Written by Andrew Smith & Directed by Barnaby Edwards.
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.
Kicking off this latest fifth Doctor trilogy, and indeed all of the main range releases for 2017, The Star Men is a decent, if a little by-the-numbers start to the year. For the first time since 2014's The Fifth Doctor Box Set (barring December's Cold Fusion), the fifth Doctor is reunited with his original TARDIS complement of Adric, Nyssa and Tegan, and writer Andrew Smith gives the four of them a good chunk of the action, and some excellent characterisation, possibly to make up for the slightly lacklustre plot and substandard guest characterisation.
The main story in The Star Men centres on the research station on the planet Gallius Ultima, as it guides the exploration vessel Johannes Kepler back from an exploration mission. It's the sort of story you'd expect from this set-up: the craft brings back a presence that slowly starts to infest itself in the base. It's certainly one of the better stories in this mould: it has a real creepy edge to it that manages to engage the listener for a good chunk of the first half. A coral that can morph itself from a solid to a gas is certainly different from the usual 'alien hides in the one person who survived' trope. However, the story can't get away from the fact that everything that this story does has been done before elsewhere, and it feels oddly subdued as a result, as if it knows it can't compete with those other stories. It's a shame, because, if it tried to have a little more flair about it, it probably would be a lot stronger than it is. That's my main issue with Andrew Smith: when he's given a chance to push at the boundaries, like in Full Circle or The First Sontarans, he's a really strong talent. But when limited to writing a story that has been done before, like in Domain Of The Voord or The Invasion Of E-Space, he just doesn't seem to be able to provide sufficient thrust to make his tale stand out. As I've said, he does try, and I feel that the strong character work does help, but most of episodes 2 and 3 are quite heavy with plot, and Smith doesn't inject much spark into this, so these episodes basically play out like any early 80's tale you've forgotten the name of. I like the imagery of the Star Men themselves, especially considering the early to mid 80's Doctor Who title sequence was known for it's starfield-inspired design. However, I don't feel that that imagery has been properly used here. Sure, the Star Men are a credible threat, but I feel like they are immediately painted as villains, which I feel was perhaps a mistake. It might have been better to subtly introduce them, and play a bit more on their look, and the fact that they come from outside another universe. As is, we're just thrown straight into them being malevolent and evil, with no real discussion of their motivations. There's something about them requiring a mineral to survive, but no real discussion of why they are plundering and conquering, just this vague concept of the red coral mineral, that isn't really pushed very far. It's very much like the kind of thing I'd have expected to see in the early 80's regarding one-off villains: the most successful ones like the Marshmen or the Mara had a deeper motivation than simply conquest and destructions, and even the Terileptil leader has a little quirk to his character of being fascinated by beauty. But I don't feel that any of the Star Men, not even their leader Rovus, who we spend the most amount of time with, have any sort of depth to them. They're just simply evil for the sake of being evil, and that perhaps reduces the interest I have in them. They're just evil beings who want to plunder and destroy. That's another reason why I feel that this story doesn't have the spark it needs to stand out: it's villains are too generically evil for anything interesting storytelling to come out of them. Andrew Smith doesn't even touch upon how these creatures can exist in this universe, something that the early 80's was very keen to highlight, especially in stories like Arc Of Infinity. Smith also brings up something about how the Star Men are changing history or something with their actions, but this just seems brought up as a reason why the Doctor doesn't want to leave, and then perfunctorily resolved later on.
