Doctor Who: Timewyrm - Genesys

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #1

by John Peel, Peter Darvill-Evans (Preface), Sophie Aldred (Foreword)

Mesopotamia -- the cradle of civilization. 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.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Media Tie In

230 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1991

About the author

John Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.

He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).

Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had a really hard time reading this book. Peel has a way of objectifying women in his books that celebrates the inherent sexism of sci-fi. From the molestation of Ace being passed off as a cultural thing (victim blaming much?) to the general pervy discriptions of women's bodies. Simply saying that a woman is attractive and fit would suffice, but there's an icky creep vibe to it that you just can't shake. I wondered if he ever expected a girl to read this book. I've read other Who books of his and it seems to be a pattern.

I will say however that Peel is not a bad writer. His structure is clean and his wording vivid. He just needs to take a women's studies course or two. Maybe check out some Angela Davis.

[Paul Flint · Rating 4 out of 5]

This marks the beginning of the New Adventures in 1991. A step into very adult territory. There are some graphic scenes in this. But I loved this despite it. It is those old times where that was a normal thing for the period it was set in. The Doctor and Ace are great here. I loved how this book led Ishtar, previously known as Qatar. To become the Timewyrm, in the following 3 novels. This year I will be reading all these books in order. There will be others. But mostly Doctor Who.

[Kris · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have always been of the opinion that even bad Doctor Who is better than most other entertainment. However, for me this book is a failure as it fails on the promise it gives. In the preface it gives a statement of intent and on almost every point it misses:

to continue the Doctor Who traditions of humour:
The few examples of humour are mostly centred around the return of the 7th Doctor's spoonerism or fan service. It is hard to find these funny in the middle of so much unpleasantness.

drama:
The drama mostly is confined to angst. People mistrusting and being mean-spirited about each other. This was not the tradition of drama in Doctor Who.

and terror:
There is very little that is actually terrifying as such in this (apart from a trick in the latter part which would be used in The Doctor's Wife to greater effect). I felt too detatched from it to be terrified, it was more sickening than terrifying.

and to continue the trend of recent television stories towards complex, challenging plots with serious themes:
Well what were the acclaimed TV series of the time?
BAFTA Awards TV Drama Series or Serial 1991:
Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Agatha Christie's Poirot
House of Cards
Inspector Morse

Emmy Awards TV Drama 1990:
L.A Law
China Beach
Quantum Leap
thirtysomething
Twin Peaks

These have very little in the way of pushing taboos around nudity or violence nor was it a tendency towards anti-heroes. What they were doing was dealing with social concerns and really investing in deep character explorations. Interestingly the two science fictional works among these (Quantum Leap and Twin Peaks) were actually quite close to Doctor Who in the genuinely good outsider coming in to try to resolve problems outside the realm of the locals.
And many of the ideas they would want to take were already in existence in later Doctor Who. Ace and the 7th Doctor both go through distinct character arcs. They deal with social issues such as a racism, family relationships and the politics of the time. They even did arcs like Timewyrm with long villains like Trial of A Timelord or The Black Guardian trilogy.
What this ends up doing is the poor HBO rip-offs we see nowadays, where some shows think blood and nudity are what made True Blood or Game of Thrones a success.

to take full advantage of the scope offered by the medium of the novel:
It does do this to some extent, by having it set in areas that the television series at the time would not have been able to afford and by giving us some internal monologues but these are poorly used. The Sumerian era is well researched but it is used more to do a poor Conan style story rather actually something that reflects carefully on the real epics. The internal monologues do not reflect the characters as we know them, instead makes them decidedly unpleasant. I will only assume the bizarre mindwipes at the beginning resulted in everyone changing personalities (and not just used as an excuse for Ace to stare at herself naked for several pages)

a two-fisted, sword-breaking, sword wielding, action-packed adventure which doesn't pause for breath between the first and last pages:
One of the worst crimes the book commits is how tedious it is. A good way to show this is the chapter ends near 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and the end of the novel, essentially being the cliffhangers if this was a Doctor Who episode:
End of chapter 6: 'Spying tonight!' he announced, and led the way towards the gate
End of chapter 11:Silence fell over the hall as Avram spun his song for them
End of chapter 17:She could only pray that the Doctor would have some idea what they could do with the [spoiler]...
End of epilogue:'We are in London, then. It looks as though I'll need a brolly out there.'
There is a bit of an action scene at the climax but the majority is sitting around talking or disturbing sex scenes. If this was more like 1930s pulp or like an epic I might have approved but this is just dull.

I am willing to give it one extra Star as it manages to at least be reasonably coherent, unlike other spin-off media, and it was the start of what would turn into a very interesting run of stories that would eventually come closer to the concept.

EDIT: On a reread removing that extra star for being even more dreadful than I recalled.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading the very first of the Virgin New Adventures, I was immediately struck by how adult things are already. Nowadays it would probably fall into the bracket of young adult, but even then we’re still a long way from the TV show. There’s nudity, fornication, prostitution and a whole load of violence. Of course, this series of books became much darker and weird, but this is a definite statement of intent.

And it’s not a bad tale to kick off with. The Doctor and Ace arriving in ancient Mesopotamia to deal with all kinds of other worldly goings-on in what feels like a cross-over with some lost Robert E. Howard tale. Peel is definitely making the most of his canvas, giving us a tale that is magnificently epic and packed with vibrant characters. Probably it’s not the most memorable story, but it’s a rip-roaring adventure there to be enjoyed – and that’s not something to bemoan.


