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{{Infobox Novel|
{{title dab away}}
novel name= Timewyrm: Revelation|
{{real world}}
image= [[Image:NA004_revelation.jpg|250px]]|
{{Infobox Story SMW
series=[[Doctor Who]] -<br/>[[Virgin New Adventures]] |
|image= NA004 revelation.jpg
number= 4 |
|series = [[Virgin New Adventures]]
doctor=[[Seventh Doctor]] |
|range = Virgin New Adventures
companions= [[Ace]] |
|number in range = 4
enemy= the [[Timewyrm]] |
|number= 4
writer= [[Paul Cornell]] |
|adapted from = Total Eclipse (short story)
year= [[Earth]], [[England]], [[Norfolk]], [[Cheldon Bonniface]], [[1992]] <br> [[The Moon]], [[1992]] |
|doctor = Seventh Doctor
publisher= [[Virgin Books]] |
|featuring= First Doctor
release date= [[December]], [[1991]] |
|featuring2= Third Doctor
format= Paperback Book, 220 Pages |
|featuring3= Fourth Doctor
isbn= ISBN 0426203607 |
|featuring4= Fifth Doctor
previous story= [[Timewyrm: Apocalypse]] |
|featuring5= Death (mythology)
next story= [[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]}}
|featuring6= the Hermit
|featuring7= Adric
|featuring8= Katarina
|featuring9= Sara Kingdom
|featuring10= Eighth Doctor
|companions= [[Ace]]
|enemy= The [[Timewyrm]]
|writer= Paul Cornell
|cover= [[Andrew Skilleter]]
|setting= [[Cheldon Bonniface]] and [[The Moon]], [[1992]]
|publisher= Virgin Books
|release date= 5 December 1991
|format= Paperback Book; 15 Chapters, 220 Pages
|isbn= ISBN 0-426-20360-7
|prev= Timewyrm: Apocalypse (novel)
|next= Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible (novel)
|series2 = [[Interweaving with the New Adventures|''DWM'' "New Adventures order"]]  
|prev2 = Timewyrm: Apocalypse (novel)
|next2 = Fellow Travellers (comic story)
}}
'''''Timewyrm: Revelation''''' was the fourth book in the [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] series, and the fourth and final book in the [[Timewyrm]] arc. It was written by [[Paul Cornell]] and featured the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Ace]].


==Publisher's Summary==
== Publisher's summary ==
The parishioners of [[Cheldon Bonniface]] walk to church on the Sunday before [[Christmas]], [[1992]]. Snow is in the air, or is it the threat of something else? The Reverend Trelaw has a premonition, too, and discusses it with the spirit that inhabits his church. Perhaps the Doctor is about to visit them again?
The parishioners of [[Cheldon Bonniface]] walk to church on the Sunday before [[Christmas]], [[1992]]. [[Snow]] is in the air, or is it the threat of something else? The Reverend Trelaw has a premonition, too, and discusses it with the spirit that inhabits his church. Perhaps the Doctor is about to visit them again?


Some years earlier, in a playground in [[Perivale]], Chad Boyle picks up a half-brick. He’s going to get that creepy Dorothy who says she wants to be an astronaut. The weapon falls, splitting Dorothy’s skull. She dies instantly.
Some years earlier, in a playground in [[Perivale]], Chad Boyle picks up a half-brick. He's going to get that creepy Dorothy who says she wants to be an astronaut. The weapon falls, splitting Dorothy's skull. She dies instantly.


The Doctor has pursued the Timewyrm from prehistoric Mesopotamia to Nazi Germany, and then to the end of the universe. He has tracked down the creature again: but what trans-temporal trap has the Timewyrm prepared for their final confrontation?
The Doctor has pursued the Timewyrm from prehistoric Mesopotamia to Nazi Germany, and then to the end of the universe. He has tracked down the creature again: but what trans-temporal trap has the Timewyrm prepared for their final confrontation?


==Plot==
== Plot ==
Early in young [[Ace|Dorothy McShane]]'s life (or Dotty, as she is called) a young boy named [[Chad Boyle]] picks up a brick on the playground and hits her in the head with it, killing her instantly. Some time later, now awaiting trial and remanded to his mother's care, he is spirited away by a man in a police box. Elsewhere (and probably elsewhen, though still in modern times), in the village of [[Cheldon Bonniface]], there is a [[Saul|church]]…and it's alive. Or rather, it's permanently inhabited by an energy being named Saul, who doesn't really even know his own origin. With the reverend [[Ernest Trelaw]], Saul is a force for good in his community, and suddenly, he is faced with an odd couple. [[Peter Hutchings]] is a mathematician of considerable skill; his wife [[Emily Hutchings|Emily]] is a scholar of music, and unknown to her, possesses a strong psychic ability. They cannot have children; and so Emily is stunned when, during a service, [[Seventh Doctor|the Doctor]] runs in and places [[Ishtar Hutchings|a baby]] in her hands, then runs back out.


