Renaissance (audio story)

Renaissance
Main character(s):	Romana II, Leela, Narvin
Main enemy:	Trey
Main setting:	Matrix projection of Gallifrey
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	James Goss
Director:	Gary Russell
Producer:	Gary Russell, Scott Handcock
Music:	David Darlington
Sound:	David Darlington
Cover by:	Simon Holub
Release details
Number of parts:	1
Release number:	Chapter Twenty-Three
Release date:	16 October 2013
Format:	1 CD Download 2nd of 3 stories
Production code:	BFPGALLCD17
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-84435-959-2
Gallifrey
← Previous	Extermination
Next →	Ascension

Renaissance (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Twenty-Three) was the second story of series 6 of Gallifrey. It was written by James Goss and featured Lalla Ward as Romana II, Louise Jameson as Leela, Seán Carlsen as Narvin and introduced Juliet Landau as Romana III.

Publisher's summary

Gallifrey Lies...

Returning to her original homeworld, Romana finds Gallifrey to be cold and empty... the corridors of the Capitol lie silent and the wastelands are populated only by a handful of primitive monsters.

Her only hope lies with the appearance of a strange young woman: a woman with a masterplan so devious it makes Romana's own masterplans look decidedly not-devious-at-all...

How far would Romana go to save her world? Would she risk the Web of Time? And who is the mysterious stranger watching from the shadows...?

Plot

Romana is alone in a ruin, feeling like she is being watched, and calls out to a growling figure. It chases her into a building where she attempts to barricade herself, but the building collapses and leaves her unconscious.

When she awakens, she meets a stranger who tells her that Leela and Narvin are held in a chronic hysteresis and takes her to the roof, showing her what remains of Gallifrey. The stranger is from the future, in which Gallifrey faces a great danger, and says that she has snatched the Capitol of her time and brought it back with her, displaced in time; she promises to give Romana the city, greatly speeding up the process of rebuilding, in return for being allowed to advise her. Romana agrees to the deal and, knowing that the stranger is a future incarnation of herself, they "shake hands" via Contact, restoring the Capitol thanks to the resulting temporal energy.

In the Capitol, Leela and Narvin are reunited with Romana and meet her future self, who is pleased to see them both again and asks them to call her "Trey" to avoid confusion. Romana and Trey have spent weeks rebuilding the planet, but Narvin believes that this is cheating. The Eye of Harmony is strained by the paradox but Romana says that Gallifrey is open for business as usual and has already summoned ambassadors of the Yevnon, Unvossi and Sunari. Time Lords will soon return to the Capitol and Narvin is charged with setting up a temporal border and processing them. Those affected by the Dogma Virus, who were knocked out by the temporal shock of the Capitol's arrival, are in stasis fields whilst the Romanas create a cure.

In Leela's rooms, which Romana has rebuilt, Leela remarks that Romana looks tired. She says that she is, having been stabilising the Citadel, opening diplomatic negotiations, arguing with the Monan Host and gathering the Free Time survivors. Whilst she likes Trey, she feels that she is looking her death in the eye every time that she looks at her. Leela spots a figure outside watching Romana, but Romana does not believe her and goes to meet the Unvoss delegation.

Trey and Narvin look out across Gallifrey. Trey says that she is worried that Romana might be too tired to ensure that the project to have the future Capitol overwrite the old one without making any mistakes and asks Narvin to come to her if he feels that Romana is hurrying through things too quickly.

Trey joins Romana and they make a transmission to the people of the universe, telling them that they face total annihilation unless the Web of Time continues under the guidance of the Time Lords, albeit as servants of time rather than its lords. They invite the Temporal Powers and any species wanting to establish a consulate to visit Gallifrey. Trey did not realise that Romana would go so far, but says that she supports her and goes to see Leela whilst Romana speaks with Narvin. She tells him to exile Trey and get her off of her planet.

