Timewyrm: Revelation

Roots: Dante's Inferno, Jung. 'Ace guessed that she had missed out on most of the literary references. But she got the point.' The Doctor was first referred to as "Ka Faraq Gatri - Bringer of Darkness/Destroyer of Worlds" in Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks. There is a reference to the village of Stockbridge (located in Norfolk), which first appeared in the Doctor Who Monthly comic strip, "Stars Fell on Stockbridge". The Topping family is probably named after fellow Doctor Who fan and writer Keith Topping, with whom Cornell collaborated on The DisContinuity Guide.

The novel opens with a quotation from Oscar Wilde. There are quotations from Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Blake, Aldous Huxley, Milo Temesvar's On the Use of Mirrors in the Game of Chess, General George S. Patton, Rudyard Kipling's If, Alexander Pope, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Hilaire Belloc, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, and Ian Brown. One of Ace's schoolmates is named Alan Barnes, presumably after the Doctor Who writer of the same name. There are references to Sherlock Holmes, Norse mythology, Newton, Horbiger, Chemical Abstracts, Homer's Odyssey, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Fly Fishing by J. R. Hartley (the Yellow Pages adverts), Le Morte D'Arthur, The Wizard of Oz, Sartre, Perry Como, Dickens, Aztec Camera, Candleford, SETI, Jackie Collins, The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Meldoy", Voivod, Jason Donovan, New Model Army, Brides magazine, Kylie Minogue, Nietzsche, Die Hard ("Yippie ay-ai, toerag"), and "The Holly and the Ivy". The Timewyrm misquotes Goldfinger ("No, my dear Doctor. I expect you to die"). One of the chapter titles is It's a Wonderful Life.

Goofs: Why was Cheldon Bonniface destroyed and Saul brought to the moon? Why, in reporting this, do the BBC interview the Brigadier, who retired from UNIT over 15 years ago?

Hemmings' first name has changed from Anthony to Rupert since Timewyrm: Exodus.

Technobabble: Pineal manipulator.

Dialogue Disasters: "Scumbag!" "Toerag"

Dialogue Triumphs: The Doctor: 'Just because someone isn't real, it doesn't mean you can't meet them.'

The afterlife's receptionist: 'Oxygen starvation, brought about from finding yourself to be on the moon, having believed the place to be Norfolk. I do believe that's unique.'

'Are you ready for divine judgement?'
Ace: 'Yeah. But is it ready for me?'

Peter: 'An alien? Oh, come on.'
The Doctor: 'You're on the moon inside a sentient church, waiting to see if you have any part to play in the rescue of a woman's soul from the clutches of a near-omnipotent being. Broaden your mind.'

The first Doctor: 'Don't worry, she [Ace] might win.'
The seventh Doctor: 'Yes. That's what I'm afraid of.'

The third Doctor: 'Very well. What do we do now?'
The seventh Doctor: 'What any rational being would do. We sing.'

The Doctor: 'You live in paradise, you start to wonder who empties the bins.'

The fifth Doctor to Ace: 'I'd say brave heart, but I think you have one anyway.'

'All the universe is a stage, Ace. Acting's not enough for me. I like to direct.'

'Dreams are the reason for sleep, Ace. There's no point in sleeping if you don't dream.'

I am the Timewyrm. I have no more malice than a volcano or a waterfall.

Continuity: Mount Cadon is the highest mountain on Gallifrey, and the Prydonian Academy is on it. The "Horns of Rassilon" is a Gallifreyan protectional motif against supreme evil, made by curling two fingers of the hand. The Time Lords set up powerful temporal baffles [to prevent anyone meddling with their history]. Two ancient Gallifreyan tomes are the Green and Black Books Of Gallifrey. The Gallifreyan daisy referred to by the Doctor in The Time Monster is actually called a Sarlain.