Having lost track of the Timewyrm, the Doctor chooses the TARDIS’s next destination apparently at random. The TARDIS arrives in the village of Cheldon Bonniface in the late 19th century.  While the Doctor is playing chess with an old friend, Ace is attacked by a child-sized astronaut. Ace evades her attacker, but as she flees the village, she suddenly discovers that they’re actually on the surface of the moon. Away from the protective environment of the faux-village, Ace dies. The astronaut, an eight-year-old boy named Chad Boyle, uses a small device to extract Ace’s memories and transmit them elsewhere.
Ace is disturbed. The Doctor has been acting strange, leaving [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] at night in random places, setting up future gambits, but something is not right about it. Now, they travel to Cheldon Bonniface, but in the Victorian era, where the Doctor is known. Ace is attacked by a child-sized astronaut, and runs away and finds herself on [[The Moon|the moon]]. The astronaut is revealed to be her childhood bully, Chad Boyle; he sends her mind away and places her body in the church, but Saul is not present in this time. Meanwhile the Doctor realises the entire village is a fake, and meets with an old adversary, [[Anthony Rupert Hemmings|Lieutenant Hemmings]] of the Freikorps (last seen in ''[[Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)|Timewyrm: Exodus]]'', boarding a TARDIS). Hemmings, controlled by the [[Timewyrm]], fails to capture the Doctor, who escapes in his TARDIS. The Timewyrm inhabits Boyle's body, and kills Hemmings, sending his mind to the same place as Ace's.


The Doctor discovers the illusion, but is surprised to see that his old friend is in fact Lieutenant Hemmings of the British Free Corps (from ''[[Timewyrm: Exodus]]''). The Doctor makes his way back to the TARDIS, where he discovers that he is really on the moon in December 1992. The Timewyrm killed Chad Boyle and Hemmings and sent their minds after Ace’s.  She took possession of Boyle’s body and waited for the Doctor to confront her.  
Ace, she finds, is in [[The Doctor's mind|Hell]]. Or so it is portrayed, anyway; she has her doubts. Some things are inconsistent: A library, a peaceful flower garden, and a strange room with thirteen stalls, six of which are filled with indeterminate, but humanoid, forms. Something claiming to be her rational side (but in fact is the Timewyrm) uses her to unleash a massive amount of power, vaporizing the real-world Cheldon Bonniface and all its people, and yanking the church (with Saul, Trelaw, the Hutchings, and the baby still inside) to the surface of the moon. Ace's body appears inside the church as well, on the altar, still alive but without her mind inside. The Doctor arrives inside the church, as does the Timewyrm, who forces him to confront a specter of [[Death (mythology)|death]]; but he is not moved. The Doctor enlists the help of Trelaw, Saul, and the Hutchings (leaving Emily in particular with a strange amulet) and then allows the Timewyrm to send his mind to the same place as Ace's, leaving his body in the church. The Timewyrm itself then abandons Boyle's body and follows the Doctor in.


Ace wakes up on a pier overlooking a beach. She comes across a receptionist, who informs her that she died as the result of the Doctor finally losing one of his games. Ace is taken to the afterlife to be judged.  She found herself in a library where she meets a kindly old [[First Doctor|Librarian]].  After exploring for a while, she decides that she must be dreaming. She concentrates on the village of Cheldon Bonniface.  
Ace meets [[First Doctor|the Librarian]], an old man who shows her that it is not Hell after all. Rather, it's the interior landscape of a mind that the Timewyrm has occupied as a base of operations. The Doctor joins her, and rescues her from torment; he learns that she is vacillating between maturity and childhood, and realises that it is because of the conflict between himself and the Timewyrm. If the Timewyrm wins, then, among other things, the vision of Chad Boyle killing Dorothy will come true, eliminating her entire adult life. If the Doctor wins, time will be restored. But the Doctor is losing.


In Cheldon Bonniface in 1992, the Reverend Ernest Trelaw is conducting the usual Sunday service, the last before Christmas.  Present in his church are two newcomers, Peter and Emily Hutchings.  Also present is the self-aware non-corporeal intelligence that has existed on the site of the church since long before the church existed. The Rev. Trelaw knows this intelligence as Saul, and both of them are shocked to see their old friend the Doctor run into the church in the middle of the service and deliver a baby into the arms of Emily Hutchings, before running out again. Later in the same service, Saul receives a psychic warning and shouts for all the congregants to leave.  Hearing a disembodied voice speak, the congregants exit, except for Emily and Peter. Suddenly, and with a tremendous explosion that devastates the surrounding countryside, the entire church is transported to the surface of the moon.  Elsewhere, Ace suddenly gets the feeling that she has done something terribly wrong.
Ace and the Doctor are confronted by the Doctor's personal demons — the ghosts of many who have fallen in service to him. Leading the pack are three of the Doctor's former companions: [[Katarina]], [[Sara Kingdom]], and [[Adric]], all of whom gave their lives in service to the Doctor. The Doctor and Ace escape this vision, and are captured by Hemmings, who is torturing [[Third Doctor|a prisoner]]. He threatens the Doctor, who gives up Ace to be tortured instead, but this allows him to confer with the prisoner. The Prisoner admits that he failed to resist Hemmings because he was troubled by his own [[Third Doctor (Inferno Earth)|demons]]. They join minds and send a message to the group in the church.


