Timewyrm: Revelation (novel)

Timewyrm: Revelation
Doctor:	[[doctor::Seventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Ace
Main enemy:	the Timewyrm
Main setting:	Earth, England, Norfolk, Cheldon Bonniface, 1992 The Moon, 1992
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Virgin Books]]
Writer:	Paul Cornell
Release details
Release number:	4
Release date:	December, 1991
Format:	Paperback Book, 220 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0426203607

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?

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?

Characters

• The Doctor
  • Dances with Death.
  • Is called Ka Faraq Gatri / Destroyer of Worlds by the Daleks for destroying Skaro.
  • The Doctor's mind has seven regions for his past and present selves.

• Ace
  • In an alternate timeline Chad Boyle bludgeons 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 Leader of the British Republic 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 Daleks call the Timewyrm Golyan Ak Tana, the twister of paths.

• Johnny Chess was reviewed in the NME - 18th July 1998.

• Ace's fear of clowns is mentioned, as well as her having a lock of Cheetah Person fur in her jacket.

• Shreela and Midge are thought of and there is a vauge reference to Manisha, Ace's friend who was mentioned in Ghost Light.

Notes

• This is the final novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.
• Paul Cornell based much of Timewyrm: Revelation on a short story called 'Total Eclipse';

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.")

Continuity

• Cheldon Bonniface is the location of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane's wedding in NA: Happy Endings.
• The reasons why the Sixth Doctor doesn't make an appearance are revealed in NA: Head Games.
• The Timewyrm claims to have been around during: DW: The Daleks' Master Plan, Earthshock, Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric
• Lt Hemmings last appeared in: NA: Timewyrm: Exodus and puts in an appearance in Happy Endings.

Timeline

• This story occurs after NA: Timewyrm: Apocalypse
• This story occurs before DWM: Cathedral Heart

External links

• Timewyrm: Revelation at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Timewyrm: Revelation at The Whoniverse
• Bewildering Reference Guide entry for Timewyrm: Revelation, with notes by the author