‘STARFALL’
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Buddy Hudson and Ms. Starfall with the Fourth Doctor, Mike Yates and Mrs. Wibbsey
It’s time for a superhero adventure in ‘The Nest Cottage Chronicles’ of ‘Doctor Who’! 🙂
You’re probably aware that I’m into superheroes as well as ‘Doctor Who’. I still need to get around to writing my ‘Spider-Man Meets Doctor Who’ adventure someday. I’m also currently watching ‘Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman’ on DVD. I’m enjoying the series a lot and find it engaging.
So, as you can imagine, the plot of this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure in the ‘Demon Quest’ saga, starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, is something that I was able to get into. And I will say this: I found ‘Starfall’ a way better superhero story in ‘Doctor Who’ compared to ‘The Return of Doctor Mysterio’.
‘Starfall’ of course is the fourth and penultimate story in the ‘Demon Quest’ saga of ‘Doctor Who’. This also has the Fourth Doctor teaming up with Richard Franklin as Mike Yates and Susan Jameson as Mrs. Wibbsey, which is something that I wanted to happen from when ‘Demon Quest’ first began.
In the episode, we have the story narrated to us by Trevor White as Buddy Hudson, who’s working at a street pretzel stand in New York on July the 11th 1976. This is similar to how ‘A Shard of Ice’ was told to us by a guest character. Samuel West who played Albert Tiermann narrated ‘A Shard of Ice’. 🙂
Now Trevor White is an actor you may have across in ‘Doctor Who’ if you’ve checked out the Jodie Whittaker era? Don’t know who he is yet? Well, after playing Buddy in ‘Starfall’, he would go on to play James Blake in the TV episode ‘Rosa’. Yeah! The guy who had Rosa Parks arrested in that story. 😐
Apparently, Trevor White is a Canadian and British actor, which means he often gets cast to play American characters in TV, film and audio. As well as ‘Doctor Who’, he’s also been in Series 2 of ‘Downton Abbey’. He’s also been in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, the third and final film of ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’.
Trevor White also happens to be married to Eleanor Matsuura, the actress who played Jo Nakashima at the beginning of ‘The Sontaran Strategem’. Compared to playing James Blake in ‘Rosa’, Buddy Hudson is quite a nice character in ‘Starfall’. I enjoyed the narration Buddy provides throughout this.
In ‘Starfall’, Buddy tells us the story of how his girlfriend, Alice Trefusis got to be a superheroine in New York. From listening to this audio adventure, it’s clear that Buddy and Alice are into each other, which I quite enjoyed when listening to this story and I’m pleased they didn’t bicker with each other.
On a side-note, I’m slightly annoyed that we don’t get many superheroes in the UK compared to the US. Whenever superhero stories are told, they often take place in America instead of England or Wales. I wouldn’t mind it if there was a Bertie Wooster-like superhero who lived in 1930s England. 🙂
Anyway, it turns out that Alice is working for an elderly and bad-mannered movie star called Mimsy Loyne. Never heard of her. 😀 Mimsy Loyne has employed Alice to be her literary secretary and help her with writing her memoirs. Alice hates the job, but understandably she needs it to get the money.
Incidentally, when Buddy narrates this story to us, it does feel like it’s a comic book adventure, especially when we’re shifting backwards and forwards to certain scenes featuring characters. It’s also revealed in the end that Buddy wrote the comic book adventures featuring Alice as Ms. Starfall.
Also, Ms. Starfall sounds quite similar to Ms. Marvel as a name, doesn’t it? 😀 Back to the story, a meteor crashes in Central Park and Buddy and Alice come across it. Alice ends up touching the meteor and soon, she has superpowers, including having the amazing ability to fly like Superman. 😀
Very soon, the Doctor, Mike Yates and Mrs. Wibbsey get involved in the story and help Buddy and Alice with their predicament by solving the mystery of how Alice got her superpowers. It turns out that there is more to this than it seems, especially since Mimsy Loyne happens to be the villainess. 😮
Apparently, Tom Baker’s Doctor becomes ill-stricken upon arrival in New York in 1976 with Mike Yates and Mrs. Wibbsey. It turns out that there’s a cult performing bizarre rites that drains the Doctor of his lifeforce. Thankfully, when the cult stops chanting by the story’s end, the Doctor is back to normal.
Richard Franklin as Mike Yates get to spend quite a lot of time with the Doctor in this episode as well as Alice/Ms. Starfall when she returns from her flight of enjoying her superpowers. I liked it when Mike made that Superman reference about kryptonite. Now let’s have some Spider-Man references.