The church materializes around the Doctor and Ace’s body.  The Doctor retrieves an amulet the he had hidden in the church the last time he had been there, and gives it to Peter and Emily, telling them to find a use for it. The Doctor leaves the church to confront the Timewyrm. After a brief conversation, the Doctor dances with the personification of Death that the Timewyrm had conjured, and dies.  The Timewyrm extracts the Doctor’s memories and sends them after Ace’s, animates the Doctor’s body, and marches it into the church where it collapses.
Together, Emily, Peter, and Saul interpret the message, which leads them to recover Hemmings' severed head from the moon. They are able to force Hemmings' consciousness back into the head, removing him from the internal landscape and freeing Ace, and letting Hemmings finally die for real. This allows the Doctor and the Third Doctor to escape imprisonment. They meet a cryptic [[Fourth Doctor|ferryman]], who takes them to the area around the mindscape's central pit. Ace, now caught in illusions of the idyllic life she wanted as a child, eventually frees herself and joins the Doctor; the Third Doctor turns back to monitor her progress.


In Hell, Ace is being subjected to excruciating torment by her childhood nemesis, Chad Boyle.  She is once again eight-years-old and helpless to defend herself as Boyle imposes his bigoted eight-year-old worldview on the school. The Doctor arrives and rescues Ace, returning her to adulthood. She responds by punching him in the face, her way of saying “Thanks for getting me killed.”  They meet the Librarian in a splendid rose garden. The Librarian gives Ace her bomber jacket, rucksack, and ghetto blaster, and then speaks with the Doctor. The Timewyrm is trying to take control of the garden, but the Librarian is opposing her. Ace hears Boyle’s laugh in the distance, and goes to find him. The Doctor follows. Ace finds Boyle in the center of a maze, covering his eyes and counting, armed with a sub-machine gun and lots of grenades.  As she creeps up behind him, she thinks about blasting him with a Nitro-9 canister, but decided that murder was still murder, even in Hell.
At the pit, Chad Boyle confronts them, and stabs the Doctor — a mortal wound, but he will be slow in dying. Ace drives Boyle off, and helps the Doctor down to the bridge over the pit. She confronts the Timewyrm, which reveals its plan: this is not just any mindscape, but the Doctor's, where she hid herself [[Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)|long ago]] in [[Mesopotamia]]. As well, she has been able to exercise control briefly on several occasions, and has used the Doctor and the TARDIS to set the pieces of this complex plan in place; hence, the Doctor's mysterious nighttime excursions. If she can destroy the Doctor here, she will take over his body and powers, and consume the universe. Meanwhile, the group in the church, still following the Doctor's message, are stunned when the amulet opens into a portal into the Time Vortex. Working together, they find a path leading to the Doctor and Ace, and Emily goes through to rescue them. She successfully brings out the Doctor, but Ace is trapped. Ace is confronted by the dead companions again, who tell her to go into the pit and free the Doctor's [[Fifth Doctor|conscience]]. She finds it in the form of the Doctor's incarnation two regenerations ago, tied to a tree; she frees him, restoring the Doctor's conscience. Enraged, the Timewyrm attacks her, and Chad Boyle as well.


The Doctor meditates. Back at the church on the moon, Saul begins chanting a peculiar rhyme. The others try to puzzle out what it might mean. They eventually figure out that it is a message from the Doctor. On the Doctor’s instructions, they find Hemmings’s disembodied head on the moon’s surface, and Saul telekinetically returns it to the church.
Outside, the Doctor has the power now to crush the Timewyrm; but doing so will kill Ace as well. With his conscience restored, he cannot do that. He pilots the TARDIS into his own inner landscape<ref>According to the [[First Doctor]], [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] was a [[metaphysical engine]], meaning that along with traveling through space and time, it was also capable of entering into a person's mind. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Every Day (short story)|Every Day]]'')</ref>, and confronts the Timewyrm there, and offers it not death, but peace. In terror, it destroys Chad Boyle to unleash its full power on the Doctor. He locates the humanity inside, [[Qataka]], the woman it once was, and offers it peace. Qataka agrees, and he absorbs her into himself. The Timewyrm's power, now a facet of the universe itself, becomes dormant. The Doctor and Ace return to the church, and he releases Qataka's essence into the baby, which the Hutchings will now raise and name Ishtar. Qataka will have her chance at redemption.


