An astounding story of excellent characters, shockingly mature themes, and impeccable 90s-vamp vibes.

Almost didn't read this, but Dave Rudden's Wintertime Paradox piqued my interest in Faction Paradox, which sent me to Alien Bodies, which piqued my interest in the Eighth Doctor Adventures — and now here I am, about to read way too many entires in this 73-book series picking up the plot of a failed TV movie from 30 years ago.

It's difficult to overstate just how hard Vampire Science goes. The writing and the characterization of the Doctor pick up on the zaniness of the Classic series, but also do something new with the old formula, somehow giving us a preview of NuWho — and its more attractive, romantic, brooding hero — years before NuWho was a thing. Little details sell us on this new incarnation — like how the Doctor casually grabs coins from behind people's ears, not because he's showing off or doing a bit but simply because, as his attitude suggests, that's just where coins are. Maybe that's impossible to explain here. It really works in the prose though.

The other characters are excellent as well. Carolyn. Shackle. Joanna. Sam. Kramer. We take a spin in each of their heads and while we're there, we can feel how right they are. Shackle is growing disillusioned, and when we're in his head, we see he's right to be. But when we see him from the Doctor's eyes, we also understand that he's wrong. We go back to Shackle and he's in the right again. That's powerful character work. And because we have powerful character work, we have a fascinating clash of ideas.

I won't spoil it here by butchering what I think the book's message is (you really should read this thing), but it ruminates on death and nihilism in a way that genuinely shocked me. I did not understand Doctor Who was capable of these depths outside of really rare entries like Heaven Sent. The depiction of Sam's trauma is handled similarly well.

On top of all of this, the book digs into a really fun corner of lore that I'm eager to learn more about: the Founding Conflict, the Dark Times, the ancient history where we'll later place the Timeless Child, etc. I know the inclusion of straight-up vampires into this universe was controversial but it somehow really really works.

Read Vampire Science. If you like Doctor Who and don't like this book, I honestly don't know what you like about Doctor Who.