Managra (novel)

Managra was the fourteenth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Stephen Marley and featured the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith.
== Publisher's 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."
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 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.
== Plot ==
==== Prologue ====
As the Globe Theatre burns, its arsonist (a man named Francis) wanders the streets of London - being nearly killed by a burning bear and savagely beaten in a pub - before meeting with a mysterious creature who mimics everything that Francis speaks.
In a castle in the Black Forest, a young prince named Ludvig is forced to watch a play detailing the death of a pope by a creature that claims to be the Doctor (though has abilities that the Doctor has never been shown to have, such as the ability to morph Ludvig's face to not have a mouth just by touch).
=== Part One: Crimes at Midnight ===
In the Vatican, Cardinal Agostini is informed that Pope Lucian has been murdered. While standing over the Pope's body (speared by a statue in a mirror of the play from the Prologue), Agostini leans that the Pope intended on meeting with Lord Byron.
The Lord in question still stalks the halls of the Vatican, having failed to escape with his conspirators (Miles Dashing and Casanova). He manages to avoid the Vatican's guards and slip into a secret labyrinth but is caught once he tries to escape - taking out his sword and beginning a duel with them.
Aiming for the beaches of Shalonar in the year 3274 AD, the Doctor's TARDIS arrives in what at first appears to be the Vatican. Upon closer inspection, the Doctor reveals that it is actually Europa (a reconstruction of Europe based around folklore and pseudohistorical legend). Before Sarah Jane can reenter the TARDIS, it drops through the floor. This is followed by the Doctor and Sarah being surrounded by guards who emerged from droptiles.
As Miles Dashing jumps out of the Vatican City (which has lifted itself out of the ground), the Doctor and Sarah flee from the guards, while being watched by a conclave of Cardinals (including Agostini and the infamous Torquemada) dubbed the Convocation Extraordinary. After the Doctor beats them off with a yo-yo, the duo meets Lord Byron. This Byron doesn't remember meeting the Doctor at all, despite the Doctor (allegedly) having met him. After Byron runs off, the Doctor and Sarah resume fleeing. Unfortunately for Sarah, the Doctor vanishes from reality as she is running. She soons finds that her feet are stuck to the ground and that the floor is moving all on its own.
While the Doctor's TARDIS is examined by the Convocation Extraordinary and its occupants hang in limbo, Miles Dashing travels from the Vatican to Venice using his hover-scooter Draco and meets with Casanova. It is here that the first glimpse is given of Dashing's back story.
While pursuing a romantic partner, Dashing's family were converted into vampires. Instead of being converted himself, Miles killed all of them with a stake-gun and now lives on the run from the law.
Once Miles is finished with his story, Casanova sends him on the trail of Lord Byron, though it may not be the right Lord Byron.
The Doctor and Sarah wake up to find that the "limbo" they were in is actually a stone coffin. This is the first part of a multi-step torture process hosted and watched by the Convocation. Even though the Doctor and Sarah are submerged in blood, they manage to keep high spirits until threatened with being thrown into "the Pit". Before they can be thrown into the Pit, they are rescued by Lord Byron swinging on "the Pendulum". While the Doctor and Sarah manage to jump off of the Pendulum, Lord Byron seemingly jumps into the Pit.
Miles Dashing attempts to visit Villa Diodati but is thwarted by cloud-beings that hover over the skies of Switzia. Instead he lands in Transylvania and (out of duty to his family) breaks into a mansion and stakes a vampire in the heart. This vampire turns out to be a Reprise of Lord Byron and manages to survive, though he is reduced to a living shadow.
Another Reprise of Byron and a Reprise of Mary Shelley sit within Villa Diodati. They discuss Shelley's sequel to Frankenstein and a sighting of Miles Dashing's Draco. At or around the same time, two Reprises of Casanova meet.
Lord Byron hasn't actually jumped into the Pit, but actually stayed on it just to punch Torquemada into the Pit (though his body is remade immediately afterwards). Lord Byron, the Doctor, and Sarah run through the corridors of the Vatican until they find a hole leading to the city of Rome several miles beneath it. Hovering over the hole (cloaked) is a Draco, which the trio boards. Though it seems like they're in the clear, the Vatican disgorges a horde of Angeli (or Vatican flying machines) that begin hunting the trio down.
Dashing is able to escape the mansion and challenges the Shadow Ippisimus Byron to a duel. During this duel, Shadow Byron hijacks the body of a vampire peasant and is staked through the heart by Miles. This does not kill the Shadow but merely makes it into a beastial creature with barely any vestiges of Byron's personality. As Miles escapes from the shadow, he reaches his Draco but finds that its battery is dead. It seems that he has a long trek through Transylvania before he can reach Switzia.
