Goth Opera (novel)

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Goth Opera was the first novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. Written by Paul Cornell, it featured the Fifth Doctor, Tegan Jovanka and Nyssa. It built on the narrative in the novel Blood Harvest, which was deliberately crafted to build interest in this novel.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

"The time of humanity on this world has come to an end. The long night is starting. The age of the undead is upon us."

Manchester, 1993. The vampires of Great Britain have received a message: the long-awaited arrival of their evil messiah is imminent. It's time for a recruitment drive.

On holiday in Tasmania with Tegan and the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa is attacked by a demonic child. She escapes unharmed — except for two small wounds in her neck.

Why are the descendants of the Great Vampire so desperate to obtain the blood of a Time Lord? And what is their connection to a forbidden ancient Gallifreyan cult?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Following her experiences with the Mara the Doctor's taken Tegan and Nyssa somewhere relaxing; Tasmania in 1993, Launceston and specifically so the Doctor can play cricket. Which Tegan finds boring.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, in Manchester in 1993, Ruathadvorophrenaltid (Ruath) a Time Lady of Gallifrey has plans afoot to revive the ancient vampiire Yarven, utilising ROO texts created at the time of Rassilon.

Ruath finds a cohort of vampires and takes them in her TARDIS to Croatia to uncover Yarven where he was buried.

Having retrieved the ancient vampire she seeks out the Doctor; intending to use his blood to revive the vampire to full undead life, locating him in Tasmania she sends a child vampire to seek him out while he sleeps. The child vampire functions mostly on instinct; homing in on an alien within the home that the time travellers are staying.

Unfortunately the child bites Nyssa, sucking up nine pints of her blood, and beginning the transformation process that would turn her into a vampire, by the next full moon on Earth her transformation process will become complete...

Ruath unbeknownst of this situation uses the blood the child has gathered to revive Yarven somewhat.

But upon discovering the error allows Yarven to drink from her; triggering a regeneration. And following her regeneration is turned into a vampire by Yarven.

Nyssa, upon waking feels strange, thinking her experiences the previous night a dream, or nightmare. But slowly the reality becomes obvious, and she starts to try and create a synthetic blood substitute in the TARDIS.

The Doctor has also been visited by vampires, and realises something greater is afoot on Earth, and moves the TARDIS to Manchester to do some investigating.

Investigating odd and strange occurrences on the streets of Manchester with Tegan Nyssa increasingly finds her new situation as a vampire more tempting, and more dangerous, she chooses to literally fly away from her travelling associates.

Castle Yarven.

She later feeds on a cow's blood, it satisfies her hunger, but not as much as she wished it to.

Tegan and the Doctor find themselves into the orbit of Victor Lang a preacher drawn to Manchester because of "Satanic activity".

Ruath, is also working on multiple projects; a Time Freeze and a method to keep it operation to maintain night on Earth, along with a mass vampire DNA aerosol delivery method to en-mass turn the peoples of Earth into vampires. She unfortunately discovers her new regeneration less adept at the technical than her former self.

The Doctor and Tegan discover where both Nyssa and the vampires have been congregating; Castle Yarven, a castle that has strangely appeared on Manchester's outskirts, which no one has noticed, the Doctor breaks into the castle using his TARDIS's key, and whilst exploring Tegan happens upon a console room; revealing Castle Yarven to be a TARDIS (Ruth's).

The Doctor and Tegan manage to rescue Nyssa, but then are captured themselves, with Ruath intending to use the Doctor's body and brain to power her Time Freeze technology.

However the Doctor is able to bluff Ruath using their past experiences and knowledge, unfortunately to convince her he allows her to bite him and begin the process of turning him into a vampire.

Through this process he is released and is able to subdue Yarven, Ruath and the other vampires present.

Then he dematerialises Ruath's TARDIS taking it to a planet with a short day-night cycle, destroying the vampires in the process. Nyssa is transformed back to her normal self as the vampire who turned her is killed.

