The Love Vampires (audio story)

 was the second story in the audio anthology Connections, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by James Kettle and featured Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka and Hattie Morahan as Helen Sinclair.

Publisher's summary
Regret can follow people everywhere - even out into deep space, in the shadow of a dying star.

When the Doctor, Liv and Helen meet the terrified crew of a space station, all are haunted by faces from the past. But these lost loves are more than mere memories - and they want to feed...

Plot
The Doctor, Liv and Helen arrive at the bridge of a Becoming space station on alert. Rica appears to Three, unseen by anybody else, and bites his neck; Fifteen tells the Doctor, Liv and Helen that the same thing has happened to thirteen other people and that all of them are now dead.

Three is frozen and driven back when the light of a nearby white dwarf makes a shadow in the shape of a cross, making the Doctor believe that they are indeed dealing with vampires. He goes with Fifteen to find wood to make stakes, learning that Fifteen believes that the vampires take the form of the victims' first loves on the way, whilst Liv tries to find a way to inoculate everybody. Helen helps Liv by finding setosol and Jean appears to her and bites her.

The Doctor and Fifteen make stakes out of a wooden double bass. When Three loses control and his body starts throwing out contaminants, Fifteen stakes him and he crumbles to dust. The Doctor, who has already seen the Realist, decides to offer himself to the vampires to draw them out. Liv sees Petko, who died back on Kaldor and whom she had hoped to explore the universe with; before he can bite her, the Doctor brings her to her senses by breathing on her after consuming garlic tablets. He then goes looking for the Realist.

Liv sees that Helen has been bitten and Twenty-One keeps Fifteen from killing her, taking command, but she goes into cardiac arrest when Liv gives her a shot to try to help her. The Realist reminisces with the Doctor about Gallifrey and admits that she and her siblings feed on love. The Doctor tells Twenty-One to vent the station's fuel to turn the white dwarf supernova and reveals that the Realist is a false memory that he used to bring the vampires out. The white dwarf is destroyed and its light fades. Helen stabilises and Twenty-One decides to take a break from science.

Hungry, the Doctor suggests that they next go to the Trattoria del Domenico in 20th century Naples. Liv and Helen give him a look when he mentions their garlic bread.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Paul McGann
 * Liv Chenka - Nicola Walker
 * Helen Sinclair - Hattie Morahan
 * Three / Petko - Jamie Zubairi
 * Fifteen / Jean - Holly Jackson Walters
 * Twenty-One / State - Daon Broni
 * The Realist / Rica - Paksie Vernon

Worldbuilding

 * One, Two and Four through to Fourteen are dead.
 * Jean was born on 17 October 1932 and was six months older than Helen.
 * Fifteen has a double bass.
 * Helen mentions Van Helsing.

Continuity

 * The Eighth Doctor states that the vampires of popular mythology are inspired by the true creatures, in this story the love vampires. Previous stories, such as the classic serial The State of Decay, the VNA novel The Pit, and the Faction Paradox novel The Book of the War, also continually went with this idea, but held the position that there was a true vampire species, descended from the Great Vampires who fought against the Time Lords in the Eternal War.