Reborn (audio story)

Reborn (identified on the cover simply as Chapter Fifteen) was the first story of the fourth series of Big Finish's Gallifrey audio series. It was written by Gary Hopkins. It was released nearly five years after the previous instalment and took the series in a new direction with the introduction of an alternate Gallifrey, the first of several.

Publisher's summary
Gallifrey survives...

Lady Romanadvoratrelundar has returned to her homeworld, seeking a cure for the Free Time virus that rages across the planet.

Leela of the Sevateem and her companion K9 are revered as heroes. Narvin is a traitor. And Braxiatel knows more than he's letting on.

Amidst all the confusion, the High Council of Time Lords is poised to take the planet into an all-consuming war against the cosmos. They're selling their secrets to the highest bidder, equipping the universe with temporal technology it should never have been allowed.

And Romana's son will lead them into battle...

Plot
As K9 was able to repair the Time Scoop before Elbon could take the cure to the Dogma Virus to Gallifrey, Braxiatel was able to get his TARDIS from the Time Vortex and give the group enough time to find a proper antidote. However, Romana, Leela, Narvin, Braxiatel and K9 have chosen to live on a planetoid which has restored Leela's vision and allows them to live in peace. Leela and Narvin announce that they are to be married in a ceremony officiated by K9 and Braxiatel proposes to Romana, who says that she needs time to think.

Braxiatel is awoken from his dream by Romana and admits to her that they are at the Axis and not at the Braxiatel Collection. Saving Gallifrey was a fantasy of Braxiatel's and, in truth, it is still in danger, but Braxiatel has found an Axis portal which Romana might find interesting.

Chancellor Dondequest asks her secretariat to have Surgeon-Master Rexus meet her and to have the inquisitors' office send her a valeyard. She is interrupted by Lady Romana, who wants to know more about her husband Commander Andred's death whilst putting down an insurrection and why he had not regenerated given that he was in his first incarnation. Aware that he had spoken out against the High Council, she believes that he was silenced, but Dondequest tells her to go home and stop being paranoid.

Commander Faradack informs Rexus that various galactic superpowers seem to be raising battle fleets against Gallifrey and that it is his job to make sure that the Time Lords survive.

Braxiatel leads Romana, Leela, K9 and Narvin to the portal and lets them all know where they truly are. Romana explains to Leela what the Axis is, describing it as a tree of alternative realities, most of which are caused by Time Lord experiments gone wrong and pose a threat to the primary timeline. The group enter the portal in search of a new life in a new reality and find themselves in a desert littered with bones; K9 identifies it as an alternative Gallifrey. Dozens of TARDISes materialise around them and the portal disappears, having moved elsewhere on the planet. The Chancellery Guard, let by Commander Faradack, arrest them and take them to the Capitol.

to be completed

Cast
Gallifrey
 * Romana II - Lalla Ward
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * K9 Mark II - John Leeson
 * Irving Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Narvin - Seán Carlsen

Alternative Gallifrey
 * Romana - Mary Tamm
 * Chancellor Dondequest - Sarah Douglas
 * Vansell - Anthony Keetch
 * Surgeon-Master Rexus - Brian Miller
 * Prime Usher Antonin - Conrad Westmaas
 * Commander Faradack - Lewis Rae
 * Tallan - John Leeson (uncredited)

Post-credits alternative Gallifrey
 * Technician Hester - Chris Johnson
 * Interrogator General Leela - Louise Jameson (uncredited)

Individuals

 * Narvin has his remaining regenerations extracted (as a form of torture).

Locations

 * Braxiatel rescued everyone by time scooping them to the Axis.

Gallifrey
Information relates to the alternative Gallifrey.
 * Dondequest asks for a valeyard from the inquisitors' office.
 * Gallifrey is selling technology such as the Oubliette of Eternity (to the Galyari), Time Rings (to the Monan Host) and Battle TARDISes (to the Killorans).
 * Almost everyone on Gallifrey owns a TARDIS.
 * Regenerations can be extracted and sold.
 * The alternative Leela is the only human to hold the Key to Time.
 * The alternative Romana never travelled with the Doctor. She stayed on Gallifrey, married Andred and had a son, Antonin. She eventually regenerates into her second incarnation.
 * Vansell is not the coordinator of the CIA. He is a servant of the House of Heartshaven.

Continuity

 * The Fifth Doctor and his companions Peri Brown and Erimem once visited the Axis. (AUDIO: The Axis of Insanity)
 * Romana mentions that she and the Fourth Doctor searched for the Key to Time. (TV: The Ribos Operation to TV: The Armageddon Factor) In the alternative timeline, it was Leela and K9 Mark I who accompanied the Doctor on his search for the Key.
 * Romana uses the pseudonym "Lady Astra" while in the alternative timeline. (TV: The Armageddon Factor; AUDIO: The Chaos Pool)
 * Braxiatel mentions that Lord Presidents have been assassinated in the past. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
 * Romana states that a regenerative cycle can be surgically implanted. (TV: The Five Doctors)
 * The Oubliette of Eternity first appeared in AUDIO: Neverland.
 * In this alternative Gallifrey, Tallan was a member of the High Council. (AUDIO: Ascension)