Timewyrm: Genesys (novel)

Mesopotamia — the cradle of civilisation. In the fertile crescent of land on the banks of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, mankind is turning from hunter gatherer into farmer, and from farmer into city-dweller.

Gilgamesh, the first hero-king, rules the city of Uruk. An equally legendary figure arrives, in a police telephone box: the TARDIS has brought the Doctor and his companion Ace to witness the first steps of mankind's long progress to the stars.

And from somewhere amid those distant points of light an evil sentience has tumbled. To her followers in the city of Kish she is known as Ishtar the goddess; to the Doctor’s forebears on ancient Gallifrey she was a mythical terror — the Timewyrm.

Chapter Titles

Prologue

Serpent in the Garden
Memories Are Made Of ...
When You Wish Upon Ishtar
Past Lives
Ambush
Spying Tonight
Talking Union
Band On The Run
Nitro Nine, Goddess Nil
Ace in the Hole
Party Piece
Avram's Tale
Split Infinities
The Mountains of Mashu
Guardians at the Gate of Dawn
The Lake of Souls
Utnapishtim
Escape
The Feast of Ishtar
Ace's High
Armageddon
Apotheosis
Timewyrm!

Epilogue

Plot

Preface

A spacecraft, holding the mysterious Timewyrm, drifts into Mutter's Spiral. The Timewyrm is possessing the crew, but kills them all when they frustrate her. She plans to set up a slave world on Earth, but soon realises the ship is falling apart. As she meets her apparent death, she can only see the irony in this.

Characters

References

Foods and beverages

Ace drinks beer that tastes not quite unlike pig vomit.
Rice and barley are grown using irrigation ditches.

Galaxies

The Timewyrm refers to the galaxy containing Earth as Mutter's Spiral.

Species

The Chronovores name the reborn Ishtar the Timewyrm.
Enkidu is a Neanderthal.
Ace is aware that Time Lords can regenerate. She's aware the Doctor has done this six times.

Religion

Belkeli is the priestess of Ishtar.
Dumuzi is the high priest of Ishtar.

Songs

Ace sings Irish folk songs.

TARDIS

The Doctor uses the his TARDIS' telepathic circuits to delete some superfluous memories, accidentally deleting Ace's; he gives them back but accidentally gives her some of Melanie Bush's also, allowing her to remember when Mel went to Paradise Towers.

Notes

This is the first novel in the Timewyrm four-novel series.
Although there had been several original novels and novellas published based upon the Whoniverse but not featuring the Doctor, and also several novelisations of unproduced Doctor Who stories, this was the first long-form original publication to feature the Doctor himself since the publication of the novella Doctor Who and the Invasion from Space in 1966.
This is also the first officially licensed novel featuring the Doctor to ever exceed 200 pages in length. The only official Doctor Who-related novel to exceed this milestone before this point was Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma, in which the Doctor did not appear.
The book's adult content in terms of language and sexuality was initially controversial with fans.
Andrew Skilleter created the cover art.
John Peel sets up an explanation for future writers to use, regarding continuity errors, by having the Doctor erase his less important memories.

Continuity

The Doctor erases the parts of his memory he considers no longer important to make room for new memories. As a result, he hopes he never encounters the Chronovores again (TV: The Time Monster) even though he already had in his last incarnation. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) He later says he never met Hitler (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus) even though he did in his last incarnation, (PROSE: The Shadow in the Glass) and that he has never been to Alaska (AUDIO: Lurkers at Sunlight's Edge) even though the fifth Doctor had. (AUDIO: The Land of the Dead)
The Fourth Doctor gained knowledge of the Timewyrm when he was in the Matrix; (TV: The Invasion of Time) he left a time-delayed message in the TARDIS for himself.
The Doctor claims that the Cloister Bell has not sounded since the events of Logopolis (TV: Logopolis). However this is not true as it sounded briefly after the TARDIS started to travel to Event One (TV: Castrovalva), during the collapse of a Time Corridor (AUDIO: The Mutant Phase) and when the TARDIS got trapped in a Dalek time corridor (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks).
Enkidu reminds Ace of Nimrod, this in turn leads her to remember the events of Gabriel Chase (TV: Ghost Light).
The Doctor remembers the deaths of Katarina, Sara Kingdom (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan) and Adric (TV: Earthshock). These memories are painful to the Doctor and wishes to avoid the same happens to Ace.
Ace still feels some of the after effects of the Cheetah Virus she became infected with in Survival.
The Doctor consoles Enkidu (who believes he is the last of his kind) by telling him that another Neanderthal survives to the 19th century. (TV: Ghost Light)

External links