=== Part Two: A Walk in the Black Forest ===
Aleister Crowley and Dr. Faust (both quarreling over the position of Official Antichrist) are met by a rather odd figure, Cardinal Richelieu. Richelieu offers them help in destroying the only other rival to the position of Official Antichrist if they help him destroy the Dominoes (an organization that Miles Dashing, Casanova, and Lord Byron are in). 
Meanwhile, the play in Ludvig's castle draws to a close. The "Doctor" (or Doctor Sperano) opens up Ludvig's mouth in a permanent smile before killing Ludvig's poodle right in front of the prince by squeezing it to death.
Though it seems that the Doctor, Sarah, and Byron will be frozen to death by the Angeli weaponry, the Doctor is able to get their DNA-based targeting to miss them by simply throwing a thimble-full of the trio's blood out of the Draco.
After the Doctor's escape, another Convocation Extraordinary is held. During this Convocation, one cardinal (Maroc) pushes for the total extermination of the Dominoes. To bolster his cause, he brings forth the form of the dead Pope. Unbeknownst to any of the cardinals within the Convocation, one of their member has been meeting with a mysterious figure known only as "Persona".
Using a mechanical horse, Dashing crosses the Transylvanian-Liechtensteinian border. While in Liechtenstein, he visits a pub owned by a Brittanian man. While in the pub, Dashing hires a dull manservant named Crocker. Unbeknownst to Dashing, the spirit of "Mad Byron" (now known as the Shadow) has also crossed the border.
The Draco lands in the Italian Black Forest. To abate necrodryads, the trio begins discussing the world of Europa. While this initially keeps the fear eaters at bay, the Doctor's fear of an ancient Gallifreyan legend (of faces within faces) brought about by his remembrance of Castle Bathory after Byron mentions a playwright known as "Doctor Sperano". Sarah tries to make a circle of fire to keep the necrodryads away, though the measly circle serves as an innefectual barrier.
As one Reprise of Casanova kills another Casanovan Reprise in a duel and the Convocation breaks into the TARDIS, the Byronic Shadow catches up to Miles. Though Miles tries to flee, he is stopped by the Shadow besmirching his honour. The Shadow then reveals that he (or at least the Byronic fragments remaining in his Shadow Ippisimus form) does not wish to kill Miles but give him clues. Unfortunately, the Nosferatu parts of the Shadow make this extremely difficult as he has to give them in the form of extremely cryptic riddles. What he does impart is that anagrams are extremely important and that "there's a dark hidden in the name of Dashwood."
Right before Byron can chop Sarah's head off, the Doctor pulls out a flute and lulls the necrodryads back into being regular trees. The trio still can't leave the circle of fire and as such, the Doctor begins ruminating on Castle Bathory - discussing two visitors to the Castle during the reign of Elizabeth Bathory, Edward Kelley and a much-maligned playwright named Francis Pearson (whose works are being restaged by Doctor Sperano).
As dawn breaks, the necrodryads revert back into regular trees. The trio begins walking to a town with mechanical horses they can hire within it. Unbeknownst to the trio, Doctor Sperano has detected the Doctor and intends upon giving him a gloriously drawn-out and extremely dramatic death scene.
Meanwhile, Faust (who is secretly a Domino who has decided to betray his comrades) and Crowley hold an Anti-Church ritual.
The trio begins their horseback voyage. Initially, their mechanical horses trot jerkily but the Doctor is able to fix their guidance systems. As such, their voyage to the Villa Diodati progresses smoothly.
In the Vatican, the cardinals discuss where the Doctor and Lord Byron will go next. They completely ignore the Villa Diodati (thinking that it is too obvious a choice) and instead have the Globe Theatre guarded in the hope that the Doctor's insatiable curiosity will lead to him investigating the Globe and falling into their trap.
After killing the Vatican agents tailing them, Dashing and Crocker begin talking as they make their way towards the Villa Diodati. During this conversation, it becomes clear that Crocker is hiding his own intelligence and that Dashing's family (the extremely wicked and cruel Dashwoods) were trying to kill him, with Dashing being too naive to notice this (even after his father had him stick his head into a cannon).
As the Dominoes make their way to the Villa Diodati, Doctor Sperano's theatre (which is bigger on the inside than on the outside) travels through the "Passing Strange".
As Cardinal Agostini declares that Cardinal Borgia is a traitor to the Enclave and has him jailed, Sarah wanders off from the Doctor and Byron to relieve herself and is kidnapped by a mysterious figure who takes the form of her father and spirits her away with a "magical" carriage.
