Death in the Stars | Book Review

Thanks to the lovely folk at BBC Books we were lucky to get our hands on a MASSIVE haul of brand new Doctor Who Target books AND the debut novel by Bonnie Langford: Death in the Stars.

Geoff was busy on Horsham Film Festival duties but Paul decided to take Bonnie's book away with him on holiday so he could read it on the beach. Which he did!

As anyone who's listened to us before will know, Paul is very particular with his books, and arguably way too obsessed with 'science' for a show which features a magic police box and aliens who can regularly change their form when they get killed. 

However, he is a massive fan of Target novels - often dropping into misty-eyed nostalgia as soon as anyone mentions "The Auton Invasion" or "Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster". 

So what did he think of this brand new original novel written by Bonnie who played the novel's main character, ex Doctor Who companion of the 1980s (recently returned to New-Who) Ms Melanie Bush?

• Has Paul fully exorcised his demons since first watching Terror of the Vervoids?
• What did he think of Mel and Glitz's relationship?
• What does Lord of the Flies have to do with any of this?
• Is there any 'hard science' among the shenanigans of Death in the Stars to keep him happy?
• And how many cups of tea out of five has he awarded the book?

Listen up to find out the answers to all these questions and more!

Transcript

0:16

Hello there, Doctor Who fans, welcome to another Who Corner to Corner podcast. My name is Paul and I'm here all on my own today because Geoff, my co-host as you well know, is away doing other things. mostly a film festival of some sort, which apparently requires him to be hands on and busy and doing stuff. So he's got no time for podcasting, unfortunately. But I know he is actually in all seriousness, very, very busy. So with his apologies, I've decided to do this all on my own this particular episode. so I'm afraid you're stuck with me for the next 30 minutes or so. but do you know what? I've got a really, really good treat for you, because I'm going to look at a book. I'm going to do a little book review. because I know you love all that sort of stuff. It's going to be a Doctor Who book or Doctor Who related book anyway. And the reason for this is partly because, well, mostly because I actually really, really enjoyed the book. So I thought it was definitely well worth talking about. but also, because actually we received both me and Mister Geoff, a lovely, lovely haul, a massive haul, actually, of Target novelisations which have recently hit the market. if you've seen them, these are they look how lovely they are. We have 73 yards by Scott Handcock. We've got space Babies by Alison Rumfitt who's new. So I'm looking forward to reading this actually. We have The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, who we spoke about, who we spoke to. Actually, we interviewed her, right at the start of this year after we read, the hardback version of The Church on Ruby Road, which is an adaptation of the Russell T Davies story, which was a Christmas special for Doctor Who last year. And, of course, Rogue as well, which has just been, published in these lovely, lovely Target novels. Look at these. I do, I have to say, I do like the, the blue covers, the blue spines. Admittedly, they don't sit so well on the bookshelf of Targets, which are all white covers and white spines. But do you know what the older Target novels were? All sorts of different colours. and designs, photographs, illustrations and all sorts of things, as you well know, over the years. And I am delighted, actually, that they are doing things a little bit differently on the .. on the Target novels now. So thank you to Steve Cole and all the people at BBC books for, for continuing to publish Target novels for us and I, I love the original stuff, I love original Doctor Who novels, but I do really also love the fact that they're still making adaptations of the stories that we saw on TV, because that for me is, is very nostalgic. anyway, enough of that nonsense. I'm going to talk about the other book that arrived in my haul of Target books. it's, it's actually this one here. Wow, look at this. Death in the stars. for those of you who cannot see or are not watching on YouTube, it's by Bonnie Langford. Wow. Bonnie Langford co-write, co-written also by Jacqueline Rayner or Jac Rayner, as you can see that with Jac Rayner. and and it's fabulous to see really. So I mean, you know, it's this is this is kind of a big deal in a way, because this is Bonnie Langford's debut novel right now. Bonnie Langford is, as I'm sure you all know, has had like over 50 years of a career in, in all sorts of brilliant things. Right on stage, in film, on TV. And she's co-authored or she's written a Doctor Who book. Right. Her first novel is a Doctor Who book. It could have been anything. And but it's not, it's Doctor Who. So thank you, Bonnie, for choosing Doctor Who to, create your first novel, you know, and I'm delighted that somebody like Jac Rayner is writing it with you, because Jac Rayner has written many brilliant original Doctor Who novels, Doctor Who stories for Big Finish, for example, audios and BBC books, of which I have a couple here talking about Big Finish Look