10.4 - Assassins

The sicari collective are invading gallifrey and they are coming to kill Rassilon while Romana and Narvin question whether or not they should let them. Assasins is an explosive finale to time war vol 2 and there are some great twists and turns throughout.

The sicari are introduced as a species who have been born because of the time war and they wany to kill Rassilon. This is an interesting idea for a species as they are not a species responding to the time war but a species created as a result of the time war. The cast are again all really good with terrence hardiman, lalla ward and sean carlsen being the obvious highlights.

Our characters have some important choices to make in this story and they have to choose which side they are on. The political intrigue and manipulations in this story are really good and really add to the story with there being some great twists and reveals near the end.The ending leaves our characters in a very dangerous place and i really don't want to have to wait a year for volume 3.
Overall this boxset has been superb and is just as good as vol 1. Interestingly this boxset has no daleks in it and yet it still does a great job of exploring different aspects of the time war and gallifreyan politics. I would strongly reccommend this boxset.

SPOILER AHEAD: One thing that i am a bit dissapointed about is that this is probably the only time we'l get to see terrence hardiman as rassilon which is a shame as i thought he was perfect but lets hope dalton joins big finish soon to make up for it.

Volume 2 of “Gallifrey: Time War” ends the set with a new threat at Gallifrey’s door seemingly spawned from the resistance to the Time Lords started on Ysalus. The Sicari Collective are invading, they want Rassilon dead, and with Romana rapidly running out of allies as the CIA collapses around her she’s rapidly beginning to consider letting them get what they want. High treason is being placed in the cards while Narvin is about to be put to the test...

”Assassins” places danger right at the heart of Gallifreyan society and puts a strong focus on Rassilon himself and the effects he has on the planet and the universe at large. But there are also obvious themes of temptation and betrayal with long-lasting ramifications for these characters as they pursue darker ends for the future. It’s almost like a Greek tragedy in the way that things end up playing out with plenty of twists and turns that surprise and shock which we’ve come to expect from the excellent writing from Matt Fitton. Without giving too much away as this is another one you’ll want to go into fairly blind, there are some intense confrontations, displays of loyalty, and some nice foreshadowing for future stories both within this series and in others that deal more directly with the Doctor’s involvement in the War.

The soundscape and cast are again extremely powerful with both Lalla Ward and Sean Carlsen at their utter best in terms of their performances but this time they are matched by Terrence Hardiman who finally gets some juicy material to work with as Rassilon. The cunning ferocity he gets to put on display in this story is extremely compelling and his big moments with Romana are well worth the wait of the entire set. It’s not quite as powerful or as confident in its storytelling as the ending of the previous series was and it doesn’t up-end the table or change things quite as much as I was hoping it would. But “Assassins” is still an extremely entertaining story with a desperate climax and final scene that’s going to make waiting for details on Volume 3 next year a very long wait.