Timewyrm: Exodus (novel)

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Timewyrm: Exodus is the second book in the New Adventures series. It was written by Terrance Dicks. Featuring the Seventh Doctor and Ace, it is the second book in the Timewyrm story arc, and also acts as a sequel to The War Games [+]Loading...["The War Games (TV story)"].

Dicks' first original novel, the plot, in essence, is comprised numerous interrelated mini-stories, with the Doctor hopping to various times and locations to sort out related instances of alien interference with Earth's history. A similar structure and premise was adopted in some of Dicks' later novels, in particular the Players trilogy: Players, Endgame and World Game. Some of these novels even include references to Exodus which lightly ties it to the spanning narrative.

Exodus features the first appearance in all of Doctor Who media of Adolf Hitler, who had previously only been mentioned. It explores his rise to power and his reign at the beginning of World War II in the context of the DWU. The later release, The Shadow in the Glass, complements Exodus by exploring Hitler's downfall. Players is also a significant companion piece, containing a number of references to Exodus, expanding on some of its ideas, and also following a similar story line with a focus on Winston Churchill rather than Hitler.

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

The pursuit of the Timewyrm leads the Doctor and Ace to London, 1951, and the Festival of Britain — a celebration of the achievements of this small country, this insignificant corner of the glorious Thousand Year Reich.

Someone — or something — has been interfering with the time lines, and in order to investigate, the Doctor travels further back in time to the very dawn of the Nazi evil. In the heart of the Germany of the Third Reich, he finds that this little band of thugs and misfits did not take over half the world unaided.

History must be restored to its proper course, and in his attempt to repair the time lines, the Doctor faces the most terrible dilemma he has ever known...

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Following the events of Timewyrm: Genesys, the TARDIS takes the Seventh Doctor and Ace to London, 1951. It’s the Festival of Britain, set to celebrate recovery from World War II, but something is amiss: It becomes immediately clear that history has changed, and the Nazis won the war. Britain is now a German protectorate.

The Doctor saves a shopkeeper from a brawl with members of the Freikorps, a sanctioned group of local thugs under the loose control of the SS. He and Ace then witness a murder, and the dying man slips the Doctor an odd item: the identification of a high-ranking Nazi official, the Reichsinspektor General. Shortly thereafter, they are arrested on the word of an informant, and imprisoned by a Lieutenant Hemmings, local commander of the Freikorps. They escape quite easily, and return to the Festival, where a local named Popplewell (secretly a resistance member) hints at how to contact the resistance movement. He also reveals that the TARDIS was taken by a patrol. They return to the local headquarters, and the Doctor uses the ID badge to bluff his way into the confidence of the local general, General Strasser. Hemmings breaks in and accuses them, and the Doctor has Hemmings seconded to his command, so as to keep him in view.

The Doctor tells Hemmings that Ace is a relative of a resistance member, and has contacts; she must be "interrogated" (for the sake of appearances) and then released, and will then willingly lead them to the resistance. Meanwhile, the Doctor goes to the former British Museum to examine the military records stored there, hoping to find the point at which history diverged. He learns that the turning point was at Dunkirk during the war; unlike real history, the Germans annihilated the retreating British army at Dunkirk. He is contacted psychically by the Timewyrm, who rages and tears up the room, much like a poltergeist, but he gets the impression she is trapped somehow. Hemmings, meanwhile, "interrogates" Ace; he beats her more than necessary for effect, as he doesn’t believe they are not enemies of some sort. He then releases her, and she goes to act on the tip from Popplewell, meeting resistance members at Ma Barker’s Cafe. Hemmings has her followed, and plans to raid the cafe; but he is interrupted by the timely intervention of the Doctor, who manages to vouch for the resistance members as double agent, and have Hemmings arrested. Back at HQ, he sends Ace to the TARDIS, and goes to release Hemmings secretly, knowing he put the man in a dangerous position; but Hemmings attacks him and bolts. Hemmings sees the TARDIS materialise, and a voice calls him inside; then the TARDIS vanishes. However, something isn't right; the Doctor's TARDIS is still where he left it. The Doctor joins Ace there, and they depart.

Working with a plan that he has not yet revealed, the Doctor travels to Munich, 1923, on the date of Hitler’s failed coup that led to his imprisonment (during which he would write "Mein Kampf". Against Ace's urging, he lets the events play out…and resets Hitler's dislocated shoulder, ingratiating himself to the future dictator. Later he tells Ace that the Nazi regime failed in part because of Hitler's incompetence...and he cannot allow Hitler to be replaced with a competent dictator. Hence, his involvement now.

They then travel to Nuremberg, 1939, and hide the TARDIS in a parking location in the Time Vortex. They attend a Nazi party rally, and the Doctor demonstrates that Hitler's speeches are not very good, but are using some highly advanced psychological tricks, tricks which don’t belong to this time period; someone has been interfering, but it doesn't seem to be the Timewyrm — it's not her style. He meets Goering and Himmler, Hitler's highest-ranking associates, and also Bormann, Hitler's personal attendant. He also meets an old and deformed doctor named Kriegslieter, who seems familiar somehow. He then meets Hitler, and, playing on the memory of their first meeting, he incorporates himself into Hitler's inner circle, obtaining resources and freedom to operate in the process. At a private audience with Hitler, he learns that the man has been possessed by the Timewyrm, who sets off a telekinetic storm like that seen in the museum. However, he learns something else: The Timewyrm is trapped in Hitler's powerful mind, and can't escape. He teachers Hitler some basic techniques to resist its influence. And still, someone else's hand is at work.

