- Goth Opera
Doctorwhobook
title=Goth Opera
series=Virgin Missing Adventures
number=1
featuring=Fifth Doctor Tegan, Nyssa, Romana II
writer=Paul Cornell
publisher=Virgin Books
isbn=ISBN 0-426-20418-2
set_between="Snakedance " and "Mawdryn Undead "
pages=238
date=July 1994
preceding=
following="Evolution"|"Goth Opera" is an original "
Doctor Who " novel, published byVirgin Publishing in their "Missing Adventures" range of "Doctor Who" novels. It was the first book in that series and a sequel to the "New Adventure" book "Blood Harvest ", but it can be read separately.Plot
As the Fifth Doctor and his companions vacation in
Tasmania they get caught up in a scheme by the Time Lord Ruath to resurrect the vampire Yarven (from "Blood Harvest "). Ruath sends a vampire baby to attack the Doctor and turn him into a vampire, but the child instead attacks and converts Nyssa. Unable to provide Yarven with the Doctor's Time Lord blood, Ruath gives her own blood to Yarven, causing her to die and regenerate into a vampire Time Lord.Nyssa, while trying fight her new vampire nature, is drawn to Yarven's castle, where she learns more about Ruath's plan. Ruath has created a genetically enhanced mist that can turn normal humans into vampires, and kill those who use traditional methods (garlic, crosses, etc.) to protect themselves. Ruath has also invented a Time Freeze, a small Time Loop that can hold the Earth in a perpetual night, leaving the vampires free to roam and feed.
Nyssa contacts the Doctor and aids him in entering the castle, which turns out to be Ruath's TARDIS. Ruath captures the Doctor and Tegan. She informs Yarven that his brain, now enhanced by Time Lord blood, will become the controller of the Time Freeze mechanism, and offers the Doctor the change to become her vampiric consort. Yarven, however, decides he doesn't want to sacrifice himself, and places the Doctor in the Time Freze. The Doctor manages to use Ruath's command ring to take control of her TARDIS and force it to materialize on a distant planet, where the rising sun incinerates Yarven and his vampire hordes. The death of the vampire child cures Nyssa of her vampirism. Ruath survives the dawn, but is sucked into the Time Vortex after Nyssa opens the doors to the Doctor's TARDIS while it is in flight.
Background and continuity
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 againstDracula . Cornell revised the story to use the Fifth Doctor for this first Missing Adventure. [cite book
last = Pearson
first = Lars
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = I, Who
publisher = Sidewinder Press
date = October 1999
location = New York
url =
doi =
id = 0-9673746-0-X]The novel's cover was originally to feature a far more graphic image of Nyssa's shirt covered in blood. The artwork had to be adjusted and the blood airbrushed out when retailers insisted that they would not stock the book in that form.
"Goth Opera" is both a sequel to the
1980 television story "State of Decay ", which first mentioned the war between theTime Lords and the Vampires, and to the New Adventure "Blood Harvest ", which introduced the vampire Yarven.Using faith as a method of fighting vampires was first mentioned in the serial "
The Curse of Fenric ."The Doctor and Ruath were classmates at Prydonian Academy on Gallifrey, along with Mortimus, a.k.a., the
Meddling Monk (who first appeared in "The Time Meddler ").Notes
External links
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_ma01 | title=Goth Opera
* [http://members.lycos.co.uk/cloisterlibrary/goth.htm The Cloister Library - "Goth Opera"]Reviews
*OG review | id=ma-1 | title=Goth Opera
*DWRG | id=goth | title=Goth Opera
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