Leela tells Trey that she did not watch the broadcast as she does not like it when Romana gets clever with words. She is finding it difficult to comprehend that there are two Romanas given how different they are, prompting Trey to suggest that they go for a walk to get to know each other. Trey says that she is worried about the aliens coming to Gallifrey and the risk of the Eye of Harmony causing the transduction barriers to fail because of Romana, who does not seem to trust her. Leela goes to speak with Romana and get her to trust Trey.

Romana is working on the transduction barriers, making sure that the ambassadors can safely depart Gallifrey, when Narvin visits. She asks him to exile Trey discreetly and pays little notice when he says that he could see a figure watching them from the shadows, jokingly suggesting that it was the missing ghost of Pandak II. They head off to find Trey.

Leela encounters the strange figure, which does not respond to her questions, and decides to stay and look at out the sky with it. There is an explosion and an alarm sounds. Leela hurries away and finds Romana and Trey, who believe that the explosion might be the Unvossi hitting the transduction barrier. Ambassador Kolspen calls Romana, informing her that his ship encountered turbulence and that the Unvossi have spotted Unvossi spacecraft debris to which they are now heading to find survivors. Realising that it is a version of the craft in the near future, Romana tells them to turn back, but Trey and Narvin insist that they continue onwards. The craft is destroyed.

Romana is about to explain to Leela that she made a mistake with the transduction barrier when Narvin advises her to keep quiet. Trey asks her to continue, however, and Narvin is forced to arrest her to stand trial. Romana offers no defence, accepting that she made a mistake, and Narvin declares that she must choose between disintegration and exile from Gallifrey. She chooses exile.

Trey, now the President, is suspicious of how quickly Narvin was able to arrange Romana's exile and goes to see her off, promising to look after Gallifrey and talking about how they had both been waiting to exile the other. Before boarding a Type 40 TARDIS, Romana sees a figure whom Trey cannot. She prepares to begin a life of stopping small invasions before ending up in the TARDIS library, drifting through the Time Vortex forever, and says that she might one day return.

Narvin asks for any reason why Trey should not be President and strikes his staff three times.

Leela enters Romana's TARDIS and tells her that Trey had manipulated them both, as well as Narvin. Leela sees the wall shimmer for a moment and tells Romana that she will be joining her in her exile, not seeing Gallifrey as her home without Romana, Andred or K9. Romana feels that leaving is the right thing to do and is happy to do so, which Leela believes might be due to something Trey has done.

Trey is inaugurated as President; she is invested by Narvin with the Sash and Rod and told to seek the Great Key.

Leela suddenly feels like she wants to leave as well, excited about visiting Paris. Romana trusts Leela's instincts and decides that she needs to have a word with Trey as her place is on Gallifrey.

Narvin informs Trey that the transduction barriers have been reset and that the paradox is now fully contained, which Trey sees as the perfect symbol of the beginning of an age of stability. The transduction barrier fails and the Capitol begins to be rejected, putting the Eye of Harmony in jeopardy, which Trey suspects has been done by Romana. She heads to the Eye with Narvin.

Romana and Leela hurry to the Panopticon, where Romana raises the access system for the Eye of Harmony and attempts to temper the schism. Temporal energy spills out and Romana begins to absorb it. Arriving at the Panopticon, Narvin rugby tackles Trey to keep her from attempting to help Romana and avoiding the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. He takes the Sash to help her himself, but stops when the figure returns, watching Romana. She successfully averts the catastrophe and hears the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors say her name before she says goodbye to Leela.

The Eye of Harmony opens again and Trey warns Romana not to regenerate, as to do so so close to the Eye would cause it to explode and destroy Gallifrey. However, she cannot stop and says that she is regenerating.

