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The BBC began their Eighth Doctor novels series with a multiple Doctors story and Big Finish have done the same with the first in their new audio series, as THE SIRENS OF TIME brings together three of the five surviving actors who've played the Time Lord. The big question is why. Perhaps they didn't want to favour one actor over the others by featuring a single Doctor in their first story, but multiple Doctors stories often fail to live up to expectations. THE THREE DOCTORS is only really worth watching for the Troughton/Pertwee exchanges, THE FIVE DOCTORS is enjoyable if lightweight while THE TWO DOCTORS is pretty disappointing. In print, too, these type of stories often fail to deliver. Anyway, enough of that. Part 1 opens with the Gallifrey under a state of emergency and surrounded by a fleet of shops which are capable of breaking through the transduction barriers. Traces of a Time Lord's artron energy have also been detected in the time distortion - and no prizes for guessing which Time Lord's. Then we're with the Seventh Doctor as he receives a garbled message from the Time Lords, while the cloister bell tolls (rather quietly, I though) in the background. The Doctor quickly materialises the TARDIS on an unknown, and soon rescues Elenya, a young female (played by Sarah Mowat) from drowning. But returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor and Elenya find themselves locked out of the Ship... We're soon introduced to the rest of the episode's characters, including the prisoner Sancroff (Colin McIntyre) and his nurse, Ruthley (Maggie Stables), who seems like a right miserable cow. Sancroff is a convicted war criminal, banished for life by a tribunal, but others have different ideas and want to execute him. Although the episode closes with his executors seeming to have fulfilled their objective, episode 2 opens with the Fifth Doctor investigating a time distortion, when he is ordered to return to the TARDIS, only to find himself locked out. The TARDIS has materialised on a British Ship during World War I, and the Doctor soon meets up with Helen (Sarah Mowat again), who assumes the companion role in this episode. The ship is torpedoed and the Doctor and Helen are taken prisoner by the Germans. The Doctor adopts the role of a German spy and claims that his "crate" (i.e. the TARDIS) has valuable documents contained within in, and demands that the U-Boat captain (Mark Gatiss) return so that he can pick it up. After a fight with a seaman who's being controlled by the Time Lords, Helen shoots one of the crew and orders Captain Schwieger to return to the TARDIS, which is still floating - but it's locked, and Tegan and Turlough (this segment is supposed to be set between 'The Five Doctors' and 'Warriors of the Deep') won't open the doors. Onto episode 3, and we're back on Gallifrey where the aliens, the Knights of Velyshaa are invading. Then we're with the Sixth Doctor, who finds himself on board the starcruiser Edifice, which is hosting a conference. Naturally, the Doctor passes himself off as a delegate and meets Ellie, a young waitress (Sarah Mowat yet again). After another round of time distortion kills off most of the delegates, the Time Lords tell the Doctor not to free the Temperon, a "time beast". The Doctor realises that he's met Ellie before, but is sucked back into the TARDIS. For a change, episode four opens where the previous one left off, with all three Doctors on Gallifrey. There's the usual exchange of information and the Doctors realise what we've already guessed - Elenya/Helen/Ellie are one and the same, actually Knight Commander Lyena. It no surprise that the Velyshaans have been manipulating efforts, with the Fifth Doctor's actions preventing the sinking of the Luisitania which, through a complicated sequence of events, lead to the downfall of Earth. This explanation seemed completely ridiculous and nowhere near as good as Time preventing George McDee's death in SAPPHIRE AND STEEL: ADVENTURE FIVE. Ultimately, THE SIRENS OF TIME is disappointing. The first two episodes are enjoyable, although Peter Davison's performance is far better than Sylvester McCoy's. I'm no fan of the Seventh Doctor, but even so, McCoy's performance seemed lacklustre. Colin Baker does a good job in episode three, but the final two episodes are a bit of a mess, with the 'go back in time' cliche proving as annoying as ever. The lack of companions is disappointing but presumably helps to keep the costs down with three Doctors to fit into the budget, while the rest of the cast perform well with what they're given. The real problem is with the story itself. Fitting three Doctors into a storyline is probably best achieved with a fairly simplistic plot, a la THE FIVE DOCTORS. Unfortunately, THE SIRENS OF TIME's plot is a bit of a mess and comes complete with a cop-out ending. BACK TO THE TOP |
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