Saul is an "accumulated wisdom" formed from the focus of minds worshipping in Cheldon Bonniface from Celtic times, when the Cenomanni called him Cernwn. Christian missionaries tried to exorcise him, but failed and declared him a divine spirit, building the Church of St. Christopher's around him. He is named after parishioner Saul Bredon, who died whilst asleep in the pews during the nineteenth century. Saul was baptised in his own font at a midnight ceremony in 1853.

Ace is now in her early 20s [I'd say not more than just turned 20]. When she was eight, Ace attended St. Benedict's School in Perivale, where her teachers included Miss Marshall, Mr. Watkins (the deputy head) and Miss Haines. Ace found it difficult to make friends, and was bullied by Chad Boyle, who called her both Dorry and Dotty, particularly "dirty dotty" because of her Mum. Another reason for the bullying was apparently that she was a "Paki-lover". The Timewyrm changes history, visiting the eight-year-old Boyle in the guise of an angel and coaxing him into murdering Dorothy with a brick. Following the defeat of the Timewyrm, the Doctor restores history to its rightful cause by preventing the fatal blow; Ace thus recalls that his family moved to Barnet before he reached Senior school and that he became the editor of a local paper. One of her fellow pupils was named Alan Barnes. Shreela (Survival) was in her class, but they didn't know each other. She had a social worker and was both a rebel and a keener depending on subject. One six-year-old, Sanir, was the only one from Miss Haines' class who used to regularly get sent to Mr Watkins for corporal punishment. At this age, Ace's hair was blonde (clearly darkening over time). Ace hasn't screamed in fear since she was 12. Her first kiss was aged 13 outside the Youth Centre. She has kissed an alien. She once went on a school trip to Longleat and went into the maze. She weighs nine and a half stone. Her blood group is O. She dislikes the countryside. Her room in the TARDIS contains Happy Mondays posters, her hi-fi, and a cool box full of explosives. She fancies singer Tim Booth. She dons a Farm t-shirt. She has a photograph signed by singer Johnny "Guitar" Chess, and was a member of his fan club when she was fourteen; she met him at a fan club convention and found him rather disappointing, when he failed to treat her like a real person. She still carries a catapult (Silver Nemesis) and kept a lock of Cheetah Person hair. Midge (Survival) once visited Australia and sent her a postcard moaning how lonely it was to be that far from home. Her rucksack [at least in the Doctor's mind] contains a tube of acne treatment and copy of the NME dated 2018. When she was a teenager, her friend Tricia dared her to buy a white suspender belt at Chelsea Girl, which she did. Other friends included Sylvie, Jane, and Sharon. A local girl named Tracey Dodds when away to university whilst Ace was at school. Manisha's full name was Manisha Purkayastha. Ace is adept with a sword, a skill she claimed she learned on the playing fields of Perivale. She used to visit the Brixton Academy.

The Doctor has a fob watch [The first Doctor's?] and some chalk in his pocket. He is referred to as the Ka Faraq Gatri - Bringer Of Darkness/Destroyer Of Worlds (due to the destruction of Skaro in Remembrance of the Daleks). He has symbiotic atomic nuclei [nanites, something to do with the TARDIS, or the Rassilon Imprimatur?] His mind is divided into sections inhabited by, and modelled after, each of his past incarnations. Trapped in the Doctor's mind by the Timewyrm, Ace and the Doctor encounter the First Doctor (in the guise of the librarian), the Third Doctor, the Fourth Doctor (in the guise of the ferryman - a reference to Shada (TV)), and the Fifth Doctor. She also encounters six shadowy white figures, presumably meant to be Watchers for the Doctor's future incarnations (see Logopolis). The Doctor is confronted by various dead friends and foes in his own mind, including Omega (The Three Doctors, Arc of Infinity), Silurians (The Silurians, Warriors of the Deep), Daleks, UNIT soldiers (including one Corporal Higgins, who carries his severed head under his arm), Time Lords, Katarina (The Daleks' Master Plan), Sara Kingdom (The Daleks' Master Plan), and Adric (Earthshock). The Doctor finds a repressed memory of the parallel universe from Inferno and realises that the face of the fascist dictator he saw on posters whilst there was one of the faces that he was offered at his trial (The War Games); he wonders if the Timewyrm had a hand in shaping that universe. The Hermit visits the Doctor on the Moon, appearing as an old robed man with one eye (The Time Monster, Planet of the Spiders). The Doctor plays the spoons again (Time and the Rani, The Happiness Patrol).