Cast

• Lady President Romana - Lalla Ward
• Lady President Romana - Juliet Landau
• Leela - Louise Jameson
• Coordinator Narvin - Seán Carlsen
• Kolspen of Unvoss - Mark B. Oliver

Uncredited

• Fourth Doctor - Tom Baker
• Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
• Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
• Eighth Doctor - Paul McGann

Worldbuilding

• The time when Gallifrey was affected by the Dogma Virus is known as the Pandora Devastation.
• Romana imitates K9 several times.
• Trey is an incarnation of Romana from several thousand years in the future who uses a middle syllable of her full name in order to avoid confusion with the younger Romana, though she is also referred to as Romana and by her full name several times. She tells her younger self that it took centuries to rebuild Gallifrey and that, in the meantime, the other Temporal Powers ran rampant.
• Trey brings the Capitol of her Gallifrey to replace the Capitol in the Pandora Devastation. It exists in another time frame while the existence of both Capitols is sustained by the Eye of Harmony.
• Narvin describes Gallifrey as "a burnt orange paradise."
• In Trey's personal timeline, she has not seen either Leela or Narvin in thousands of years.
• Narvin strongly objects to Romana forming an alliance with her future self as it violates the Laws of Time, disrupts the Web of Time and constitutes a temporal paradox.
• Romana puts animal furs in Leela's room, but they are tachyon recreations rather than real skins, causing Leela to thinks "tachyons" are beasts.
• Leela says the first thing the Sevateem is taught is that "we will all die."
• Romana scrawls equations in chalk over a statue of Calantha I.
• Romana and Narvin discuss the missing ghost of Lord President Pandak II.
• The Fourth Doctor once took Romana to have fish and chips on the Old Kent Road in London.
• The voices of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors can be heard when Romana is trying to seal the Eye of Harmony. They all say only one word: "Romana."
• The stress of attempting to seal the Eye of Harmony appears to trigger a regeneration in Romana.

Notes

• This audio drama marks the first appearance of the Gallifrey of the proper timeline on the series since AUDIO: Panacea in August 2006.

Continuity

• Trey refers to the "Pandora devastation" (AUDIO: Imperiatrix, Fractures, Warfare) and the Dogma Virus. (AUDIO: Panacea)
• Leela and Narvin were trapped in a chronic hysteresis for several weeks. (TV: Meglos)
• Romana tells Trey that she is aware that the Daleks have seized control of the Axis and are invading alternative Gallifreys. (AUDIO: Extermination)
• Romana refers to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect. (TV: Day of the Daleks, Mawdryn Undead)
• Romana and Trey initiate telepathic contact with each other. (TV: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors)
• Narvin sarcastically asks Leela if she has gone blind again. (AUDIO: Fractures)
• Trey tells Narvin not to let anyone dressed in black or with a pet dinosaur onto Gallifrey. (TV: Terror of the Autons, The Mark of the Rani)
• Romana refers to the Monan Host and the Nekkistani. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element)
• Both Leela and Narvin spot someone standing in silence watching Romana. (TV: Logopolis)
• In her message to the universe, Romana begins by saying, "Peoples of the universe, please attend carefully." (TV: Logopolis)
• Lady Trey refers to Leela as her best friend. (AUDIO: Extermination)
• Leela refers to the closure of the Eye of Harmony due to the Krilig on the alternative Gallifrey. (AUDIO: Forever)
• Narvin refers to Omega. (TV: The Three Doctors, Arc of Infinity)
• Romana refers to Lord President Pandak II. (AUDIO: Babblesphere)
• As Romana is preparing to go into exile, Trey tells her that "the moment has been prepared for." (TV: Logopolis)
• Trey gives Romana a battered Type 40 TARDIS to travel the universe. (TV: An Unearthly Child, et. al)
• As she prepares to leave Gallifrey, Romana says, "One day, I may come back. Yes, one day." (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
• Romana asks if Leela has ever been to Paris. Romana visited the city with the Fourth Doctor in 1979 and 2000. (TV: City of Death, COMIC: The Forgotten)
• The Rod of Rassilon is used to open to floor of the Panopticon to access the Eye of Harmony. The Sash of Rassilon supposedly serves as a means of protecting the wearer against the forces of the black hole. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
• Leela and Narvin would later learn that the other Gallifrey was a construct of the Matrix while Trey was a projection of a future Romana. Both were created by a future version of Romana for the purposes of the trapping the Daleks inside the Matrix. (AUDIO: Ascension)

External links

• Official Renaissance page at bigfinish.com