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[Mike Mcnamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all things Doctor Who, it's hard for me to seperate the Timewyrm series from their place in the show's history, its narrative, and my own personal history as well. Though I was lucky enough to discover the show when I lived in an area where I was able to eventually view all of the show's history (thanks Iowa Public Television), I still discovered most of the show through the written word. This meant the Target novels for the most part. But then, after the show was cancelled in 1989 and the show's 'official history' continued in the Virgin New Adventures, these more adult books, though perfect for my age at the time (16) were also, in a pre-Internet age living in the Midwest, outside of my grasp, as having the cash to order them seemed like a huge investment, especially for a kid who was trying to ignorantly distance himself from his more nerdy pursuits. So I never got around to reading these books, even though I longed to, and only picked up on these adventures when I'd find the occasional book at bookstores - new and used - over the next 20 years.

So now I'm on the path to reading them all in order, but doing so, I can't help but place them in their proper context, even though I know what's to come.

And reading the first two books in the series, I can't help but think how perfect they are at both being a continuation of the show that had been recently left behind but also imagining what the show would be in 2005.

Timewyrm: Genesis brings the Doctor and Ace in Perivale we left on screen in 1989 and re-introduces the characters with a literal blank slate, while showing the imperfect relationship Ace and the Doctor had, when the Doctor's memory experiments end up wiping Ace's memory completely. So not only are we introduced to the character, we're re-introduced in a way that sets up the relationship perfectly.

The novel, unlike later books (both in the Virgin New Adventures and the BBC Books series as well) still feels very much like a classic episode in its structure. I can't tell you exactly if it breaks down into a four-episode cliffhanger, but it does seem to have a lot of similarities in pacing -- though it builds to the end, it very much has ebbs and flows, and the pacing works well. Likewise, the secondary characters work well. Embarrassingly, I wasn't that familiar with the story of Gilgamesh, so part of the concept was lost on me (though it wasn't the first - or probably last - time Doctor Who has been used to teach me something I should have learned in school)

I'm not sure how well the Timewyrm works as a story arc (will probably write more about that after I finish up the fourth book) but there's something about it, again, that feels both like what the production team had tried to do on screen - as far back as the 8th (All-Master-All-the-Time) season, the 16th (Key-To-Time) season, and other shorter arcs. But likewise, it also feels very New Who -- with individual stories tied back to the arc (and the Doctor and Ace's actions being both what brings them to the action and causing the problem are the timey wimey brilliance that some fans of new producers forget has been there all along

As for the "adult themes" particularly added that supposedly stand out according to other reviews -- where are they? I mean, I see them -- bare breasts and characters who are prostitutes. But where's the smut that had everybody up in arms? There's a bit of sniggering (from Ace, which seems in character) but the rest is handled very matter of factually and not gratuitous at all.

In fact, just like you wouldn't ever be able to show bare breasts on TV, you'd never be able to realistically depict the world of ancient Mesopotamia with early 90s BBC budget. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. For at least this first go around (and the next), the author takes the best of Doctor Who and uses the medium to continue the story.

So, it's obvious I can't really separate my love of Doctor Who from my review of this book. But I do think it was a fun read and worth the twenty year wait.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1989, the unthinkable happened. After a twenty-six year run which had garnered countless fans all over the world, Doctor Who aired its final episode. The series, which had suffered a slow decline in ratings several years in a row, was cancelled. The last show of the season, "Survival", featured a closing monologue by Sylvester McCoy's Doctor to Sophie Aldred's Ace, reminding her of all the adventures still ahead of them: places to go, things to do, people to see, and tea that was getting cold. "Come on, Ace! We've got work to do."

Those eight words ended an era -- it would be seven years before the Doctor returned to the airwaves briefly to regenerate into his 8th incarnation in a made-for-TV movie, and a further nine before Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor met Rose Tyler and the world rejoiced as though at the return of a long-lost love. Doctor Who was back!

But it never really left, did it?

Target books continued publishing novelizations of the teleplays after the series was axed, but while it may not have been in the budget to film new adventures, the BBC had no intention of letting such a key franchise go quietly into that good night. They turned to Virgin, who were only too happy to snap up publication rights to further Who escapades, and in June of 1991, John Peel's Timewyrm: Genesys, the first of what would be dubbed "The Virgin New Adventures", arrived on store shelves. So you see, the Terminator franchise wasn't the first to come up with that ridiculous spelling after all.

Timewyrm: Genesys is the first of a four-part series re-introducing the Doctor and Ace, but this wasn't all the company wanted to do. With the essentially unlimited special effects budget available through prose, and the restrictions on censorship the property faced on broadcast television lifted in print, Virgin's mission was to give readers the experience of a darker, more mature Who in keeping with the direction Andrew Cartmel had been taking the series before its cancellation. While a good idea in theory, and one the BBC themselves would take once they began publishing their line of Eighth Doctor adventures, the New Adventures are very much products of their time, and it's impossible for me to relate today, in the waning second decade of the 21st century, when Doctor Who is back on the air and has been for years, just what these officially unofficial stories from the last days of the 20th century represented. I normally hate the dismissing phrase 'you had to be there', but in this case it's appropriate. Without that mindset of these being the only way to experience the Doctor after he'd been torn from the airwaves, these books make for very different reads.

