Doctor Who: The Sirens of Audio

We are joined by actor and writer David Gooderson, who played Davros in 1979's Doctor Who season opener, Destiny of the Daleks. He also appeared on several Big Finish audio dramas in the Sarah Jane Smith range.

This time we explore one of the stories in the incredible opening two seasons of 8th Doctor audio adventures, Embrance the Darkness, written by Nicholas Briggs.

We ask the question, does this story contain one of the most electrifying cliffhangers in Doctor Who audio history? We'll let you decide when you hear it.

An actor who joined Big Finish during this time was Ian Brooker, who went on to perform in many Big Finish productions, including Dalek Empire, Cyberman and Pathfinder Legends.

Ian joins us to talk about his career, how he came to be working for Big Finish, and what else he has been doing in his ongoing acting career.

A fascinating discussion as always!

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

This time we examine the two Big Finish Rani releases... The Rani Elite featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri, and Planet of the Rani featuring the Sixth Doctor once again, but with audio companion Constance Clarke.

Due to the untimely death of Kate O'Mara, the role of the Rani went to Siobahn Redmond.

So for those who love the classic era Rani or the recent bi-generated iteration, here is a Rani that you may never even knew existed.

Will these Doctor Who stories stack up and finally give the Rani some worthy adventures?

Tune in to find out.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

This time we are thrilled to be joined by Dominic G. Martin. Dom discusses his Doctor Who fan and cosplayer to Big Finish producer.

We take a focussed look at the latest release in The Companion Chronicles catalogue, entitled "Families".

And joining us also is voice artist and First Doctor actor Stephen Noonan, who will speak with us about portaying not only the Doctor in two stories in "Families", but his process in voicing the other characters too.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

We are joined by Aron from Aron's Collectables, to talk about his personal fandom, collecting Doctor Who, and the opportunities he has in discovering missing Doctor Who episodes.

On the audio front, we discuss some of the rare Doctor Who vinyl from the 60's, as well as his favourite Big Finish story of all time.

We are thrilled to be joined this episode by Australian Whotuber Josh Snares to talk about his fandom, his love of Doctor Who from classic to new, including Big Finish, and his Big Finish animations.

While Josh has animated in whole or in part, four different Big Finish Audio adventures, the two we will be focussing on today are:

The Genocide Machine (7th Doctor, Ace) and

Phantoms of the Deep (4th Doctor, Romana I)

We take a look at six Doctor Who releases from Big Finish from recent months including:

• Call Me Master - Inner Demons
• Doctor Who and the Brain Drain
• The Life and Death of River Song - Ace and Tegan
• The Lost Stories - Genesis of the Cybermen
• Hooklight - Part 1
• Planet Krynoid - Nightfall

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Jean Marsh passed away on the 13th April 2025 at the age of 90. She was a reknowned actress both in the UK and abroad, having worked in TV, film and theatre.

For Doctor Who fans, she is best remembered for her roles as Johanna in The Crusade, Sara Kingdom in The Daleks' Masterplan, and Morgaine in Battlefield.

She reprised the role of Sara on audio for Big Finish in The Companion Chronicles and Early Adventures ranges.

Writer Simon Guerrier joins us for this episode of the podcast, and shares some of his memories of the times he spent with Jean.

We'll also discuss his Sara Kingdom trilogy, which features the stories, "Home Truths", The Drowned World", and "Guardian of the Solar System". There'll be spoilers, so if you haven't heard them, we recommend you grab them from the Big Finish website and have a listen to them first. They are fantastic!

We also have some special tributes to Jean from her Battlefield co-stars, Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. Thanks to them both for joining us.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Our special guest for this episode is actress Jessica Martin, known in Doctor Who for playing Mags in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy on television, and in a trilogy of stories for the Big Finish Doctor Who monthly range.

We'll talk about her career, her time in Doctor Who, conventions, mimicry and art.

Dwayne and Philip also cover some of the positive feedback from the latest Sirens of Audio live events with Matthew Waterhouse, and they discuss the reason why those live events don't always go to smaller, more regional areas.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

We invite a couple of regular attendees of our live events to give us their feedback on the weekend that was Matthew Waterhouse Live in Melbourne last weekend.