at this. If you can't see this listeners, this is my copy of the Marian Conspiracy from Wow 24. It's 24 years old. This is a cassette, right? Like I'm going to talk about this in a bit more detail in another podcast. But look at that. The Marian Conspiracy by Jac Rayner on cassettes. I'm just you want to give me for it? Offers in the post right now. It's not it's not leaving my cold dead hands. By the way. but it'd be something to see how much, you know, want for it. You know, you'd be willing to give me for. 40p - 45p? 50p? I don't know, whatever. Here's another of Jac Rayner's, stories, the novel, Earth World, which is, which is pretty cool, actually. It's a it's an eighth, a novel by the BBC from the 90s. Or is it early 2000? Thereabouts. Anyway, I haven't actually checked, but I will do. It's 2001, so it, so it's back from then and Jac Rayner has written some honestly, some fabulous Doctor Who novels. She’s written some Blake’s 7 audios as well. And, some of those have been just staggering. Really, really good. Honestly. more stuff by Jac Rayner please, I cannot get enough of it. Anyway, so back to, Bonnie Langford, who, as you know, played, the doctor's companion, Melanie Bush in 20 episodes of Doctor Who thereabouts in sort of 1986, 1987, kind of straddling the line between season 22, which was, Colin Baker's No season 23, I beg you, beg your pardon? That's Trial of a Timelord, Colin Baker's final season as the 6th Doctor. and of course, she went on to, you know, continue the role in, in Sylvester McCoy's first series as the Seventh Doctor. So, as I said, Bonnie herself has had a career spanning over 50 years. She is a beloved British actor. Now, the thing about Mel is that she has the dubious distinction of joining the doctor on his travels before he had actually met her, rather gloriously, as you all know, she rejoined Doctor Who to give us the or to give the 14th and the 15 doctors a helping hand during his bi-regeneration or bi-reneration or whatever that was. either way, she was there - brand new Mel or same Mel, but a little bit older, which is fabulous. Brilliant to see her back in Doctor Who. And then of course, she's been part of the unit family. Right. She was there for the, conclusion of season one. So anyway, I'm going to concentrate on the book. I've got my little thing on here which says, for those of you who who, saw my review of Andrew Cartmel’s novel, you know, the Paperback Sleuth will know that I need to keep on focus. So I've got my little note here that flashes up, say, stay on target. Stay on target. And in a kind of Star Wars kind of way. anyway, so here we go. Let's focus. Let's stay on target with death in the stars, Bonnie's debut novel. So first thing's the cover. I'm just going to hold this up here. And for those of you can say, have a look at this, right. Because I don't know what this is. It's like a giant eye in the middle of a kind of a hump thing. It sort of looks a bit like, I don't know, like a cave painting or something, maybe a little bit more sophisticated than that. But I don't know. I mean, I don't know what it's supposed to be. I'm not really sure how it relates to the book, and it's kind of irritating me in some ways. But, nonetheless, you know, it's a it's a certain style. Right? And the fact it says a Melanie Bush mystery at the bottom of this kind of implies, or at least it implies to me that what I was going to be reading was maybe something in the kind of, I don't know, the sort of Agatha Christie kind of ballpark, if you like, you know? So it's going to be that sort of a novel, you know, kind of standard, maybe a little bit fun sort of murder mystery kind of thing. And, but all the suspects are kind of rounded up and analysed and, you know, that sort of stuff, you know, that that kind of framework. it's not actually it's not, it's definitely not that. the blurb on the inside cover is perhaps a little bit more accurate. it kind of describes how the unlikely duo of Mel and Sabalom Glitz, become embroiled in uncovering the mystery at the centre of a graveyard of spaceships, which which also involves a bunch of murderous adolescents who seem very obsessed, with throwing people into the somewhat hellish fuel tank of their stranded spaceship. Oh my God, that's awful. the mystery really is why did these kids become so deadly? And can they be saved? Can they be put back on the right track, so to speak? Well, to find out, read the novel. I'm just going to say I'm going to try and avoid big spoilers in here. So it's a bit of a challenge to kind of talk about the novel. I'll talk about what I like about it, and why I think it's so brilliant. and I will do so. Avoiding major plot spoilers. Okay, that's my challenge. And so I do have a few little notes on here, so if you see my eyes drift, that's kind of what I'm referencing. And also the stay on target notes, which is flashing up right now. So back to the mystery then. So as I said, the mystery is really why did the kids become so deadly and can I be saved put back on the right track now throughout this novel, Sabalom Glitz, he kind of takes a backseat in this. There is a lot of Glitz throughout the story, so Glitz fans don't be concerned. There is a good splash of Sabalom on throughout this book, but he does take a bit of a backseat, which is only right because