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.

First of all I liked this novelization a lot. I already liked the episode this is based on and the novelization was even better in my opinion.

What made it better? The unique style/formatting. I have always enjoyed books that break the mold in the way it tells a story, and this is no different. In the first few chapters the book reads just like any old novelization, and then there was the sudden switch in style. A small minigame instead of a normal chapter. And then it goes on normally like until two chapters later there is a sentence that kind of falls out of the mold then continuing on as usual. Then another minigame. Then an emoji, a first hint to who the narrator is, and then the reveal. The Toymaker has been telling the whole story himself, turning it into a story and minigame combination that has been delightful to read, at one point even turning into a choose your own adventure book, that can even take you back to that one weird statement in earlier chapters, which makes the first statement make sense.

Now one might ask, there is that song in the episode, how did they solve that? Well, they put in a copyright lawyer to stop the toymaker from using it in this retelling of the story. 

One thing I really liked was getting some more input into the thought processes of some of the characters, and learning more about the last scene of the episode was also a lot of fun.

All in all a very enjoyable novelization of an already great episode.

Ruby Red is set in Russia of 1242, where Ranavere a young girl from a warrior race is sent to take part in a coming of age ritual of her people. Not wanting to be a warrior herself she places distress call beacons, one of which brings the Doctor and Ruby to the setting.

The setting of this story is both a war camp and a frozen lake on which just a couple of days later a battle was supposed to take place. This added a bit of time pressure to the story, which while not needed, still worked in favor of the tension for the story. 

The one thing where this story shines the most is the characters.

Ranavere - An inventor forced into the role of a soldier by her family’s expectations just searching for an out.

Helgadane - A fierce warrior and leader that might be a little to set in the ways of her family to try and understand her sisters. 

Cellisamere - Also a warrior, but one more used to following orders and more open to the opinions of others. 

Helgadane and Cellisamere placing themself into the situation because they want to help Ranavere if in a way that she herself doesn’t understand or like. 

Onfim - The first victim of the situation with any kind of previous connection to the reader and shown character. 

The Genetrix - The Big Bad of this story and honestly the least interesting character story wise. This one feels kind of flat compared to the other characters of the book especially as the reason for why isn’t really explained. (It is explained but the explanation kind of spans somewhere in between: ‘I was hunted and nearly killed so I want revenge.’ and ‘That is just how my species is. So I will keep doing it.’ Which in my opinion kind of washes this whole thing out and doesn't really explain what exactly the reasoning is. It feels more like Big Bad is Big Bad because Big Bad is needed.)

The main plotline of the story follows the why and how of the zombie-like people and creatures with ruby red eyes, that gave the book its title. The Genetrix puts people under its will by accessing them with small creatures that connect with the victims spine in a fashion similar to what the Daleks did in the episode Resolution while feeding on the TARDIS’ energy stores to power its attacks. Like I mentioned before the reasoning for the why the Genetrix would do that isn’t to satisfying to me, but if I’m honest this main plotline isn’t really the one that is the most interesting to me so this doesn’t really take to much away from the likeability of the story for me. I liked the solution of the Doctor putting the Genetrix back to sleep and bringing it to an uninhabited planet, although I think that could have further consequences someday, with the Genetrix coming back technically. It honestly was a bit funny to me that he just left the sisters at the lake keeping watch over something that isn’t even there anymore. But like I mentioned before this isn’t the part of the story that is the most interesting to me. 

The most interesting plotline to me is the side plot of the relationship between Ranavere, Cellisamere and Helgadane. While reading books and stories the characters and their relationships to each other most of the time are the most interesting and important thing to me. This is what makes or breaks a story to me. In this case it is a plot of misunderstanding between the three of them and the different values each of them has. All of them clearly care for each other, and want of course want to help each other or keep each other safe no matter how misguided the attempts may be. What I think is very interesting and shows how much the older two care for Ranavere is that both Cellisamere and Helgadene follow Ranavere when they find about her call for help (even if it is to stop her from leaving). They are in fact leaving through a timeportal against the rules, which just shows that they actually do care especially on the side of Helgadane who seems to be extremely bound to her culture's ways and the rules. The two of them are a bit misguided in their attempt to ‘help’ Ranavere, but they aren’t used to the idea that people they are close to might have different values or skills. And while the main plot is moving forward there is visible character growth for all three of the sisters. Ranavere learned to stick up to herself better and learned to see her own value. And Cellisamere and Helgadane learned to value the differences between people and the fact that Ranavere might not be suited to be a soldier but is indeed suited to be an inventor or something similar. 

Another side plot is what is going on with the TARDIS, although that can be counted as another part of the main plot in the end. The fact that the Genetrix was using the TARDIS as a powersource was hinted at/foreshadowed earlier in the book, but I honestly didn’t catch that until the end as it was revealed.

So now to some small negative points for this book, which didn’t annoy me too much but still came to mind at points:

• The Big Bad and it’s powers kind of reminds me a bit too much of the one from Timewyrm: Genesys. 
• At one point it is mentioned that Ruby picks up a sword and puts it through her belt loop and I honestly am not sure that would even work because a) swords are both sharp and heavy, wouldn’t that combination end with the belt loop breaking? and b) I’m pretty sure that swords have more width than a belt loop would fit. So the same question actually.