The 'mature' themes are on full display here practically from the get-go. The Doctor and Ace exit the TARDIS into the world of ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, where human beings are taking their first steps towards building a civilization. No sooner have they disembarked then they are met by a bare-breasted thirteen-year old (hey, look, boobs -- now you see how edgy and mature we are!) who serves as their guide around the city, and just so happens to be in cahoots with the king's fourteen-year old daughter. These two are already plotting against the big bad of the story, so that's convenient! In any case, the TARDIS has taken the Doctor and Ace to this point in history to meet up with Gilgamesh, a literary figure of some note, who goes upon a legendary journey in an effort to save the life of his friend Enkidu.

If you've never read the Epic of Gilgamesh you can still enjoy the story, though as with most historical Who adventures you get more out of it if you're at least familiar with the material they're cribbing. Gilgamesh, in this story, is far from the epic adventurer he's portrayed as in legend. Instead he's a rather horny dude who'd rather try to get into Ace's pants than actually do anything required of a king. The Doctor has to not only put Gilgamesh on the path which will lead to his Epic being passed on through oral and written tradition, but deal with a cunning adversary whose presence on Earth at this point could foul up the time stream horribly. This adversary is an alien cyborg whose ship crash-landed in the desert. Using her access to superior technology and an understanding of the Mesopotamian religious culture, she's passing herself off as the goddess Ishtar while she plots to take over the planet. It's up to the Doctor, with help from Utnapishtim, another cultural outsider, to steer Gilgamesh on the right path while ensuring the faux goddess gets what's coming to her for impersonating a deity.

Since there are three other parts to come after this one, we can reasonably assume taking care of Ishtar isn't going to be the one-and-done the Doctor would like it to be, and in fact it turns out the Doctor himself is responsible for turning this already powerful alien into the titular Timewyrm, thereby making his and Ace's lives even more complicated. Whoops...

I'll say this for Peel, he had an unenviable task in penning this first of what would eventually become a sixty-one novel series, and if he'd fouled it up there's no telling what might have happened to Doctor Who in the meantime. He doesn't knock it out of the park, but the 230 pages he delivers do their job satisfactorily. Timewyrm: Genesys, as a story, stands alone as well as any individual story from the 'Key to Time' arc did during the Tom Baker era, but obviously you'll only get the full effect if you read the next three in the series.

What's done right? Well, Genesys certainly revels in its more mature content. Battle scenes are vicious and brutal, with limbs hacked off, entrails spilled, and skulls caved in with abandon. The priestesses (read: temple whores) of Ishtar wear exceptionally revealing clothing, as noted above. There's also no denying that Peel can nail 'weird', as Ishtar gradually transforms her temple and much of the city into something far exceeding the technology of early Mesopotamian civilization. Scenes where she 'feeds' to renew her energy are downright awful, especially the one early in the book explained tearfully through the words of the temple priestess to the king's daughter.

The primary downside to this book is that Peel's much better at writing action than he is at writing drama. The story starts with a bang, and Ishtar's impersonator is a great villain in her own right, but the middle of the book drags something fierce with lengthy conversations about things characters should not need to tell one another. The main running gag in the book also didn't age well: Gilgamesh basically molests Ace throughout the story as he's attracted to both her looks and attitude, but instead of telling off the roving-handed one, the Doctor gives Ace a sort of "boys will be boys" talk and leaves her to fend for herself even as she's begging him not to be left alone with the guy. Doctor Who wasn't always as progressive as we thought, unfortunately, and while that sort of gag could fly in 1991, it's excruciatingly tone-deaf twenty-eight years later. That said, if you enjoyed the episodes of classic Who most when they were offering up a history lesson, there's plenty to love about Peel's treatment of these legendary times. The sole exception: I know it's fiction, and was addressed early in Eccleston's run, but Peel never explains how the Doctor and Ace can step out of the TARDIS and instantly communicate with people speaking ancient Sumerian. The Doctor's a Time Lord, and a master of so many other skills we might as well give him the ability to understand a long-dead language. Ace's specialty though is bomb-making, not cuneiform, yet her street slang is mostly comprehensible by this vanished civilization.

I know, I know: quit nitpicking and enjoy the story. I really did, I promise, just wanted to throw that out there.

Again, you 'had to be there' with this one. Having read it back at the time of its release, I can pop myself back to that period with the proper mindset to experience it as it was, and in that regard it was a serviceable piece of fiction which paved the way for a whole litany of Who stories in book form that continue to this very day. Back then, this was all we had for new Who adventures. It worked, but this was very definitely not your daddy's Doctor. Ironically, almost three decades later, there's a good chance this was your daddy's Doctor depending on how recently you were born. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff indeed!

[Dave Huddleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great start to the VNA series with the introduction of a great villain - The Timewyrm. Of the whole thing, only one line doesn't sit right with me (Ace never went to Paradise Towers) - but it doesn't spoil a cracking romp through Mesopotamia. Thanks John - second time I've read it c2c and loved it all over again!

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Thanks a lot, Professor," she muttered under her breath. "I always wanted to go mountaineering with a psychotic sex maniac."

[Burrvie · Rating 1 out of 5]

First The Eight Doctors, and now this, maybe Doctor Who books are just bad?

While the Eight Doctors was just awkward fanservice the entire time, at least this book had an attempt at an actual story, so it's better, right?

Unfortunately not. This book features:
- Pointless Dialogue
- Characters just walking around the entire book
- Oversexualisation of every female character
- Fanservice that is awkward and at times, referencing events incorrectly
- Typos

When I say oversexualisation of every female character, I mean EVERY character. There is a running gag of Ace constantly being harassed by Gilgamesh, which I genuinely didn't realise was meant to be a gag. There's also a thirteen year old prostitute with no clothes on for probably just over half the book. Yikes.