Susan Jameson gets to have her own share of the adventure without the Doctor and Mike Yates, especially when she teams up with Buddy. She also refers to the comic book found in the church sale bag a lot, which was what brought her, the Doctor and Mike to New York in 1976 in the first place. 🙂
Laurel Lefkow plays Alice/Ms. Starfall in the adventure. I don’t know much about Laurel Lefkow as an actress, though apparently, she has amassed a sizeable number of credits as a voice actress since 1997, including the Douglas Adams game called ‘Starship Titanic’. A game I haven’t played at all. 😀
I enjoyed her performance as Alice, especially when she becomes exhilarated in having her new superpowers. She even gets to wear a superhero outfit from Mimsy Loyne’s wardrobe, which includes a helmet, I believe. A pity that Alice would soon lose her superpowers after the story’s end.
Lorelei King guest stars as Mimsy Loyne in this adventure. Lorelei King is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’, having voiced the narrator in ‘A Town Called Mercy’. She’s also been in some Big Finish audios such as ‘Night of the Vashta Nerada’ with Tom Baker and ‘The Contingency Club’ with Peter Davison.
I’ve also seen her in the eighth and final episode of Series 2 of ‘Monarch of the Glen’. Mimsy Loyne does come across as a mean-spirited character, especially when she openly insults Alice and those around her. It makes a lot of sense, as it turns out Mimsy Loyne happens to be the Demon character.
Yeah, Mimsy is revealed to be the Demon this time. An interesting trend of appearances with the Demon character in this ‘Doctor Who’ saga, since it was Emperor Claudius in ‘The Relics of Time’, La Concierge in ‘The Demon of Paris’, the Ice Queen in ‘A Shard of Ice’, and here, it’s Mimsy in ‘Starfall’.
I’m surprised the Demon didn’t shift its disguise from male in ‘The Relics of Time’, to female in ‘The Demon of Paris’, to back to male in ‘A Shard of Ice’ and back to female in ‘Starfall’. Diversity is all I’m saying. After all, the Doctor could have easily worked out that the Demon was a female in New York.
The story also features Rupert Holliday Evans as a New York cop. This is the third time that Rupert Holliday Evans has appeared in the ‘Demon Quest’ saga, as he played a male warrior in ‘The Relics of Time’ and an artist in ‘The Demon of Paris’. Heck, how come Rupert Holliday Evans isn’t the Demon?
It’d be interesting, especially since he has guest starred three times so far in the ‘Demon Quest’ saga as three different minor characters. There’s also John Chancer who plays one of the cultists in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I’m surprised the leader of the cultists didn’t have a name in this episode.
The story gradually builds up to a dramatic showdown with the Doctor, Mike and Alice meeting up with Wibbsey and Buddy confronting Mimsy Loyne as the Demon. Alice overcomes the cultists by knocking them out and Mrs. Wibbsey also manages to acquire the last spatial geometer component.
Yeah, it’s interesting how the Doctor gradually manages to get to travel in space and time again, albeit he’s only able to traverse through space and time on Earth rather than everywhere in the universe. This is considering he managed to get to New York in America that is away from Surrey in the UK.
I wonder if this is how a new era of ‘Doctor Who’ could be handled, where the Doctor must find ways to acquire a component of the spatial geometer each season before he/she can travel in space and time properly again. The variety in a season might be a challenge to include, but it’d be intriguing. 😐
It turns out the Demon was responsible for the meteor crashing to Earth for Alice to get her superpowers. Once the Doctor has the latest spatial geometer component given to him, the Demon takes Mrs. Wibbsey into her dematerialisation chamber. It’s revealed the Demon is off to Sepulchre.
Saying goodbye to Buddy and Alice, the Doctor and Mike return to the TARDIS, as they have to go and rescue Mrs. Wibbsey and confront the Demon again on Sepulchre. Despite Alice’s superpowers about to fade, Buddy is keen to write a comic book series about Alice as Ms. Starfall. Very exciting. 🙂
I liked the last line from Alice where she suggests going out for a pizza when she and Buddy fly about New York. ‘Starfall’ has been a fun adventure to listen to in ‘Demon Quest’. I honestly feel ‘Demon Quest’ is a lot more compelling as a series compared to how ‘Hornets’ Nest’ turned out as a series. 🙂
I’m intrigued as to where ‘Demon Quest’ will go next and whether the Fourth Doctor and Mike Yates will be able to rescue Mrs. Wibbsey from the Demon on Sepulchre. I wonder what the Demon’s motivations have been throughout this series and whether the last ‘Demon Quest’ story will be satisfying.
‘Starfall’ rating – 8/10
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