Doctor Who meets the Eurovision Song Contest. Sound like a bad idea? In the wrong hands, very much so. But in the hands of Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman, could it be the Doctor's Waterloo?

The TARDIS lands aboard a shuttlecraft, just before it explodes. Fortunately, the Doctor and Mel are rescued by a transmat beam from station Dark Space 8, a galactic trading post currently charged with holding the 309th Intergalactic Song Contest.

Mistaken for the new Commander of Dark Space 8 and his personal pilot, the Doctor and Mel are welcomed aboard by Doctor Harcourt and Professor Fassbinder. But before either can properly settle in, trouble stirs between the contestants. Trouble that leads to murder!

Can Mel and human pop idol Nicky Newman find the murderer before the body count exceeds the Martian entry's final score? Will the Doctor fall under the spell of Queen Angvia, a warrior from a world in fragile peace talks with the gestalt entity Gholos? Or will it be nul points for the crew of Dark Space 8 and the chances of galactic peace?

After their success with last year's more amusing entry to the range, The One Doctor, Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman return with Bang-Bang-A-Boom. A parody the space station based television shows (Deep Space 9, Babylon 5...) and the Eurovision Song Contest, this could have been an awful mess. But under the assured guidance of the authors, it is a convincing and amusing tale that hits most of its targets.

Sylvester McCoy is on fine form, giving us a re-creation of his earlier performances as the wandering Time Lord, complete with his annoying habit of mutilating well known phrases and sayings. But it all adds to the humour of the piece, as does his romantic interlude with Queen Angvia.

Bonnie Langford again gives a wonderful performance as Melanie Bush, exceeding her television role by a long way. And it can't just be coincidence that she also starred in last year's 'comedy' tale, The One Doctor (opposite Colin Baker on that occasion).

The guest cast are uniformly good, from Sabrina Franklin as the infatuated Doctor Harcourt and Graeme Garden as the incompetent Professor Fassbinder, to Nickolas Grace as the sinister Mister Loozly and Anthony Spargo as the nervous Earth singer Nicky Newman. But its Patricia Quinn as the Warrior Queen Angvia that threatens to steal the show at times.

Roberts' and Hickman's script pokes fun at many television science fiction shows, from the Star Trek range through Babylon 5 and Space 1999 to almost any others you can name. There are also sideswipes at the recent spate of Popstars type shows as well, and the introduction of 'Commentator Logan' is inspired!

All in all, an amusing story that rises above the things it parodies. Just what will this duo give us next year, I wonder?