Unnatural History by: Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman

By the end of the run of the Virgin New Adventures one of the major complaints in fandom was that the books were relying too heavily on long running arcs between books.  The Eighth Doctor Adventures, then, began as generally a series of standalone books with the seeds of potential arcs appearing in Alien Bodies and Vampire Science, before Longest Day formally began the series first actual arc.  This arc was resolved four books later with Seeing I, which in turn set the seeds for the arc which comes to the forefront with today’s book, Unnatural History.  Unnatural History opens with perhaps one of the best opening chapters in the history of Doctor Who novels and much like Seeing I, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum make you care for the character of Samantha Jones who is living back in England in a very small room on King’s Cross.  And her hair is black.  Yes, this is the novel which finally picks up the idea of the dark haired version of Sam Jones who essentially embodies the complexities and interesting story the character could have been.  This dark-haired Sam could have easily fallen into the trap of edge that such a damaged character often falls into, but Blum and Orman avoid this by making her genuinely likable.  She clearly is still the Sam that the audience knows, looking for a cause, and attempting to prove herself, but she has had the world around her constantly beat her down.  She’s gone on drugs and spent her life trying to distract herself, and is finally at a point where she has something in the world when the Doctor enters her life.



The opening chapter is where the Doctor reconnects with Sam, who disappeared from the TARDIS due to San Francisco in the year 2000 having physics break down and impossibilities are bleeding through.  When the Doctor shows up Sam’s entire life is immediately turned upside-down and Orman and Blum succeed at making the Eighth Doctor come across as a broken man here.  His best friend up to this point doesn’t even know who he is anymore and there’s a real sense that this almost breaks him.  The Doctor doesn’t know how to convince this new Sam to come with him to San Francisco where they can get to the bottom of this mystery.  Once the plot moves to San Francisco, Orman and Blum prove once again why they are the best at writing the Eighth Doctor as that childlike wonder is still there but understated.  The Doctor is attempting to outsmart Faction Paradox who finally rear their heads in this novel through a single agent running around.  The boy, as the character is referred to, represents that type of lost soul that the greater organization preys upon.  The boy is completely psychotic and is working in the background with the story’s greater villain to have access to the Doctor’s own biodata, writing out the idea that the Doctor is half-human (or is he no longer half-Time Lord?).  Things with the faction are left intentionally vague as Faction Paradox feeds off misdirection and paradoxes to gain their odd powers.



Orman and Blum also explore some of the ideas laid down in The Infinity Doctors by Lance Parkin with Professor Daniel Joyce appearing here.  Joyce is a professor whose assistant is implied to be Larna from that novel and the idea behind the scenes is this could be the Doctor’s “father”.  While this is left ambiguous intentionally it is an interesting idea as the character only appears at a few points in the book, is married, and provides something almost like comic relief for the characters.  He’s the one who gives hints to the Doctor and fatherly advice, being the only real evidence within the text unless you know that in the Leekly Bible where the Doctor’s father was exiled Time Lord Ulysses (Ulysses is the name of a novel by James Joyce).  There won’t be dwelling on this, but the idea is there and the character is excellent in helping heal the scar.  Finally the character of Fitz Kreiner somehow still manages to shine in a novel which is so heavily focused on the Doctor and Sam.  His experiences in Revolution Man are slowly being overcome and this new Sam creates passions within him, getting eerily close to acting on those passions.  He is acting once again on his own as a private detective and almost serves as a rock for the Doctor to rest upon.  He deals with Kyra Skye, a medium in San Francisco, who assists in finding where the tear is and how to close it.  Fitz is a character who is putting everyone else above himself.  Overall, Unnatural History is another instant classic from Orman and Blum and it’s honestly surprising that this one doesn’t get talked about more often.  10/10.