The last time I listened to the Sirens of Time was about 3 years ago when it came up as a free promo. I first bought it on tape when it came out. Not something I’ve listened to a lot though, maybe once or twice at the time.

The original release had three episodes, each episode featuring one of the The Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors. With them arriving somewhere meeting someone and having an adventure, with the Timelords, and time distortions as the arc. In episode four they met up worked out what was going on.

As for this new redux, well it mixes things up a little. We start mainly with the Fifth Doctor on a ship during the world war, with some interludes from the Seventh Doctor, and the Sixth not appearing til the end of part one. Other than the fact there is something wrong with time, we’re still pretty much in the dark.

Sometimes, whether its a TV or audio, and I find I’m not taking it in, I’ve decided to start again. If I’m still having trouble I place the blame on the narrative. I got to part four of this and restarted.

It tries be another Five Doctors, the music is very reminiscent of that era. But whereas the Five Doctors took the Doctor sand Companions and placed them in the same place. This is three different stories with another over arching plotline on top. With the Fifth on a German submarine during the war, the Sixth pretending to be a delegate on some space station. The seventh? Well I never really understood what his story was about, whenever it got back to his story it didn’t seem to quite pick up from where he left off.

The fact is that it wasn’t always immediately apparent which storyline you were listening to, which one of the Doctors’ or the Timelords, that the current scene was a part of. It was a bit clearer on second listening, so whether I paid attention more, or just was more familiar with it, I can’t say.

There is a lot of exposition in the last part, and maybe if it had been written now perhaps they would have not made it so heavy. Its nice to have the three eighties Doctors together though.

At the end it goes back to the Sevenths story which felt odd, I think the original started with his story so going back it it made sense, but this started with the Fifth, so less so.

Personally, if I listen to the Sirens of Time again, I’ll stick to the original.

I found this versions part 1 - 3 harder to follow idk if it’s just me but jumping around a lot just made it feel more disjointed

📝6/10

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! 

This time: it’s the beginning of a new era, reborn!

MY SCATTERED AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT NOTES:

Big Finish celebrates 25 years of Doctor Who audios with a re-release of their first Main Range release, The Sirens of Time, but with a fresh coat of paint!

Rather than focusing on one Doctor per episode, this re-edited version naturally switches between Five, Six, and Seven throughout the first three parts, strengthening the multi-Doctor feel and tying the three separate adventures together to the overarching narrative of the story. We notice the parallels between the three Doctors' separate adventures better in this version.

Additionally, the story opens directly with Five appearing on the German U-boat instead of on Gallifrey, followed by Seven appearing on the alien planet. We get to the Gallifrey scenes later on, followed by the introduction to Sixie. This order works much better than the original edit.

The reshuffling of scenes actually helps to revitalise this story a bit and keep it more dynamic. This extends to the cliffhangers as well, such as the Part 1 cliffhanger, which is also the introduction to the Sixth Doctor and the Temperon. And surprisingly, Six is involved in the Part 2 cliffhanger as well!

The new edit doesn’t improve the overall feeling of emptiness and confusion in the writing, though. That means that the story is still occasionally confusing to follow.

Part 3 heightens the tension on all three fronts quite well but is also something of a mess. Additionally, the cliffhanger to Part 3 isn’t on par with the first two. Part 4 then plays pretty much as in the original edit, with the three Doctors together against the eSirens of Time in an overlong and messy closing installment. The effects used on the Temperon's and Siren's voices are fortunately much improved.