it's down to Mel. This is her story. So Mel takes the lead in working out the truth of the situation. Okay, so I'm not going to lie, before I started this book, I. I've never been a massive fan of Melanie Bush. I was in my teens when she when she joined Doctor Who. And my opinions of all my kind of, take on Bonnie Langford. At the time, I'd seen her a lot in things like, you know, those sort of Saturday shows and, you know, Peter Pan and and, you know, she's a pantomime artist, as far as I knew, that was all I knew at the age I was when when she joined up. So obviously she's done a lot more than just that. But I never felt that her character as Mel Bush was particularly rounded, and I think from that, even though I've heard a lot of Big Finish where she's become a lot better, we know a lot more about her and, and, you know, I just wondered if there was enough here for Mel to kind of hold the story together. It's no reflection on Bonnie at all. But you know as well as I do right, as Doctor Who fans that the character of Mel Bush was never fully fleshed out at all. She was very much in the mould of kind of screaming companion. That's what John Nathan Turner wanted, is a sort of pull back to the more traditional kind of, ‘girl companion’ of the Doctor’s, which is, you know, probably a bad move at the time when it happened, because really, what Doctor Who needed to do was move forward, which it eventually did with the character of Ace so suddenly putting a halt on things. You know, we've had we've had Janet Fielding's Teagan, we've had Nyssa, we even had Adric and Turlough, you know, all of those companions were relatively complex. Even if we didn't see all those complexities on the screen. They obviously came from somewhere. You know, they had a certain take on things, they had certain behaviours that were true to their characters. Whereas Mel Bush, it seems, didn't really have much of a character. She was very kind of naive. She was a screamer. She did a lot of screaming and, and her kind of performance, if you like, was very kind of high level energy, you know, kind of like the Bonnie Langford of stage and screen. Right? So I always used to have have trouble with that. But so yeah, it was it's a very odd thing. But however. Okay. So just to kind of recap as well, for those of you not too sure about Mel, I'm sure most, but in case you in case you're not sure who Melanie Bush really is, well, here's a bit of backstory. We first met Mel in the middle of, As I said earlier, the Trial of a Timelord, which is season 23. Now, she was introduced when the 6th Doctor decided to present an adventure from his future, the 6th Doctor being on trial. so we'd seen what the prosecution the finally out of

sort of thrown at the Doctor: 12:34

You're a bad person because this happened. So the Doctor says, well, no, I'm not a bad person. Have a look at this. This shows you that I'm actually a really decent guy. So the doctor presents an adventure from his future as evidence that, yes, he's actually a decent bloke with good intentions. Obviously, the doctor hadn't watched to the end of Terror of the Vervoids, because he might have just edited out the bit about committing genocide. Key learning point here folks. Always watch things to the end before you make judgements on them, or in fact decide to use them as evidence in defence of your murderous actions, however well intended. So Mel then came back at the end of Trial of a Timelord the following kind of a couple of parts of the following adventure. It's all it was it 14 episodes, but divided into four stories. The final story was a two part story, written by Robert Holmes. At least the first episode was the last episode. It was written by Pip and Jane Baker for reasons. anyway, so Mel comes back in that final part of the adventure and, kind of jumps into the Tardis with the doctor who's kind of yet to meet her. Right? she jumps in the Tardis to the sounds of carrot juice. Carrot juice, carrot juice. And that was sadly the last we saw of Colin's doctor. But Mel was still there when Doctor Who returned with Time and the Rani. And she continued as the Seventh Doctor's companion for the rest of season 24, exiting stage right when Ace arrives in the final story that season, Dragonfire and I think, I think really it wasn't perhaps until then that we as viewers perhaps really got a sense of who Mel of who Mel really was. I think it was only when she was paired with Ace, and the two of them have some little chats about their history and what motivated them and where they come from. I think, that I think we really got an insight into Melanie Bush, although, you know, thinking about it even then, it was something that was perhaps defined by its absence. I mean, you know, Ace had a lot of backstory. Mel really didn't have any. You know, she had nothing apart from perhaps what we'd already seen in her travels with the Doctor, you know? So all we knew about Mel was what we'd seen on TV. We kind of. We've been told that she's a computer programmer in her very first story, and she we were told that she has a really good memory right?