A Star is Born (audio story)

A Star is Born was a 2011 Big Finish Productions audio short story, read by William Russell.

Summary
The Doctor and his companions answer a distress call from a vast spaceship carrying the remnants of a dying race...

Characters

 * First Doctor
 * Susan Foreman
 * Barbara Wright
 * Ian Chesterton
 * Egrabill
 * Rode
 * Greneva

Worldbuilding

 * Ships entering the exosphere are subject to gravitational pull.
 * Communications arrays can be used to broadcast messages, such as requests for assistance.
 * Egrabill is unable to discern Susan's gender.
 * Kinneret is the homeworld of the Metraxi.
 * The Metraxi became sterile and so used cloning to reproduce. However, this resulted in the loss of key genetic information, shorting their lifespans with each generation.
 * The Metraxi are led by Rode, a Provost.
 * The ship's propulsion generator failed and radiation is leaking from the fission reactor.
 * The Doctor says he is "well versed in a number of propulsion system" and notes Ian is a "scientist of sorts".
 * The Doctor and his companions don radiation suits to inspect the fission reactor.
 * The Metraxi have their own Bible.
 * The radiation mutates Greneva so that she can have children again. She becomes pregnant as a result and the Doctor suggest many Metraxi will have been similarly altered.

Continuity

 * Ian recalls his own experience of radiation poisoning. (TV: The Daleks)
 * The ship in need of repairs before gravity pulls it into a planet mimics TV: 42 where the ship was pulled towards a star.