Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“FEAR DEATH BY WATER – GRACE UNDER PRESSURE”

Frequent Doctor Who Magazine contributor Emily Cook makes her debut as a novelist with Fear Death by Water, and it’s a confident, affectionate first outing—clearly written by someone who knows both the show and its storytelling heart inside out. Taking the Fifteenth Doctor back to 1838, Cook delivers a ghostly maritime mystery that slowly evolves into a thunderous science-fiction epic, with a strong emotional anchor in the figure of real-life heroine Grace Darling.

The opening chapters are marvellously atmospheric, capturing the chilling isolation of the lighthouse and the thunderous dread of the crashing storm. Think Horror of Fang Rock meets The Talons of Weng-Chiang—fog, fear, and flickering oil lamps. The early setting work is exceptional, with Cook painting a vivid, brine-soaked picture of Grace’s daily life and her quiet determination, before the Doctor drops into the scene like a burst of bright colour in a grey storm.

Intriguingly, the TARDIS is drawn to a barometer in a 2000s museum that crackles with artron energy—a mystery that catapults the Doctor back in time and straight into the wreckage of a ship destined to sink. Without hesitation, he rescues three people who were meant to die, aware that he’s only giving them borrowed time. It’s a powerful, poignant setup that toys with the laws of time travel in that distinctly Who way: changing lives, just not permanently.

FIFTEEN IN THE FRAME (SOMETIMES UNEVENLY)

Fifteen’s voice occasionally slips into earlier incarnations, with flourishes that sound more like Ten or Fourteen, but when Cook hits the right notes—especially during the kinetic action scenes—he feels vividly like Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor: effervescent, curious, and emotionally intuitive. It’s a slight wobble, but one that doesn’t derail the tone.

The strength of the book lies in how much care it gives to Grace Darling. She’s no mere passenger or plucky sidekick—Cook puts her inner life at the heart of the novel. We see her bravery, her struggle with sudden fame, and her quiet resistance to being turned into a national symbol. There are shades of Vincent and the Doctor in how the narrative lets her feel recognised and validated by the Doctor—not just for a heroic deed, but for who she is.

ENTER THE INTERGALACTIC SEA CORPS

What begins as an eerie historical takes a sci-fi turn with the introduction of the Intergalactic Sea Corps—an aquatic arm of the Shadow Proclamation tasked with protecting oceans across the universe. It’s a brilliantly pulpy idea, evoking comic-strip grandeur, and offers a pair of emotionally grounded characters in Ketor and Chip, two alien brothers whose planet was destroyed by a monstrous sea creature they now hunt.

The Leviathan—our monstrous antagonist—is a mythic force, beautifully fitting for Fifteen’s era of gods and legends. An ouroboros-like sea giant capable of devouring and regenerating itself, it’s both terrifying and metaphysical, and its introduction shifts the book from historical ghost story to full-on underwater epic. The scenes of pursuit, chaos, and destruction are spectacular—far larger in scale than most New Series Adventures, culminating in an action set piece where even the ISC ship is swallowed whole.

GRACE, THE LEVIATHAN, AND A LIGHTHOUSE LEGACY

Despite the scope, Cook doesn’t let Grace become lost amid the cosmic chaos. In fact, her courage, instincts, and connection to the sea are what ultimately calm the Leviathan. It’s a refreshing inversion: the Doctor supports, but it’s Grace who saves the day. And her lighthouse becomes a symbol of that strength, a literal and figurative beacon.

In a touching coda, the Doctor offers Grace the chance to travel with him—a classic companion pitch—but she declines, true to her modest nature. Even more moving is the chapter where he returns to see her honoured with a bravery medal, and finally, a deathbed farewell in 1842. These final scenes echo the tender, respectful tone of Vincent and the Doctor—a time traveller unable to save a life, but offering meaning and dignity to it.

ENDING... AND ENDING... AND ENDING AGAIN

The book does suffer slightly from Return of the King syndrome, stacking multiple codas and soft endings. Just when you think it’s finished, it offers another chapter. While none are unwelcome individually, they do test the pacing in the final act, and Cook might’ve served the story better by tightening the epilogue.

The final meta-twist—where the Doctor meets a woman named Emily, who will go on to write a book about Grace Darling—is the one element that slightly jars. It’s a self-insert that breaks the immersion a little too much, nudging the boundary between homage and self-congratulatory cameo. Still, it’s clearly heartfelt and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

📝VERDICT: 84/100

Fear Death by Water is an impressive debut from Emily Cook: rich with atmosphere, emotionally grounded, and packed with rollicking sci-fi spectacle. Grace Darling is beautifully drawn as a historical figure, and the novel honours her memory with genuine affection and care. While the alien-possessed historical trope is familiar, Cook gives it fresh energy, bolstered by strong original characters, especially the ISC duo.

It’s not flawless—Fifteen’s voice wobbles, the ending overextends, and the author's cameo is a marmite moment—but none of that undoes the book’s considerable emotional power. This is Doctor Who doing what it does best: telling human stories amid impossible odds, with a lighthouse in the fog and a Leviathan in the deep.