Astronomical navigation is a tricky business. To help Adric with his studies, the Doctor sets course for Gallius Ultima – a planet on the edge of the Milky Way, housing one of the most impressive observatories ever constructed.
But the TARDIS arrives to find Gallius U in a state of emergency, tracking the return of the Explorer-class ship Johannes Kepler from its mission into the heart of the mysterious Large Magellanic Cloud. A mission that met with disaster…
To find out what overtook the crew of the Johannes Kepler, the Doctor and his companions must journey into the heart of the Cloud… and beyond, into the darkness of another reality altogether. The universe of the Star Men.
THE STAR MEN
The 2017 monthly range kicks off with “The Star Men” from Andrew Smith, a story that marks the monthly range debut of Matthew Waterhouse in the role of Adric. It’s driven by some fine ideas, it’s suitably atmospheric, and since it’s written by Adric’s creator he gets a lot of good material – but it’s also overwritten, obvious, and largely unsurprising.
We’ve only seen Waterhouse in a few Big Finish stories to date, starting with his test run in the Fifth Doctor Box Set from a while back. But “The Star Men” sounds like he’s been working with his former colleagues for ages – there’s no awkwardness, no sense that Adric is out of place. (Well, no sense greater than the usual.) Smith also gives him some great material: we see his obsession with solving problems, his childish insistence upon being right, and we even get a budding romance with Autumn (Sophie Wu), a fellow prodigy who finds Adric appealing. Some of this is too obvious, particularly Adric’s habit of standing at computer banks trying to solve difficult problems while a deadline approaches. I wonder what that’s foreshadowing! But for the most part this is a great opportunity for Adric to take center stage, and Waterhouse takes full advantage with a surprisingly nuanced performance.
Let’s also mention the first episode, which is brilliant – it’s basically just the TARDIS crew discovering a mystery and going to investigate it, along with a nicely casual way to skirt around the “who are you and what are you doing here” problem. The cliffhanger is great – no forced, immediate danger, just a group setting off on a journey into another galaxy. It’s a great setup for what sounds like an intelligent, high-concept sci-fi story, combined with some great sound design and atmosphere.
Unfortunately, the other episodes don’t live up to the promise of the first. The basic idea here is that aliens (the Star Men of the title) from another universe are using portals to travel into ours, and aim to use their “supernatural” abilities to conquer all inhabited space. It’s standard megalomania, in other words, and unfortunately Smith doesn’t do anything to deepen this characterization: the physics of the other universe are largely ignored and the aliens are entirely one-note. There’s a bit where Nyssa and Tegan travel into the other universe and it’s basically just like ours, except with lizard men running around and rebels vs. evil overlords. I understand that it’s hard, if not impossible, to present a universe on audio with different laws of physics – we learned this back with the Divergent Universe, after all – but why build your story around a concept like that if you’re not going to use it?
Fortunately, Smith has a good handle on the characterization of the regulars, which lends both competence and confidence to the production. The actors respond well, especially Peter Davison, who doesn’t get to play the “why don’t they listen to me” version of his Doctor all that often. The production is great – I still think Barnaby Edwards is Big Finish’s best Doctor Who director, and the sound design from Steve Foxon is excellent. In sum, there’s not much going on here, but “The Star Men” does what it does skillfully enough. If you want a well-made, well-acted story that puts Adric at center stage and actually makes you sympathize with him, this is your story. If you want something daring and boundary pushing, what are you doing in the monthly range to begin with?
Solid.
6/10