“She has the memory of an elephant”. so she's almost like, you know, even better than photographic memory. She's got really good instant recall. but apart from that first adventure, we never really saw much of that or how that could affect the story. So, you know, that all kind of been forgotten. The thing that had been pushed to the fore, at least as far as I'm concerned, was was the screaming. You know, there's a there's a, there's a piece in Delta and the Bannerman when, Delta gives birth or, you know, to to the little baby deltoid, the alien creature. Right. Or it splits out of an egg at the end of, there's a cliff-hanger. So episode two, I think it is, or whichever one. Anyway, And Mel just screams her face off. You know, she's been with the doctor through all these travels in all kinds of weird aliens and all kinds of bizarre shit going on. And, you know, an alien hatches out of an egg and she screams the face off - like why? It's just, you know, it's just bizarre. So, you know, anyway, there you go. But, you know, I keep seeing “on target!” It's flashing up. Anyway, back to Dragonfire as a bit of context in history, I suppose, but, you know, as I'm saying, this is the first time I think I personally, anyway, had kind of got a sense of who Melanie Bush was and, you know, because in Dragonfire, in that whole adventure, you know, she's interacting mostly with Ace and, in being paired up with Ace she somehow seems this is Mel I'm talking about now. Mel seems somehow more driven, right? More adventurous. And maybe that kind of partly explains why she would jump into, you know, jump into a spaceship. with Sabalom Glitz at the end of it, you know, she decides to, it seems really weird right, that of all the endings Mel could have had, she decides to jump on a spaceship with the money grabbing, opportunistic sort of space pirate kind of, sort of light-hearted space mercenary Sabalom Glitz and decides to travel with him through space in the restored Iceworld spaceship, which is newly christened the Nosferatu two or and, in Death in the Stars. The Tu-two, which I think is great, you know, to you. And then number two, two to like a tutu? Anyway, it's it's a lot of fun, right? Okay. Do not worry. Right. It's all good. So, but, yeah, it did used to strike me as a little bit strange, but, you know, in, in hindsight, that decision to to dump everything, to split off with the doctor and, you know, go with with Glitz maybe, maybe that kind of hints at depths to Melanie Bush that we perhaps never knew she had. Right. So in terms of the fiction now, yes, there was a decision within the production, you know, sort of and Melanie's story at that point and go with Ace, right. That was the kind of, you know, the behind the scenes thing. We know that that's the facts of the situation. And, you know, Bonnie, I think, seemed to be relatively okay, that her contract wasn't renewed? Right. She was already successful. She's going to she's going to go on and do lots of other different things. You know - Doctor Who was just one of many, many, many, many things that she lent her name to, that she performed. So, you know, I don't think that was that was particularly, you know, an acrimonious thing. But in terms of the story, it all seemed really odd, but maybe right again, within the fiction, maybe her making that decision hints at some depths we never saw. And I think if I'm going to link to the book now in death to the stars, we see some of those hidden depths. Right? So as I mentioned earlier, Mel is absolutely central to everything that goes on in this novel. So if I was initially worried about whether or not Mel, the character of Mel, could carry a story, honestly, genuinely, I needn't have feared at all 100% because she absolutely drives everything that happens in these pages. You know, it's Mel rather than the Doctor who is the agent of change. You know, the she's the the catalyst in the novel that forces conflicts and confrontation. And it's Mel who drives the book's characters and events towards the novel's conclusion. Right. And and and rather brilliantly, right. This is the really good thing. This is the thing I really love about this, right? Is that this adventurous, this driven version of Melanie Bush, who's a little bit more mature, but, you know, she's exactly the same Melanie Bush that we saw in Dragonfire and all her previous adventures. So the skill of the writing here is that there are no compromises to Mel's character like none at all. Right? Her energy is still there. sort of, sort of naiveté is also still there. Right. but it all sits perfectly alongside her need to get up and be active and to help these people and save the lives that need saving, you know, which is really important because Glitz, right, true to his character, has no interest in them at all. He wants to get away from the whole thing. He just wants to save his skin. And, throughout the whole thing, he sees some opportunities for making some money in the process. Right? Which is brilliant. And I love Glitz in this book as well. He is so Glitz. He is 100% Glitz. As much as Mel is 100% Mel, (?) Duh! 100% Melanie Bush right there. They are perfect. They are brilliantly written, and they are true to who we saw on TV. Right. But perhaps Mel is a little bit more resourceful. Resourceful, right? We as I said, we did see glimpses of that. We saw glimpses of Mel's insight and her resourcefulness in Trial, of a Timelord and maybe in, maybe in Paradise Towers and probably Delta and the Bannerman as