Audio Short Trips 4.1: A Star is Born, by Richard Dinnick

Hm. I was looking forward to this after the startlingly good first audio short trip, Rise and Fall; after all, it's read by the wonderful William Russell as well. Unfortunately, partly because of those high expectations, it's a bit of a letdown.

The production values are excellent, with Big Finish putting a lot of effort into the soundscape and making thoughtful use of spacing and effects on Russell's voice to help distinguish the characters. Russell, though, seems less comfortable reading this than his previous short trip, particularly at the beginning. It picks up as time goes on, but isn't helped by an annoying choice made by the editor.

I read to my family almost every night, and I try to make it interesting. I'm pretty good at it, in fact, doing a variety of voices and with a strong sense of rhythm. However, one thing I do in order to help the flow is to miss out many of the "he said"s and similar markers. They are needed in the printed text, but having read them myself I can afford to skip them in my verbal rendition - because the way I am reading will usually be enough to clue in my listeners as to who is speaking. In A Star is Born they've kept a number of these markers, which are unnecessary and do disrupt the flow. Skipping them wouldn't have done any damage to Richard Dinnick's prose, and would have made for a better experience.

On to the story, then - and I'll start with the main mood-breaker. The way this is written, the Doctor has to be able to control the TARDIS! There's no faffing about with workaround explanations as there was in The Witch Hunters; rather, it's just an oversight, and unfortunately the resolution of the story relies on this anachronism. Which is a shame, because in other ways the story hits the right tone for the period. Some of this involves cliché, such as the lapel-clutching Doctor, but mostly it's more subtly handled. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of religion, with Barbara explaining about a particular Bible story and talking about "our world", before Susan points out that Earth has many different belief systems.

Dinnick also paints some fine images with his words. The idea of a ship "out of kilter with the planet below" doesn't really make much sense scientifically, but it efficiently conveys the meaning - and conjures up thoughts of how it would be shown on-screen. Similarly, he brings the seal-like Metaxi to life, though their description is so humourous that I can't help but think of them as "men in blubber suits"!

There's also a neatness in the way the two threats to the Metaxi are tied together, but unfortunately - as with most televised Who - it relies on some very dodgy science. I'm loath to blame him for something which is rife across the franchise, but it does affect my enjoyment.

This is a real curate's egg with some very good aspects, but unfortunately they are swamped by the problems. It effectively cost me 80p and it was well worth that, but it's a big step down from Rise and Fall.

Published:
Date: 31st August 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84435-550-1

Rating:
3.5/10.

Next Time:
It should be back to TV for the start of season 2 and The Deserted Castle, but I haven't been able to find a copy anywhere! Instead, I'll take a brief look at that most elusive of stories - serial I - as a whole, based on the limited information I've been able to find...