The first big finish adventure. I believe I got this one along with others when I found humblebundle doing a big collection way back when. Enjoyable first romp into the Big Finish universe of audio dramas.
I’m going to regret posting this but I was, 25 years ago, at the launch of The Sirens of Time at an autograph signing at the shop, 10th Planet in Barking. My two friends are I were insanely excited to have ‘new’ Doctor Who on audio!
As far as the story goes (and I’ll definitely be posting more when I re-listen to this), it’s not the best story, but it’s solid enough. It works fairly well as a multi-Doctor story and was a surprisingly ambitious debut for the range.
Just sucked being in the USA for getting them. I remember seeing them at a couple sci fi convention in the 2000s. I would get physicals if it was cheaper shipping here.
Your local library is your friend. Ask your librarian if your system has an Inter-library Loan program. Also, the libraries in Rochester, Minnesota and Hyde Park, New York have large Big Finish collections.
I’ve never really liked this story and my re-listen today unfortunately hasn’t changed that fact.
Like a lot of DW media from the wilderness years it falls into the issue of it being very unclear both what this story is trying to be and who the audience is. Does it want to be a piece of fan-service that delves deeply into Gallifreyan lore about the web of time for an audience of super fans. Or does it want to be a fun adventure that will appeal to more casual fans in the hopes they’ll stick around for future BF releases.
Nicholas Briggs at this point is still in need of great development as a writer, especially in terms of structuring a story specifically for audio. And its clear that the actors also still becoming acclimatised to the audio drama format. Luckily, both of these things improve dramatically over the next few releases.
Interesting how this first story starts with a cold opening, something that would become the norm for most of Nu Who. The acting is OK & the sound design is functional, both get a lot better over the years but the story is a mess. It feels like it hasn’t been written with audio in mind. A mystery is fine but here it’s just hard to tell what is going on or really care. Each story featuring an individual Doctor is just dull, the attempts to make events feel really important does not work. & not having them all meet until the last story is disappointing & underwhelming. Especially as a lot of it is an exposition dump. If I had heard this at the time I don’t know if it would have had me excited for more. Boring.
Looks like I’m an outsider with my opinion again. I like this. It’s not perfect but being there at the genesis of BF Doctor Who probably colours my perception. My favourite episode is probably part 2 which I reviewed for my blog when it was covering WW1 stories:
So I started this one again. It’s definitely not my favorite and I’m noticing other, shall we say, teething problems. I’ll probably post again as I finish each part, but the first thing I’m noticing is that the sound mix seems off. Like when the cloister bell rings in the Seventh Doctor’s TARDIS in Part 1, I could barely hear it. Now, I’m using an old CD copy that I’ve stuck on my MP3 player, so that might be part of it. Otherwise, the story so far is fine. Knowing that Maggie Stabbles (Evelyn Smythe) is playing Ruthley, I can definitely tell. But it’s kinda nice that it’s not instantly recognizable as the actress.
So I finished Part 1. It’s an interesting setup and gives us a softer Seventh Doctor. The Knights of Velyshaa are an interesting concept and Sancroff is an interesting character. I wish they’d shown up in more stories. Before people yell at me, yes I know they appear in the Daleks Empire series from Big Finish (which I haven’t listened to yet). Elenya is an okay character, but doesn’t really make much of an impression with me. All that said, I do think this is my least favorite part of the four.