well. But, you know, it's always in the background here. It really comes to the forefront. You know, we see, for example, how persuasive her, energy and her passion for what's right can be, you know, particularly on Glitz. Right. and we also got a little bit of insight, as I said, into his mindset too. But it's clear actually, just on a sort of aside. Right. It's really clear that Mel offers Glitz a kind of, a kind of redemption. Right? Because he's a little bit of a seedy character, right? It does pretty questionable things. you know, and it's interesting, I think, as well, because, you know, in them, you know, as well as Mel offering Glitz a sort of redemption through her sort of positivity and her enthusiasm and her passion and her kind of,“Oi! Don't do that sort of thing!”, you know, you know, there's a reversal of that as well You know, Glitz also affects Mel, right, in a positive way. And I wondered from reading this and then sort of going back to what's Dragonfire as well. that maybe it's Glitz’s style of confidence, you know, that kind of swagger, that sort of con man sort of approach. Right. you know, that that sort of almost overconfidence, right, that he has, rather than the Doctor’s style of confidence. so... which is rubbed off on Mel. So maybe it's Glitz that has had as much of, or even more of a, an influence on Mel's, kind of, you know, on her character. But either way, as an aside, Glitz and Mel in this book feel, you know, their relationship feels utterly believable. You know, it feels like it's a mutually complementary situation. So, you know, somehow now it's sort of I'm not saying it fixes the ending of Dragonfire, but it makes it feel right. You know, it feels like this was the right thing for Mel to do in her journey, you know? And and it's great for that, you know? So as I said, we we have 100% Mel, and we have 100% Glitz. And we see how those two characters kind of work together in a way that is that is really believable, you know, and actually really nice to to kind of see. What else do we see about Melanie Bush? but we do see her oft referenced, but rarely seen computer skills. As I said. Also her sharp memory, both of those things come into play in ways in this novel, which directly affect its course of events. And I, you know, reading this, I just genuinely wish we'd see more of those things in the TV series. But anyway, it is what it is. but just to say, actually, you know, despite making Mel the driver and the central character and everything that goes on in the story, she's not in charge of everything, right? So despite her best efforts, Melanie Bush is trying to survive this novel. And it's a very hairy situation. It's also very fast changing, very dynamic situation. There's a lot of stuff that is out of her control and so that means, you know, there's a lot of stuff where the actions of other characters often force her onto the back foot, and it means her plans have to change. They're forced to change. It means, the plans sometimes fail. it certainly means that on a lot of instances, especially towards the end, she has to improvise very, very quickly. So there's a lot of tension. There's a lot of excitement, actually, from chapter to chapter, and particularly when you know that moment in the sort of third act of the of the story, I guess when she and Glitz, you know, in the grand tradition of thrillers and murder mysteries, you know, when when you know, our kind of core characters become the prime suspects, you know, it's going to happen. It's just a question of how and what that means. So, you know, it doesn't take any joy from it, because part of the joy is sort of finding those, you know, those points of reference within the framework of a murder mystery thriller and, and just seeing where it kind of ticks the boxes, you know, how, how innovatively it does that, how differently it does that and what it means to Melanie and, you know, the other characters in the novel. So it's brilliant. And I do love that. And I'm glad, actually, that this was written now rather than earlier on in the history of Doctor Who fiction, because I can kind of imagine, right, if if this had been a New Adventure. Right. Let's say we took exactly the same story, but it were written in the 90s as a Virgin New Adventures novel, right? There is no doubt in my mind, my twisted mind here that, whoever wrote that would have, would have made an effort to go and muscle her up, right? Muscle up Mel and and maybe in some alternate universe, there’s a version of this story where Melanie Bush has gone all Ellen Ripley. Melanie Ripley. Right. She's armed with pulse rifles and grenade launchers and, she's gone out to to kill the bitch or whatever, but I know, maybe maybe that's just me. I'm all Aliened-up because I've just been to see Alien Romulus as well, so, Yeah, I might talk about that at some point, but who knows? just, you know, if Geoff goes on about Avatar, I'm going to go on about Aliens, so we'll see how that goes. So anyway, stay on target. Back to the book. Right. so, okay, so she doesn't go all Ellen Ripley. That's what I was talking about. no, not at all. Right. Bonnie and, and Jac Rayner as writers keep Mel just as we saw her in the TV series. Right. Just as I would say that is absolutely essential to this novel. Right? It's screams and