Matthew regailed us with stories from his time on Doctor Who with Tom Baker and Peter Davision.

Other special surprises on the day were Innes Lloyd performing part of their improv show.

But the big surprise was an appearance on new series writer and Executive Producer, Pete McTighe.

You never know what you're going to get at a Sirens of Audio event!

Has it really taken us this long to review the first two releases from Big Finish? Oh yes it has!

Would Big Finish have acquired the Doctor Who license from the BBC without these recordings? Oh no they wouldn't!

Oh No It Isn't by Paul Cornell and adapted by Jacqueline Raynor, and Beyond the Sun, written and adapted by Matt Jones, were released way back in 1998... and the rest is history!

Gary Russell joins us to talk about those very early days and specifically, the production of these original Big Finish classics.

We talk about the January 2025 Big Finish releases, with a focus on Jo Martin's The Fugitive Doctor and a chat with script editor of the series, Rob Valentine.

Join us as we take a look at some of the highlights of our five-city tour with Sylvester McCoy in November 2024.

What better way to spend the anniversary month than with one of the stars of Doctor Who.

We celebrate the 5th anniversary of the podcast and give you our selection of favourite releases from Big Finish in 2024.

Once again we are joined by Vortex editor and podcaster, Kenny Smith.

00:00 Intro

06:33 January Releases

17:24 February Releases

27:11 March Releases

36:04 April Releases

45:36 May Releases

53:29 June Releases

1:03:41 July Releases

1:12:56 August Releases

1:19:46 September Releases

1:27:22 October Releases

1:34:47 November Releases

1:42:42 December Releases

1:50:43 Dwayne's Top 5

1:58:56 Philip's Top 5

As we continue our exploration of the Big Finish Doctor Who Monthly range, we are thrilled to be joined by Conrad Westmaas, who played Eighth Doctor companion C’Rizz.

C’Rizz left the TARDIS crew in Absolution, and Conrad discusses his final story with us, and we also engage in some other tasty Doctor Who chat.

We take a look at the Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem release, The Mind’s Eye, which also contains the single-part adventure, Mission of the Viyrans.

Philip and Dwayne give their reviews of the Doctor Who related releases from Big Finish released in December 2024.

They also share their thoughts on the recently released Doctor Who at the Proms, The War Games in Colour and Joy to the World.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

We get the inside scoop from Dalek voice, Executive Producer and Creative Director, Nicholas Briggs, on the special Big Finish live show, Doctor Who - The Stuff of Legend.

We also chat with our friend Todd from the Flight Through Entirety podcast, who was in the audience for one of the performances.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

It's 2025 and to kick off the year we are thrilled to present to you our recent chat with Matthew Waterhouse, who played Adric in Doctor Who from 1981-1982.

For those in Australia, this is a taste of what is to come at Matthew's live appearances with us in March in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

In our final episode of 2024, Chris, Philip and Dwayne look back at the first episode of Doctor Who from it's triumphant return to TV screens in 2005, namely, Rose.

We hope you enjoy the commentary.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

In our penultimate episode of 2024, we take a look back at two classics from the Big Finish Doctor Who range, The Wormery by Paul Magrs and Steve Cole, and The Natural History of Fear by Jim Mortimore.

To top it off, we are joined by director and producer Gary Russell, who provides his memories of both stories, and Katy Manning drops in to talk with us about that temporial adventuress, Iris Wildthyme.

We take a look back at the Big Finish Doctor Who related releases for the month of November 2024.

In this episode we are joined by Kenny Smith, editor of Big Finish Vortex Magazine and host of the Pieces of Eighth and Power of Three podcasts to talk about our memories and stand out moments from Big Finish Doctor Who over the last 25 years!

This time we go right back to the original Big Finish spinoff that started them all, Dalek Empire. We'll share our thoughts on the four individual episodes and chat with creator Nicholas Briggs about the evolution of the story.