Following a battle against Boyle involving grenades and Nitro-9, the Doctor rejoins Ace and explains that they aren’t literally in Hell, but in some alternative dimension to their own. They are soon joined by the Timewyrm, who is trying to drive a wedge between the Doctor and Ace.  To that end, she summons a wave of beings: [[Silurian (Doctor Who)|intelligent reptilian people]], soldiers in [[UNIT]] uniforms, and three individuals named [[Katarina (Doctor Who)|Katarina]], [[Sara Kingdom]], and [[Adric]], who all blame the Doctor for their deaths.  The Doctor is tormented by their accusations.  The Timewyrm leaves them to continue their hopeless journey to The Pit, the center of this strange world.
The Doctor and Ace return the church to Earth, where the explosion never happened, now that the Timewyrm is removed. They spend some time wrapping up loose ends, obtaining the baby from a lab and placing it with Emily, stopping the childhood version of Chad Boyle from killing childhood Ace [and realising that Chad turns out well in the end], and finally, departing. Trelaw, meanwhile, buries Hemmings' head, and pondering the outcome of it all.


Meanwhile, Hemmings has been given another area of this world to control, and has imprisoned the previous occupant, a [[Third Doctor|tall, elegantly dressed man with a shock of wild white hair]].  When the Doctor and Ace arrive, they are arrested by Nazis and placed in a cell with the tall man.  While Ace is taken away to be tortured, the Doctor and the Prisoner manage to escape.  Back at the church, Saul, Emily, and Peter try to find a way to communicate with the head, over Ernest’s religious objections.  They succeed, but only for a moment, after which Hemmings finally dies.  The zone Hemmings created begins to fall apart.  The Doctor and the Prisoner escape while the zone collapses.  The Doctor tells the Prisoner he is making for the Pit, and to that end, they made their way to a river which divides the various zones, and are met by a [[Fourth Doctor|Ferryman]] wearing a floppy brown hat and long multi-colored scarf. 
== Characters ==
* [[Seventh Doctor|The Doctor]]
* [[Ace]]
* [[Timewyrm]]
* [[George (Timewyrm: Revelation)|George]]
* [[Chad Boyle]]
* [[Marshall (Timewyrm: Revelation)|Marshall]]
* [[Emily Hutchings]]
* [[Peter Hutchings]]
* [[Ernest Trelaw]]
* [[The Hermit]]
* [[Saul]]
* [[Anthony Rupert Hemmings]]
* [[Death (mythology)|Death]]


Ace wakes up again, this time in a world where she grew up in a happy and uncomplicated life.  She never became a rebellious youth, but merely went along with the prevailing fashions of the time.  At the back of her mind, she knows this is wrong.  Eventually, she realizes the truth and escapes the trap.  She finds the Doctor facing off with Chad Boyle, who stabs him with a sword.  Ace helps the Doctor as they continue their journey toward the Pit.  The Timewyrm appears again and explains to Ace that they are within the Doctor’s mind.
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Books ===
* The Timewyrm tried to read the ''[[Green Book of Gallifrey]]'' and the ''[[Black Book of Gallifrey]]''.


At the Church, Ernest can see the Doctor’s body is faring poorly.  The medallion suddenly began to pulse with energy and grows before their eyes.  The runes written on it coalesce into another message from the Doctor, this time telling them to open a dimensional portal.  Saul’s psychic powers provide the energies while Peter’s mathematical abilities establish and stabilize the conduit. Emily travels along it to find the Doctor and Ace.  She finds them immediately upon arrival and tries to get them back through the medallion portal, but they are being chased by the horde of the Doctor’s demons.  Emily manages to get herself and the Doctor away, but Ace is left behind.
=== The Doctor ===
* The Doctor feels immense guilt over the deaths of [[Katarina]], [[Sara Kingdom]] and [[Adric]].
* The Doctor makes the sign of the [[Horns of Rassilon]] with his fingers.


Once freed from his own mind, the Doctor knows he can destroy the Timewyrm forever, but not without sacrificing Ace. Meanwhile, Ace decides to continue down into the Pit, where she finds the Doctor’s conscience, a [[Fifth Doctor|fair-haired man in light-colored clothes being perpetually tortured]]. Ace sets him free, and as his wounds heal before her eyes, Ace sees that he is dressed like a cricketer.  The Doctor pilots the TARDIS to the intersection between reality and the fiction of his own imagination and rescues Ace. He also spares the Timewyrm, taking her consciousness and depositing it into the body of the baby he had given to Emily. The Hutchings agree to raise the child as their own, and at the Doctor’s behest, name her Ishtar. The battle with the Timewyrm is over.
=== The Doctors as they appear within the Seventh Doctor's mind ===
* The [[First Doctor]] is the librarian and keeper of the gardens.
* The Seventh Doctor is sometimes terrified of the [[Third Doctor]]. He is haunted by the realisation that the [[Third Doctor (Inferno Earth)|Leader]] of the [[Republic of Great Britain|British Republic]] was [[Third Doctor (Inferno Earth)|his counterpart]].
* The [[Fourth Doctor]] is the ferryman.
* The [[Fifth Doctor]] is enchained in the pit, but is freed by Ace. He is the Doctor's conscience.


