The Empire of Glass (novel)

The Empire of Glass was the sixteenth novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It featured the First Doctor, Vicki Pallister and Steven Taylor. It also featured Irving Braxiatel.

Publisher's summary

 * "There is a old Venetian saying," the Doctor murmured. "The council of ten send you to the torture chamber; the council of three send you to the grave."

A strange invitation brings the Doctor, Steven and Vicki to Venice in the year of our Lord 1609: a place of politics and poison, science and superstition, telescopes and terror. Galileo Galilei is there demonstrating his new invention to the Doge, and William Shakespeare is working as a spy for King James I. And there are other visitors too: inhuman ones that lurk in the shadows, watching - and killing.

Vicki is abducted to a flying island. Steven is accused of murder and challenged to a duel. The Doctor, meanwhile, finds himself at the centre of what looks like an attempted invasion. But who are the invaders? And why can’t they proceed without his help?

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * First Doctor
 * Vicki
 * Steven
 * Galileo Galilei
 * Irving Braxiatel
 * William Shakespeare
 * Christopher Marlowe
 * Cardinal Robert Bellarmine

The Doctor

 * The Doctor is returned to the TARDIS after assisting in the Omega affair. The Time Lords erased his memory of the events he took part in, leaving him only vague memories of a dandy and a clown.
 * The Doctor tests the pH of the water in the lagoon, showing that he is wary of pools of water due to a previous incident.

Drugs and medicines

 * Braxiatel gives a drug to Shakespeare that removes his memory of the last twenty-four hours (which is very similar to the drug retcon).

Foods and beverages

 * Steven gets drunk with Galileo Galilei.

Individuals

 * Shakespeare claims that another man who called himself "the Doctor" helped him to finish writing Hamlet. He asks the Doctor if he has a younger brother who is "tall, with curly brown hair".
 * The sand monster on Dido was called Sandy.

Law and order

 * The Doctor's role in banning the use of miniscopes is known throughout nine galaxies.
 * Irving Braxiatel has set up a conference to create the Armageddon Convention.

Libraries and archives

 * Braxiatel establishes the Library of Saint John the Beheaded.
 * Braxiatel obtains Shakespeare's "lost" plays Love's Labour's Won, The Birth of Merlin, and Sir John Oldcastle.

Species

 * The Sontaran Empire and the Rutan Host have representatives at the Armageddon Convention, but the Daleks and the Cybermen do not.
 * Other representatives at the Armageddon Convention include:
 * An Ice Warrior (or Ice Lord) by the name of Ssarl.
 * A fish-being wearing a bubble of water.
 * A Krarg.
 * A Vilp.
 * The Sontarans have rearranged their solar system (by decree of the Sontaran Imperator) more 'logically', so their sun revolves around their planet.

Time Lords

 * It is suggested vaguely that the Doctor and Braxiatel are related.

Earth locations

 * The Doctor notes that Venice sunk beneath the surface of the ocean prior to the 23rd century.

Continuity

 * The Armageddon Convention was first mentioned in DW: Revenge of the Cybermen. Braxiatel, or rather his Collection, was first mentioned by Romana in DW: City of Death.
 * Irving Braxiatel first appeared in NA: Theatre of War.
 * Shakespeare first met the Doctor in BFA: The Time of the Daleks (in the Doctor's future), DW: The Shakespeare Code, and has a drink with him in BFA: The Kingmaker. His play Love's Labour's Won (of which Braxiatel obtains a copy) was lost in DW: The Shakespeare Code.
 * Shakespeare refers to the Fourth Doctor's assistance with finishing Hamlet. (BE: The Stranger, The Writer, His Wife and the Mixed Metaphor, DW: City of Death'')
 * It is confirmed that the Doctor and Irving Braxiatel are related in BNA: Tears of the Oracle.
 * The holographic image generators used by the Jamarians to disguise themselves as humans are very similar to the perception filters used by the Saturnyns in DW: The Vampire of Venice (in which the Eleventh Doctor visits Venice).
 * Vicki does not seem to recognise King James I, despite having previously met him in November 1605. (MA: The Plotters)
 * Vicki tells Braxiatel that she met the Monk in 1066. (DW: The Time Meddler)
 * The Doctor tells Steven that Marco Polo described Venice as being an oppressive state. (DW: Marco Polo)
 * The Doctor's future companion Polly Wright would later unwittingly help James I's son King Charles I to escape from Roundhead captivity in December 1648 (PDA: The Roundheads) whereas the Second Doctor would later meet his grandson King James II in November 1688 (CC: The Glorious Revolution).
 * The Sixth Doctor would later meet Christopher Marlowe again in BFA: Points of Entry, the events of which took place in 1590, nineteen years prior to The Empire of Glass in Marlowe's personal timeline.
 * The Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard would later visit Venice in the 23rd century (BFA: The Stones of Venice) as would the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams in 1580 (DW: The Vampire of Venice).

For the Doctor

 * This story takes place after DW: The Three Doctors
 * This story takes place before ST: Corridors of Power

For Steven and Vicki

 * This story takes place after CC: The Suffering
 * This story takes place before ST: Corridors of Power

For Braxiatel

 * This story takes place after BFG: Disassembled
 * This story takes place before NA: Theatre of War