The Sirens of Time

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

It's kind of wild that BF built an empire on the back of this story. It's mostly just a showcase for the three Doctors, but curiously Seven has the least interesting story and personality out of all three little mini adventures. Usually I think of Five as the most personality-less but here we are. Five actually gets a fun little time trying to pretend to be a German spy and then distract the siren. Six gets to solve the plot at the end, of course, saying that he's the most practical of his incarnations when he condemns a giant time whale to eternal torment to fight the sirens (something the time whale asks him to do). He even gets to be a little rude and confrontational, though he's already massively toned down from his TV episodes.

This also functions well as an actual argument for why changing time is bad. Instead of just "laws of time" or "fixed point" there's actual consequences that are felt by the Doctor's accidental changes. That's how "changing time bad" stories SHOULD function but often it comes off as lazy to not give a real reason. I also find it interesting that the pseudo companion the story gives them all is the same person every time but also the villain.

Even though it's about changing timelines, it's a relatively simple little story about the Doctor accidentally changing history so that the Time Lords get destroyed. Not bad, just not great. Still, a decent little start. Makes me look forward to the great stories I know that are to come.

I find it interesting that Paul Cornell brought this sirens that eat changes in time back for Father's Day. In that episode there's no real reason why saving Rose's father is bad other than the sirens will eat them. But here there's actual reasons given and the sirens are incidental, manipulating bad changes in time, which I like.

Also, I just find it funny that they use the "contact contact" sound effect from The Three Doctors. I didn't expect it and it made me laugh.

More like Sirens of Whine, amirite

In principle, having a multi-Doctor audio story would work quite well in the format laid out by The Sirens of Time. Each Doctor has his own introductory part, and then they all come together in the finale. However, in practice, this makes for a disjointed story. For one thing, none of the individual stories are that interesting; I was a little bored honestly. Plus, each one ended with an unresolved cliffhanger, so I completely forgot the state of each Doctor by the time the last part rolled around. Part 4 was genuinely fun, if only in the base layer of fun in any multi-Doctor story. In short, this isn't exactly a bad audio, but it is a forgettable one.

The Monthly Adventures #001 - "The Sirens of Time" by Nicholas Briggs

Recently, I got a very stupid idea. What if I were to listen and review every single audio in the Monthly Range? All 275, over £2000 needed to get them all, what if I just sat down and started slowly working my way through them. It was a dumb idea and for some reason I’m still doing it. So, as I go from some of the greatest works in Doctor Who to stories dreaded by the entire fandom, join me for a titanic amount of reviews that will take years to complete because ADHD and my bank won’t let me do it in one go. What is possibly the greatest run of stories in Doctor Who had to begin somewhere, and that somewhere was The Sirens of Time, a multi-doctor story that is renowned for falling short of being a good opener.

Gallifrey is under attack, and the cause of this destruction? The Doctor, three of him, actually. But as an omnipotent being follows the traveller throughout the vortex, a trio of threats promise to end his lives.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Starting such a massive, influential series was always going to be a tall task, and I really can’t say that The Sirens of Time manages it. It’s pretty harmless fun, the final part is easily the best with Davison, Baker and McCoy all playing off each other quite well but it’s undeniable that the story is a mess of different plots unable to settle on a core concept. As a pilot, it’s pretty good; it sets up some later stories, introduces the three main Doctors that we will be following throughout the range and shows off its mission statement nicely, even if the story fumbles the ball. However, the reveal of Elenya/Helen/Ellie/Lyena being the same person was a twist that genuinely got me the first time I listened to the story years back, so I will give it props for that.

