I’m torn between a 6 and a 7, the plot definitely feels a bit middled in places, splitting the adventure the way it does (one part with each doctor and then bringing them together for the end) is really nice in terms of bringing them all back, letting them all stand on their own before showing them together, but it doesn’t really give enough time to each of them for their individual plots to have too much depth.

Part one wasn’t as bad for it, but parts two and three did feel a little rushed.

That all said, part four bringing them all together is really fun, and I can’t imagine what it’d’ve been like listening to this when it dropped. I love their interactions, and they all do just shine.

📝5/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: it’s the beginning of a new era!

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

The Redux version of The Sirens of Time is out now, so I decided a relisten of the original release was in order before I tackle the new one.

This release is a taster of what BF has in store for us—it blends Doctors, settings, and ideas for a production that is a bit rough around the edges in terms of writing and sound design, but it booms with energy and mostly good performances.

The overarching story sees Gallifrey under attack from a deadly force, forcing the Time Lords to draw in three different Doctors from their separate adventures. We meet Anthony Keetch’s Coordinator Vansell, who’ll pop up in other audios in the future, desperately attempting to stop the Doctor.

Part 1 with Seven and a girl named Elenya on an alien planet is a bit strange: the characters sound comical, the sound effects are a bit simple, and there’s not much of a plot. Sylvester McCoy and Colin McIntyre are great, while I cannot take Maggie Stables (in her BF debut a few audios before she appears as companion Evelyn Smythe) seriously.

The Part 1 cliffhanger is quite disappointing, to be honest.

Part 2 switches focus to a German U-boat during WWI, with Peter Davison’s Five appearing on the scene. This is a little taste of a historical story, with equally cringey German accents, slightly less impressive performances, and an empty plot. The biggest takeaway is Mark Gatiss playing Captain Schwieger.

The Part 2 cliffhanger is even worse.

Onto Part 3, this time with Colin Baker helming the Sixth Doctor in another sci-fi chapter, this time on a spaceship. It’s a bit more focused on time disruptions to slowly nudge the story towards the finale and the main event. But that’s all there is to it because the rest is pretty messy. Baker is on fire, though.

Sarah Mowat appears in all three parts as three seemingly separate characters, who are actually the same. It's not a very interesting twist, especially once you are familiar with it.

Part 4 is where the fun begins—we move onto Gallifrey, with all the Doctors meeting and bickering before they work together to take down the Temperon. But this is also a part of messy editing and a plot that is all over the place. It is a bit timey-wimey and very talky, and also way too long.

The Sirens of Time is the very first Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish. It is also the first one I have ever listened to.  

These are my thoughts on this monumental story. 

It’s not that good. 

Yes, that is not a unique opinion, but it’s one I agree with. 

While the three Doctors are all on excellent form here, the story is confusing and, well, a bit naff. 

The structure of the audio is also confusing. Part one stars the Seventh Doctor, part two features the Fifth Doctor, part three focuses on the Sixth Doctor, and in the final part, the three team up. 

While a nice idea, this structure led to me unsure of what happened in which part, and I had no clue how these connected. 

I will share my thoughts on each part individually, as I feel each one is quite different. 

Part one is average. While quite weak as a story, it is a rather fun listen, but definitely not memorable. 

Part two is the best chapter in Sirens of Time, but it still has faults. The story is much more straight forward in this one. Sadly, enjoyment is dampened by the urge to connect it to the overall story of the audio. It’s still the standout episode though, even if it could have been a lot better. 

Part three zooms by, which isn’t really good to be honest. The little I remember about this episode is all the technobabble and boring sci-fi.  

Part four is where it all comes together, and it all goes downhill. It’s painfully boring, I didn’t understand what was happening, and I’m still not entirely aware of what The Sirens of Time was about. 

But it’s not all awful! The acting is very good, and the experience of audio drama was excellent. 

This has inspired me to start listening to Big Finish. (Hopefully the stories aren’t all as bad as this one) 

Alright well I've been putting it off for 8 months now, I suppose it's finally time to get cracking on Big Finish. And since I have the bad brain worms that means I have to commit to doing all of the Main Range in order. Yay me! So this is the first story they did, Sirens of Time and for what it is I think this is a rather good start for Big Finish. What I enjoy most about this audio, which I imagine is what was the biggest draw for people listening as it came out, was once again hearing the same actors reprise their roles later on in life. It's really fantastic that Big Finish exists, if only for the fact that we have so many more performances from these actors as the doctor. They're all doing a marvellous job here as well. McCoy is basically doing the same stuff he did on TV, Colin's voice has aged a little bit but he is still giving it the same energy, and I would say the same about Davison as well. His performance here is actually the one I appreciate the most because his voice is by far the most aged of the 3 and even though he no longer sounds like a young man, he still brings across the youthful energy even more so than he often did on TV which I think is really impressive.

The story itself is fine. It takes on what I assume will be a different structure to future BF stories in that each part is separate and tells it's own story. Of these I enjoyed Parts 2 and 3 the most. Part 1 I did not find all too interesting, but Part 2 was a much stronger on characters (especially Helen) and setting, and Part 3 had the most interesting story of the lot. Part 4 was a bit messy. It was really enjoyable hearing the main 3 bounce off each other, they're all fantastic and the dialogue between them is quite sharp, but I did find the actual story a bit muddled and very exposition heavy. I don't know if this will just be a thing for early BF stories but it feels like they don't have a perfect handle on how to tell stories and convey information through the audio drama format. The Sirens of Time are rather trite villains and the way they are ultimately defeated is a bit easy and convenient but I do like how it relies on the point of the difference in moral code and outlook between the different incarnations of the doctor. I like how the decision Six makes at the end creates a bit of tension between him and Five. They're too very different incarnations with a lot of Five's character arc being about trying to be optimistic and peaceful but continually getting beaten down by the world which eventually leads into him becoming a slightly gruffer and more pragmatic character as Six. Hopefully this is something they continue to expand on with the two characters going foward. Overall this story is fine, it's nothing particularly special or amazing but it gets the ball rolling just fine. Next up is Phantasmagoria, a full Fivey story yay!! 7/10 / 3½ stars.

02.01.2022

I love the idea of separate stories of separate Doctors merging together. This, however, doesn't really achieve anything beyond that.
There's no meaningful reason for this to be a multi-Doctor story except flexing you've got three Doctors. No self-reflection, no fun banter, not even a character study.

The villain is also very generic. Rules they work by are artificial in nature and contrived for plot purposes.
I liked the individual stumbling-arounds in the first three parts of the story, but they ultimately lead nowhere but an underwhelming barely-tying to the main plot. 1.5/5