Dracula!

"These performances are summoning evil back to our shores!"

Writer: Paul Magrs

Format: Novel

Released: September 2025

Series: Puffin Classics 08

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara 

Synopsis

The Doctor and his companions arrive in a quiet, unassuming seaside town called Whitby. The terrible significance of the place evades them, until they happen upon a theatre production that captivates their attention. 

Dracula! 

Suddenly, murders are occurring left, right and centre. Ian is soon missing, and a town shrouded in myth and legend is beginning to live up to its name. 

Clearly there is a Dracula at large, and more to the theatre than meets the eye. As the TARDIS team quickly realise, you can never trust a vampire...

Verdict

Dracula! was an excellent novel to unfortunately serve as the final release in the Puffin Classics crossover range! This has been a terrific little series covering numerous Doctors and classic novels which has been most intriguing. As per usual, this story is based on a book I have a decent knowledge of but haven't actually read. I don't believe I have ever even seen a film adaptation based on Dracula but the character is just so well known so I was pretty familiar with a large number of the story elements. The Whitby setting of 1901 was fantastic and I just loved the atmosphere throughout. With it being at Halloween, it definitely felt like there was a chill in the air and that's impressive to capture in prose. I thought the quartet of the First Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara were written to near perfection in capturing their quirks, dialogue, traits and general characterisation. It was so strong and that was clear right from the off which always leans to a more enjoyable reader experience. It felt authentic and given a 2025 release date, this book perfectly felt of its era which is a huge compliment! I liked how this was firmly set during Season One and I would wager soon after The Sensorites with the references to Susan's telepathic ability whilst mentioning the events of Marco Polo and The Aztecs as still being recent for them in terms of just a matter of weeks. Ian and Barbara were still wanting to get back home to London, 1963 and they were just a little early here. It was really good to have the companions in their relatively recent past and Barbara's historical knowledge came into play again rather nicely with what she remembered about Whitby Abbey and the Vikings destroying it. It was obviously in much better condition now and I think the one-hundred-and-ninety-nine steps that led up to it was really good in capturing the uneasy atmosphere. I liked the situation the TARDIS landed in with the performance of the Legend of Count Dracula play coinciding with seven murders in seven nights. Talk about an impact! Whitby had been ravaged by Dracula a decade prior and now the locals were convinced he was back. I mean, he'd never left which was pretty amusing and I can't believe that when the chapter closed and Kristoff Alucard introduced himself to Barbara, I didn't clock that his surname was Dracula spelled backwards! It only came to me when Van Helsing mentioned the anagram. I couldn't believe I hadn't spotted it beforehand considering he then played a big role beside Barbara for the rest of the book. I thought the uncle and nephew Van Helsings were really good and the latter seemingly taking the role of the former in hoping to bring about the end for Dracula again was excellent. I loved touching upon the Doctor's own history with Vampires in terms of what he had been taught on his home planet and at this point in chronology I thought that was handled with care very nicely. Muriel Flitt turning out to be the actual Vampire that was committing all of the murders wasn't a huge surprise after we'd seen her mesmerise Ian into being her butler, but the ridiculousness of Cornelius Thyme in not realising that when he was literally co-starring as Dracula in the play alongside her and then living with her was almost too much to believe. A hard back board for her sleep as an excuse for the coffin! I thought the Halloween ball depicting a Vampire attack actually now suffering the real thing was brilliant and the Doctor and company being armed with stakes and garlic was quite the image, although he was more interested in words. When she knew of the TARDIS and the fact she could return to the Dark Times, her scale of attempted conquest suddenly went beyond mere Whitby. The Doctor throwing his hotel key into the sea claiming it to be the TARDIS key was great stuff and I also loved the line about him needing to invent something to get through locked doors. A lovely sonic screwdriver foreshadowing! And that feels feasible considering he used psychic money here. Dracula in wolf form taking out Muriel in her bat form was quite the image as they sprawled over the cliffs and down below to round out the Vampire threat and put an end to the Whitby damage once and for all. A decade of torment was over. Overall, a fantastic read! 

Rating: 9/10