=== Gallifrey ===
* [[Gallifrey]]'s highest peak is [[Mount Lung|Mount Cadon]]. The [[Prydonian]] Academy is on its slopes.


==Characters==
=== Individuals ===
*[[Seventh Doctor | The Doctor]]
* [[Johnny Chess]] was reviewed in the ''NME'' - 18th July 1998.
**Dances with [[Death]].
* Ace's fear of [[clown]]s is mentioned, as well as her having a lock of [[Cheetah Person]] fur in her jacket.
**Is called [[Ka Faraq Gatri]] / Destroyer of Worlds by the Daleks for destroying Skaro.
* [[Shreela]] and [[Midge (Survival)|Midge]] are thought of and there is a vague reference to [[Manisha]], Ace's friend whom she mentioned when she was at [[Gabriel Chase]].
**The Doctor's mind has seven regions for his past and present selves.
* The essence of the Timewyrm is placed in a baby by the Doctor and given to Emily and Peter Hutchings, with the name [[Timewyrm#As Isthtar Hutchings|Ishtar Hutchings]].
 
* Peter Hutchings is a [[Cambridge University]] Mathematics professor.
*[[Ace]]
* The Doctor mentions having met [[Sherlock Holmes]].
**In an alternate timeline Chad Boyle bludgens her with a brick (killing her).
**Ace also walks out onto the surface of the moon; her lungs explode.
 
*[[Timewyrm]]
**Will always exist in some form.
**Its essence is placed in a baby by the Doctor and given to Emily and Peter Hutchings, with the name [[Ishtar Hutchings]].
 
*[[Chad Boyle]]
**A childhood bully of Ace's.
 
*[[Emily Hutchings]]
**Mildly telepathic.
**She's an old friend of the Doctor.
**Has decided to become a novelist.
 
*[[Peter Hutchings]]
**Cambridge Mathematics professor.
 
*[[Ernest Trelaw]]
**Current vicar of St. Christopher's (Saul).
**Knows about Saul.
 
*[[Saul]]
**A sentient church in Cheldon Bonniface.
**Pushes Hemmings' head along the moon's surface through telekinesis alone.
 
*[[Anthony Rupert Hemmings]]
 
*[[Death]]
**Is created by the Timewyrm.
 
'''The Doctors as they appear within the Seventh Doctor's mind'''
*[[First Doctor]]
**Is the librarian and keeper of the gardens.
*[[Second Doctor]]
*[[Third Doctor]]
**The seventh Doctor is sometimes terrified of him.
**Is haunted by the realisation that the dictator in the 'Inferno' Earth was his counterpart.
*[[Fourth Doctor]]
**The ferryman.
*[[Fifth Doctor]]
**Is enchained in the pit, but is freed by Ace.
**He is the Doctor's conscience.
 
==References==
* The Doctor has visited [[Cheldon Bonniface]] several times.
 
* The Doctor feels immense guilt over the deaths of: [[Katarina]], [[Sara Kingdom]] and [[Adric]].
 
* [[Gallifrey]]'s highest peak is [[Mount Cadon]], the [[Prydonian]] Academy is on its slopes.
 
* The Timewyrm tried to read [[The Green Book of Gallifrey]] and the [[Red Book of Gallifrey]].


* The [[Dalek]]s call the Timewyrm [[Golyan Ak Tana]], the twister of paths.
=== Music ===
* Ace is a fan of the [[Happy Mondays]].


* [[Johnny Chess]] was reviewed in the ''NME'' - 18th July 1998.
=== Psychic powers ===
* Emily Hutchings is mildly [[telepathic]].
* Saul pushes Hemmings' head along the surface of the moon through [[telekinesis]] alone.


*Aces fear of clowns is mentioned, as well as her having a lock of Cheetah Person fur in her jacket.
=== Species ===
* The Doctor is called Ka Faraq Gatri / Destroyer of Worlds by the [[Dalek]]s for destroying [[Skaro]].


*Shreela and Midge are thought of and there is a vauge reference to Manisha, Ace's friend who was mentioned in [[Ghost Light]].
=== Timeline ===
* In an [[alternate timeline]] [[Chad Boyle]] bludgeoned a young [[Ace]] with a brick, killing her.