Ishtar was interesting as a villain, although I'm looking more forward to them as the Timewyrm as the books go on. The bright side is these next books are not written by John Peel.

It had some good ideas, but all half baked. Then on top of it, million other problems. Peel had an idea on what to do, but had no idea how to get. Really sad beginning to the VNAs

[Five · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, this was a slog. This is the first original Doctor Who novel made after the series was cancelled in 1989 - and it was marketed as the official continuation of the series. Free of budget limits and TV censorship, Doctor Who could now truly flourish, it was said.

If this was the best they could have come up with, I wouldn't exactly be sold on the rest of the series.

Let's start with the good, although there's not much of it: it's mercifully short. I finished the thing in about four hours spread across two days of light reading. Unusually for Classic Who, the side characters are well-developed and interesting, with one notable exception (cough, Gilgamesh, cough). The supporting cast is probably the most engaging part of the story.

The bad, however: where do I even begin?

The novel stars the Seventh Doctor, as portrayed by Sylvester McCoy, as well as Ace (Sophie Aldred), who serves as our point of view character for the majority of the story. The characterisation of these two...

Okay, look: Ace and the Doctor are considered one of the best (if not *the* best) companion/Doctor pairings in the entire show. The reason they are so beloved together is because of the close relationship they have. The show depicts them as having immense respect and trust for each other: none of this is to be found here. The Doctor spends the novel navel-gazing and ordering Ace around without filling her in on his plans, leading to more than one instance in which Ace's life is in danger; conversely, Ace spends the entire novel bickering with the Doctor.

There's no friendly banter, no heartwarming moments between these two. It makes you wonder if the author even watched the series, because he clearly misunderstands the characters he's writing.

The plot is your standard mid-level forgettable Who: an alien outlaw crash-lands in ancient Mesopotamia and plans to take over the world by pretending to be the goddess Ishtar. The Doctor and Ace turn up, make friends with Gilgamesh and Enkidu and it's up to them to stop the end of the world. It's serviceable. It could work, given a more interesting villain.

Ishtar, or Qataka, or the Timewyrm, is a woefully one-dimensional villain. She has two modes of being: either she's prattling on about how she's a superior lifeform to everyone around her, or she's being cruel and violent to prove her point. She gets no development whatsoever. Even after she is accidentally transformed into the Timewyrm by the Doctor she remains essentially the same character. Boring.

CW: paedophilia + sexual assault references for the next three paragraphs, spoiler tagged for your convenience

You know what Doctor Who always needed more of? Child sexual abuse. One of the most important characters to the story, En-Gula, is a priestess at the temple of Ishtar. She's thirteen years old. In this interpretation of Ishtar (far from historical accuracy, although that's not exactly relevant here), priestesses perform sacred prostitution. I don't think a single character even comments on how fucked up it is to have a literal child be used this way.

This isn't the only problematic aspect of this story. Gilgamesh, the other lynchpin to this story, only has two modes: he's either slaughtering people by the dozen alongside Enkidu, or he's sexually assaulting essentially every woman he comes across.

This includes Ace: at one point, Ace is forced to accompany Gilgamesh on a trek to another city, without the Doctor. Having seen what kind of man he is, she's rightly terrified of being assaulted by Gilgamesh. The Doctor brushes off her concern, as if she was overreacting. He literally tells her to "grow up". I have no words other than "what the fuck?"

Recalling the book for the review was honestly painful and more effort than it's worth. If you're looking to get into the New Adventures, this is not the right place to start. There's extreme problems with the book's tone, it relies too heavily on the edgy aspects of sex and violence and it's tiring to read through. I'd like four hours of my life back, please.

[Tom Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was shit.
I could rate it zero if that was an option.

I was expecting very little from this book and It seems I was correct with my fears. I know this book is highly disliked and it's one of the worst Doctor Who books. I said to myself "Once this is finished, I can move on to Exodus" Exodus on the over hand I knew I would love (I do!) but this was crap.

The plot is okay with Ishtar (The Timewyrm) crash landing at the age of civilisation. Mesopotamia. She later is face to face with Gilgamesh. He rejects her offer "Her touch" and Ishtar get's all annoyed and wants revenge for denying her touch or gift. The city of Urak and Kish are at difference with each other and are at war. Ishtar wishes to exploit that and create more chaos.

The supporting characters are boring 2D characters. Some are introduced and don't get a single form of development. Only used as a plot device to grow Ishtar's character by stating they fear her. When there is character development. It's shit. Gilgamesh. This is how his character works. If he sees a man he will want to fight him and kill him! If he sees a women he wants to seduce her or rape her! If he is in his own world he wants to get drunk.

The main characters The Doctor and Ace is done with no care! Why is this? Because John Peel wrote for a tardis team he hates. Wait, what! Why? He did this because he wanted to be known as the one to do the first original book that's why. A more satisfaction thing. John Peel can write well. Power and Evil Novelisation. But this failed simply because of incompetence. Everything is off. Pacing, writing, the stupid sexual references, characters and continuity. Ace references Paradise Towers.

Ummm, Ace wasn't in Paradise Towers. She wouldn't know.

There is an awful contradiction the book makes here.
So the Doctor discusses the plan of the attack with Ishtar. The Doctor Insists Ace to go with Gilgamesh. The Doctor knows he is unpredictable and dangerous and Ace hates the fact of going with him because she is nervous to be around him. Who wouldn't. The Doctor says to Ace to grow up. Are you serious right now?

