Square One (Gallifrey audio story)

Square One was the second story of the first series of Big Finish's Gallifrey audio series. It was written by Stephen Cole.

Publisher's summary
"It's too late... time is coming for us!"

In a climate of unease and mistrust, the great time-travelling powers of the universe are holding an historic temporal summit. The meeting will take place on a planetoid impervious to outside attack or internal subversion in any way.

But while President Romana walks a knife-sharp political tightrope into dangerous territory, Leela and K9 find themselves attending the summit in unexpected roles. They are hunting for evidence of Free Time activity, but find instead terrors of a different kind — time and time again...

What impossibility stalks the planetoid? Who is manipulating time? Can Leela and Romana discover the truth — or will they find themselves sent back to square one for all eternity?

Plot
Romana has helped to coordinate and organise a summit to discuss the regulation of the Time Vortex among the Temporal Powers. Romana worries that the group who supplied the Timonic Fusion Device to Free Time might try to sabotage the summit. Among the delegates to the summit are Narvin, V'rell of the Monan Host, Flinkstab of the Nekkistani, and Pule of Unvoss.

The summit begins to deteriorate into petty bickering. K9 and Leela go undercover as exotic dancers. While investigating, Leela realises that she is reliving the same day again. The whole planetoid is experiencing time slips, although Leela is the only one who realises it.

Narvin gets accused of killing Pule of Unvoss after Pule's drink explodes. Romana, weary of the events on the planetoid, decides to investigate in person. She gets attacked by a servitor robot, who turns out to be Baano, one of the exotic dancers on call. Baano agrees to reveal her employer in exchange for amnesty. It was V'rell's plan to kill Pule of Unvoss. Liaison Officer Hossak brandishes the device she used to turn time back. She had been shaping the summit to her ends, and she now planned to turn back time yet again, erasing Romana in the process. Romana then unveils that the whole summit was a sham, and the real summit elsewhere.

Cast

 * Lady President Romana - Lalla Ward
 * Leela - Louise Jameson
 * K9 Mark I / K9 Mark II - John Leeson
 * Cardinal Braxiatel - Miles Richardson
 * Coordinator Narvin - Sean Carlsen
 * Liaison Officer Hossak - Jane Goddard
 * Baano - Lucy Campbell
 * Flinkstab - Daniel Hogarth
 * V'rell - Daniel Barzotti
 * Pule of Unvoss — Joseph Lidster
 * Servitors — Robert Dick

Continuity

 * Romana mentions the Time Lords' refusal to use force on Gryben. (AUDIO: Weapon of Choice)
 * The events of AUDIO: The Apocalypse Element are mentioned.
 * It's mentioned that Cardinal Braxiatel has been busy elsewhere; though it's possible that this is because he was organising the real summit, another possible explanation for his absence is revealed in AUDIO: The Inquiry.
 * One of the delegates at the summit is a Virgoan. (PROSE: Stop the Pigeon)
 * The timecode on the holo-prints was made with a beryllium chip. (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Flinkstab murdered a dancing girl on Coralee, the human colony visited in PROSE: Storm Harvest.
 * When Romana confronts Hossak, she asks how many times Hossak has reversed time, to which Hossak replies "three times", a reference to TV: The Horns of Nimon