However, everybody is painfully aware of the story's shortcomings. Composed of four small stories that are each relegated to one part, none of the settings or characters are well explored and most of the plot threads fall flat, all lacking actual content with nothing to do in them but wait for the next part so we can eventually reach the ending. Big Finish would do more well defined anthology releases later on down the line but here, they really didn’t organise it well. A glaring issue that damages the whole audio is the performances. Davison and Baker are both pretty good, they’d have more impressive performances later on but there’s nothing wrong with their material here. However, somebody put sleeping pills in McCoy’s coffee the day he recorded his lines and subsequently, he was falling asleep throughout the entire script, giving a decidedly sleepy performance that fails to impress. And whilst I have levelled praise at the final part for having the movement the glacial first three parts lacked, it doesn’t exactly dazzle you either. The Sirens are pretty lacklustre villains that have a great concept behind them but are ultimately unexplored, beaten by the pushing of a button - really, their greatest strength was Mowat’s performance.

The Sirens of Time is a hot but slightly loveable mess that does well introducing us to the Monthly Range and all its ups and downs but literally nothing else past that. A couple poor performances and a really vacuous plot that trudges around empty areas for ages puts a massive damper on my first of 275 stories (why do I do these things to myself?). Honestly, the best bit is a pre-Evelyn Maggie Stables doing an old hag voice, which is incredibly funny with context.

5/10

Pros:

+ Typical fun multi-doctor shenanigans

+ Harmless opener that does well setting up the Monthly Range and what it’s about

+ The reveal that Elana/Helen/Ellie/Lyena were all the same person is genuinely quite good

Cons:

- None of the stories last long enough for you to get invested in them and a mostly aimless wandering around a plot-shaped absence

- The vocal performances of our main cast isn’t as good as it will be, especially with McCoy

- The Sirens are a somewhat underdeveloped antagonist

this was a great opener to the world of big finish back in the day i imagine, three distinct settings with their respective doctors before a culmination/confrontation on gallifrey! i loved how they had the doctors get along compared to when they met in classic who where they didn't always see each other eye to eye. despite a bit an annoying alien voice i thought the sound design and music really hasn't aged badly at all! great start to the monthly/main range, excited to hear more of this range!

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#001. The Sirens of Time ~ 4/10

◆ An Introduction

BigFinish have been regularly releasing full-cast audio adventures for twenty-five years, and they recently announced a special edition of their very first release.

Remastered and re-edited from the original recording tapes, this would be a new “director’s cut” of the story; where the first three episodes of the original focused on just one Doctor, the new version intercuts between all of them for a more narratively satisfying experience… or so Briggsy claims.

‘The Sirens of Time – Redux’ will also feature new sound design and music. And there will be brand-new behind the scenes extras, with the three incarnations reminiscing about their first ever BigFinish recording and the twenty-five years of audio productions since.

This could potentially be another desperate BigFinish cash-grab, because lord only knows that’s happened a lot in recent years! You’re an absolute moron if you decided to fork out £66 for the ultra-limited Platinum Edition, which is why I’ve opted for the lowest tier which still includes an actual CD. So while we eagerly wait for this new director’s cut to be released, it seems like a perfect opportunity to discuss the original version of ‘The Sirens of Time’…

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Gallifrey is in a state of crisis, facing destruction at the hands of an overwhelming enemy. And the Doctor is involved in three different incarnations – each caught up in a deadly adventure, scattered across time and space. The web of time is threatened – and someone wants the Doctor dead.

The three incarnations of the Doctor must join together to set time back on the right track – but in doing so, will they unleash a still greater threat?

◆ The Seventh Doctor

This incarnation was royally screwed over in ‘The Sirens of Time’, receiving the most boring material out of everyone. Aside from constructing a forcefield and saving someone from death by quicksand, he did absolutely nothing of consequence.

Christ on a stick, I’d totally forgotten how bad this performance was! Sylvester McCoy practically sleepwalked his way through the entire production: his interactions with Elenya have absolutely no chemistry, and I’m starting to wish he’d fallen into the quicksand with her! This incarnation would unfortunately gain a reputation for being the weakest performer during the early years of the ‘Monthly Range’, though you can understand why.

If the Time Lords are going to interfere in his life again, the least they could do is get a decent phone line!