At a point of the book the Doctor is reflecting about the bad things he's done and that he doesn't want to put Ace in danger and doesn't want to lose her. Then why the fuck would he send Ace with Gilgamesh who can put Ace's life inc danger! That makes zero sense and just turns out as a massive stupid contradiction.

How was this book published? It's got so many issues and has a clear and obvious sign it was rushed just to be the first original book. if I was head of the Virgin books. I would decline this book to be published because I would know this book had zero care and was a rushed attempt to be number 01. Some little bits here and there but it's just a rushed mess.

Overall, just a load of crap.
2/10

[David Sarkies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doctor Who's new beginnings
25 January 2012

This is the first of the New Doctor Who Adventures, a series of books published by Virgin Publishing which continues the adventures of the Doctor and Ace after the series was cancelled. This book is also the first of the four part story arc about the Timewyrm and chronicles the beginnings of the Timewyrm.

At the beginning of the book the Doctor is warned by a past incarnation of himself about the legendary Timewyrm, and then travels to Ancient Mesopotamia where he meets up with a number of personages that appear in The Epic of Gilgamesh (namely Gilgamesh, Enkidu, and Utnapishtim). I am not sure if this book is supposed to be a retelling of the epic (it is not), but events, such as travelling to Utnapishtim, are taken from the epic.

The basic premise of the Epic is that Gilgamesh's best friend, Enkidu, dies and Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find a way to bring him back to life (he fails), but in the process he meets up with Utnapishtim who tells him about how he survived a great flood that was sent onto the Earth. As I said this book is not the Epic of Gilgamesh, it is a Doctor Who story that borrows from the epic.

Basically an intergalatic criminal crash lands on Earth in Ancient Mesopotamia and disguises herself as the god Ishtar and attempts to then use her advanced knowledge to take over the world. She is a cyborg (a cybernetic organism, namely a living being enhanced with electronics) and is immensely powerful. It turns out that Utnapishtim is also an alien, whose ship crashed to Earth in pursuit of Ishtar. As can be expected they all team up and defeat Ishtar. However she is not quite destroyed because she is downloaded into the Tardis' computer and then ejected into the time stream. She then returns from the time stream as a new enemy of the Doctor: the Timewyrm.

This was an okay start to the new series and it still tries to capture the old episodes. However Doctor Who was originally designed to be a show to help children learn history, though this quickly changed to become the longest running Sci-fi TV show in history (and it is still going).

[Leo H · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty good start for the New Adventures, hampered by the fact that there are several typos and also the glaring (well, to a Dr Who fan, and who else would be reading this book) error of inferring that Ace went to Paradise Towers with The Doctor. She didn't. It was Mel.
The structure of the narrative feels like a televised Who story (a conflict is set up and the enemy is revealed, Ace and The Doctor arrive, meet up with 'The Goodies', split up, one is captured, the other rescues him/her, some technical wizardry occurs and the baddie is defeated (expect with this being a 4 book series she isn't quite killed, obviously)); you can almost see where the episodes would be divided by cliffhangers, and the novel itself reads like an extended Target Novelisation. The appearances of the 4th Doctor early on and the 3rd Doctor towards the end were well implemented, but I was a little confused as to when the 7th Doctor re-emerged. Did the 2nd Doctor briefly appear? Perhaps this was the point, that he was confused as well. Never mind.
In summary then, not quite as good as the excellent job Peel did of novelising (is that a verb? It is now) The Power of the Daleks, but not a complete disaster. Unlike, if the internet is to be believed, the 8th Doctor vs. The Daleks books he wrote a few years later.

[Numa Parrott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, it was definitely better than I expected. I expected a solid block of cheesy 80's scifi, and instead I got a somewhat intriguing look at early human history. It was actually a lot like the Eighth Doctor Adventures, though the dynamic between Ace and Seven is very different.
Ace was annoying, though in a way that suited her character. I don't know the seventh Doctor very well, so I can't judge how accurately he was portrayed. I was disappointed with how he treated Ace, but that seems intentional.

I did feel like the whole story was a bit over-sexualized. Yes, we're dealing with primitive human civilizations--I get it. I really only needed one creepy scene to get the point that Gilgamesh is a sexist pig, not fifty. Eventually it just started to sound like some nerdy pre-teen writing fanfiction and going "look how grown up I am!" Clearly this was some kind of immature bid to snatch up the interest of adult fans after the TV show's cancellation.
Even after all that, I wouldn't give it one of my 'R' ratings. There was nothing graphic, though plenty was implied.

Overall the story was good enough to keep me reading 'till the end and right on through to the next book.
I don't really like the seventh Doctor or Ace much right now, but I have a feeling I might like them somewhere down the road.

[Andrew Loader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recently, I have reviewed the first Big Finish audio, and wasn’t overly impressed. I found it confusing and it seemed to be trying too hard. To be honest I was expecting the same from this novel, particularly as I had heard relatively unflattering comments about John Peel’s Dalek novels.
I have to say that reading this novel has been a very pleasant surprise. I found that it was quite entertaining and, as an adult, I was pleased that it was written at a language-level that I could enjoy and relate to.
However there weren’t any adult-for-the-sake-of-being-adult sections. Yes, Ace had clearly grown up and thinks like a woman, but she’s not jumping into bed with every good-looking man she meets. There is a womanising king, who clearly thinks he can have his way with any woman he meets (Ace has very different views on that) and there are topless girls who “pleasure” important people to appease the gods. However, nothing is explicit; nothing is there to make the teen boys happy.
It was very easy to imagine Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred playing their parts, as portrayed in this book. Both characters are realistically written, particularly Ace’s feisty side.
Of course, this is simply the first part of a Quadrilogy. There is still much to learn about The Timewyrm. I continue onto the next novel, with much anticipation.

