Doctor Who's "Time Lord Victorious" transmedia event comes to a head in Una McCormack's novel All Flesh Is Grass, which sees Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor lead an army of vampire ninjas against David Tennant's Tenth Doctor. "Time Lord Victorious" is the boldest transmedia initiative in the history of Doctor Who, a tale told in comics, novels, audio-books, and even a Dalek animated series.

The main story is a fascinating one. The Tenth Doctor's attempt to change time in "The Waters of Mars" created a crack in the space-time continuum, allowing access to the Dark Times when the universe was young. He has traveled back to those early days, and declared war on a race known as the Kotturuh - essentially attempting to erase death itself. Unfortunately the chaos in the timestream has drawn other incarnations of the Doctor to the Dark Times as well, and in Una McCormack's book All Flesh Is Grass three Doctors go to war on one another.

Both the Eighth and Ninth Doctors have formed unlikely alliances. The Ninth Doctor's are the most remarkable, as he has teamed up with a group of Lesser Vampires, and he's going to war on one of their fabled Coffin Ships. At first the Vampires appear completely outgunned - but it turns out they're deliberately lulling their enemies into a false sense of security. They have a group of Bloodsmen on board - creatures the Doctor can only describe as "ninja vampires." The Bloodsmen are the sworn protectors of the Great Vampires, almost mindless creatures that are hungry for blood and trained in stealth. They possess personal apparators, allowing them to teleport through a ship's shields, and because they are undead they have no life-signs to be detected. They also like to play with their food, much to the Doctor's horror.

The Great Vampires were introduced into Doctor Who lore in the Tom Baker story "State of Decay." This revealed the creatures had been a cosmic power in the Dark Times, but they had been opposed by the armies of Gallifrey, back before the Gallifreyans ever became Time Lords. The Ninth Doctor and Rose found themselves confronted with the Vampires in the "Time Lord Victorious" story Monstrous Beauty, a comic strip published in recent issues of Doctor Who Magazine. There, the Doctor freed a group of Lesser Vampires from the control of the Great Ones, and these are the warriors he is leading to battle.

Ironically, the Doctor's alliance with a group of vampires explains a minor continuity issue in Doctor Who. The Great Vampires were believed to have been rendered extinct by the forces of Gallifrey - so how did Earth get legends of them that match up with these creatures, when humanity wouldn't evolve until billions of years later? Presumably the Gallifreyans did not hunt down the renegades, whose ancestors found their way to Earth. In an odd way, then, it seems the Doctor is himself responsible for the survival of vampires... after leading a force of them into battle against his own self.