Get a glass of carrot juice at the ready, because Melanie Bush is back in a brand-new adventure written by on-screen actress Bonnie Langford. Following on from her TARDIS departure in Dragonfire, Mel and Sabalom Glitz (played on-screen by the late Tony Selby) are adventuring across the universe in the Nosferatu II. A trip to a supply station in deep space leads them from one sort of danger to another, before they are enraptured in a murder mystery, with Mel as the prime suspect!

Death in the Stars is ideal for fans of late-80s Doctor Who (especially Seasons 23 and 24), showcasing the continued adventures of Mel and Glitz, although Whovians who were introduced to Mel in the recent series (having appeared in The Giggle and Empire of Death) may need to do some homework on iPlayer to understand the context behind this adventure. It’s very much framed as a sequel to Dragonfire, with references to Mel’s previous adventures with her two Doctors. There are some great bits of universe (or should that be Whoniverse?) building throughout, although the main story is a standalone tale.

As this novel has been written by Bonnie Langford (with co-author Jacqueline Rayner), it does delve into Mel’s perspective, throwing in bits of her backstory (which for timey-wimey reasons was never explored on-screen), giving her some computer programming to do (famously listed as a key character trait but which never appeared on-screen before last year’s The Giggle) and making her a lot more proactive in the narrative. Mel really does drive the story here, taking an orphaned teenager under her wing, uncovering various mysteries and trying to prove her innocence when she’s accused of murder. The door is very much left open at the end of the novel for the further adventures with Mel and Glitz (we still seem to be a long time away from her “lift off a zingo”), so there is the distinct possibility of sequels as well.

While the front cover advertises this book as ‘A Melanie Bush Mystery’, and the blurb describes it as ‘a stylish Doctor Who murder mystery’, it is worth acknowledging that the murder mystery storyline is only introduced about half-way through Death in the Stars, with the first half being a Lord of the Flies-esque sci-fi tale revolving around a group of kids who have been left stranded on a space station. It is very much of a book of two halves, with a definite shift towards the murder mystery aspect in the latter chapters, creating the sense that these were two different stories (perhaps written for a short story collection), that have been pulled together to make for a more substantial novel. It’s probably not a deal-breaker for most fans, and this narrative approach keeps the story fresh over the course of nineteen chapters, but it did come as something of a surprise given the cover.

Death in the Stars is sure to be a welcome addition to the collections of any ’80s Doctor Who fans, expanding on the TV episodes of the time. It bounces between styles and genres in a quirky way, and there’s a nice sense of humour throughout the whole thing (from Glitz’s dodgy dealings to an AI squirrel running amuck). It’s nice to see Bonnie Langford taking ownership of Mel and fleshing out the character herself, and this book feels like the next in BBC Books’ series of star-written Doctor Who novels that’s given us Frazer Hines‘ The Evil of the Daleks, Alex Kingston‘s The Ruby’s Curse, Sophie Aldred‘s At Childhood’s End and Tom Baker‘s Scratchman. Death in the Stars might seem like a bit of fluff, but it is tonally consistent with Mel’s TV episodes, making for a nice interquel between the character’s 1980s adventures and her 2020s adventures.

Death in the Stars by Bonnie Langford is out now and available to order here.