Spectral Scream

"I am glad their blood won't water the stones of this village."

Writer: Hannah Fergesen

Format: Novel

Released: May 2025

Series: NSA 70

Featuring: Fifteenth Doctor, Belinda

Synopsis

When a psychic shriek for help nearly overwhelms the TARDIS, the Doctor and Belinda track the source to a distant planet. There they find a sentient, telepathic bioship named Adama and ragged colonists descended from the original crew. Adama is dying, and their spectral screams are growing strong enough to kill anyone in the vicinity. 

When Adama crashed 100 years ago, it was with a great treasure on board, stolen from the ruthless Gangnax Imperium – technology that could either unite worlds or destroy them. If they are to save the bioship, the Doctor and Belinda must survive suspicious colonists, greedy counter hunters and military forces determined to reclaim what's theirs – before Adama's final death throes destroy them all.

Verdict

Spectral Scream was a great novel to continue the New Series Adventures collection! I think the release date on this book was unfortunately a couple of weeks too late as being released just two days prior to The Reality War unfortunately meant this story became out of date very quickly. Had it been released right in the middle of the latest series I think that would have been so much more beneficial, but credit to the writer because this feels like it easily slots into that eight episode run for Belinda. With this being the companion's debut in prose I was impressed with how well her characterisation was captured on the page (well, Kindle screen for me!). This felt so authentically Belinda and it seems to happen between Lux and The Well which feels right given that it was clearly still quite early for her as companion and no later episodes were referenced. It was very much in the vain of getting Belinda home and I liked that despite my disappointment with her ultimate fate. I also loved how she harked back to The Robot Revolution when we got the sneaky onlooking moment from Mrs Flood as the Doctor took the vindicator reading and likened it to the Doctor having met her ancestor in Boom. The continuity with the ongoing series was welcomed there. I liked how Belinda's instincts as a nurse kicked in and after getting the distress call she very much wanted to help. The concept behind the screams of Adama was very good and I really enjoyed the telepathic method of communication. That was presented well in the book when it had the potential to get messy. I thought the setting of the planet was strong although its name was needlessly ridiculous with the lower-case f! I liked how the Doctor and Belinda were mistaken as being part of Gangnax Imperium and the story behind them and the last century was very strong. Elder Dagma was a fantastic character and I liked the relationship she soon fostered with Belinda. She was the one who had developed the treasured artefact that the Imperium so desperately desired and that meant she was very old indeed. The 71st century setting might have something to do with that! The fact nobody on the ground knew where the artefact was made for a strong plot device and I was almost convinced the Doctor was going to find it quicker than should have been possible after a century of looking. He can be annoying like that! The ongoing threat of another scream from Adama was strong and when it got to the point that one more could be fatal, the Doctor quickly was on hand with first aid to get them to sleep. The tension there was strong. I liked how Cy was in league with bounty hunters but quickly regretted the fact as they weren't going to hold up their end of the bargain at all. Cy quickly claiming the TARDIS to be the treasure was fun and it was nice that the Doctor grew to help Cy and could see that he just wanted to escape everything. It was understandable on this planet! The use of the TARDIS telepathy and the translation circuit for Adama to communicate with the Doctor and Belinda was excellent. The vasps were an intriguing element and Belinda managing to work out that they were holograms was fun and provided the basis for the artefact's whereabouts. It was in the ship where it had always been, where nobody ever went because of the vasp infestation from day one of the crash. That was good and I liked how Adama knew all along and was protecting itself from Dagma's own incredible technology because she feared being rewritten. She was nearly dying but she would rather that than forget their own life which was pretty admirable to be honest. With the Doctor on hand though, he could combine both and renew Adama without overwriting her with the tech to see things out nicely. Gangnax Imperium were sent running with the bounty hunters to never return and we were en route to getting Belinda home. A neat little ending! Overall, a great read! 

Rating: 8/10