Summary
'Europa is infested by ghosts, vampires, werewolves, ghouls and other grotesques spawned from old European folklore. I think we’re in a spot of bother, Sarah Jane.'
Europa, designed by lunatics a thousand years in the future, is a resurrected Europe that lives in an imaginary past.
In Europa, historical figures live again: Lord Byron combats Torquemada’s Inquisition, Mary Shelley is writing her sequel to Frankenstein, and Cardinal Richelieu schemes to become Pope Supreme while Aleister Crowley and Faust vie for the post of Official Antichrist.
When the Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive, they are instantly accused of murdering the Pope. Aided only by a young vampire hunter and a revenant Byron, they confront the sinister Theatre of Transmogrification in their quest to prove their innocence.
Notes
- This story takes place between the television stories Planet of Evil and Pyramids of Mars
- The Doctor's intended target was the 'sun-drenched shore of Shalonar' in 3278 AD. He believes the time coordinates are correct, but they arrived on Earth instead. This would place them approximately three centuries after the fall of the Overcities, as described in Original Sin.
- At one point in the story, the Doctor is stabbed in the heart and survives due to the other one. His dual cardiac system saves him again when he is stabbed in The Left-Handed Hummingbird and Camera Obscura.
References
Characters
Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith, Francis Pearson, Pope Lucian, Lord Byron, Casanova, Miles Dashing, Crocker, Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, Elizabeth Bathory, Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Torquemada, Cardinal Agostini, Cardinal Maroc, Cardinal Borgia, Cardinal Francisco, Doctor Sperano, Aleister Crowley, Doctor Faust, Paracelsus, Beatrice, Francia Bourbon