Well the plot of Managra is an extremely complex
storyline involving the Doctor and Sarah Jane being accused of the murder of
the Pope of the Catholic Church when the TARDIS is captured by the
Vatican. The plot that follows
immediately seems like it is going to be a simple Hartnell style find the
TARDIS story but the Doctor and Sarah Jane get wrapped up in the exploits of
Lord Byron and the Dominoes a group of aristocratic Reprises, the name given to
the clones of people and fictional characters, to stop the evil Dr. Sperano, a play
write who made money and a name for himself by ripping off the works of William
Shakespeare. Still not all is what it
seems involving Sperano’s theatre and the Managra, an ancient Gallifreyean
force of evil banished by Rassilon, is lurking in the shadows. Now this is just the basic plot outline, but
I won’t go any further as Managra is
a novel that should be experienced for yourself to fully understand its twists
and turns. I will say this however. Take a look at what Managra is an anagram of
and you can get an idea for what type of story you are in for.
Marley excels at the
characterization of the Doctor as he feels like he was ripped straight from Pyramids of Mars or The Brain of Morbius. The
sad part is that this is a novel that can never be adapted so we will never get
to hear Tom Baker read some of the brilliant lines. The Doctor knows something is wrong right
from the start as he recognizes a face on the hand of St. Benedict in a
painting in the Vatican. At one point
Sarah Jane gets captured like all companions usually do and Marley has the Doctor
react in a rage which is a great development of their character
relationship. You really could see the
Doctor becoming that upset over the capturing of his companion especially if it
was Sarah Jane. Marley also gives Sarah
Jane an extremely deep and sad backstory that is explored in the novel along
with her view on who the Doctor is to her and what exactly their relationship
is. Her parents died when she was very
young and she was brought up with Aunt Lavinia without a father figure. This allowed her to make the Third Doctor her
father figure. He was someone she could
confide in and when he changed to the Fourth Doctor she made him more of the
fun uncle that always makes you laugh at family gatherings. You really feel sorry for Sarah Jane who has
had a genuinely rough life thus far and travelling is only making it better. This causes the middle of the novel to suffer
when Sarah Jane is written out of the novel for a small portion of time that
you really notice.
The supporting characters
in this story are also extremely well done as while most of them feel like they
are from a period of history, there is this air of oddity that makes you have
the slightest inkling that they are still clones. Lord Byron and Casanova are the most interesting
as there are multiple of these two characters.
Casanova and his double are used mostly for comedy throughout the story
but it is the three Lord Byron’s who all chose different life paths which made
them turn out differently even if they have the same memories. I would have loved to see one of the Lord
Byron’s become a companion as the impression they gave off with the Doctor was
that they wanted to escape the shackles of their lives in Europa. The villains of the story is Sperano and
Managra who are great even if they have the same character.
To summarize, Managra is great at getting a feel for
the era of Doctor Who that it is trying to emulate. It is a story that I cannot really give too
much away about but if you will trust me you will find it is definitely worth
your time. The pacing however is off in
several places in the novel especially when Sarah Jane is written out of the
story and a few of the supporting characters just aren’t developed enough. 80/100
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