É isso mesmo, só depois de muito tempo eu peguei para ouvir a primeira Main Range e posso dizer que The Sirens Of Time, cumpre bem seu papel de apresentação da BIG FINISH estabelecendo como suas histórias da franquia de Doctor Who irão funcionar em seus áudios dramas. Nada melhor que começar por um Multi-Doctors para conquistar logo de cara seus fãs – A história começa em Gallifrey quando uma TARDIS do modelo 70 pilotada pelo Coordenador Vansell chega trazendo uma mensagem muito importante, ele informa que o planeta está correndo grande perigo exigindo ver o Presidente. Sabemos que Gallifrey está sendo cercada por uma espécie desconhecida e que vestígios de energia Artron foram detectados através de uma distorção do tempo, tudo levando a crer que o Doutor tem um suposto envolvimento nessa situação. A partir disso, Nicholas Briggs dedica as três primeiras partes do áudio a cada Doutor, finalizando sua quarta parte unindo todos eles para a resolução final. Começando pela história do 7° Doutor, confesso que ela me passou uma má impressão porque, além de seu enredo ser bem bobinho, seus personagens tem papeis bem simples que estão longe de encher os olhos - Não foi o meu caso, mas talvez a personagem Ruthley te irrite bastante pela sua histeria exagerada (por curiosidade ela é interpretada pela saudosa Maggie Stables que mais a frente incorpora a adorável companion do 6° Doutor, Evelyn Smythe). As coisas vêm a melhorar na história do 5° Doutor, que se mostrou muito promissora e interessante, mas acabou seguindo caminhos que a deixaram bem rasa. E por fim a do 6° Doutor, que disparada é a melhor história das três se destacando por ser a mais enriquecida, ter um ótimo desenvolvimento e uma bela dinâmica narrativa - Parece que essa foi a única das três que o Briggs se atentou aos detalhes. Sua quarta parte conclusiva é boa, mas peca em estacionar sua trama várias vezes para se dedicar a fazer inúmeras explicações extensas, deixando assim sua última parte mais maçante. Em compensação a dinâmica e interações dos 3 Doutores deixam as coisas menos chatinhas nessa última parte. Gostei bastante do conceito das Sereias do Tempo, seres que sobrevivem pela absorção da energia liberada pelas distorções e anomalias temporais, sendo assim uma espécie bem manipuladora e persistente, não é à toa que a vilã Lyena se passa por 3 personas diferentes para enganar os Doutores. Sobre o desempenho dos três atores, a performance do Colin Baker se sobressaiu com sobras em comparação a do Peter Davison e do Sylvester McCoy – Peter me pareceu ainda estar relembrando como incorpora seu personagem, já o McCoy incorporou bem em grande parte da história, mas as vezes aparecia que apenas estava lendo o script. No geral, sendo justo e levando em consideração que esse é o primeiro lançamento da franquia de Doctor Who da BIG FINISH, temos que relevar muitas coisas ainda mais sabendo que os recursos da empresa na época não eram os mesmo de hoje.

The Sirens of Time - 3/10

This was my first ever big finish experience and I can't say it was all that exciting.

It made sense that the first big finish story would be multi doctor but then only having them together for the final confusing part of a very confusing story (especially for a first time audio drama listener) is just disappointing.

I haven't got an awful lot of thoughts to get down as after the initial excitment of hearing the doctors voices in a story I knew nothing about had worn off I was left with a very confused hour and half in all honesty.

I liked the performances though all of the doctors transferred to audio brilliantly and I really could picture it all happening and their mannerisms along with that, however what they were acting just didn't grip me whatsoever unfortunately.

Overall The Sirens of Time gets a disappointing 3/10 because honestly I didn't really find any enjoyment, I hope to one day in the future re listen to this adventure and really try to understand more. This however hasn't put me off big finish at least and I'm interested to explore further!

My main takeaway is that it sounds like a professional production and Colin Baker's excellent performance instantly stands out in this format... other than that I haven't got that much positive to say. It is a tedious story limited by the fact that its been chopped into four pieces to give each Doctor his own episode, then a reunion at the end. It doesn't help that the villain has very little charisma.

It is totally understandable that Big Finish would want to start with a bang though and have all of their stars in one place. I'm sure it helped sell themselves as a legitimate source of Doctor Who back in 1999. I would be interested to hear what listeners at the time thought.

This is a rare story where I believe I can sort of recount the plot, without actually having any idea what the story was about. It made for a pretty confusing and yet incredibly dull listening experience.

The first part is probably my favourite, not in the least because Seven is my favourite of the three Doctors participating in this story. Maybe part of it is also not know what's going to happen next; after hearing Five in part 2 it became obvious that each Doctor would get his own part and then they'd all come together in part 4. It's an interesting concept, and on its own I don't have any trouble with it. I actually think it wasn't done horribly in this audio. However, it did mean that none of the part had enough time to he properly fleshed out. The first one felt the most in-depth, and in fact parts 2-3 felt considerably shorter than parts 1 and 4, but I'm pretty sure they were all about the same length.

I have to admit, I didn't realise the three girls were all acted by the same woman. I often have trouble telling apart new voices, especially when I don't hear them close together, so I naturally assumed that they were three different girls played by three different actresses. There were enough hints dropped for me to realise they were one and the same before the big reveal, but it did ruin my enjoyment of it somewhat.

It wasn't all bad, though. Some of the Doctor banter in part 4 was quite fun, and I really like the soundtrack. I already love Vansell, and I'm looking forward to hearing him again in the future. It's just the story itself that I didn't enjoy.

Ah, the first MR Release, and an interesting one at that!
While the sound design still had a long way to go, I think it’s still an impressive task that they pulled off pretty solid!

I love the idea of having for each Doctor an episode before we hear all of them at the end. Those can quite vary from the Quality sadly and some were more intriguing than others to me. I think at the end, it’s the novelty of new doctor who and the promise of new stuff from the 80s Doctors and later 8 that makes me sympathized to that release.
On its own, it’s very fine. A fine enough multi doctor story, but I respect it a lot.