[David Layton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first official original novel for Doctor Who, supposedly to make up for the lack of DW on TV following the 1989 cancellation, amounts to a decent fan novel. John Peel, the DW fan writer, not the famous DJ, has a bit of a tough job. He has to write the novel, at least the beginning, both as if the reader knows little or nothing about DW, and as if the reader is a fully paid member of the DW Superfan Club. He also has to get a four-book story arc going, plus make DW more "adult" and "up to modern standards." Given what is required, I do not understand why Peel was chosen as the writer to do this. He simply does not have chops. For instance, to get the uninitiated in, he conjures a routine in which The Doctor has used the TARDIS telepathic circuits to erase some useless memories of his, but this action has accidentally wiped out almost all of Ace's memories. It is a throwaway routine that has almost nothing to do with rest of the novel except for setting up the telepathic circuits for use at the end. The main story is rather standard DW fare, with The Doctor and Ace following up a trail to find the Timewyrm and landing in ancient Mesopotamia, where they meet Gilgamesh and go through the sci-fi version of events that will become part of the epic of Gilgamesh. The story is fast-paced, with the usual twists and turns that make for light reading. Problems, however, arise with the brief for what the new novels are supposed to be. To make the story "adult," Peel has multiple references to bare breasts, Gilgamesh's insatiable libido, and the job of the priestesses of Ishtar, which is mainly to have sex with whoever makes an offering to the goddess. It makes Peel seem lecherous rather than realistic, and this reader at least would have liked fewer such references. Peel is also very much a fan writer, so drops in too many cute references to previous DW eras, some of which he gets wrong, such as saying that Ace visited Paradise Towers (it was Mel). Peel, in my estimation at least, also gets wrong the relationship between The Doctor and Ace. In this novel, The Doctor is constantly annoyed by Ace and she is constantly angry at him. That is not at all the relationship as it existed in the TV series, and it made me wonder, as one is wont to do when looking at a bad marriage, why the two even stay together. So, the novel has its entertaining moments and basically serviceable plot, but many deficiencies in execution.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Peel gets a lot right and a lot wrong in this first entry in the Dr.Who new Adventures line. As a tentative step into the world of original Dr.Who novels I'd say that it's something of a success. An enjoyable, mostly rip-roaring adventure that pits the Dr and Ace against a superpowered being masquerading as a God in Ancient Mesopotamia, that also serves as the setting up of a larger narrative arc. I've longed to see some Dr.Who stories that cater for an adult audience and, whilst you could easily argue that Peel's throwing in a little sexual description isn't all that "adult", it's pretty inoffensive and sets a nicely different tone from what we'd seen on TV up to that point (and still). There's a lot of good humour in the book too (alongside a lot of very bad humour, admittedly) and a particularly nice running gag that sees Ace tiring of the continual sexual advances of the great warrior King Gilgamesh himself.

Unfortunately, whilst the setup and main plotline are pretty fun, Peel is a lot better at writing full blooded adventure than he is contemplative or character scenes. The middle of the novel wanders quite hopelessly as characters partake in bad dialogue that goes nowhere and discuss plans that they don't really need to. Peel knew where he wanted this book to go but didn't have a strong enough vision of how to get there. This also leads to a large cast of fun historical characters (yeah, there's a bare breasted teenage prostitute ... take that, errr, someone) remaining a little underdeveloped and the character of Gilgamesh ultimately looking a little one-note. The Doctor and Ace don't necessarily come out a lot better, having a tendency to repeatedly talk to historical characters using modern colloquialisms that they're never going to understand. It's not particularly funny and doesn't help the characters relate to one another. All-in-all it's as if John peel is a little uncertain if he wants to take Dr.Who in a radical new direction or safely tread old ground.

This is a fun book, though and a very positive start to the series that makes me eager to read more and to find out what original Dr.Who fiction is really capable of.

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this when it was first published during Doctor Who's long absence from television. It was the first book in the Virgin New Adventures series, which was supposed to be a way of keeping Doctor Who alive whilst adding depth and more adult themes to it. I remember being totally disappointed with it then. I never went back to re-read it.

Peel seemed to confuse 'adult' with something much less mature and took an interesting setting and an interesting concept and turned it into dull mush.

I feel pretty much the same about it now. It's a terrible book. It might even be the worst Doctor Who Novel I have ever read and I've read a few. Why Virgin picked this as the launch book I do not know. Thankfully Terrance Dicks was there, with his safe pair of hands, and could rescue the series. Other writers were to do better. Sometimes much better.

I don't normally rant about books I don't like, because in the end it is just my personal opinion and I suspect lots of people will like this in a way I don't. I'm going to put it back in its place on the shelf never to be read again. When I die it'll pass to someone else. I might even will it to someone I don't like very much.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really cracking start to the Virgin New Adventures. This had supurb locations, great side characters, a terrifying villain and some really nicely written action scenes. Although it took a little while to get going, I was hooked by the end by the tense and suspenseful writing.