Returning to Earth and sending Ruath's TARDIS back to Earth the Doctor and his companions are relaxing when he discovers that Ruath escaped. However while she is threatening the Doctor in the console room Nyssa, still feeling the effects of her experiences with the vampires opens the TARDIS's doors; venting Ruath into the vortex. With Ruath seemingly dead the Doctor's vampiric transformation is prevented.

Later they return to Tasmania, for more cricket.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Astronomical objects[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Jake and Madeline visit the Moon.

Culture[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Sabalom Glitz adopts a killing Venusian aikido position upon encountering Romana II.

Fashion[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor wears a dressing gown.

Food and Drink[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor and Tegan get doughnuts and coffee.
  • The Doctor stuffs his celery into Tegan's mouth to stop him questioning his bluff on Ruath.
  • The Doctor gives Nyssa and Tegan garlic capsules.
  • The Doctor and Tegan eat garlic bread.
  • The Doctor and Tegan eat in a high class Italian restaurant in Manchester.

The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]

TARDISes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Ruath's TARDIS takes on multiple forms throughout including; a rooftop pylon in Manchester, an old well in Croatia, a large white rock in the Haemovore's future, and "Castle Yarven".
  • Ruath uses an "old chameleon circuit trick" to transfer between her TARDIS and the Doctor's, using the chameleon circuit to extend a liquid arm from her TARDIS to his to allow her to transfer between the two without exiting hers.
  • President Flavia has a Type 90 TARDIS.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • There is a Drashig within the miniscope.
  • As a vampire Nyssa is able to change form; shifting from physical to a gaseous form.
  • Vampires can fly.

Technology[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Sabalom Glitz has a miniscope which Romana II gets dropped in via a time scoop.
  • Jake and Madeline hitch ride out of the solar system with some of the vampire DNA aerosol on Voyager 2.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

The original, unused cover.
  • In the original cover artwork for the novel, there was much more blood on Nyssa's clothes. This was considered too graphic a cover image by W H Smith, the UK's largest book retailer, so the image was altered to be less graphic before publication.[1]
  • The plot for the novel was originally developed from an unproduced comic strip for Doctor Who Magazine, which would have featured the Fourth Doctor in a fight against Dracula. Cornell revised the story to use the Fifth Doctor for this novel. (REF: I, Who)
  • Paul Cornell once called the experience of writing this novel "most unpleasant", but did not elaborate.[2] He later called the book obvious pastiche.
  • The back cover indicates this story takes place between the television stories Snakedance and Mawdryn Undead.
  • In one line, Ruath lists the Doctor's fellow students at the Time Lord Academy under Borusa to have later become "scoundrels": "Mortimus, the Rani, that idiot Magnus… and you, Doctor". This context makes it clear that "Magnus" here refers to the Master, as it would be unthinkable for such a list not to include the Master. This followed the implication and original intent of Flashback, which featured a "Magnus" who lived on Gallifrey with the First Doctor prior to the latter's departure. However, to avoid conflict with The Dark Path's contention that the Master's original name was instead Koschei, Gary Russell later claimed in Divided Loyalties that Magnus was a different Time Lord.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ "Jade Pagoda" post by Craig Hinton
  2. ↑ "Four Writers, One Discussion", Time-Space Visualiser #43
v • e
Virgin Missing Adventures
First Doctor
Susan, Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara
Ian, Barbara, Vicki
Vicki, Steven
Dodo
Second Doctor
Ben, Polly
Jamie, Victoria
Jamie, Zoe
Third Doctor
Liz, UNIT
Jo, UNIT
Jo, Yates
Sarah, Jeremy,
The Brig
Fourth Doctor
Sarah, Harry
Sarah
Romana I, K9
Romana II, K9
Fifth Doctor
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan
Nyssa, Tegan
Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion
Turlough
Sixth Doctor
Peri
Grant
Mel
Seventh Doctor
Chris, Roz
Other
Victoria, Sarah, The Brig
Second, Third, Seventh Doctors
with Dodo and UNIT
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