everything, right? Which for me is just brilliant. She is, as I said, 100% Melanie Bush in this novel. Yes. She's a more fleshed out. She's, arguably, perhaps a more believable Melanie, but she depends, you know, how you sort of reconcile with with the version of Melanie Bush we saw in trial of the time Lord? And how you feel about that said, for me, it never felt believable for you. Maybe it did, which is great, which is brilliant. but for me, she feels more believable in the novel. Right? And death in the stars than she did on TV with the doctor. but, you know, she has a history here, and that history really rather wonderfully includes her travels with the doctor. So, yes, she's more mature, right. But in a very honest and credible way. And in fact, there's a moment and this is, this is a real turning point in the novel and something that really got me more engaged with it, I guess, because there's a moment when Mel in the novel, in Death in the Stars, becomes really concerned that the doctor, or at least the representation of the doctor, right? For reasons I'm not going to divulge because, you know, spoilers, is going to show up and take control of the situation. You know, now that the return of the Doctor, you know, the... the possibility of him sort of landing in the middle of this situation and taking control, she genuinely doesn't want that to happen. You know, she's moved on. You know, not only does she not need the doctor to come in and take control, she's got a handle on it. She doesn't need the doctor, you know, and and this is the thing because clearly at the end of Dragonfire, she felt at that point she doesn't need the doctor, right? She doesn't need him anymore. And to be fair, the undercurrent at this point in the novel is actually probably doesn't need Glitz either, which I think he's very aware of. Right. I think he's actually worried that she's going to go off and do her own thing, you know, and it's sort of it's sort of hinted that maybe it's a little bit stronger than the hints, actually, but it was certainly very clear to me at some point in reading this book that, you know, Glitz feels that he needs Mel more than she needs him. I mean, they enjoy each other's company, right? And I think that's what Glitz likes. He likes having her around, even though she does irritating, irritate him at certain points. But I think he enjoys that irritation. Right. It's, It's brilliant. I said it before, and I'm probably gonna say a few times before this review is done. I love Glitz and Mel. In this novel there's not so much Glitz, but there's enough of him, right, that we get a good sense of who he is and what their relationship is, and I so, Yeah, what was I saying? So anyway, yeah, I do get the sense that they enjoy each other's company. you know, this, this, this Melanie Bush here, you know, she's she's very much a person who's very comfortable with who she is, where she, she's on her journey, and, and you know, what she can achieve on her own as a driver of this story. You know, she she doesn't think of herself as a driver of the story. She trying to survive, you know, the events that happen around her and and sort things out for, for these, these nutcases that she's surrounded with, right, who just want to kill her. you know, and there's a sense at some point in the novel, as well that, you know, this, this confidence that she has, it could overreach itself. You know, she's kind of, you know, yes, she's a very confident person, but she's pushing it further forward, you know, because she has to take control of the situation. If she doesn't, it will flip round and it will destroy. It will kill her and Glitz and everyone else around them. Right. So she's got no option. She has to she she has to make things right. She has to put herself out there. She has to step over and, you know, and throw herself more into this uncharted territory. And she sort of enjoys it. But she does have her doubts, you know. And I love that because, you know, this is what heroes are made of, right? You know, these kind of obstacles, the inner demons as much as the outer ones that are trying to kill us. You know, it just as much things that have to be dealt with and overcome, they're going to change us in some way. Right. and hopefully it's going to be a positive change by the end of the story. and that I feel, is very much what kind of happens. So where are we at? We're at 30 minutes now. So I, I said to myself, I'm going to make this quick. And I could rattle on forever. But before I finish up, I'm going to talk a bit about the tone of the novel. Now, as I said before, it's kind of less a standard murder mystery, despite what the cover art and the blurb infer. You know, there is a little bit of a framework of that within it. but it's it's very nebulous. It's very ghostly. It kind of dissolves into the background, you know, because, you know, it's much more, you know, what comes to the forefront is much more a sort of pretty solid, almost hardcore sci fi story. you know, in that there's a very solid sci fi science fiction premise at the very heart of it and, you know, the surroundings, the spaceships, the space stations and even the vending machines. You know, all of that technology has has a very solid feel about it, as if, you know, it feels very credible. And so it's