Hitler kicks off the invasion of Poland. He believes that Britain will not counterattack, but will appease him, as they have done before, but he is wrong. Britain declares war, sending Hitler into a rage, but he is able to calm himself and not accede control to the Timewyrm, thanks to the Doctor. Meanwhile, the Doctor is content, knowing the war will proceed on schedule — history has not yet been derailed.

The Doctor is summoned by Goering, who admits that if necessary, he would replace Hitler for the good of the Reich. He is then arrested and taken to Himmler, but ingratiates himself by claiming to be a sorcerer–he knows that Himmler is obsessed with the occult. Himmler invites him to Drachensberg, the castle of the SS, where Himmler's other alleged sorcerers–the Black Coven–meet. However, upon returning to his rooms, the Doctor finds an invitation from Kriegslieter, which Ace has accepted in his place. By the time he gets to Kriegslieter's office, Ace is missing–and a crystal ball on the table shows her being prepared to be used as a sacrifice at Drachensberg.

The Doctor calls in a favour from Goering, setting him on the road to Drachensberg with an armored column. He then finds a transmat booth in Kriegslieter's office, which leads to Drachensberg. He tampers with it before using it, sending himself onto the roof of the castle instead of to the receiving transmat, and the receiving transmat explodes. However, to save Ace, he surrenders, and he recognises the equipment in use. It is the property of the War Lords, whom he last encountered at the end of his second life. Kriegslieter proves to be the renegade Time Lord known as the War Chief, now victim of a failed regeneration that left him deformed.

Escaping their past defeat by the Time Lords, the War Lords had come to Earth to again form an unstoppable army; but this time, unlike their previous plan to collect soldiers from throughout history, they will craft their own army via Nazi Germany. To that end, they have been controlling, manipulating, and assisting Hitler; it is this involvement that leads to the change in history at Dunkirk. The War Lords will win the war, accelerate humanity’s technological development, and conquer the galaxy. Ace will be sacrificed to motivate the SS, and the Doctor...Kriegslieter will take his body and his regenerations.

When Himmler arrives for the sacrifice, the Doctor tells him he is being groomed to replace Hitler. He turns on Kriegslieter, who is stunned, having underestimated Himmler's loyalty to Hitler. The Doctor frees Ace and uses her new Nitro-9-A variation to create a distraction, escaping to the top of the tower. Goering's armored column arrives, and a battle begins. Goering's men overcome the Black Coven, but are interrupted by Hitler; the Doctor senses something wrong, and realises that he has made a mistake–he has not only enabled Hitler to resist the Timewyrm, but to control it. Hitler leaves with Himmler and Goering and the troops. However, the dying Kriegslieter briefly reanimates his dead troops to attack the Doctor. The Doctor sets the castle's reactors to explode, and they escape in the TARDIS (summoned back from the Vortex) just before it blows, eliminating the War Lords and their technology.

But there is still the Timewyrm to deal with, and Dunkirk. The Doctor jumps ahead to 1940. At Hitler's command bunker, he confronts Hitler, who is about to order the destruction of the British Army at Dunkirk. The Doctor provokes the Timewyrm into showing itself, and with the aid of the TARDIS, he breaks it free of Hitler's mind, sending it unfocused into the void. Hitler, now a broken man at the mercy of his own madness, is left impressionable; and the Doctor gets him to order a withdrawal rather than an attack. Thus the true timeline is restored.

The Doctor is unhappy; though he saved time, he still allowed the war to rage, and the Timewyrm is free again. Ace has him return to the festival in 1951, where he sees that all is restored; this cheers him up. However, elsewhere, the Timewyrm is still plotting–and preparing one Lieutenant Hemmings for the future...

Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

  • The Doctor can speak German.
  • The Seventh Doctor describes his third and fourth incarnations as, "Well, I tried tall and dignified, and all teeth and curls, but it didn't really suit me."

The Doctor's items[[edit] | [edit source]]

Foods and beverages[[edit] | [edit source]]

Medicine[[edit] | [edit source]]

TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor has a Stattenheim remote control for the TARDIS. Whistling helps focus the mind to telepathically call forth the TARDIS.
  • The War Chief mentions his SIDRATs.

Timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • This is the second novel in the Timewyrm tetralogy.
  • The novel Timewyrm: Revelation continues some elements of this novel.
  • The novel Endgame features a brief scene from this novel. In that instance, the currently-amnesic Eighth Doctor observes but does not recognise the Seventh Doctor and Ace visiting the Festival of Britain in 1951.
  • This is a sequel to the television story The War Games, which introduced the War Chief and the War Lords.
  • Some of the influences of the War Chief are seen in the novel Players.
  • Lance Parkin spoke favourably of Exodus and acknowledged its enduring popularity but took issue with the contribution of aliens to Hitler's rise to power. Parkin wrote Just War as a reaction to this aspect of Exodus; it contains a much more realistic exploration of the Nazi ideology. To draw parallels, the publisher's summary of Just War was written to give the impression that it was a sequel to Exodus, and both stories contain the line "Everything from the Holocaust to Hiroshima, with Dresden along the way."[1]

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

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

  • Original cover

    Original cover

  • Textless cover

    Textless cover

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

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv48/lanceparkin.html
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