==Notes==
== Notes ==
* This is the final novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.
* This is the final novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.
*Paul Cornell based much of ''Timewyrm: Revelation'' on a short story called 'Total Eclipse';
* Paul Cornell based much of ''Timewyrm: Revelation'' on a short story called ''Total Eclipse'', which was originally serialised in the fanzine ''[[Queen Bat (fanzine)|Queen Bat]]'':
{{quote|In its original form as 'Total Eclipse', it was the last of a trilogy concerning Saul the sentient church, and two time travellers from a dictatorial future who'd come back to 'fix' the past, with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa getting in the way. (Said Cornell, "They were the TARDIS crew I wrote mostly for.")|[[Paul Cornell]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://voxbomb.com/post/203048207|title=Flashback Interview: Paul Cornell|author=|date of source=2002|website name=Vox Bomb|accessdate=11 August 2011}}</ref>}}
* The name Mount Cadon was invented here. It has been referenced in several other stories.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oocities.org/rico.briggs/reve.html|title=timewyrm: revelation|author= Eric Briggs|coauthors=Paul Cornell|date of source=1999|website name=The Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide|accessdate=11 August 2011}}</ref>
* The cover image ''actually'' happens in this novel
* [[Russell T Davies]] would praise the book in an interview, mentioning that "Paul bloody Cornell gave us ''Doctor Who'', but he made it real. I mean, real people, laid bare, exposing all their anger, passion, and, damn it, nobility." <ref>Doctor Who The Vault </ref>


<blockquote>''In its original form as ‘Total Eclipse’, it was the last of a trilogy concerning Saul the sentient church, and two time travelers from a dictatorial future who’d come back to ‘fix’ the past, with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa getting in the way. (Said Cornell, "They were the TARDIS crew I wrote mostly for.")''<ref>[http://www.voxbomb.net/?p=718 Vox Bomb - Flashback Interview: Paul Cornell] <small>accessed 17th June 2009</small></ref></blockquote>
== Continuity ==
* Cheldon Bonniface is the location of [[Bernice Summerfield]] and [[Jason Kane]]'s wedding on [[24 April]] [[2010]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Happy Endings (novel)|Happy Endings]]'')
* The reasons why the [[Sixth Doctor]] does not make an appearance are revealed in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Head Games (novel)|Head Games]]''.
* The Timewyrm claims to have been around during the events of [[TV]]: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'', ''[[Earthshock (TV story)|Earthshock]]'', ''[[Ghost Light (TV story)|Ghost Light]]'', and ''[[The Curse of Fenric (TV story)|The Curse of Fenric]]''.
* Lt Hemmings last appeared in [[PROSE]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)|Timewyrm: Exodus]]'' and puts in an appearance in ''[[Happy Endings (novel)|Happy Endings]]''.
* The Doctor recalls his [[Second Doctor|second incarnation]] meeting him in a dream. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Apocalypse (novel)|Timewyrm: Apocalypse]]'')


==Continuity==
== Cover gallery ==
* Cheldon Bonniface is the location of [[Bernice Summerfield]] and [[Jason Kane]]'s wedding in [[NA]]: ''[[Happy Endings]]''.
<gallery position="center" captionalign="center" hideaddbutton="true">
* The reasons why the [[Sixth Doctor]] doesn't make an appearance are revealed in [[NA]]: ''[[Head Games]]''.
File:NA004 revelation.jpg|Original cover
* The Timewyrm claims to have been around during: [[DW]]: ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan]], [[Earthshock]], [[Ghost Light]] and [[The Curse of Fenric]]''
File:NA004 revelation textless cover.jpg|Textless cover
* Lt Hemmings last appeared in: [[NA]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Exodus]]'' and puts in an appearance in ''[[Happy Endings]]''.
</gallery>


==Timeline==
== Footnotes ==
*This story occurs after [[NA]]: ''[[Timewyrm: Apocalypse]]''
*This story occurs before [[DWM]]: ''[[Cathedral Heart]]''
 
==External Links==
*{{dwrefguide|who_na04.htm|Timewyrm: Revelation}}
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20050224144938/http://www.geocities.com/rico.briggs/reve.html Bewildering Reference Guide entry for '''Timewyrm: Revelation''', with notes by the author] via [http://www.archive.org/web/web.php Internet Archive: Wayback Machine]
*{{whoniverse|NA04.php|Timewyrm: Revelation}}
 
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
{{reflist}}
== External links ==
{{dwrefguide|who_na04.htm|Timewyrm: Revelation}}
* {{whoniverse|na04|Timewyrm: Revelation}}
* [http://mysite.science.uottawa.ca/rsmith43/cloister/revelation.htm The Cloister Library: '''Timewyrm: Revelation''']
* [http://www.oocities.com/rico.briggs/reve.html Bewildering Reference Guide entry for '''Timewyrm: Revelation''', with notes by the author]
* [http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv28/paulcornell.html A Conversation with Paul Cornell by David Bishop (Interview) - TSV 28]
* [http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv48/paulcornell.html Paul Cornell by Paul Scoones (Interview) - TSV 48]
{{NA}}
{{TitleSort}}