We'll also take a look back at our most recent series of live events featuring Janet Fielding and Sylvester McCoy, and reflect on whether we were totally insane to attempt to take on five cities around Australia in three weeks.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

After three boxsets and several guest appearances in other ranges, we thought it was high time we did a review of Stephen Noonan's First Doctor Adventures.

To help us do that, we are joined once again by the lovely Sarah from Type 40.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

To celebrate 25 years of Doctor Who at Big Finish, Philip and Dwayne take a look back at the first two monthly adventures, The Sirens of Time by Nicholas Briggs, and Phatasmagoria by Mark Gatiss.

We’ll also jump down the rabbit hole and read out a few of our YouTube audience comments, and we’ll share what we’ve been listening too, watching and reading recently.

We take a look back at the outstanding new Doctor Who Big Finish releases for October 2024, dive down the rabbit hole, and talk about some of the other things we have been watching/listening to.

It's an unusual installment this time as we devote the episode to talking about the visual aspects of audio drama with Big Finish covert artist, Sean Longmore.

Find out the process involved in cover art, an essential component of the audio experience.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

It is our great pleausre to welcome voice of K9, John Leeson, to the podcast. We'll chat about his career including his time on Doctor Who, Rainbow and Blake's 7, his love of wine and his time as a lay magistrate.

We'll also jump down the rabbit hole with the Melbourne live audience from our recent event with Frazer Hines.

Thanks to Ian Kubiak.

In 2023 AUK studios released two CDs related to Doctor Who.

Me & Him & Who is an audio drama that chronicles the life of John Nathan-Turner, written by Stephen Wyatt.

And speaking of Stephen Wyatt, AUK also released a musical sequel to The Greatest Show in the Galaxy called Children of the Circus, which features a reunion of the entire cast including new roles for Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred.

Creative Director for AUK, Barnaby Eaton-Jones, joins us to talk about these releases, as well as how he came to be invoved in audio production.

He also talks about another passion project, Robin of Sherwood on audio, featuring actors from the original tv series.

We focus this time on the Big Finish adaptation of The Prisoner.

Number 6 actor Mark Elstob joins us to talk about his career, Patrick McGoohan Doctor Who, Blake's 7 (specifically, Paul Darrow's Avon), and of course, The Prisoner.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer and Jamie Robertson.

We take a sidestep from Doctor Who this time and enter the world of The Tripods television series, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.

We'll be joined by Chris Jones, author of the forthcoming book "All For Nothing?", which will be released at a special Tripods fan event next week. The event will also feature appearances from all four principal cast members, together for the very first time since the show was filmed, as well as other cast and production crew.

We are also joined by Tripods superfan Will Hadcroft, better known to Doctor Who fans by his audio dramas The Resurrection Plant and Dark Contract.

To "cap" it off, we'll have a special focus on the sensational soundtrack for The Tripods, composed and arranged by Ken Freeman.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer and Ken Freeman.

Pamela Salem is an actress who starred in memorable roles in classic Doctor Who stories The Robots of Death and Remembrance of the Daleks.

She reprised her television roles for Big Finish in the spinoff series' Counter-Measures and The Robots.

Pamela passed away in February 2024.

We speak with several people who worked with her on television and audio, Louise Jameson, Sophie Aldred, Karen Gledhill and Ken Bentley.

We also share for the first time, video footage of our 2021 interview with Pamela for The SIrens of Audio Podcast.

In this episode we review the recent Big Finish releases in the Lost Stories range, the second Doctor adventures Operation Werewolf, and forerunner to The Three Doctors, Deathworld.

Get the releases here:

Michael Herbert is a historian and the writer of the forthcoming biography, "Don't Believe Everything You See" - The Life and Writings of Malcolm Hulke. The book is due to be published by Telos Publishing some time in 2025.

Michael joins us to speak about "Mac's" career including his early television and colaborations, and the importance of his work in Doctor Who on television and in books.

We also take a closer look at Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters audiobook read by Caroline John, during our discussion.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

In this special edition of the podcast, released to celebrate Doctor Who Podcast Day 2024 #dwpd2024, we are joined by actor Stephen Noonan to record our live commentary of the third Doctor introductory story, Spearhead from Space.