a lot of science, a lot of gravity stuff going out. And, you know, as regular listeners to this podcast will know, you know, that kind of stuff, when it's done well, pleases me a lot. And I love it when I see it in Doctor Who. which so that's great. So, you know, there is that kind of hardcore sci fi element which is quite strong to the story, but, but that's not all. There is. Oh no no no no, no, there is more to this than just that. So if you're not a fan of that kind of hardcore sci fi, don't worry. Right. Because yes, it's there. But it's not the most prevalent thing in the novel. Right? All of that stuff kind of is mixed in with a lot of whimsy. Right? There's there's a real there's a there's a very light touch to this novel, which kind of leans towards the sort of, leans towards the sort of, bizarre humour of things like Delta and the Bannerman. there's also a touch of the kind of dark satire, the sort of black humour of Paradise Towers. There are, there are linguistic flourishes to, you know, the sort of things that maybe, echo the purple prose of Pip and Jane Baker, you know? the authors of Mel's debut story, the custodians of her character perhaps? And, you know, even though I'm not a fan of that style, I was I was nonetheless ... a’right... I was delighted to see bits of it in here in this novel. And, you know, the reason for that is because it just fits right. It fits with with the tone of season 24. You know, it's it's that blend of gloriously high camp satire and darkness which kind of typified that season, you know, which maybe, perhaps reached its apogee in Delta and the Bannermen. You know, that's the story where you get the ridiculousness of a situation that sees a bunch of, you know, aliens, weird, squishy aliens disguised as humans travelling to a holiday camp in 1950s Wales and all the high jinks that ensued in that story, and then killing them all in a needless, brutal act of singular violence. Right. That's because that's kind of a weird tonal shift. If you know that story, you know what I'm talking about. Okay. so, so, yeah. So here in Death in the Stars, we have, you know, we have a situation which is which is really quite dark, and, you know, that darkness is not it's not compromised. Right. It's not really softened. It's very, for those of you who are going to love this book. Right. I'm holding up now, William Golding's Lord of the Flies, which, probably sends shivers down many sixth form A-level students, of literature. because, you know, teachers suck all the joy and all the meaning out of, you know, suck all the joy out of that novel, to give it loads of meaning and stuff. Right. But none nonetheless. At the at the heart of that novel, at the heart of Lord of the flies, is a really horrific situation. one which we see repeated throughout history, which we as adults would like to kind of turn away from. And perhaps, you know, think doesn't exist, but it could quite easily, very easily exist. And we've seen evidences of that in all sorts of stuff. So there's a real darkness in that. And, you know, it's here in in Death in the Stars, you know, there are a bunch of adolescents who are, as I said earlier, obsessed with throwing people into the fuel tank of their spaceship. Right. And I'm going to tell you why, because that's kind of core to the novel ... core to the story. And I'm not going to tell you what happens and whether it's resolved, if at all. but the journey towards understanding why they do that in here is, you know, it's it's it's hard. Right? It's it's very, very dark. But at the same time, there's a light touch. Right? There's that as I said, that cheesiness We get that campness that was as prevalent in season 24 as the kind of hardcore sci fi right? You know, the stuff we saw in Dragonfire perhaps, you know, again, Dragonfire... right? You've got lots of things going on. He got some sort of, you know, a little bit of metafiction fiction referencing fiction. And we got that sort of allegorical story, The Wizard of Oz, going on in the background. Right. We've got some existential sort of conversations going on. You know, we've got ... uh We've got basically the entire set designed as though it was, the inside of a Bejams. I if you weren't around in the 80s, you won't know what Bejams is. But it b became Iceland, right. You know, the big superstore where you buy all your frozen stuff. So yeah, it's a bit like that. So, you know, you ... Back on target! You've got this very weird conjoining, this sort of almost dysfunctional yet complementary sort of juxtaposition of glorious high camp high jinks, stuff with some really, really dark stuff as well, you know, and that is so perfectly in tune with season 24. you know, it just fits brilliantly. again, I don't want to spoil it, but for example, in Death in the Stars, there is, you know, is there's an AI form who takes on the form of a cheesy presenter from one of those saturday morning kids TV shows that we all used to see. When did they sort of run? From the late 70s, 80s, right through the 90s into the 2000s..? You know, the kind of thing. Saturday Superstore, Tizwaz and, you know, that sort of stuff. Right. And if that sounds weird. Right. And because the presenter also has a, an intelligent squirrel companion, right. So the AI takes both of those forms, right. sounds