{{Virgin New Adventure Series Box | before = [[Timewyrm: Apocalypse]] | after = [[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]}}
[[Category:Stories set in Perivale]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1992]]
[[Category:Stories set at Christmas]]
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[[Category:Virgin New Adventure Novels]]
[[Category:First Doctor novels]]
[[Category:Timewyrm arc]]
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[[Category:Fourth Doctor novels]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1992]]
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[[Category:1991 novels]]
[[Category:Stories set in Perivale]]

Latest revision as of 20:31, 10 April 2024

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Timewyrm: Revelation was the fourth book in the New Adventures series, and the fourth and final book in the Timewyrm arc. It was written by Paul Cornell and featured the Seventh Doctor and Ace.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

The parishioners of Cheldon Bonniface walk to church on the Sunday before Christmas, 1992. Snow is in the air, or is it the threat of something else? The Reverend Trelaw has a premonition, too, and discusses it with the spirit that inhabits his church. Perhaps the Doctor is about to visit them again?

Some years earlier, in a playground in Perivale, Chad Boyle picks up a half-brick. He's going to get that creepy Dorothy who says she wants to be an astronaut. The weapon falls, splitting Dorothy's skull. She dies instantly.

The Doctor has pursued the Timewyrm from prehistoric Mesopotamia to Nazi Germany, and then to the end of the universe. He has tracked down the creature again: but what trans-temporal trap has the Timewyrm prepared for their final confrontation?

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Early in young Dorothy McShane's life (or Dotty, as she is called) a young boy named Chad Boyle picks up a brick on the playground and hits her in the head with it, killing her instantly. Some time later, now awaiting trial and remanded to his mother's care, he is spirited away by a man in a police box. Elsewhere (and probably elsewhen, though still in modern times), in the village of Cheldon Bonniface, there is a church…and it's alive. Or rather, it's permanently inhabited by an energy being named Saul, who doesn't really even know his own origin. With the reverend Ernest Trelaw, Saul is a force for good in his community, and suddenly, he is faced with an odd couple. Peter Hutchings is a mathematician of considerable skill; his wife Emily is a scholar of music, and unknown to her, possesses a strong psychic ability. They cannot have children; and so Emily is stunned when, during a service, the Doctor runs in and places a baby in her hands, then runs back out.

Ace is disturbed. The Doctor has been acting strange, leaving the TARDIS at night in random places, setting up future gambits, but something is not right about it. Now, they travel to Cheldon Bonniface, but in the Victorian era, where the Doctor is known. Ace is attacked by a child-sized astronaut, and runs away and finds herself on the moon. The astronaut is revealed to be her childhood bully, Chad Boyle; he sends her mind away and places her body in the church, but Saul is not present in this time. Meanwhile the Doctor realises the entire village is a fake, and meets with an old adversary, Lieutenant Hemmings of the Freikorps (last seen in Timewyrm: Exodus, boarding a TARDIS). Hemmings, controlled by the Timewyrm, fails to capture the Doctor, who escapes in his TARDIS. The Timewyrm inhabits Boyle's body, and kills Hemmings, sending his mind to the same place as Ace's.

Ace, she finds, is in Hell. Or so it is portrayed, anyway; she has her doubts. Some things are inconsistent: A library, a peaceful flower garden, and a strange room with thirteen stalls, six of which are filled with indeterminate, but humanoid, forms. Something claiming to be her rational side (but in fact is the Timewyrm) uses her to unleash a massive amount of power, vaporizing the real-world Cheldon Bonniface and all its people, and yanking the church (with Saul, Trelaw, the Hutchings, and the baby still inside) to the surface of the moon. Ace's body appears inside the church as well, on the altar, still alive but without her mind inside. The Doctor arrives inside the church, as does the Timewyrm, who forces him to confront a specter of death; but he is not moved. The Doctor enlists the help of Trelaw, Saul, and the Hutchings (leaving Emily in particular with a strange amulet) and then allows the Timewyrm to send his mind to the same place as Ace's, leaving his body in the church. The Timewyrm itself then abandons Boyle's body and follows the Doctor in.

Ace meets the Librarian, an old man who shows her that it is not Hell after all. Rather, it's the interior landscape of a mind that the Timewyrm has occupied as a base of operations. The Doctor joins her, and rescues her from torment; he learns that she is vacillating between maturity and childhood, and realises that it is because of the conflict between himself and the Timewyrm. If the Timewyrm wins, then, among other things, the vision of Chad Boyle killing Dorothy will come true, eliminating her entire adult life. If the Doctor wins, time will be restored. But the Doctor is losing.