=== Part Three: A Bolt from the Back ===
Cardinal Borgia is killed by being crushed to death and another Cardinal (Francisco) is killed by an exploding mirror. This leaves behind Cardinals Maroc, Agostini, Altzwinger, and Richelieu (who plans on becoming the Pope despite being a Reprise).
The first visitor (Faust) to the Villa Diodati arrives while Bad Byron is in the middle of summoning Satan.
After being dragged into Doctor Sperano's theatre, Sarah is brainwashed by Sperano (and an acolyte named Incarnadine) - becoming Shara, a "Lady in Tangerine".
The rest of the Dominoes (Dangerous Byron, Miles Dashing, and the Doctor) soon meet in the Villa Diodati (the home of their leader, Mary Shelley). The Doctor reveals the identity of the mysterious "Doctor Sperano" (Francis Pearson, who supposedly merged with an entity from Gallifreyan folklore called "Managra") before Bad Byron (enraged by a slight from his counterpart) challenges Dangerous Byron to a séance. Meanwhile, Cardinal Agostini summons Persona as the soul of Pope Lucian in paint looks down at them.
During the séance-duel, the two Byrons battle each other while using the other Dominoes in the room (including the Doctor and Crocker) as conduits. They bring forth several apparitions before the Doctor stops the duel (revealing that Bad Byron was cheating the whole time and stopping the two Byrons from killing each other) and begins using the séance as a source of information. He learns from the ghost of Dashing's father that the Dashwood family were converted into vampires after they tried to steal Sperano's pen (and that Sperano/Managra despises Miles Dashing) before he is stabbed by Mary Shelley - under the control of one of Sperano's plays (with "Shara" acting as Mary).
Due to his binary vasculary system, the Doctor survives being stabbed in the heart. The two Byrons commence a traditional duel - with Dangerous Byron beheading his Bad doppleganger. Unfortunately, this activates a "House of Usher" mechanism that causes the Villa Diodati to slowly fall apart. The Dominoes flee on Dracoes while planning assaults on the Dominion/Vatican's bases.
Seeing that the Doctor (and the actor playing him) has survived, Sperano exposes the actor playing the Doctor to the true form of Managra.
As the Doctor and Mary Shelley fly to "Britannica Gloriana" on a Draco, Richelieu sends Aleister Crowley (disguised as an ordinary priest) to search Pope Julian's apartments. Crowley discovers that the apartments have been empty for several days.
Later, Doctor Sperano dons his Pope Julian disguise for a brief moment - showing that the "Pope Julian" that supposedly escaped death was nothing more than a convenient fraud in Sperano's chess game. Sperano then strips away all of his masks until the form of Managra is revealed once more.
=== Part Four: Persona Non Grata ===
The Doctor, Mary, Miles, and Dashing break into the Globe Theatre (which is filled with the Vatican's military). Using recitations of Shakespeare's works, the Doctor is able to turn the Theatre (which is actually the Chronopticon, the origin point of the Reprises) into a recreation of the Battle of Agincourt and then recreates the burning of the Theatre to gain more info on Sperano. He follows a recording of Pearson through the fake flames and real bears and watches as a recording of Managra merges with the false Pearson.
After Cardinal Maroc is killed by his own men in an "accidental" shooting while searching for Dominoes in Transylvania, Cardinal Richelieu decides to fight against Agostini and "Persona". To help him, Richelieu talks with Cardinal Torquemada. In these talks, they also plot to help either one of them become the first Reprise pope.
During one of Sperano's performances (intended to be "Shara"'s last, before she is killed by Incarnadine), the performance is interrupted by Miles Dashing and Casanova (searching vengeance for Prince Ludvig). Though Casanova fails to kill Sperano, Miles is able to free both Sarah and "Incarnadine" (actually Miles' lost love, Beatrice) from Sperano's clutches. The duo and their recently-released companions reconvene with Mary Shelley and the Doctor and plan an assault on the Vatican.
As the Dominoes fly up to the Vatican to begin their assault (largely in the hope that they can stop Sperano from staging his "Thirteenth Night" play and warp Europa into a hellscape), Richelieu turns off the external sensors of the Vatican City and a group of nuns begin plotting bloody vengeance against Agostini.
The Doctor tries to activate the Chronopticon's time capsule abilities but instead activates its self-defense systems. As the Doctor fights with the Chronopticon's self-defense systems, Sperano begins the Thirteenth Night play with a long first act devoted entirely to demanding that a box should be opened. At the beginning of the second act, Sperano opens the "box" - (presumably) releasing Managra onto the audience.
During the Domino siege on the Vatican, Richelieu stages events to destroy Agostini's career - making it look like he was meeting with Aleisteir Crowley in secret (Crowley is double-crossed during this and falls to his death while escaping). Despite this, the Domino siege goes terribly. Most of the Dominoes are killed by poisonous incense and the surviving Dominoes are attacked by a horde of the Vatican Guard. During this, Byron and Miles are knocked out and Casanova is slain.