◆ The Fifth Doctor

The second episode focused on the most morally righteous incarnation, and he was easily given the best material in ‘The Sirens of Time’. Trapped aboard a German U-Boat, and attempting to bluff the captain into thinking he’s working for the Kaiser himself: his efforts don’t work, but it was a good plan.

Peter Davison is perhaps the least discussed incarnation from the old ‘Monthly Range’, despite delivering consistently good performances most of the time. He really hit the ground running in this adventure.

He speaks German, or that would seem to be the case, but he speaks it like an English gentleman. Cpt. Schwieger thinks he looks like King George, expecting to play cricket in the Atlantic Ocean! The Fifth Doctor always thought it was unfair to say the Germans have no sense of humour. His grammar is out of a textbook. Schwieger wonders why an educated young man like him isn’t serving as an officer on a British warship, or leading a valiant charge across the trenches: the Doctor reasons it’s because of his flat feet. Doctor is a profession, not a name, but it’s all he has.

◆ The Sixth Doctor

One of the best incarnations is given virtually nothing to do – though I’m pretty sure at this stage, Gary Russell hadn’t realised what a tremendous cash cow he could make the Sixth Doctor into! Seriously though, why is episode three so vacuous?

Even when presented with an atrocious script, Colin Baker does his best to make things bearable. Ever the Golden Boy of BigFinish, he delivered a great performance here.

He’s more of an interloper than a delegate. If you knew him well enough, you’d know that he is hardly ever mistaken. The Sixth Doctor is far from pleased with himself. When discussing the Kurgon Wonder, he claims to have been in it, through it, and out the other side! When it comes down to it, he’s a bit of a know-it-all really; androids, Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, Ice Warriors. You name it, he can quote you chapter and verse.

◆ The Legendary Temperon

This adventure introduces us to a legendary creature known as the Temperon, which was distantly related to the Chronovores. It could travel in time on its own power, its body being composed entirely of temperon particles. Continued exposure to said particles caused rapid entropy, eventually turning living creatures into nothing but dust.

The Knights of Velyshaa attempted to capture the Temperon in order to conduct time travel experiments; however, the creature tried to destroy them – preferring death to enslavement – creating a temporal distortion which froze both the Knights and creature in a single moment of time. This distortion came to be known as the Kurgon Wonder.

One of the Sirens of Time manipulated the Sixth Doctor into freeing this legendary creature, giving the Knights unfettered access to the time vortex, albeit at the cost of their slow and painful deaths.

The Temperon united the three manipulated incarnations of the Doctor on Gallifrey, and later sacrificed its own freedom to contain the Sirens in eternal struggle.

◆ Sound Design

The soundscape feels relatively uninspired; shocking when you remember that ‘The Sirens of Time’ is a multi-Doctor adventure, which are usually full of grand spectacle. Briggsy’s sound design would thankfully improve as he worked on more releases.

Vansell’s TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey, setting off an ear-grating alarm. The cloister bell echoes throughout the Seventh Doctor’s TARDIS, accompanied by an ominous siren song. A crackling transmission can be heard through his console as Vansell tries to warn him of the imminent dangers. Chirruping insects on a jungle world; Seven tramples through the undergrowth, attempting to reach a woman trapped in quicksand. The quicksand squelches as Elenya is pulled from it. Ruthley uses bleeping consoles to communicate with her superiors. A spaceship bursts through the atmosphere, crash-landing nearby. Assassins close in on Sancroff, their gunfire echoing throughout the jungle. Vansell’s voice echoes through a tear in the fabric of reality, attempting to warn the Fifth Doctor about the coming destruction of time. The merchant ship is breached, attacked by a nearby German U-Boat. Whistling winds, as the Fifth Doctor dives into the ocean. A wave of temporal distortion sweeps through the starship Edifice, causing all aboard to scream as they are aged to dust! The Temperon is very clearly just Briggsy slowing his own voice down in post-production. Knights of Velyshaa pursue the three incarnations of the Doctor through the Capitol on Gallifrey.

