The Sirens of Time, part 4

Main Range #1

Released: 19 July 1999

Listened: 12/19/20

Going by the logic that the “most recent” Doctor “owns” crossovers, this concluding part belongs here. It’s only one episode, although an extra-long one, so there’s not a lot of time for the usual Doctor-on-Doctor banter, and what there is of it isn’t terribly clever. The Fifth Doctor gets removed from the equation twice, playing the “dude in distress,” while the Sixth and Seventh figure out the mystery. History has been messed with, and the Doctor used as a pawn, but this time it’s galactic history, not just Earth’s. The titular Sirens don’t really do all that much, and honestly, neither do the Doctors. Instead of combining their strengths to find a clever solution and outsmart their opponents, it comes down to the Sixth Doctor making a hard choice that the others wouldn’t. There’s even a coda where the Doctor has to ignore a call for help, for the greater good, which doesn’t sit well. I’ll grant Big Finish the benefit of the doubt for their first story, but the writing isn’t as strong as I would later come to expect from them.