Ace and the Doctor are confronted by the Doctor's personal demons — the ghosts of many who have fallen in service to him. Leading the pack are three of the Doctor's former companions: Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and Adric, all of whom gave their lives in service to the Doctor. The Doctor and Ace escape this vision, and are captured by Hemmings, who is torturing a prisoner. He threatens the Doctor, who gives up Ace to be tortured instead, but this allows him to confer with the prisoner. The Prisoner admits that he failed to resist Hemmings because he was troubled by his own demons. They join minds and send a message to the group in the church.

Together, Emily, Peter, and Saul interpret the message, which leads them to recover Hemmings' severed head from the moon. They are able to force Hemmings' consciousness back into the head, removing him from the internal landscape and freeing Ace, and letting Hemmings finally die for real. This allows the Doctor and the Third Doctor to escape imprisonment. They meet a cryptic ferryman, who takes them to the area around the mindscape's central pit. Ace, now caught in illusions of the idyllic life she wanted as a child, eventually frees herself and joins the Doctor; the Third Doctor turns back to monitor her progress.

At the pit, Chad Boyle confronts them, and stabs the Doctor — a mortal wound, but he will be slow in dying. Ace drives Boyle off, and helps the Doctor down to the bridge over the pit. She confronts the Timewyrm, which reveals its plan: this is not just any mindscape, but the Doctor's, where she hid herself long ago in Mesopotamia. As well, she has been able to exercise control briefly on several occasions, and has used the Doctor and the TARDIS to set the pieces of this complex plan in place; hence, the Doctor's mysterious nighttime excursions. If she can destroy the Doctor here, she will take over his body and powers, and consume the universe. Meanwhile, the group in the church, still following the Doctor's message, are stunned when the amulet opens into a portal into the Time Vortex. Working together, they find a path leading to the Doctor and Ace, and Emily goes through to rescue them. She successfully brings out the Doctor, but Ace is trapped. Ace is confronted by the dead companions again, who tell her to go into the pit and free the Doctor's conscience. She finds it in the form of the Doctor's incarnation two regenerations ago, tied to a tree; she frees him, restoring the Doctor's conscience. Enraged, the Timewyrm attacks her, and Chad Boyle as well.

Outside, the Doctor has the power now to crush the Timewyrm; but doing so will kill Ace as well. With his conscience restored, he cannot do that. He pilots the TARDIS into his own inner landscape[1], and confronts the Timewyrm there, and offers it not death, but peace. In terror, it destroys Chad Boyle to unleash its full power on the Doctor. He locates the humanity inside, Qataka, the woman it once was, and offers it peace. Qataka agrees, and he absorbs her into himself. The Timewyrm's power, now a facet of the universe itself, becomes dormant. The Doctor and Ace return to the church, and he releases Qataka's essence into the baby, which the Hutchings will now raise and name Ishtar. Qataka will have her chance at redemption.

The Doctor and Ace return the church to Earth, where the explosion never happened, now that the Timewyrm is removed. They spend some time wrapping up loose ends, obtaining the baby from a lab and placing it with Emily, stopping the childhood version of Chad Boyle from killing childhood Ace [and realising that Chad turns out well in the end], and finally, departing. Trelaw, meanwhile, buries Hemmings' head, and pondering the outcome of it all.

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Books[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctors as they appear within the Seventh Doctor's mind[[edit] | [edit source]]

Gallifrey[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Music[[edit] | [edit source]]

Psychic powers[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Emily Hutchings is mildly telepathic.
  • Saul pushes Hemmings' head along the surface of the moon through telekinesis alone.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor is called Ka Faraq Gatri / Destroyer of Worlds by the Daleks for destroying Skaro.

Timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This is the final novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.
  • Paul Cornell based much of Timewyrm: Revelation on a short story called Total Eclipse, which was originally serialised in the fanzine Queen Bat:

In its original form as 'Total Eclipse', it was the last of a trilogy concerning Saul the sentient church, and two time travellers from a dictatorial future who'd come back to 'fix' the past, with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa getting in the way. (Said Cornell, "They were the TARDIS crew I wrote mostly for.")Paul Cornell[2]

  • The name Mount Cadon was invented here. It has been referenced in several other stories.[3]
  • The cover image actually happens in this novel
  • Russell T Davies would praise the book in an interview, mentioning that "Paul bloody Cornell gave us Doctor Who, but he made it real. I mean, real people, laid bare, exposing all their anger, passion, and, damn it, nobility." [4]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cover gallery[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Original cover

    Original cover

  • Textless cover

    Textless cover

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ According to the First Doctor, the TARDIS was a metaphysical engine, meaning that along with traveling through space and time, it was also capable of entering into a person's mind. (PROSE: Every Day)
  2. ↑ Flashback Interview: Paul Cornell. Vox Bomb (2002). Retrieved on 11 August 2011.
  3. ↑ Eric Briggs; Paul Cornell (1999). timewyrm: revelation. The Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide. Retrieved on 11 August 2011.
  4. ↑ Doctor Who The Vault

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

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1991
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1997
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