The Star Men (audio story)

 was the two hundred and twenty-first story in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written Andrew Smith and featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, Matthew Waterhouse as Adric, Sarah Sutton as Nyssa and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka.

It was the first appearance of Waterhouse as Adric in the Main Range, after his Big Finish debut in The Fifth Doctor Box Set.

Publisher's summary
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.

Part one
In a simulation of TARDIS flight, Adric once again kills everybody, this time by piloting the ship into a supernova, so the Doctor decides to take him, Nyssa and Tegan to a research base on 53rd century Gallius U. They instead arrive about a century later, on the monumental day that the damaged Johannes Kepler returns from the Large Magellanic Cloud. Adric and Nyssa head to the Astronomy hub and learn from Autumn Tace that the base is in lockdown whilst the Doctor follows Tegan to the observation deck where they are arrested.

The Doctor tells Controller Tace, Autumn's mother, that the significant damage done to the Kepler is the result of an attack rather than stellar winds and Autumn, from the Astronomy hub, reports that there are no life signs on board. The ship is increasing in speed and will hit the base at almost the speed of light, so Adric and Autumn try to move the telescope into its way to knock it off of its path. The failsafes kick in to prevent them doing so, however, and Adric inserts the coordinates manually, successfully altering the Kepler's path so it instead lands in the Saurian Desert.

According to history, no crash ever occurred so the Doctor and Tegan join General Fell in investigating the wreckage. They enter through a cargo hatch and find corpses covered in red coral and the ship's systems thoroughly wiped, making it impossible to find out where it has been. The Doctor and Tegan join Fell in the Carl Sagan to fly to the LMC, leaving Adric and Nyssa behind with Autumn to examine the coral. The leap drive is initiated and the ship folds space to get there.

Part two
The Sagan comes across parts of the Kepler as well an intact explorer module to which Fell leads a boarding party which includes the Doctor and Tegan. They find more coral and a portal through which Rovus, Imperator of the Keltin, emerges, capturing Tegan and taking her back with him, after which Fell accidentally destroys the portal whilst shooting at him. The group flee from a red gas and return to the Sagan with Nomar of the Valeri, who explains that the Keltin, or Star Men, are powerful conquerors and enslavers from the Tarantula Nebula and agrees to lead the way to their planetoid. Unbeknownst to them, Tegan is being used as bait to lure the Sagan to the planetoid to be destroyed.

Adric, Nyssa and Autumn sit in on an autopsy with Tace and observe gas leaking out from inside the coral and destroying the surgical robot. The corpses start moving and tell Tace to order all humans to evacuate, but she orders a custodian to kill them; being already dead, the shots are ineffective and the custodian is killed by the gas and integrated. Tace orders the evacuation and Adric, Nyssa and Autumn go to the Kepler to get an inert sample of the coral, but it reacts to being scanned and they are forced to run when it becomes gaseous. To get around the jamming of the base's communications systems, Adric and Autumn head to the power room to use the satellites, but Adric is enveloped in gas.

Part three
to be added

Part four
to be added

Cast

 * The Doctor - Peter Davison
 * Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
 * Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
 * Tegan - Janet Fielding
 * Kala Tace - Sue Holderness
 * Autumn Tace - Sophie Wu
 * Rovus - Peter Guinness
 * Fell / Lom - Damian Lynch
 * Nomar / Vedrin / Surgical Robot / Pilot - Kris Dyer
 * Computer - Barnaby Edwards

Continuity

 * Nyssa refers to Adric's badge for mathematical excellence. (TV: Full Circle)
 * Tegan reminds the Doctor that he still has to return her to Heathrow Airport in 1981. (TV: Four to Doomsday, Kinda, The Visitation; AUDIO: Psychdrome, Iterations of I, Smoke and Mirrors)
 * Adric refers to the starliner on Alzarius. (TV: Full Circle)
 * Kala Tace mistakes the Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan for members of Earth Security. (TV: Frontier in Space; AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks)
 * Tegan once again uses "Rabbits!" as an expletive. (TV: Logopolis, Frontios; AUDIO: Psychodrome)
 * The Doctor says, "Brave heart, Tegan". Tegan herself later says it to Nyssa. (AUDIO: Psychdrome; TV: Earthshock, et. al)
 * The Doctor refers to entropy as causing the Starmen's universe to lose energy. (TV: Logopolis) He also refers to E-Space. (TV: Full Circle, State of Decay, Warriors' Gate; AUDIO: The Invasion of E-Space)
 * Adric says, "When I say 'run,' run." (TV: The Power of the Daleks, et. al)
 * The Doctor tells Adric that he cannot travel back in time and save Autumn as her death is part of established events. He would later tell Nyssa and Tegan the same thing after Adric himself was killed. (TV: Earthshock, Time-Flight)