The Final Virgin Missing Adventure for the Second Doctor sees the TARDIS land on a planet that I don't believe is ever named in a city that also remains anonymous. It's a dark and rainy place and there are these ape-like creatures emerging from the sewers and raining mayhem and destruction down on the locals. Where is Auguste Dupin when you need him?
A group called the Knights of Kuabris make sure that no one gets too crazy and starts using science. Except, that is, for a power plant that allows the well-heeled to bask in the refulgence of electric lights. One day, Grand Knight Himesor calls the local alchemist/tinkerer, Defrabax, over for a chat. Himesor has reason to believe that Defrabax has created a homunculus. Homunculi don't breathe and so one can be helpful in doing a little reconnoitering in the sewers which are miasma-filled and keep any Knights from going to explore themselves.
There's a secret cult called the Brotherhood
of Rexulon which is devoutly anti-science, even more so that the
Knights of Kuabris, and they claim the apemen are part of the Menagerie
of Ukkazaal, with various creatures living beneath the city.
As Defrabax is having his confab with Himesor, the wizard's acolyte, Cosmae, is back at the lab gaining some carnal knowledge from a young lady of the night named Kaquaan. She is forced to leave when the homunculus returns. But before she goes, she snags a weird, but enchanting, glass cube thingy.
The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe emerge from the TARDIS into this tech-light, vaguely medieval flavored world. As in your standard Dungeons & Dragons adventure, our heroes head to a local tavern. Unfortunately for them, the establishment lacks the proper license and the joint is raided by the Knights. So everyone is rounded up and thrown in this world's version of the paddy wagon and hauled back to the nearest cop shop. Everyone, that is, except for Jamie who manages to escape.
From here the TARDIS crew are split into different storylines. Zoe is unable to pay the fine and so is sold into slavery where she is bought by a gentleman named Diseada who just so happens to run a freak show. There she befriends conjoined twins Raitak and Reisak who tell her that Diseada isn't too bad of a boss/owner. Their master also collects bric-a-brac which includes a suspended animation bed which inconveniently runs out of power and so now there's a vicious killing machine, a Mecrim, on the loose.
The Doctor, having introduced himself as a man of science to the bar-raiding Knights, is taken to Himesor to account for his heretical views. But instead of being subject to the equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition, the Doctor ingratiates himself with the Grand Poobah and is given permission to check out the Knights' walk-in reliquary and discovers suits with their own air supplies. Just the things to allow them to penetrate the sewers.
They don the suits and head below the city where the party is waylaid by a bunch of moth-like creatures whom we learn are the Taculbain. Only the Doctor survives their deadly venom.
Jamie meets up with Cosmae who has been sent by Defrabax to the Knights' stronghold. The wizard has deduced that Kaquaan had taken his cube dealio which was no mere tchotchke. Instead it was an integral part of his plan to have the plebs overthrow the Knights and usher in a new age of science and prosperity. Those apemen, Rocarbies, are in league with Defrabax, and are another race in the subterranean menagerie.
With Himesor having died at the stingers of the Taculbain on that ill-fated mission to the sewers, his devious second in command, Zaitabor, takes over.
Attention all Knights of Kuabris
Attention all Knights of Kuabris
Attention all Knights of Kuabris
Zaitabor has assumed control
Zaitabor has assumed control
Zaitabor has assumed control
Jamie and Cosmae discover that Zaitabor is a member of the Brotherhood of Rexulon and would impose an even more Luddite tyrrany on this city.
The Brotherhood's plan involves reactivating a reactor in the subterranean world which we discover is the remains of a previous city that was home to many a scientist. We learn from a series of transcripts of transmissions that Dr. Jenn Alforge and others did bio research in the city and ended up creating the Mecrim. Oh, and a deadly microbe came onto the scene too. Zaitabor is a cyborg who was involved with that research but a shuttle crash wiped his memory long ago.
The world here had some urban fantasy vibes from China Miéville's Perdido Street Station mixed with the Fourth Doctor adventure, The Stones of Blood, with its medieval present obscuring a technological past. The Mecrim are nasty buggers - just vicious killers - and reminded me a bit of xenomorphs or, in a more Doctor Who vein, the Krill. There's some good thrills and chills to be had when the one awakens from the cryo unit that Diseada had bought and goes on a rampage.
Aside from the Mecrim being genuinely terrifying, I thought the idea of the Menagerie was just really neat. Day does a fine job of introducing the idea and giving us snatches of the underworld inhabitants before we get the big reveal of just who is down there and what they're intentions are.
The regulars are done alright, but I don't mean this as a criticism, really. Zoe does a modicum of computing and keeps a stiff upper lip as the Mecrim threaten. Jamie is all action here, kicking butt and being all sneaky. The Doctor's more whimsical side is seen briefly but he's more Holmesian here than anything else. I am unsure if I simply got wrapped up in the story and the world Day has built and I simply neglected our heroes or who. Maybe they were done well but adjusted for something of a bleak story.
They show no playfulness and are basically all business. And they're separated to one degree or another for most of the story and this disallows the natural TARDIS traveler bonhomie to emerge. They feel like the TV characters but slightly obscured in the shadows of this world lit by fire.
Day does a good job of world building. The city feels like a city. Not a metropolis, but a conurbation. We go through various parts of it and there are nearby towns, such as where Diseada's band of merry performers have set up shop. We aren't told it's a big city and then get to see all of 2 rooms in it.
I also liked how Day gave us those messages from Alforge back to HQ. Oh, and a brief prelude involving her too. Honestly, I got really wrapped up in the world laid out here and forgot about the prelude until late in the book. It hints at the situation but doesn't give it all away. There are also bits of commentary from Himesor and his predecessors excerpted from various texts that illustrate the changing attitudes towards technology on the part of the Knights.
Overall, I very much enjoyed The Menagerie. There's a nice variety of characters. The Mecrim are brutish, nasty, unthinking killers. On the other hand, Defrabax comes across early on as scheming and conniving but we find out that he truly means well, he truly wants what's best for his people but he goes about achieving his goals in a misguided way. Similarly, Diseada goes from a man who buys slaves and runs a freak show into someone with a heart of gold who makes the ultimate sacrifice.
I enjoyed the city with its primitiveness yet having electricity, even if it's only for the rich. It was fun to be kept guessing at all the motivations of all the creatures and factions and personalities. Day juggles the various characters very well.
Next up are more of those Doctor Who Annual short stories. Ugh.
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