◆ Conclusion

“All of space and time was yours for the taking, and now all you will know for eternity is subjugation…”

A species that fed on the energies of chaos have manipulated the Doctor on three separate occasions, allowing the infamous Knights of Velyshaa access to time travel… and the means to conquer Gallifrey! Stopping these Sirens of Time hinges on a legendary creature: the Temperon.

Having completed this review, I am now seriously wondering what possessed me to purchase the flaming director’s cut: this was pure unadulterated garbage, and I’m fully convinced it’s only being remade to boost Briggsy’s ego further into the stratosphere!

All three incarnations of the Doctor suffer from pretty middling material, but I genuinely received second-hand embarrassment listening to McCoy struggling with the script: he practically sleepwalked through the whole production, with little-to-no enthusiasm. Thankfully, Davison and Baker actually seemed to be putting in the effort.

It wouldn’t be until the fifth release in this range – ‘The Fearmonger’ – that BigFinish would create something truly exceptional and worthy of splashing the cash. This was an incredibly rough start.

The Sirens of Time is a very interesting audio, that might be a bit hard to understand at times but is pretty enjoyable anyways.

The story is split into four parts. First one story for each of the three Doctors that share this story, and then one that is shared by all three of them.

The Seventh Doctor

The first Doctor that is shown during this adventure is the Seventh Doctor which at first seems confusing, because he is the oldest of the latest of the three incarnations shown in this audio. Later in the story this question luckily gets resolved. 

In this part of the audio, the Doctor ends up on a planet on which he saves a girl with the name Elenya. On this planet he also meets an old hag, and an old man that is a prisoner there. With this begins his adventure to find out what is going on on that planet, while an assassination attempt is made on the prisoner. This story seems to end in the middle of the story as the assassin opens fire on the Doctor, the prisoner and Elenya. This story was pretty interesting, although I think the ending was a bit abrupt and it takes one out of the story a bit, but that is kind of what is wanted so that is okay anyways.

The Fifth Doctor

In this there is the setup of what seems to be another story, this time with the Fifth Doctor in the lead. This story is set on a submarine. The Doctor meets another girl (Helen) and they get picked up by a German submarine and taken as prisoners. Here the Doctor gets in trouble multiple times because a crewmate got possessed by the Timelords and tried to kill him for a reason unknown to the Doctor. The story ends with the Doctor finding his TARDIS again, which he had lost when the submarine sank the ship he had landed on. This story thread was interesting but in my opinion not as good and enjoyable as the first one. The mystery of the first part is still kind of lingering in mind while it sets up and the new struggle is a bit boring at points, especially as the Doctor gets attacked for a reason that I think isn’t too logical, especially since this behaviour didn’t continue on the later storylines.

The Sixth Doctor

The last of the one Doctor stories is set on a cruiser on which a group of ambassadors look at an unexplained phenomenon. There the Doctor meets a waitress that he thinks looks very familiar to him, that he still can’t place. Due to a case of time distortion everyone on the ship besides the waitress (Elly), and an android pilot everyone is aged to death rapidly. Once again the timelords try to make contact with the Doctor, this time through the android, but Elly shoots it under the guise of protecting the Doctor and herself. During this whole situation the Doctor frees the Temperon, a being that was trapped in the moment of his death. This is the point at which this story ends. This one was enjoyable. In my opinion it was not quite as good as the first one, but it was a lot better than the second one. The overarching plot seems to thicken, while at the same time not really giving a solution to the mystery of what is going on yet.

All Three Doctors and the Overarching Story

At the very beginning of the whole audio there is a small prelude for the overarching storyline, we hear about a situation on Gallifrey that is explained as Gallifrey being invaded. The only hint to the source of the situation is a residue of artron energy that is hinting at the Doctor. 