The characterisation also isn't particularly earth-shattering. Each character can be organised into an easily-sortable set of tropes that they pretty much feel like they've been torn out of any Doctor Who story from about 1967 up to 1987. There's the base commander: disbelieving at first, but ultimately brave and heroic; the military figure: authoritative, prepared to ignore the Doctor's advice, determined to attack any possible threat; the younger scientist: reckless, headstrong, likely to go off investigating on her own; the evil villain, who is evil for evil's sake. Not one really stands out with any degree of interest, they're just the sort of characters you expect to see in a story like this. I did think Smith did try to include little moments of interest in some of them: Autumn (the younger scientist) has a sweet little subplot with Adric, while General Fell did have a very good death scene, which actually did surprise me, and you could see that he had been changed by his experiences. However, for the most part, the characters remained exactly how you would expect them to be in a story like this. It's a shame, as I did think the guest cast did a fairly good job overall: Damian Lynch, Sophie Wu, Sue Holderness and Kris Dyer were all fantastic, although I did think Dyer's Normar was quite similar to Lynch's Lom. However, the characters aren't really distinct enough, or developed enough, to be that different, so I was possibly harder for the actors to make their characters stand out. The standout guest star was, however, Peter Guinness as Rovus, the leader of the Star Men. Guinness has been involved in a number of Doctor Who releases by this point (including chilling turns as villains in The Beast Of Orlok and The Holy Terror), and he knows how to bring the right menace to Rovus. He's cold, he's calculating, and utterly perfect casting. The regulars are also on top form, and Andrew Smith's script serves them well. Peter Davison actually gets something to do in one of these four person TARDIS crew stories, and manages to be authoritative enough so as not to seem like he's consistently ignored. He has some very good scenes with General Fell and Rovus where he shows off how much mettle his Doctor actually has. Out of the three companions, Adric probably has the most to do in this one, and it's nice to see him with a similar character to play off. Him and Sophie Wu's Autumn have an amazing chemistry together, with the pair of them showing off their equally intelligent status. It's nice to see Andrew Smith pushing Adric into new and different territory, and trying to do different things with the character. And while Tegan and Nyssa aren't necessarily given loads to do, I did think that they were well served. Smith doesn't just have the characters sitting around, and actually has them doing stuff that forwarded the plot, so that's something. His previous story for an extended TARDIS team, Mistfall, has both Nyssa and Turlough side-lined for a large part of the story, and even The Invasion Of E-Space had K-9 removed from the equation completely. Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton are fantastic throughout the story, and while Matthew's voice has aged more than Sarah's, or Janet's, or even Peter's, he still gives an excellent performance throughout. I'd much rather have a strong performance from an actor that tackles the script correctly, than have a pitch-perfect recreation of that portrayal from 35 years ago.
The production of this story is exceptionally strong, as you'd expect of Big Finish. Barnaby Edwards is a first-rate director, and the cast he has assembled here is exceptional. He directs them with peerless skill, and even guest stars himself in the small role of the Computer (which is excellent). Edwards has been a more intermittent presence in the range of late, having directed a couple of odd releases here and there, so it's nice to see him back in a more permanent capacity. Steve Foxon takes masterful charge of the music and sound design on this story, and he produces some great work. Each landscape and 'events' that the story requires are masterfully created, from the various worlds that the Doctor and his companions come across, to the very subtle vocal modulation on the Star Men themselves. His music is suitably in keeping with the 80's feel of the story, and feels like the sort of thing that Roger Limb or Peter Howell would have come up with for this story. While a lot of praise is heaped upon Big Finish sound designers for their incredibly detailed soundscapes (and, believe me, it should), the music often goes unmentioned. The score here perfectly suits each scene, and gives off that perfect 80's flavouring, full of weird electronic noises and modulated sounds. But it never overpowers the drama, and, like most Big Finish scores, the story here is pitch perfect. Finally, Tom Webster provides possibly one of the best Big Finish covers in ages. I do say that about every single one, but this is something special: Webster brings a special finish to his work that's hard to pin down, and that is clearly evident here. Maybe it's the construction or the framing or even the use of elements from the 1982 titles, but this is about as perfect as they come, and it's certainly set the bar very high for covers this year.
While the production of The Star Men is exceptional, I think the script is far too lacking in ambition for this release to be counted as anything other than just above average. If Smith has been a bit braver and tried to alter the formula a bit (like Matt Fitton's Technophobia) or even just committed to telling that type of story as confidently and stylishly as possible (like Jonathan Morris' Waters Of Amsterdam), I think this story could have been a lot better. I do think there is plenty of good in The Star Men, and I don't have inherent problems with traditional storytelling, but it would have been a much stronger release if Smith had displayed more confidence in the story he was telling. Overall, it's not a bad release, and you will get something out of it if you like season 19, and that TARDIS team. However, I don't think it's one I can recommend unless you've got some spare cash lying about.
Rating - 6/10
Other Reviews of Big Finish Products:
The Waters Of Amsterdam - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/doctor-who-waters-of-amsterdam.html
Aquitaine - COMING SOON
The Peterloo Massacre - COMING SOON
Order Of The Daleks - COMING SOON
Absolute Power - COMING SOON
Quicksilver - COMING SOON
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