The TARDIS can extend its environment shields beyond the interior allowing you to survive in a vacuum [as in City of Death]. The TARDIS has a swimming pool [the Doctor has replaced the previous one - see Paradise Towers], and a gym. There are spacesuits in the TARDIS (see The Moonbase, Four to Doomsday).

The Timewyrm became known as Hel to ancient humans [the Vikings]. She was Golyan Ak Tana (twister of paths) to the Daleks, who sent a taskforce to destroy her, which she consumed. In the early days of Gallifrey early time travellers used their ability to discover the future to gain advantage over their enemies; one "mad prophet martyr" journeyed too far into the future and saw the Timewyrm devouring Rassilon in the final apocalypse when Fenric (The Curse of Fenric)slips his chains. The Timewyrm has the ability to create an artificial replica of Cheldon Bonniface on the Moon, and to alter people's perceptions. She has tried to reach Gallifrey to read of her own legend, but was repelled by fierce security and powerful temporal baffles, which she is not yet confident of penetrating. She claims that she is no longer entirely Qataka or Ishtar, but "something of destiny". She gives Boyle a pineal manipulator in the form of a tiny mechanical spider. She appears to Hemmings in the guise of the Norse Gods, in whom he believes. When Hemmings fails her, she decapitates him, but drains his memory for further use. She is able to bring the real St. Christopher's to the moon, and protect it inside a bubble of artificial atmosphere and gravity. She intends to focus the vast amount of mental energy released by the Doctor's death through Saul so as to knock the Moon out of orbit, causing it to crash into Earth. The Doctor finally defeats the Timewyrm, trapping it in the mind of the Hutchings' baby, and thus forcing it to jettison everything of itself except for the bare fragment of it that kept it alive. He obtains the baby from a genetics lab in the twenty-second century, and leaves it with the Hutchings to raise as their own; before he inserts the remains of the Timewyrm into it, the baby is mindless because it was engineered that way. He suggests that the Hutchins name their child Ishtar.

The Doctor meets Death as an entity on the Moon in person for the first time. She appears in the form of a robed skeleton. She is summoned by the Timewyrm, and seems to be an entity in her own right, rather than merely another creation of the Timewyrm. The Doctor, who dances with her on the Moon's surface, instantly fascinates her.

Singer Johnny Chess was reviewed in the NME dated 18th July 1998. An Azukoi is a household pest on Anu. The Kurylie trace what the Timewyrm represents across the sky during their dreamtime.

There are [what would turn out to be] hints at later elements of New Adventures mythology as only five of the Doctors previous selves are said to be in the Doctor's mind [the sixth is in the room with no doors].

Links: This book is the final book in the Timewyrm series, and features numerous references to the other books (Genesys, Exodus, Apocalypse). It establishes that when, during Genesys, Ace remembered events from Paradise Towers, the memory was actually a memory of Mel's given to her by mistake when the Doctor restored her memories at the start of that story. The Timewyrm claims to have been present during Earthshock, The Daleks' Master Plan, Ghost Light, and The Curse of Fenric [in all cases, she was probably hiding in the Doctor's mind]. There are cameo appearances by the first, third, fourth, and fifth Doctors as well as a very obscure reference to the sixth and quoted viewpoints from all seven. Ace recalls events in Dragonfire and Survival. There are brief references to The Silurians, The Daleks' Master Plan and Earthshock. Later New Adventures will explain that Death is one of the Eternals (Enlightenment).

