Timewyrm: Apocalypse (New Doctor Who Adventures) [Paperback]

I have stated elsewhere that is a brave task to start a nwe media tie-in line with a series of books built around one theme, as Virgin did with the Timewyrm story. Thankfully, this is the third book and not the first or else this series might not have survived. The story reads much like many of the Pertwee era six part stories in which the the plot is thin and padded with constant returns to scenes already visited. If you're a completest, get the book, but otherwise you can skip this one.

Has I have been reading the Timewyrm novels that started off the Virgin New Adventures, I have noticed that these early novels tend to be hit and miss. They got off to a wooden beginning with Timewyrm Genesys before picking up greatly in Timewyrm: Exodus. As I came to this novel I wondered if it would be a hit or a miss in terms of success. The answer is for the most part is that it is a miss.

The novel's single largest hit or miss is in the characterization of the seventh Doctor and Ace. The hit is Ace who gets captured rather well by author Nigel Robinson especially in her scenes with Mirli and Raphael. In fat Robinson ties her rather nicely into the nvoel's climax and makes it work surprisingly enough. The miss is the seventh Doctor who doesn't quite seem to be the seventh Doctor but one of his earlier incarnations depending on the scene. That said Robinson does capture the seventh Doctor twice in the novel: pages 128-131 and then in the last few pages of the novel. It is in the last few pages of the novel that Robinson gives the seventh Doctor and Ace a beautiful scene that sets up one of the major plot points that was to follow later on in the New Adventures.

The supporting cast is pretty much cardboard sadly. The two exceptions to that are Mirli and Raphael who get some really good fleshing out as the novel goes along. This is especially true of Raphael who becomes very much a companion to the Doctor during a large portion of the novel. The rest of the supporting characters ranging from the alien Kirith, the novel's villains the Panjistri and their leader the Grand Matriarch are sadly cardboard and predictable. After the well drawn out supporting characters of Exodus it seems a shame to go back to the cardboard ones of this novel.

Perhaps the novel's biggest problem is in the prose. Despite being shorter then the two previous novels at 201 pages this novel feels much longer then it actually is. The novel doesn't flow and neither does it have a sense of real tension especially with seemingly random sections detailing the life and culture of the Kirith which fall into the category of could have been interesting but come across as dull. Then there's a simple matter of yet another past Doctor cameo. This one is thankfully better written that those found in Genesys by a long shot especially as Robinson not only capturs the Doctor in question but ties nicely into the plot as well. While these sequences are written well they don't fix the main problem. The problem is that the emphasis of the novel seems to be more on action that doesn't come across well then on descriptions or plot. The lack of emphasis on plot is in itself rather sad.

It is sad because Robinson draws much from the works of Christopher H Bidmead who script edited Season 18 (Tom Baker's final season). The fact is that the novel starts with a passage from Bidmead's own novelization of Logopolis which gives the reader a clue that this is very much Bidmead-ish territory. In particular the themes of oppression and alien races with dark secrets in their past that occupied so much of Season 18 are put to some nice use here. Sadly the poorly done emphasis on action takes away from the plot which in itself is interesting for the most part.

Another reoccurring problem of the Timewyrm novels is in Apocalypse as well. The Timewyrm, the great threat that she is, once again appears very little in the novel. She appears at the start (sort of) and then disappears for the most part of the novel. Thankfully when she finally appears it is something of a surprise and it eventually leads to the single best written part of the novel on page 197. That said I am seriously wondering what the point of the Timewyrm is as she is responsible for very little in the novels so far and especially in Apocalypse.

Despite having a potential intrusting plot, Timewyrm Apocalypse is let down by the sum of its parts. With mostly cardboard characterization and poorly placed emphasis on action rather then on the novel's rather interesting plot idea. It is far from the greatest Who novel ever and (like Genesys) is very much one for fans seeking to kick off the New Adventures properly.

When I first read TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE back in 1993 or 1994, it was only a matter of weeks later that I was unable to recall more than a handful of details about the book. Rereading this in 2001, I recognized only the barest trivialities. I don't expect to retain anything more from my reread than I did from my initial perusal of the text.

The prologue of the book begins with several one and two word sentences which are supposed to represent the primitive thoughts of the awakening adversary. One and two word sentences never inspire the reader to have much confidence in the rest of the book, and sadly this assumption proves to be correct. One thing that any future authors can take away from this experience is that if one is going to base the first fifty pages of one's book off of a previous Doctor Who serial, do not redo The Krotons.

The major problem with this book is that it is hopelessly padded and, worse, it's extremely dull padding. The page count is just one over two hundred, yet strangely APOCALYPSE could easily lose about fifty pages without breaking a sweat. There are far too many scenes of people being captured, escaping, running away from monsters, etc. The style of prose does little to help move the plot along. Sequences are broken up with numerous pages of random information about the way of life on Kirith. These passages don't help to build up a picture of alien life, rather they just seem like irrelevant details. It seems heavily influenced by the very worst of the Target novelisations. When those books were at their poorest, they were nothing but lines of dialogue with random "extra" paragraphs of exposition. This is exactly what many sections of this book feel like. It isn't pretty.

Not to say that there aren't a few moments where the book is entertaining. There's a sequence in which the Doctor is being chased through a forest that's realized quite effectively. The passages involving the villagers awaking from their long conditioning are also noteworthy. Unfortunately for every one of these, we have something like the part where a seagull poos on the Doctor or one of the many useless facts about Kirithian culture. One step forward, three steps back.

All in all the ending of the book is enjoyable enough, it's just a pity one has to read through all the other dull stuff in order to get to it. This would make a much better novella if one, in addition to removing much of the padding, remembered that good writing involves more showing than telling.

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