Later during the second storyline, the Timelords we heard in the prelude (Vansell and the Lord President of Gallifrey) appear once again, this time they are trying to stop the Doctor, Vansell doing it by making a crewmember attack the Doctor. 

Then Vansell is acting one last time in the third story as he finds one last nexus point to stop this situation, but even this time he isn’t successful. 

This is the last we see of Vansell until the end sequence after everything gets resolved when they show that now time was rewritten and the start sequence has never happened after all.

These little story beads that are shown throughout the story that set the mystery of the situation up some more are pretty interesting. While listening to it the first time one is pretty in the dark about what is going on and how it relates to what is going on and this makes the beads even more interesting, especially since they are pretty short and vague. One problem I have with this part of the thread is that I think it is kind of weird of Vansell to attack the Doctor in one situation, and just try to warn him in another when the situation on his site has actually even worsened.

Now to the plot of the last part. Now the Doctors arrive at Gallifrey and set out to figure out what is going on. They once again meet the girl they had met earlier and figure out how all three, Elenya, Helen and Elly are the same person. The Timelords were used as an healing/energy force and Lyenna (the last name she used) asked the Doctors to end it all by stopping the situation from happening at all. This is just a ploy to get the Doctor under her control though. In the end the three Doctors stop the whole situation by going back to the beginning of the whole issue, the seventh Doctor helping Elenya and let the situation play out without the influence of the Sirens of Time. This part solves the whole situation in an interesting way. I really like the solution of the mystery of what exactly is going on, I still think that out of the four parts of the story it is definitely the weakest.

General Thoughts

I really enjoyed this one. The different storylines that seemed to not be related but actually were, are a great type of storytelling. That might get a bit confusing at times, but in the end solve the whole situation in a way that feels a bit boring for the situation that they were in close to the end. But in this case this didn’t take too much away from the story, the way to the end is great and that is enough, for this to be enjoyable. The last part of the story when the Doctors meet might be a bit confusing at times and the plot at that part is a bit convoluted but the whole thing is still very much interesting. While I do have some problems that I mentioned a bit earlier in this, it was still very much enjoyable and didn’t take away too much of the story.

Memory of my First Impression

Here I am going to put some thoughts I remember having when I listened for this the first time.

1. This story is quite confusing, and I didn’t really understand what was going on. (This actually didn’t change until this last time listening to it.)
2. Especially in the last part I was kind of confused on which Doctor was speaking when, but that was mainly because I hadn’t yet watched/listened to any content about any of the Doctors and so wasn’t really familiar to the different voices of the Doctors (I kind of just heard three generic male voices back them and had no idea who they were if I hadn’t heard them in a couple minutes)
3. Even though I had these problems I still very much enjoyed the story back then.

The Sirens of Time is a bit of an odd duck. At the time of publication, it is pretty understandible that Big Finish would still be working some of their kinks out. It is impressive having three doctors back in action right out of the gate, but there are issues with this audio drama that I feel would be later addressed. It's an unfortunate trend among fans to want to go in order of the monthly range, but it really isn't the best foot forward for Big Finish audio and I wish people didn't view this as a good jumping on point. The story is quite unevenly paced and I definitely tune parts of it out after a while, but it certainly has its moments and hints of the potential for these types of audio drama, and the outstanding quality that would eventually come out of Big Finish.

It is not the greatest story they have produced, but it is certainly not the worst.

My main problem was that they spent far too much time trying to connect the three Doctors, failing to create a strong story. Instead, it focused on each Doctor individually for the first three episodes, ending with a weak and confusing final episode!

Great first proper Doctor Who release by Big Finish. The plot is great. Split evenly between the 5th, 6th and 7th incarnation with a team up for the last quarter gives you enough of each Doctor to not get bored, and enough clues for the overall plot to bring you into the final part with questions. The voice acting is brilliant, and the sound design is top-notch. You can tell they learnt a lot from Bernice Summerfield Season 1. Overall this was very satisfying and a great way to bring you into this new audio world of Doctor Who.