Doctor Who: The Beast of Orlok
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With fangs like splinters, claws like knives, the Beast of Orlok gobbles lives. With brimstone breath and eyes aglow, he'll eat your soul — to Hell you'll go!
Germany, 1827. The town of Orlok is under a curse, haunted by the memory of a spate of grisly murders that shattered the community twenty years before. At the time, townsfolk blamed the legendary Beast of Orlok, a nightmarish creature from medieval folklore. And now, it seems, the Beast has returned. As the killings begin again, the people of Orlok are understandably suspicious of two strangers newly arrived in their midst. The Doctor and Lucie must face their darkest fears as they find themselves plunged into a decidedly grim fairytale.
Series
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30 released booksThe Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures is a 30-book series first released in 2007 with contributions by Steve Lyons, Nicholas Briggs, and Jonathan Morris.
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Set in the Germany (or more accurately, Baden) of 1827, this is clearly the world of the Brothers Grimm, rather than anything more closely tied to real history. There are scheming burghermeisters, gypsy fortune-tellers, feisty young barmaids, and, of course, the Beast itself in a story that's initially quite dark. It does, perhaps unfortunately, lighten up once it's clear what's really going on, but I, at least, found the Gothic atmosphere never really went away.
The most notable guest actor in this one is Miriam Margolyes, who is superb as the owner of the tavern, who has a pivotal role in what's been going on. The others are good too, though, and the story does a good job of keeping the nature of the Beast a mystery for as long as possible, riffing off of dark fairy tales, and, to a lesser extent, Hammer Horror, as it does so. It's not pitch-perfect, but it's pretty entertaining.
