Gallifrey is falling. The Seventh Doctor is defending the innocent. The Sixth Doctor is fighting certain doom on a spaceship with a dead crew and the Fifth Doctor is on a German submarine in World War I, the last place on Earth a polite Englishman dressed in cricketing gear should be…

Big Finish’s first monthly rerelease, recut, remixed and rereleased for its 25th anniversary, The Sirens of Time is a living study of how things change. Originally released with each of the first three episodes focusing on one Doctor before bringing them together in the fourth, it’s been re-cut here so every story unfolds at once. It’s a smart idea and one that has the unusual side effect of the listener being more clued in than the Doctors. We’re aware of the odd similarities between the three plots (not to mention the cast members pulling multiple duties, something which is weaponised to fun effect here) but the Doctors aren’t. That gives the story a surprising amount of tension and also encourages us to work harder to keep ahead of things. It’s a fun conceit and one that makes this feel very different to other stories like it.

Those differences are also reflected in the tone of the piece. This is a pretty serious-minded story and while there is humour it’s always used as a seasoning some listeners will find a little too lightly applied. There’s not a lot of inter-Doctor banter here, which is by no means a bad thing. It also places this story in a very unusual space: out past the original show and the TV movie, but years away from the relaunch. The tone works very well though, and the unifying tension of Gallifrey falling to a new enemy gives the story a welcome urgency. One that’s only slightly blunted by just how many times Gallifrey has fallen since. There’s a spike of familiarity but the villains here aren’t the villains you think, and that leads to the half hour long payoff that’s the final episode. Briggs lays every card down here and it’s really impressive, even 25 (!) years later. This is a multi-Doctor story where none of them have the right idea and that rare moment of fallibility, combined with the time of the original release, resonates really strongly with where the show would end up going.

Verdict: This is really good fun. It’s a look at a different kind of Who story from a different time, a nicely handled and very well acted multi-Doctor story and an exercise in successful adaptation. If you never heard the original, and I didn’t, then it’s a treat. If you did, then it’s a trip down memory lane with some very fun new stops. 8/10

Alasdair Stuart

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