Review by Scott Lopes

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After a six month hiatus, Dark Gallifrey has returned to focus on its newest Time Lord villain, Missy.

Dark Gallifrey: Missy would be a fine fifth series for the Queen of Evil’s already successful spin-off; unfortunately, that isn’t what this is. When Dark Gallifrey first started in April of last year, it wasn’t entirely clear what it was supposed to be, and this hasn’t really changed.

This newest trilogy centers around Missy, who, after narrowly escaping Skaro following the events of The Witch’s Familiar, finds herself stranded in a strange pocket universe. There, she’s forced to adapt to the strange world’s new rules and come to terms with her feelings for the Doctor, new friends, and herself, all while trying to find a way back home. 

To give this trilogy credit, it at least focuses more on its title character than the last trilogy did; unfortunately, that doesn’t excuse the fact that it still feels out of place here. It’s not entirely clear just what makes this “Dark Gallifrey” compared to any other Missy story. Dark Gallifrey doesn’t feel relevant whatsoever to the plot, with it not even feeling the need to bring it up throughout the entire trilogy, and its only implied connection is so small most listeners will probably miss it.

Even Morbius, which was more interested in its focus character than Dark Gallifrey, still managed to set it up as an interesting mystery that was paid off substantially in The War Master, albeit at the expense of a major focus on that title character. Missy seems to want to take a similar approach, that being having Dark Gallifrey as more of a necessary backdrop while focusing on the main character, but this falls flat when the trilogy is so interested in treading old ground already being explored in the main Missy series it neglects to even bring up the series arc once. 

Even taking Dark Gallifrey out of the subject for a moment, the trilogy still isn’t that strong. Its focus on “can Missy be good” has been done so many times by Big Finish alone it’s become extremely dull. It even attempts its own version of the Lumiat twist from Missy: Series Two, to the point where some scenes felt so similar I found myself waiting for a second twist revealing it was an intentional parody. The whole trilogy seems to, in general, be more interested in call backs, references, and jokes about past stories than anything else. While there’s nothing wrong with occasional easter eggs and references, it feels a bit over the top here, and it definitely could have been trimmed down to have some extra time to expand on some under-explained plot points. 

Overall, Dark Gallifrey, three entire installments in, still doesn’t seem to know what it’s about. Is it a series focusing on the inner characters of these Time Lord villains? Is it about Dark Gallifrey itself? Or is it that Big Finish just don’t know themselves? With only a handful more on the horizon, I hope that gets figured out soon. If you’re a big fan of Missy, this trilogy might be worth trying out, assuming you’re not tired of her repetitive character arc. If you’re interested in the Dark Gallifrey mystery? Unless you’re a completionist, I’d skip this one because there’s really not much here for you.

All three instalments in Dark Gallifrey: Missy are available on CD or as a download from http://www.bigfinish.com