madam, what year is this?

War Room hasn’t really let Leela's loyalty to Romana be messy. but look at their recent history: Romana, sending Leela on a mission that was never going to end well. Leela, thrown into the War. twenty years apart. a fraught reunion. mourning Romana. discovering Romana lied. a second reunion, and did Leela really forgive Romana? or was she so relieved that Romana wasn't dead, that in that moment, it was easy to set her anger aside?

Romana sent her into danger, Romana dismissed the life she built, Romana shut her out and manipulated her. and Leela still ran to rescue her from the Daleks. and Leela stayed on Gallifrey, instead of running at the first opportunity.

the firewall tells Leela that she always fails Romana, but what about Romana failing her? 

what if Leela was forced to confront whatever resentment she buried? what if the firewall poked at her anger towards Romana and the distance between them? (hasn't she hurt you time and time again? have you really forgiven her? is she really worth saving?)

the firewall throwing Leela's grief in her face was great! all the people she never saved, the temptation of a reality where she would never have to lose anyone, aren't you tired of this pain...yes, excellent.

but before that, I wish Hope let Leela’s feelings towards Romana be complex. her choosing to push forward & persist in saving Romana would have hit harder, I think, if she was allowed to feel that anger & hurt. if she had to grapple with why she joined the War Room in the first place—why Romana-as-a-hostage worked as a means to control her, at first. Leela gave up her autonomy, risked her life for someone who, not long ago, she didn't want to see again. I want Leela to unpack all that! I want Leela to genuinely ask herself why!

and I know, I know, it was a trap the whole time, the firewall was never really supposed to stop her. it makes sense that a firewall designed by Ollistra would make Leela doubt herself, rather than doubt Romana. Leela not questioning Romana is kind of the whole point.

Yay

Bonus

"The way that we did that was you take a filter out of the camera that's blocking the IR light and it made this beautiful pinkish-reddish color. We put Ryan on a stage surrounded by a bunch of chicken wire filled with infrared lights that were, like, sparkling. And then we had Greig [Fraser, Director of Photography] build an aquarium, a double glass window with a hose dripping water through it in front of a handheld camera and then he would stand around Ryan who going like this [reaching out and touching astrophage floating around] in a chicken cage, but he couldn't see anything because the lights are invisible to the naked eye."