I think Ace is a little bit short changed here, I don't think the way she is written at all does justice to the character on TV, or Sophie Aldred's fun and layered performance. The incident with her losing her memory in the first chapter is frankly bizarre - a complete waste of paper that doesn't have any baring on the rest of the book. If Peel thinks a great way of reintroducing the central characters is to have one of them completely lose her sense of identity, then he's wrong. I also think that Ace and all the women in this book are written, not misogynistically but definitely quite childishly. Like a little boy dreaming up girls in his bedroom.

A great story and this sets up what looks to be a great series of books. 3 stars.

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/666835.html[return][return]The first ever of the New Adventures of Doctor Who published by Virgin between 1991 and 1997. Actually rather good stuff as the Seventh Doctor and Ace find themselves in ancient Babylon battling an alien force, mixing it up with Gilgamesh. If I'd picked this up back in 1991 I would certainly have ended up buying many more. Biggest flaw - the silly title. Why the "y" in "Genesys"?

[Cynical_Whovian · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad that I forgot to rate it for a week ,because I forgot I had even read it. This book is so terrible that my brain blocked it from my memory just look up a summary and go to Timewyrm:Exodus for the love of god.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

In general, the New Virgin line of Doctor Who books are satisfying not because they're precisely wonderful, amazing literature, but because they're in the spirit of Dr. Who.

[Conor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good Doctor Who story, kind of spoiled by John Peel being a sexual creep about pretty much every female character.

[Cannon Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fuck this book to hell

[Jack B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most enjoyable of reads. As others have mentioned how women are written is abhorrent, they're continuingly objectified in this novel and the worst part is how the Doctor casually brushes off the sexual assault of his teenage companion. None of this has any place in a Doctor Who novel.

As others have mentioned the aforementioned incident far more eloquently than I, I will turn my attention to the rest of the novel. It's not the worst written, there is at least innovation in having the story set in a time and place we are not used to seeing in Doctor Who. I would say too it is a functionally sound novel in terms of introducing a general audience to the idea of Doctor Who and explaining who the characters are.

However, I do feel that John Peel clearly has no interest in the Seventh Doctor era. He twice writes about different Doctors and in one instance had the Seventh Doctor explicitly state that the Third Doctor is the best and most competent one. Moreover I feel Peel fails to understand Ace and the Doctor's relationship. Most of their dialogue involves them bickering and Seven criticising Ace for being a naive child. There isn't much warmth between them until the end. Yes their dynamic involves a lot of manipulation on the Doctor's part, but he clearly loved Ace and felt protective of her. I did not want to spend time with this Doctor and Ace.

I also feel there wasn't a sufficient set up of the Timewyrm. It felt tacked on at the start and end. Its presence is so light in the story that in theory it is possible to skip to future books.

All in all, functionally acceptable but morally not. It isn't representative of the show's characters nor their morality. Worth avoiding, you aren't missing out on much.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but not great.

The story picks up right after the end of the last tv story, Survival. A Prologue has the destruction of a spaceship and the survival of a dangerous passenger. The narrative shifts to Ancient Mesopotamia, where Gilgamesh the mighty King of Uruk is spying on his neighbour and enemy, Kish. Here he meets a mysterious woman who he takes to be the personification of the goddess Ishtar. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Ace are in the Tardis, where the Doctor has rather inconsiderately managed to wipe Ace’s memory in his attempt to declutter his own mind. After sorting that out, the time travellers are rather surprised to receive a warning from one of the Doctor’s other selves about the Timewyrm. The Doctor knows he must investigate.

