A Long Shadow

Almoner Crest Yeux is pronounced Yooks.

Leela: what did she see in Andred? Why would she give up travelling with the Doctor? (We’re talking about the character, not about Louise Jameson leaving.) The parts of Gallifrey she witnessed in Invasion of Time would hardly encourage her to stay. Maybe she recognised kindred spirits in the Outlers? Or mistook the grandeur and pomposity for some sort of mystical haven? Not very likely.

I suppose Andred is the only attractive and vaguely sparky person she comes across, but really Leela’s whole departure is a tagged on afterthought. Better to look at how a practiced warrior and woman of action would cope in such a potentially deadly dull place. So she’s bored and the Doctor, the most important and influential person in her existence, has gone. What else do you expect her to do, other than dig up his past?

Romana returned to Gallifrey from E-space in Terrance Dicks’ Blood Harvest. By the time we get to Paul Cornell’s Happy Endings, she has been elected as Lord High President. She’s a lovely character to write, by turn authoritative and frivolous. Lalla Ward stamped all through her like Brighton rock.