This book has its ups and downs, it's a fun time but a bit too fluffy for its own good. The premise that starts us off is strange - following on from the movie the first thing that happens to 8 is that he loses his memory again... I know 8 has a reputation for losing his memory more often than he finds it, but I can't help but find this a little ridiculous. Even so, it provides the necessary excuse for 8 to go and meet with all of his previous regenerations in turn. He meets them in and around various TV stories, sometimes providing short sequels/continuations of those stories; these vary in how fun and involved they are, but for me the real highlight was the 6th Doctor's section where 8 and 6 have to deal with Gallifreyan politics during Trial of a Timelord. The section with 7 was pretty insubstantial but at least provided some interesting characterisation. Being familiar with 8 through listening to a lot of Big Finish I couldn't help but read this book with the characterisation of 8 over there in mind, but it worked fairly well thankfully. The voices of each Doctor were mostly on-point, though there were a few points where I struggled to see one or two lines coming out of the mouth of the respective Doctor who said it.

This is not to mention the setup for the rest of the range, which sees 8 pop in to the scrapyard that the 1st Doctor stayed in and has a brush with drug dealers and a girl named Sam Jones who is being harangued by said dealers. The inclusion of hard drugs here feels like a bit of leftover New Adventures edge. This is where this book really falls down as a setup for the rest of the range though, it gives a short bit of characterisation of Sam near the start - then forgets about her for the rest of the book, and just has her jump into the TARDIS before it dematerialises at the end of the book. The Doctor and Sam barely interact here and does little to set up their dynamic going forward which is something I'd like an introduction story to do.

Still, the worst thing I can say about this book is that it's a harmless bit of fun that doesn't quite set up the rest of the range. Overall not the worst start, but it feels like the expectation is now on the next book - Vampire Science - to be the real start of the range.