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
The custodians of the Sagan arrive on the Keltin world and are killed by the red gas released from the citadel. The Doctor and Nomar take a higher route, passing the slaves made to mine solonium for the Keltin to absorb, and are taken by Rovus to Tegan. Rovus admits that the Keltin are from another universe and destroys the Sagan and its remaining crew with the gas before having Vedrin take Tegan and Nomar away. Rovus demonstrates how the Keltin feed on solonium, which then becomes the red coral, and tells the Doctor that they intend on bringing the Keltin Core from their universe.

Tegan and Nomar manage to escape and travel through a portal to the Heliopan in the Dark, the Keltin's original home, where they are taken to shelter from the Crayle by Lom, a lizard and the last of his kind. He tells them how the Keltin bled the universe dry in search of energy.

Adric resists the gas by reciting prime numbers and the Fibonacci sequence, allowing Nyssa and Autumn to get him to safety. Whilst he recovers with Autumn by his side, Nyssa and Tace run from the corpses, who are protecting a portal and kill the custodians. Adric wakes up with some knowledge of the Keltin and their plan thanks to his exposure to the gas, having dreamt of the Keltin coming to the base. Vedrin emerges from the portal and leads the attack, summoning Rovus and the Doctor upon discovering the TARDIS and failing to break in. The Doctor refuses to open it and Rovus throws Nyssa into the Dark where the Crayle advance on her.

Part four
The Doctor advises Tace to have her people surrender to the Keltin to buy time and Adric taunts Rovus, distracting him so that Autumn can get the Doctor and her mother away. The four of them regroup and head to the Astronomy Hub where they locate the rift through which the remaining Keltin are likely to emerge from the Dark and the Doctor tasks Adric with using a custodian ship to get the rift's exact coordinates. Despite Tace's wishes, Autumn goes with him through the portal to the Keltin world where they take Fell's ship and fly to the rift.

Tegan saves Nyssa from the Crayle and brings her to Lom's cave, where Lom explains that the Keltin were forged from by the sentient Keltin Core, a planet-sized mass of solonium which they intend to bring into Nyssa and Tegan's universe. He is eaten by the Crayle after taking Nyssa, Tegan and Nomar to view the rift in the sky, after which Adric and Autumn arrive in Fell's ship. Autumn is badly wounded by the Crayle and dies on the ship, saying goodbye to Adric. Followed by the Keltin fleet and their Core, they travel through the rift and release space mines as they do so, destroying it and preventing the invasion.

Having discovered that coolant can return the red gas to its coral state, the Doctor invites Rovus to negotiate with him, intending on using liquid nitrogen against him and the other Keltin. Rovus discovers the plan and threatens to kill Tace unless the Doctor allows him into the TARDIS, but the link with the Keltin Core is broken by the closing of the rift and they crumble to dust. Adric, Nyssa and Tegan contact the base and inform Tace of her daughter's death and that they only have an ion drive, so the Doctor collects them by TARDIS and, after they return Nomar to his people, Adric goes to his room.

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

Crew

 * Cover Art - Tom Webster
 * Director - Barnaby Edwards
 * Executive Producers - Nicholas Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery
 * Music and Sound Design - Steve Foxon
 * Producer - David Richardson
 * Script Editor - Alan Barnes
 * Writer - Andrew Smith

Worldbuilding

 * The Doctor is attempting to teach Adric how to pilot the TARDIS.
 * Humanity was confined to Mutter's Spiral until the discovery of the intergalactic drive in the 54th century.
 * The crew of the Kepler includes Ensign Caleb Wren.
 * The Tarantula Nebula, or 30 Doradus, is full of new stars, intense radiation and stellar winds.
 * The Keltin require solonium to survive.
 * Mutter's Spiral is ten times the size of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

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)