''Blood Harvest'' is an original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

''. It features

vampires A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths ...

in common with Dicks's 1980 television serial '' State of Decay'' and makes reference to that story's events as well as to those of ''

The Five Doctors ''The Five Doctors'' is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', produced in celebration of the programme's 20th anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago ...

''. The events of this story are concluded in the first of the

Virgin Missing Adventures The ''Virgin Missing Adventures'' were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the pro ...

novel ''

Goth Opera ''Goth Opera'' is an original '' Doctor Who'' novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their '' Missing Adventures'' range of ''Doctor Who'' novels. It was the first book in that series and a sequel to the '' New Adventure'' book '' Blood Harvest ...

'' by Paul Cornell. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Dicks, appeared in ''

Doctor Who Magazine ''Doctor Who Magazine'' (abbreviated as ''DWM'') is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Launched in 1979 as ''Doctor Who Weekly'', the magazine became a monthly publication the followi ...

'' #214.

Plot

While the

Seventh Doctor The Seventh Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and the final incarnation of the original Doctor Who series. He is portrayed by Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy. W ...

and

Ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

team up with a hard bitten PI in 1929 Chicago, Bernice is stranded on a vampire-infested world with the Doctor's former companion Romana. The chief monster is a supernaturally powerful creature called Agonal, an elemental who feeds on agony and death and so seeks as much of it as he can. Rassilon traps Agonal in his tomb, just as he trapped Borusa in the television story ''The Five Doctors''.

Continuity

*The novel features Borusa who at the end of ''

'' was trapped in the tomb of Rassilon. There is an apparent contradiction between this story and Dicks's later novel ''

The Eight Doctors ''The Eight Doctors'' is a BBC Books original novel written by Terrance Dicks and based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was the first of the Eighth Doctor Adventures range and features the Eighth ...

'', wherein Borusa again escapes the tomb; however, ''The Eight Doctors'' does not explicitly reveal Borusa's subsequent fate, and there is reason to suppose that he was re-interred, finally released forever in ''Blood Harvest''. *The private detective Dekker reappears in Dicks's later BBC Books

Past Doctor Adventures The ''Past Doctor Adventures'' (sometimes known by the abbreviation ''PDA'' or ''PDAs'') were a series of spin-off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and published under the BBC Books imprin ...

novel ''

Players Players may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Players'' (1979 film), a film starring Ali MacGraw * ''Players'' (2012 film), a Bollywood film * ''Players'' (Dicks novel), a novel by Terrance Dicks, based on the television series ''Doc ...

''. * Romana first escapes E-space in this novel. * The Fifth Doctor novel ''

'' is written as a sequel to this novel.Sandifer, Elizabeth (2012): TARDIS Eruditorum: An Unauthorized Critical History of Doctor Who Volume 2: Patrick Troughton. Smashwords Edition. P. 100

References

1994 British novels 1994 science fiction novels Virgin New Adventures Novels by Terrance Dicks Vampire novels British science fiction novels Seventh Doctor novels Fiction set in 1929 {{DoctorWho-stub