In London last week I bought the first of the Big Finish audio plays, The Sirens of Time, featuring Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. Four episodes, one with each Doctor and the last with them all together, sorting out the latest threat to Gallifrey. The plot isn’t much, but I did like the execution – the first and third episodes, set respectively on a planet where a political prisoner is living out a lifelong exile, and on a spaceship where all the crew disappear except the android pilot and a member of the catering staff, both reminded me rather of the original Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The second episode, set on a first world war U-Boat, was very atmospheric. You know where the resolution is going as soon as you hear the very first scene (Time Lords under threat, again…) but it was reasonably good fun.

Not sufficiently good fun for me to want to plough through the whole Big Finish list. However there is a handy ranking of them by fans: the top twelve are Chimes of Midnight, Catch 1782, Spare Parts, Holy Terror, Time Works, Singularity, The Council of Nicaea, The Veiled Leopard, The One Doctor, Night Thoughts, Davros, and Doctor Who And the Pirates. Anyone have any views on these, or indeed on any others not mentioned? I think the historical background of The Council of Nicaea, and the musical arrangement of Doctor Who and the Pirates, sound particularly intriguing.

I also listened to the audio play, Whatever Happened to Susan? starring Jane Asher as Susan with parts also for Ian, Barbara and Jo Grant. All a bit silly, and quite out of whack with “established” Doctor Who continuity. But I was rather amused by a) the line about how Susan was sure her grandfather now looks younger than her (in fact, every Doctor since 1981 has been younger than Carole Ann Ford) and b) the revelation of what Susan ends up doing in the present day. I rather wish it had been her – the position was not in fact created until 1999, five years after the play was broadcast, and the person who held it then was absolutely useless…