Jonathan Blum

Fairly engaging.

In 1996, after five years of publishing novels about the further adventures of the Doctor as portrayed by Sylvester McCoy in the now-cancelled TV series, Virgin Books lost its license. The BBC had decided to take these things back in-house, and update the series to feature the new Doctor, as briefly played by Paul McGann in a failed TV movie pilot. After an initial novel that was, frankly, a bit of a waste, and designed mostly to explicitly link McGann's incarnation to his seven predecessors, Vampire Science feels like a true pilot for this new approach.

Orman and Blum already had well-established street cred in the Whoniverse, and together they create a snappy, sassy, engaging narrative. It's about vampires, so not especially original, but it keeps the pace up. Both the Doctor and his companion Sam come through strongly, leaving me enthusiastic for what comes next in this series (which I'll now be reading concurrently with the McCoy NAs). Having said that, where the novel struggles is that it feels like a Doctor Who script turned into a novelisation. Which it's obviously not but, for fans of the program's first 26 years on the air, it's understandable that this can become the go-to template. There's a hectic amount of dialogue, scenes that last too long, attempts at portraying recurring comedic bits or rapid action sequences that are clearly intended to be visualised as an episode of the program, and in general an approach that feels televisual rather than literary. I like both Orman and Blum so I can forgive that, although it will sadly relegate Vampire Science to "tie-in TV merchandise" in the eyes of lay readers.

Looking forward to this series - even though I'm aware that many fans believe it went in some strange and deeply unsatisfying directions!… (meer)