This is a ok start to the New Adventures. It is a story which would always have been beyond being shown on the small screen at the time, yet it takes the Doctor and Ace and places them in a situation where they are still utterly familiar to the reader (remember, at the time these “new” adventures were a wholly new experience for Doctor Who fans). The story is, as advertised, broader and deeper than the stories we had been used to. The author, an authoritative writer on Doctor Who, has taken the Doctor and his companion and placed them in an environment where aliens meet history and where the Doctor must use all his skills to safeguard the future of humanity. Even better, at the end of this story he knows that he still has to fight the menace of the Timewyrm – on to the second New Adventure, Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance Dicks.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this book when it came out in 1991, and I remember that I didn't like it much. TV Tie-Ins should feel like an episode of the show they come from, and, at the time, I thought this story didn't. I also didn't like the characterization of Ace. However, since I've decided to read my entire collection of original Doctor Who novels, I decided I really needed to start reading the entire Virgin Publishing Doctor Who The New Adventures series of original novels from the very beginning. So I started with Timewyrm: Genesys.
I actually really enjoyed Timewyrm: Genesys this time around. I read it in about a week. I realise it's been a lot longer than that since I've posted a book review here on GoodReads but I started another novel that I just couldn't get into, plus I hit one of those rare instances when I just didn't really feel like reading a book. sigh. Anyway, I read this pretty quickly and I actually, honestly, enjoyed it.
The Virgin Publishing Doctor Who The New Adventures series takes place immediately after the aired episode, "Survival", and follows the Seventh Doctor (as played on the BBC Series by Sylvester McCoy) and Ace, and later in the series, new companions, like Dr. Bernice Summerfield (an archaeologist). This novel begins with a prologue of an alien in a spaceship firefight with her people. Her ship is destroyed and she crash lands on Earth in an escape pod. However, one isn't to feel sorry for her - she's an evil megalomaniac who had destroyed her own planet. The alien first meets Gilgamesh, who refuses to help her -seeing her evil, but becomes the goddess Ishtar and is taken to a temple in Kish by it's King Agga.
It's ancient Mesopotamia and Urak and Kish are posed for war. Ishtar (the Timewyrm though that doesn't become clear until the end of the book) encourages this, and anything else that will help her gain complete control. She uses advanced technology to Touch soldiers and others in Kish, using them as her spies, slaves, and solders.
Meanwhile, Ace wakes in the TARDIS with no memory of who she is. She wanders to the TARDIS control room and meets the Doctor. The Doctor had been deleting his memories - and moving them into the TARDIS data banks, when he overdid it a bit and hit Ace as well while she slept. He reverses the process and gives her, her memories back. This is an admittedly weird and strange scene, and it resembles nothing we've seen in Classic Doctor Who, though it did remind me of Sherlock Holmes deleting his memories and searching his "mind palace" in Sherlock but that's besides the point.
The TARDIS lands in ancient Mesopotamia. Ace and the Doctor meet Gilgamesh and become involved in events. Before long, Gilgamesh, his Neanderthal servant, a fallen priestess of Ishtar, the Princess of Kish, and a wondering musician and songsmith, are working together to defeat Ishtar without Mesopotamia being destroyed.
It's a fast-moving back and forth battle, with small victories being overcome by defeats. In the end, the Doctor saves Kish, but although at first he thought he had destroyed the Timewyrm (as she is by then known) by drop-kicking her from the TARDIS to the Time and Space Vortex, she returns to tell him she's survived, escaped, and can now, with help from some Chronovores travel to any place in space and time. And since there are three more books in the series, this provides a set-up to make her a stronger villain.
Overall, I honestly enjoyed Timewyrm: Genesys. It was a fast read, and full of high adventure. Ace did get to do things, beyond simply blowing things up with Nitro-9, though there's plenty of that. The Doctor sends her, Gilgamesh, and the songsmith to the mountains to find the other aliens who, chasing the alien who had destroyed their planet had also crash-landed on Earth. Later, it's revealed that the Doctor had done that simply to get the group out of the way and keep them safe. However, Ace learns to be a leader, to work with people, to deal with setbacks, and to use innovative thinking to solve problems. Plus she saved the Doctor, the princess, and the priestess - so there's that. It seems obvious that we will see growth in Ace's character in this new series.
Overall, I can honestly say that I recommend Timewyrm: Genesys both as a Doctor Who original novel and as historical science fiction adventure.

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty inauspicious start to the series - a fairly bog standard adventure with an added emphasis on sexual assault which is fairly unpleasant, with unappetising depictions of Gilgamesh assaulting teenage girls which suggest that John Peel's idea of "Doctor Who novels for grown-ups" is depressingly horny. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Rosa · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read. I enjoyed the look at ancient Mesopotamia and the references to the Epic of Gilgamesh. However, I felt like the actual character of Gilgamesh could have been better used. Other characters from the tale -- Agga, King of Kish and Enkidu, Gilgamesh's most trusted friend are all given interesting portions of the story to enact. Even the flood narrative of Utnapishtim takes center stage for the second half of the story. For some reason, however, Gilgamesh is written rather one-dimensionally and is used more for comic relief than to further the narrative in any way. He basically just gets drunk, and wants to either fight or have sex with anything within a visible radius. While this is probably very true to what the historic Gilgamesh was like, it got very tiring to read about VERY quickly.

And, on top of that, the Doctor keeps leaving Ace alone with this sleazy character, even after Ace tells the Doctor numerous times that Gilgamesh makes her uncomfortable. And what does the Doctor tell her in response? "It's the time and culture they live in, Ace. You can't judge them for it, and you should be adjusting to their views of the world." While I can get behind this argument most of the time (as I have done a bit of world traveling myself), I cannot get behind the Doctor telling this to a companion when he knows that the customs of the time include raping and selling women as sex slaves; even if the culture they are in sees it as common practice, I would hope the Doctor would want to protect his best friend from what she would know was sexual exploitation.

And Ishtar's many speeches just got repetitive after awhile. The plot was interesting, but I didn't need to read reiterations of the plan three times in the last forty pages.

On the plus side is that we got some really good guest characters and Ace's voice was 100% perfect. I look forward to reading the rest of this 4 part adventure.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally just bored down and finished this. God, am I glad it’s over. It’s like the best (and worst) possible example of why Doctor Who should NEVER be “adult”. And why historicals are usually set specifically around broadly sketched figures from history or a specific time period/event.

On some technical level, I get this book. It’s the launch of a brand new novel line and is picking up directly after the show so it has to somewhat reorient older fans coming to this while also promising some things you can’t do on tv. It also has to hook new fans with a good example of DW that works in the context of prose.

But Jesus Christ, this thing is so boring. And filled with all sorts of things that will make you audibly go “WHOA YIKES”. Nudity, blood, cursing, and casual constant misogyny waved away by the “era” it’s inhabiting. Plus the Doctor is a haughty idiot through most of this so it’s not fun to hang out with him and Ace throughout the slogging plot. I don’t ever wanna hear the doctor excusing the possibility that his companion might be r*ped as “historical context”

If I had read these as they debuted, I would have probably not read this line at all. This isn’t my first VNA (that honor belongs to Gatiss’ Nightshade which fucking rules) but it boggles the mind to think that THIS WAS the very first Virgin New Adventure. I truly hope the rest of these I have are worth a damn. I have heard they are but whooo boyyeee I am glad I’m done with this.