The Sirens of Time (audio story)

The Sirens of Time is the first in the series of Doctor Who audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, the four-part story features the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors, with Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy respectively reprising their roles from the original television series.

Publisher's summary
Gallifrey is in a state of crisis, facing Destruction at the hands of an overwhelming enemy. And the Doctor is involved in three different incarnations - each caught up in a deadly adventure, scattered across time and space. The web of time is threatened - and someone wants the Doctor dead.

The three incarnations of the Doctor must join together to set time back on the right track - but in doing so, will they unleash a still greater threat?

Part 1
A TARDIS arrived on Gallifrey, flown by Coordinator Vansell who was claiming that the planet was in terrible danger. The Lord President discovered that the Coordinator was right after finding that their planet was under siege by an unknown species. In the Doctor's TARDIS, he wass having trouble. The ship was pulled towards a planet because of a gravitational pull. A Time Lord tried to communicate with the Doctor, but was unable to and the signal was cut off.

Exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor discovered a voice in the distance. A girl called Elenya was trapped in quick sand. The Doctor told her not to struggle as he hacked his way through the undergrowth using his trusted umbrella. A mysterious woman appears and laughs at the Doctor. Evading her comments the Doctor went in aid of the trapped girl. Using his umbrella he pulled the girl out of the bog and onto a safe patch of land.

Sancroff who was a prisoner of Ruthley inside her home, was waiting for her to return. When returning she told him that she hated her job, which is to keep him there. She reluctantly helped the man into his bed. Speaking through a communicator with guards who were hovering above the planet she lied about there being no visitors on the surface. The Doctor found that he'd locked out of his TARDIS. Elenya explained about her arrival. She was a geologist, and all of her crew had been killed. A ship suddenly came through the planet's atmosphere and crashed to the surface.

The Doctor and Elenya were walking across the surface to find civilisation. The Doctor searched the area and found a light through a window. Another ship came crashing down. One ship came towards them and they ran away. On the communicator, the assassins had arrived to kill Sancroff. Ships were arriving all around the Doctor and Elenya. They investigated the ship wreckage and found the remains of the crew. The Doctor deciphered that the creatures were actually being born. Ruthley asked for the Doctor and Elenya to be killed, but the assassins refused.

The Doctor and Elenya met up with the creatures. They began a mind scan, which was extremely painful. When they awoke, Sancroff was with them. He explained that the creatures were Drudgers. Elenya finally woke up and wondered who the man was. He introduced himself. Suddenly, another creature arrives and destroys the Drudgers. Ruthley explained that they had come to kill them all. She had done a deal with them. They were called assassins.

The Drudgers return fire, but nothing seemed to be working. The assassins were converging on the main building. The Doctor, Elenya and Sancroff entered Ruthley's room. The Doctor began to ask questions. They found a film of Ruthley speaking to the assassins. They didn't listen to her, and shot her because she was a witness. The Doctor tried to create a barrier, but the creatures found them though. They learnt that Sancroff was a war criminal, and was now sentenced to execution.

Part 2
more to be added

Cast

 * The Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison
 * The Sixth Doctor - Colin Baker
 * The Seventh Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
 * Commander Raldeth / Schmidt - Andrew Fettes
 * Coordinator Vansell - Anthony Keetch
 * The President - Michael Wade
 * Elenya / Helen / Ellie / Knight Commander Lyena - Sarah Mowat
 * Ruthley - Maggie Stables
 * Sancroff - Colin McIntyre
 * Commandant / Lt Zentner / Pilot Azimendah / Sub-Commander Solanec - John Wadmore
 * Captain Walther Schwieger / Edifice Captain / Knight 2 - Mark Gatiss
 * The Temperon - Nicholas Briggs
 * Delegate - Nicholas Pegg

Astronomical objects

 * Calfadoria
 * The Kurgon Wonder was created as a result of the Knights of Velyshaa attempting to capture the Temperon.

The Doctor

 * The fifth, sixth and seventh incarnations of the Doctor make telepathic contact with one another to apprise all of them of the situation. They trigger it with the spoken command "Contact".

Individuals

 * Tegan and Turlough are trapped in the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS when he arrives.
 * The Sixth Doctor mentions that he knows Hadene Lestrade.

Organisations

 * Coordinator Vansell is a member of the Celestial Intervention Agency.
 * The Galactic Wonders Commission decides which objects are Wonders of the Universe.

Species

 * The Knights of Velyshaa appear.
 * The Temperon is a legendary time beast. It is a 'cousin' of the Chronovores.

TARDIS

 * TARDISes have time cores.
 * Cloister Bell

Theories and concepts

 * The Laws of Time (supposedly) stop the Doctor's incarnations from meeting.

Sirens' altered timeline

 * The Fifth Doctor accidentally prevents the U-20 from sinking the RMS Lusitania in the Atlantic Ocean on 7 May 1915. This allows Eric Charles Vincent to kill Alexander Fleming before he discovered penicillin.

Continuity

 * The Fifth and Seventh Doctors previously met each other in MA: Cold Fusion and would later do so again prior to the events of BFA: The Veiled Leopard. The latter is not actually depicted but is witnessed by the former's companions Peri Brown and Erimem. Peri describes the Seventh Doctor as being "a kooky little guy in a weird pullover." She would later meet him more formally in NA: Bad Therapy.
 * The Sixth Doctor recalls climbing the Himalayas during his first incarnation. (DW: Marco Polo)
 * The Knights of Velyshaa are mentioned and a Knight appears in BFDE: Invasion of the Daleks.
 * Vansell reappears in BFA: The Apocalypse Element and BFA: Neverland. Following his death in the latter story, alternative versions of Vansell appear in BFDWU: He Jests at Scars..., BFG: Reborn, BFG: Disassembled and BFG: Forever.
 * According to PDA: Instruments of Darkness, Evelyn Smythe was in the TARDIS while the Sixth Doctor was at the Kurgon Wonder.
 * The method by which the Doctors telepathically contact one other ("Contact") was first seen in DW: The Three Doctors.
 * Sancroff is mentioned by Kalendorf in BFDE: Dalek War: Chapter Four.

For the Fifth Doctor

 * The Sirens of Time occurs after ST: Lily
 * The Sirens of Time occurs before ST: Qualia

For the Sixth Doctor

 * The Sirens of Time occurs after BFA: The Marian Conspiracy
 * The Sirens of Time occurs before BFA: The Spectre of Lanyon Moor

For the Seventh Doctor

 * The Sirens of Time occurs after NA: The Room With No Doors (after the Doctor returns Penelope and Joel home)
 * The Sirens of Time occurs before PDA: Bullet Time