It featured companions Anji Kapoor and Fitz Kreiner. Until the release five years later of the audio story Fitz's Story, it was the final note of the continuity which had begun in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures range. In truth, it was effectively a part of the EDA line, but was published as a PDA because the Ninth Doctor had debuted on television by the time the story was published. Thus, when it hit bookstores, Fear Itself was actually telling the story of a "past" incarnation. It was the last novel to feature the Eighth Doctor until the publication of the e-novella Spore in 2013.