In this adventure we begin on the HMS Ascendent, a naval cruiser in the North Sea which is sinking fast, a sailor falls into the water where he is punctured in the neck and dragged into the depths.
Three months later the Doctor and Rose arrive on the Powell Estate and Rose is comforting her friend Keisha. Keisha’s brother, Jay, was on board the Ascendent and is missing, presumed dead. At the same time the wreckage of the Ascendent is being towed up the River Thames for an inquiry.
Suddenly, Rose and Keisha see a ghostly apparition of Jay, begging to be saved from the upcoming feast…the feast of the drowned. As the ship’s crew begin to haunt loved ones all over London, the Doctor and Rose are pulled into a chilling mystery – how did the ship sink and why? Also what force has accompanied the wreckage on its journey up the river?
On re-reading this tie-in novel I found this to be a very entertaining read. When I first read it as a child I remembered it to be quite a scary story and it still has the power to be quite chilling many years later, with the imagery of the ghostly sailors appearing out of the water being quite grim and terrifying to imagine.
Also it is terrifying the premise that these soldiers are encouraging loved ones to join them in the water which in turn causes more people to become ghosts which creates a horrifying concept as more and more people want to throw themselves into the river which makes for some distressing moments towards the end.
As an adult I also appreciated how this story expanded on Rose’s character arc from the show, especially the early episodes of series 1 of NuWho. For those who haven’t watched it Rose joins the Ninth Doctor at the end of the first episode and they return to Earth in episode four, with the Doctor telling her she had been gone 12 hours when in fact it had been an entire year. This book expands on this storyline with Mickey, Jackie and Keisha which helps to make these characters feel a bit more alive when the Doctor and Rose were not around which I appreciated.
The central mystery to the novel is enjoyable although of course the solution is really some timey-wimey sci-fi gobbledegook but it is very in keeping with the show. Probably the books only real drawback is given the episodes with the 10th Doctor and Rose were made in 2006, 20 years ago, most young fans wouldn’t recognise this incarnation of the Doctor. However, given the episodes are on iPlayer and it is my favourite era of the show I would recommend playing the episodes to children and then giving them this book to read (although perhaps slightly older kids given it’s slight leanings towards horror).