There is a flashback to the young Doctor visiting the Hermit (The Time Monster, Planet of the Spiders). The Doctor smiles quietly when Hemmings mentions the Gods of Ragnarok (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy). There are references to the destruction of Skaro (Remembrance of the Daleks). Ace finds a copy of Blinovitch's Temporal Mechanics whilst in the Doctor's mind (Day of the Daleks). She remembers Kane (Dragonfire). The Doctor mentions Fenric (The Curse of Fenric). There is a reference to the Brigadier. There are references to Gabriel Chase (Ghost Light), Midge and Shreela (Survival), and Tegan ("I'd say brave heart..."). The Timewyrm notes that the explosion of the freighter in Earthshock aided the extinction of the dinosaurs, but that it had already been instigated by the arrival of the Moon (The Silurians).

Location: Cheldon Bonniface, Norfolk and the moon, the Sunday before Christmas, 1992. The Doctor's mind [as opposed to his brain as seen in The Invisible Enemy].

Future History: According to the Green and Black Books of Gallifrey, the Timewyrm will devour the first and last of the Time Lords, and Rassilon will be crushed in her jaws during the last moments of the Blue Shift, the final inrush of matter at the end of the Universe, which will be precipitated by her. It also says that she will cause the fabric of space-time and the causal nexus to collapse. The Stone Roses apparently reunite in 2018. Bob Geldof has a daughter (or wife?) by then named Fifi Trixabelle Geldof.

Unrecorded Adventures: The first Doctor leaves his companions in Cheldon Bonniface and witnesses Reverend Dominic Trelaw baptising Saul in his own font in 1853. Since then, several incarnations (including the Fifth during the nineteenth century) have visited. Most recently, the Doctor and Mel, who he claimed was his niece, did some brass rubbing, secretly leaving a portable temporal link there. He has over the years befriended successive members of the Trelaw family, including the present Reverend, Ernest Trelaw. The Seventh Doctor has played chess with publican George on several occasions.

The Doctor claims to have met Sherlock Holmes [from Holmes' point of view, this must be after All-Consuming Fire]. Whilst Ace is asleep, the Doctor sets things up for himself, but not between adventures, because he's planning things. The Doctor remembers the 1973 UNIT Christmas party. Since Timewyrm: Apocalypse, the Doctor has been looking for the Timewyrm. As part of this, he and Ace visited Lewisham 1977, the Rose of Lee pub, Rome in 1582, and they sat and meditated on the Eye of Orion. Ace and the Doctor once had a conversation about perspective in Greenwich Park beneath the Old Royal Observatory They recently attended a costume party in High Barnet. The Doctor enigmatically claims that he's fought the Timewyrm more times than she realises, and that he chased her around the walls of Troy and that she chased him through the caverns of Nessanhudd [possibly a reference to metaphorical encounters, given her portrayal here as a semi-mythical force for evil]. He stole a portable temporal link from the black collection in the Prydonian Academy on Gallifrey whilst he was President of Gallifrey (The Invasion of Time), hiding it in Cheldon Bonniface in case he ever needed it.

King Wen gave the Doctor a gift of the I Ching for "services rendered". The Doctor attended a UNIT Christmas Party in 1973. "What does "aroon" mean" is probably a reference to the Doctor's Venusian Lullaby in The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon.

The Bottom Line: 'If this is a book, it's a severely strange one.' This book is definitively weird, the first of many New Adventures to completely baffle the reader. The sequences in the Doctor's brain (most of the book) need either handy notes or a couple of reads to fully understand. However, the book does work very well. It ties up the loose ends of the Timewyrm saga, prepares the reader for the continuing New Adventures saga, and is thoroughly readable and re-readable.

'You're on the moon inside a sentient church, waiting to see if you have any part to play in the rescue of a woman's soul from the clutches of a near-omnipotent being. Broaden your mind.>' The novel that blew open the possibilities of what the New Adventures can be, Timewyrm: Revelation is a hallucinatory and imaginative tour de force that left the three preceding novels in the dust. Written by a fan for fans, it's a magnificent debut for Cornell, and although it is riddled with continuity references, they are used as part of a larger mythology rather than gratuitous fan-pleasing references to an old television series. It paved the way for the rest of the range, and has aged well, remaining one of the quintessential Doctor Who novels.