pretty weird, right? It is. It is very weird. And it's very kind of bizarrely camp, but it's also very brilliantly in tune with season 24. And not only that, it's not just there for the sake of it. It makes perfect sense in the context of the story, and it adds to the story in many, many wonderful ways. And, you know, there is a lot of, writers out there, you know, new writers who might get that wrong, who might fumble it. there's a lot of experienced writers who could make a complete hash of it. But Bonnie and Jac Rayner in this story make that work brilliantly so it doesn't seem out of place. It just feels right, if you know what I mean. Okay. I also mentioned or made reference to some metatextual stuff, right? Some metafiction. you know, we saw a bit of that in Delta. We saw a bit of it in Dragonfire as well, actually. so if you like that, if you if you're one of those readers who likes to see your fourth wall stretched almost to breaking, or at least enjoy a sort of splash of post-modernist metafiction. you know, there is a bit of that in here because there are lots and lots of references to not only, older episodes of Doctor Who, particularly, stories that Bonnie appeared in as Mel, but also, lots of things that Bonnie herself has done throughout her career. You know, there’re references to, to, stage and film characters and shows and, you know, certain things and, you know, and throughout TV as well. Right. Her character on in EastEnders is, is is quite important in some ways to, to this novel. Right. So anyway, there's loads of those and, and I kind of enjoyed spotting them. if you didn't spot them or if you don't spot them all while you’re reading this they're all listed at the back of the novel, right inside here somewhere. That's a blank page. But, you know, there's a there's a handy little appendix at the end of Death in the Stars, which kind of list them all out. So anyway, there you go. I'm gonna I'm going to close this off now and close it off by just saying. Overall, I really, really, really enjoyed this book. I thought it was fast paced. I thought it was exciting and and it was genuinely tense and it seemed to be all those things at the right moments. Okay, it's it's also 100% science fiction. Thank you, thank you I because I love sci fi, right. Actual sci fi and it links brilliantly. It links wonderfully to Doctor Who in terms of it being a continuation of season 24, minus the Doctor, obviously, with many references to stuff, which I'm going to be honest, I kind of suspect they probably come from Jac Rayner rather than Bonnie, but, you know, I could be wrong. It just depends how much of a hardcore Doctor Who nut Bonnie Langford is to to know about things like Ravalox and Glitz’s one-time companion, Dibber for those of you remember, that the first four episodes are Trial of Timelord and there are lots and lots of other really lovely, but somehow quite deep, quite deeply entrenched Doctor Who references, which, you know, I'm not going to spoil them for you here, but, you know. So anyway, so either way, to wrap it up, I think Death in the Stars is a wonderful, wonderful novel, and I sincerely do recommend it to all Doctor Who fans out there, particularly those who enjoyed season 24 and those who who want to see more. Melanie Bush, especially a Melanie Bush who is just as direct and adventurous and as passionate and as driven as we saw on TV, but perhaps is more rounded and more rounded. I was going to say, you know, perhaps a little bit more deeper and arguably more believable than she she was, from what we saw on TV, you know, a Melanie Bush who has her own story to tell and who carries it with credibility, with courage and with confidence. So there you go. Do do please go out and get this. Do read it because it's it's a very, very worthy addition. It's a glorious addition to the growing library of Doctor Who books, and I'm delighted to own it. I'm really pleased I read it and and I please go out and read it. Yeah. Nobody's paying me to say this, right. If I don't like a book, I will tell you is listeners of the podcast will know. But I will give this, four cups of tea out of five. So that's how highly I rate it Four is.... is actually quite a lot. So anyway, there you go. So that's all you’re going to get from me. Thank you for listening to my little review of Bonnie and Jac's book. And, I will see you again on the podcast with with my good friend Geoff as soon as he's finished all his film festival duties! I'm actually going to be there at the film festival, because I have to give out an award for a film or something, you know, and, and drink a few drinks. So that's the way these, these, rather glamorous events go. But, Yes. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you, as always, for continuing to continuing to listen and support the podcast. you can tune into us every week for those of you who are just listening to us for the first time. Hello. Hi. do please stick around for more. We've got plenty more things to, to lay on you. All of it's concerned with the wonderful world of, of our favourite TV show, Doctor Who. So I'll leave you there and, thank you again for listening. Thanks for watching. And I'll see you next time. On Who Corner to Corner. Bye for now! Jazz hands. You see Bonnie Langford right there. Jazz hands.