#dwpd

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Join us and our guests, Dave from The Doctor Who Show, and Marc from Mr & Mrs Who, as we discuss the new Big Finish adaptation of the Virgin Missing Adventure, Goth Opera.

Our guest for this episode is Will Hadcroft, the writer of the most recent Doctor Who original release from BBC Audio, Dark Contract, read by Matthew Waterhouse.

Dark Contract is a Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Nyssa and Adric adventure set in the ever fascinating dark and dreary Dickensian era.

Will joins us for the entire episode including the rabbit hole topic and our recommendations.

Thanks to Michael Stevens for his help with this episode.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Sutekh recently made a return to TV Doctor Who, but did you know that Gabriel Woolf had previously returned to bring the Osiran to "death" on audio with two seperate incarnations of the Doctor?

We dive into the Bernice Summerfield box set featuring the Seventh Doctor called "The Triumph of Sutekh" as well as the fourth Doctor two-parter seperately titled "Kill The Doctor!" and "The Age of Sutekh".

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

We reach a milestone for the podcast with our 200th episode.

To help us celebrate, we are joined by 2nd Doctor Who companion actor Frazer Hines.

Not only do we have Frazer joining us for the podcast, we announce our live events for September 2024, featuring both Frazer and Katy Manning!

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Doctor Who is not the only classic TV series Big Finish recreates for audio.

The Omega Factor is a cult paranormal investigation series that ran for one season on TV and starred Doctor Who's very own Louise Jameson.

In this episode with speak with Natasha Gerson. Natasha is the daughter of Jack Gerson, creator of The Omega Factor. Natasha not only appeared in the original TV series, she has returned in the Big Finish audio adaptation of the series, along with original cast member Louise Jameson and new co-star John Dorney.

Join us for a journey through Natasha's upbringing and career.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

In this episode we are joined by actress, voice artist and casting director Charlie Hayes.

Charlie has appeared in several Big Finish releases, including the 7th Doctor classic, "Master", and "Seven Keys to Doomsday", in which she takes on the role for audio that her mother Wendy Padbury originally performed on stage.

Charlie talks about life, love, and remembers her recent trip to Australia for our live Sirens of Audio events in Sydney and Melbourne.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Take a break from reviews of TV Doctor Who and join us with our guest Dave from The Doctor Who Show as we discuss two Big Finish novel adaptations, Gareth Roberts' The Highest Science and Lance Parkin's multi-Doctor adventure, Cold Fusion.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer

Here for your enjoyment is a small part of out live event with Wendy Padbury in Melbourne in February 2024.

Looking forward to bringing you many more events such as these in the second half of 2024 and beyond!

Louise Jameson joins us to chat about her recent adventures in India, her time on Emmerdale, and her recent Big Finish releases including Torchwood: Double.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

We explore every audio Time Lord Victorious release and chat with Genetics of the Daleks writer, Jonathan Morris, and producer of the Big Finish range and writer of Echoes of Extinction, Alfie Shaw.

Our guest is Big Finish writer David K. Barnes. He'll join us down the rabbit hole, chat about his career, and we'll go through each of his Big Finish releases to date, including his most recent releases, Storm of the Sea Devils and The Silent Priest/The Silent City.

This is a conversation not to be missed.

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.

Find us on all socials @AudioSirens

This time we discuss the three Torchwood audio adventures that feature Ace and Mr Colchester, The Red List, Death in Venice and Sabotage.

And we catch up with Sophie Aldred to talk about what she has been up to since we spoke to her last including her audio work and back to the televisual world of Doctor Who in Tales of the TARDIS.

Music by Joe Kraemer

We share our Q&A session from Katy Manning Live in Sydney on 14th October 2023.

With the real story behind "The Five Doctors", the creation of Iris Wildthyme and tips for wearing a mini-skirt properly, this fun session gives you a look at a small part of our live events.

Have fun!

Theme music by Joe Kraemer.