To escape judgement from the Vatican, Agostini flees into the Doctor's TARDIS and has it thrown into the Pit. Richelieu (who becomes Pope with the help of Altzinger) spares the lives of the Dominoes, as it benefits Francia politically if the Dominoes stay in operation. He also reveals Faust's deception and the angry Dominoes throw Faust into the Pit. As Faust falls into the Pit, Sarah sees the TARDIS falling into it and jumps into the Pit after it.
== Characters ==
* Fourth Doctor
* Sarah Jane Smith
* Miles Dashing
* Francis Pearson/Sperano
* Managra
=== Reprises ===
* Pope Lucian
* Mad Byron, Bad Byron and Dangerous Byron
* Mary Shelley
* Casanova
* Crocker
* Prince Ludwig of Bavaria
* Elizabeth Bathory
* Cardinal Richelieu
* Cardinal Torquemada
* Cardinal Agostini
* Cardinal Maroc
* Cardinal Borgia
* Francisco
* Aleister Crowley
* Dr Faust
* Paracelsus
* Beatrice
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Politics ===
* Europa is ruled by an extremely fanatical branch of the Catholic Church. By the 33rd century, the seat of the Church is in the Betelgeuse system.
=== Cultural references from the real world ===
* Sarah Jane Smith thinks about the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm when looking at the Black Forest. She expects to find a werewolf, a witch, Hansel and Gretel, the Little Red Riding Hood, and the Big Bad Wolf.
* Victor Frankenstein lives in Europa.
=== Individuals ===
* Jung the Obscure was a 23rd century theorist.
* Sarah viewed the Third Doctor as a father figure of sorts but thinks of the Fourth Doctor as more of a mad uncle.
* The Doctor mentions helping (the original) Lord Byron with poetry.
=== Locations ===
* The Doctor's intended target was the "sun-drenched shore of Shalonar" in 3278 AD.
* Within Europa is a recreation of the Vatican. It is guarded by the Switzia Guardians, lighted with holographic torches, and guarded by Heretic Alarms (plasmic extrusions in the form of gargoyles). The recreated Vatican is able to lift itself out of the ground and hover above it to stop intruders from leaving. It has its own hover vehicles - the Angelus.
* Vaduz is mentioned.
=== Technology ===
* Various unique vehicles are used within Europa, including the mechanical horse and the hover-scooter.
== Notes ==
* The word "Managra" is an anagram of "Anagram".
* This story is set between Planet of Evil and Pyramids of Mars.
== Continuity ==
* The time in which the Doctor and Sarah land is around three centuries after PROSE: Original Sin.
* The Doctor claims that the TARDIS is linked to his psyche and materializes in the wrong location due to his unconscious desires. While the Doctor claims this is a facetious explanation, the Doctor's TARDIS later gives a similar explanation in TV: The Doctor's Wife.
* At one point in the story, the Doctor is stabbed in the heart and survives due to the other one. His binary vascular system saves him again when he is stabbed in AUDIO: Son of the Dragon, PROSE: The Left-Handed Hummingbird, PROSE: Camera Obscura and TV: The Shakespeare Code.
* The Doctor tells Sarah that he played the role of the Doctor in the debut performance of Macbeth in the Globe Theatre in 1609 while King James I was in the audience. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
* The Doctor refers to the Monk. (TV: The Time Meddler, TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
* The Doctor mentions that he has met Torquemada twice. The first time, his first incarnation and his companions Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor spent several days in Spain after defeating the Monk in 1066 and were nearly killed by the Spanish Inquisition at Torquemada's orders. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
* Sarah mentions that her parents, Eddie and Barbara Smith, were killed in a car crash when she was a child and she was raised by her paternal aunt Lavinia Smith. (TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith)
* Although they have never met, Sarah is aware of the Master. She would later encounter him in the Death Zone on Gallifrey in the company of the Third Doctor. (TV: The Five Doctors)
* The Doctor refers to E-Space. (TV: Full Circle, State of Decay, Warriors' Gate)
* When Miles nears Transylvania, he talks about the history of Ipsissimus. He says that legend says their origin is Lord Jake and Lady Madelaine, whom the Doctor will later meet in his fifth incarnation. (PROSE: Goth Opera)
== External links ==
* 
* The Cloister Library: Managra
Category:Fourth Doctor novels
Category:Sarah Jane Smith novels
Category:MA novels
Category:1995 novels
Category:Stories set in London
Category:Stories set in 1613
Category:Stories set in Venice
Category:Stories set in 3278