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 By Rob McCow |
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What’s the story called? Stars Fell On Stockbridge The Collector This story is a two-parter
that was printed in #68-69 of Doctor Who Monthly, published between
February and July 1982. It was first reprinted in issue #19 of US Marvel
Doctor Who Comic, published in April 1986 with a new Dave Gibbons cover.
It was also printed in full colour Doctor Who Classic Comics issue 18 in
March 1994. It’s currently available in the Doctor Who graphic novel ‘The
Tides of Time’, published in 2005 by Panini Books. The World Shapers Writer – Steve Parkhouse Art – Dave Gibbons Editor – Alan McKenzie Fellow Travellers Maxwell Edison is
affectionately as Mad Max to the villagers of Stockbridge. He is a stocky
U.F.O. spotter in his thirties who is obsessive but essentially sweet
natured. He may (or may not) be sensitive to psychic disturbances, as
demonstrated when he senses presences on board the spaceship. His
sensitivity drives him to hysterics. He sports a beret, glasses, large
brown jacket and is usually adorned with a variety of bags containing his
U.F.O. spotting equipment. His hobbies include astrology, water-divining,
soothsaying, motorbikes and U.F.O’s. He is a vegetarian. The Deal Walking across the village green where the Doctor played cricket in The Tides of Time, Maxwell Edison picks up a signal of a UFO. He follows it into a clearing in the woods nearby and sees a shooting star landing. He gets on his motorcycle to chase it to where it landed. As he approaches Wells Wood, he realises someone has closed the gate ahead of him too late to avoid crashing into it – CRUNCH! Heading off into the woods, Max comes across a load of junk before his divining rod leads him to a Police Box in the wood, which he bumps into with a CLONK! Disheartened, Max thinks about taking up train spotting and leans against the door of the box, which opens up behind him.
He falls to the floor inside and finds a strange control room, which he assumes is a real interstellar Venusian spacecraft! The Doctor arrives and warns him not to touch the console. Max greets him as an ambassador of Earth, but the Doctor is more interested in the UFO signals that Max detected. Against all the odds, the TARDIS controls confirm that there is a very large spaceship out there. The Doctor heads out to investigate with Max still on board. The ship is an enormous and abandoned hulk, but Max senses a presence on board. In the darkness, the presence consumes him with its fear and loneliness. A piercing scream rings out and Max faints. The Doctor revives Max with smelling salts, but the UFO spotter is still terrified and runs off. The Doctor is concerned that he’ll be impossible to find in the maze of compartments and galleries that make up the craft. He searches desperately for Max. Opening a cupboard he finds an enormous creature bearing down on him, but it turns out to be just a space-suit. He hears a voice calling out for help and follows it for a long time through the corridors, but the voice only leads him back to the TARDIS. On board the TARDIS, the Doctor uses an infra-red scan to locate Max. Consumed with horror, Max is sitting in a corner of the ship. The Doctor arrives in the TARDIS and at Max’s burst of hysterics, the Doctor slaps him, which serves to calm him down. Max claims that his divining rod led him to this spot of the ship and that there is something powerful behind the wall. The Doctor decides to settle Max’s claims by cutting a hole in the wall with his laser torch. The Doctor cuts a circle, but before they can open the compartment, the hole is burst open by a rush of air. When the gale calms down, Max says that he is unable to feel any presence any more and the Doctor assumes it has dissipated. On the far side of the wall is a control room, but it is empty. The Doctor thinks that there may be something in what Max felt, but that they’ll never know what it is. The ship is approaching Earth’s atmosphere and is starting to heat up. The Doctor and Max leave in the TARDIS, back to Stockbridge. The Doctor says goodbye to Max and tells him that the ship will hit the atmosphere in fifty-seven minutes. Riding back to his house,
Max tells the villagers to look out of the window at three minutes to
midnight. He earns a grudging respect from some of the villagers, as stars
fall on Stockbridge. TV Action A small-scale story. On the TV show, there were four characters travelling in the TARDIS, while there are only two or three characters in the whole of Stars Fell On Stockbridge. It gives it a very laid back and eerie feel, which the TV series wouldn’t have been able to achieve at the time. The ship is a little reminiscent of the one in Four To Doomsday, although more massive and industrial. It’s a shade more deserted too and lacks any insane robot-building hyper-intelligent frogs. The tone of this story is a
world away from the TV show, but it’s also completely different from The
Tides Of Time. 4-Dimensional Vistas For the last time it’s Dave Gibbons providing the artwork. His Peter Davison is immaculate, perfect in every frame. The story doesn’t call for much in the way of bizarre landscapes and aliens, with the action split between Stockbridge, the TARDIS and the space hulk. There’s an impressive sense of scale to the space hulk, with endless corridors and rotting interiors. The exterior looks huge as well, despite there not being any scale references. Stars Fell on Stockbridge
is Maxwell Edison’s story and he’s superbly brought to life. Although he
has the appearance of a complete geek, he often has a pleasant and
enthusiastic smile on his face, which helps make him appealing and
sympathetic. End of The Line "People who are looking for something have a tendency to find it… whether they want to or not!" I’m very fond of this story. Although the derelict space hulk provides a cold backdrop, it’s a very sweet little tale. Max is a very amiable character, with a lot of pathos. He’s an eternal loser, someone who would come fifth in a Maxwell Edison look-alike competition. It’s a telling moment when the Doctor finds that Maxwell’s ‘Bio-kinetic energising ray’ is a box with a few loose wires in it. Maxwell still grins enthusiastically as he peers over the Doctor’s shoulder. He’s happily oblivious to the truth of the situation, willing to believe anything. It makes it all the more engaging when Max starts sensing a presence on board the ship that horrifies him. Max badly needs the Doctor’s protection. The actual story is quite thin. The terrifying presence on board the space hulk dissipates when the Doctor opens the control room. It does leave the reader with the sense that something has been unleashed, but it’s not something Max will ever have to worry about. It ends with the moving image of the stars falling on Stockbridge and Max being vindicated, at least in a small way. It’s a little moment of happiness for someone who usually gets laughed at. I think that makes it a very worthwhile story!
Follow That TARDIS! There’s a computer on Rigel Four that writes very good poetry, says the Doctor. The name of the village (which was also seen in The Tides of Time) is confirmed as Stockbridge in the opening box-out. The first frame is of Max on the same village green where the Doctor played cricket in the previous story. Stockbridge is named after Maxwell Stockbridge, one of the contributors to Doctor Who magazine. The events of this story are followed up in the subsequent epic, The Stockbridge Horror! It’s goodbye to Dave Gibbons. He was tempted away to pastures new, leaving the comic strip art in limbo for the short term.
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