tolerate each other as if they were both dealing with an annoying coworker but have to be civil. They haven't interacted directly yet though and there's a reason they're never left in the same room together by Leela or Romana. Mostly convenience. But I can interpret it how ever I want and if I want the K9s to have a workplace conflict then so be it.

As for the story, it's pretty interesting.

I think the ending is what really brings it together. Hossak is the antagonist in this audio drama but her actions aren't easily dismissed as evil. She deliberately kept going back in time to try again so as to broker peace between all the Temporal Powers. Of course, Hossak herself isn't so much of a good person.

For one, she wanted to erase Romana from existence to achieve her goal and showed delight in wanting to do so. Probably because Romana tricked her by holding another summit elsewhere and she was bitter about having worked so long on this only for it to be a fake.

For another, she showed no care for Lexi (a dancer and prostitute) and called her a slut. You could suggest that she has some subconscious misogynism since words like slut have been used to shame women whenever they dared to be the slightest amount of promiscuous. I'm sure she'd consider sex workers of other genders just as repulsive but the fact that she used the word slut and not something more gender neutral implies that she was specifically attacking Lexi for being a female prostitute. Then there's the Time Lord superiority that she feels she has over all the other species, such as how she treats Leela and the lack of care she has for her.

Hossak is hypocritical too. Saying that she had hoped Leela was there so as to be an example against the xenophobia on Gallifrey, that anyone from any culture just like her could thrive there. I don't think she's able to recognise that she's xenophobic too just to a less extreme extent.

Anyway, back to my original point. Hossak's crime being her interference with time. The only real difference between Romana's trickery and Hossak's trickery is that one was government sanctioned while the other wasn't. So, Hossak gets trialed but Romana doesn't. Both had good intentions but only Romana's effort was rewarded. It's enough to pity Hossak even if she's not that great of a person.

It must be existentially frightening to live in a universe with time travel. As Leela says at the end:

"When the things we live through, which shape us, could be wiped away like footprints in dust, changed, then where is the meaning?"

That's horrifying. You could be a completely different person the next day because someone decided to intervene and you'd get no say in it. Romana ends up replying to this without engaging with Leela's concern since there's not really a way to answer it. Meaning is subjective. Instead, she says that:

"I am respecting you. Perhaps that's where the meaning lies"

A vague answer, for sure. Generally, people find meaning in friends and family so for Romana to choose respect is curious. She demands respect constantly and she always gives respect but she doesn't take it away from anyone, at least not so far. I'd say this links back to the Etra Prime incident where she was constantly dehumanised as TV Romana didn't place an emphasis on it. She doesn't want anyone else to be treated in that way, especially not herself.

The murder of Lexi that happens and then doesn't happen never gets any justice which bothers Leela. I doubt that Flinkstab was ever held accountable, even for his previous murder. I doubt his unwritten murder of Lexi occurred accidentally, such a thing doesn't happen twice. Especially if the first incident haunts you. Also, how do you accidentally murder someone in that way? He says that the girl just broke, that she wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry, what? Most importantly, there's no way he didn't notice. I'm fairly sure he disregarded her wellbeing entirely in favour of his own desires and only felt bad for her murder because it would get him in trouble. Flinkstab is a nightmare that I hope dies out in the real world.

Side note, this is the third time sex workers have been mentioned in the audio dramas I've listened to. It's not really relevent but to go from 'haha i'll hide a sex innuendo joke' tv show to 'no sex allowed' tv show to 'sex is real' audio dramas makes it pop out to me more. I do appreciate that whenever sex workers are in the story, it's in a way that isn't negative towards them. They're written as normal people, although they've always been women thus far.

I really love how the audio dramas have no filter. They know that kids aren't going to be listening to this so they just go all out.

Okay, last few thoughts now.

So, Narvin. He's obviously not on the same side as Romana even if he works for her. They disagree often and Narvin doesn't trust the other Temporal Powers at all. He's the kind of xenophobe who tries to make his xenophobia sound reasonable and logical. He doesn't harm anyone physically for being non-Gallifreyan so in his mind, it's all sensible. Just keeping Gallifrey and time safe by limiting risks. Of course, the only reason he doesn't trust the other species with time is because they're not Gallifreyan. Similarly, the other Temporal Powers don't trust each other because they're different species. Lots of xenophobia to go around, it seems. I'm sure he's hoping Romana gets disposed soon so that someone who he considers more sensible can take over. He tolerates her to be professional but only for that.

Braxiatel doesn't get much to do in this audio drama, same as the last one. He's more of an advisor and Romana's political ally as she trusts him to handle something as delicate as the real temporal summit. She sends Narvin to handle the fake one as she doesn't trust him enough to handle diplomacy properly. Hence why she came up with several pre-recorded hollogram speeches to intervene in case he manages to mess up the fake summit. Narvin's such a mess. :)

Romana's shown to be more calculating than her TV self ever gets to be. I know the consensus is that Romana's the Doctor's equal in the TV show but... It's Classic Who. Remember? Misogynistic Classic Who? She might get to be more intelligent than the other companions but she's rarely allowed to solve anything with that intelligence. It's always the Doctor who gets to save the day in the show.

Anyway. Audio drama Romana. She really gets to show off her intellect in this audio drama. A whole plan she thought out, the way she figures out what Hossak had been doing, just everything and with such ease too. Something gets messed up, she doesn't take the time to worry and just fixes it. She could get erased but she goes on to do what's needed anyway. It's interesting how she reacts to the potential of being erased. If she is suicidal, she still doesn't want her entire existence to be erased. It'd be all for nothing if that happened. It wouldn't further her goals and she wouldn't have had a purpose.

I don't have much to say on Leela yet. She clearly feels out of place and she latches onto whatever comfort of home she can get. I think she's going to end up hating Gallifrey because of the constant xenophobia she faces.

Finally, time is messy. Bells, microspans, spans, etc. I'm pretty sure it's only used as a measurement of time in the audio dramas since I've never heard it used in any of the Gallifrey based episodes in the show. Seems to be regularly used by each of the Temporal Powers. Span was used in The Invasion of Time though but as a measure of distance.

I think it's been a few days between Weapon of Choice and Square One since the inquiry instigated by Narvin was said to take place in two weeks after the Weapon of Choice.

Also, I found this while trying to figure out what microspans and spans mean:

Makes sense. He would be the kind of guy to get scared by spiders.