At last, we're on the Main Range! Starting off with a release I was rather interested in (quite a few of the Fifth Doctor stories around this time were on my listen-to list), it's a standard JNT story, with a unique monster in a very strange alien world where the main characters excel.

It's nice that we start off with a scene just giving us a little bit of dialogue and "family time" between these characters before they split up for the adventure. Something that's great about this company is being able to revisit years gone by, and with the debut of the Season 19 team, it's great that we get a few moments to acknowledge this. Immediately, the Fifth Doctor's characterisation is a lot tighter than it has been so far. Whilst in his televised run he's been a bit sneaky, young and excitable, here he commands the role, being so brave and fearless - I don't know whether it's down to the writing of Andrew Smith, the performance of Peter Davison, the direction of Barnaby Edwards or a combination of all three, but this is a doctor who enjoys the company of his friends, gets straight down to business, but still has a taste for action and thrills. Tegan, once again, takes the feminist role as she goes with the Doctor to the Johannes Kepler and is thrown into the dark dimension or wherever it is, but she's always confident and bold. Adric gets to shine as he's in his element here, alongside people who also are excellent at mathematics and astronomy - immediately you can tell that this story is all about him when he saves the day in Episode 1! Matthew Waterhouse is rather enjoyable as Adric as he gets to spend time with people who he can share and bond with rather than people who struggle to understand him, and he's always at the centre of the action, clearly taking lessons from the Doctor and acting like him at times. Nyssa's concern for Adric is really touching, and she's always there to help out, but once again she's never a main character - she is more involved than she usually is in the TV series, but still not enough.

The build up to the Star Men is effective - they're creepy and the mystery surrounding them is well-executed. However, when it comes to it, they turn out a tad generic. That's not a fault of Peter Guinness' acting - his voice is convincing and menacing in a Sutekh-esque way, but in terms of the writing it can come across as a little boring and cliched, which is very disappointing.

Once again, a convincing alien society has been created, building on very real scientific elements and making it grounded in a situation which benefits the characters very well, with Adric immediately rushing to the astronomy department and Tegan excited to see the viewing deck and admire the beauty, which couldn't be very well realised with the 80s budget, but Andrew Smith takes advantage of the audio format to create an interesting culture full of rich material to explore.

Someone has a crush on Adric? Never thought I'd hear that... Autumn is a great character, charming and has amazing chemistry with Adric, and there's a bit of foreshadowing towards his departure as she dies and he struggles to deal with that, knowing that they can't change time and save her. She makes a great companion to Adric, and she's a lot of fun to be around.

There's a lot of fantastic characterisation for the main cast, and the setup in Episode 1 is well-paced and engaging. It's a shame the plot drops the ball from then on. I'm excited to see what kind of other stories the monthly range range has in store, there's a lot of wild and wacky ideas to come...