Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A new era!, 17 Aug 2004
When the death knell sounded for British television's most enduring Science-Fiction show, few expected it to return. Its revival was delayed but it was dramatically assured nearly fourteen years later. However, prior to this, a mere two years after the show was axed the Doctor and his companion Ace were given a new lease of life in the Virgin 'New Adventures' series.
The series kicked off with the 'Timewyrm' series, a tetrarchy of original stories featuring the Seventh Doctor as embodied by Scot, Sylvester McCoy. These were to be followed by a trilogy and then a series of original stories. The first four novels received a lukewarm response form the public and this, the first in the series, attracted its fair share of criticism. Ultimately 'Timewyrm:Genesys' is a decent read, free from the constraints of the BBC SFX department John Peel develops the central characters and introduces a worthy foe in the form of the evil Timewyrm, a renegade 'queen' who was executed for treason but survived, replacing her vital organs with machinery.
The 'historical stories' always seemed to bring out the best in DW writers and this is no exception; swarthy medieval warriors, serving wenches and court musicians all rub shoulders with intergalactic nomads whilst the Doctor and Ace renew their friendship after the drama of 'Survival'. Terrance Dicks was to pick up this thread with even greater success in the next Timewyrm story:EXODUS.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Doctor Who - The Missing Link, 26 Dec 2007
The 'New Adventures' series of books were never officially declared as 'canon' to Doctor Who. That is to say, they were never officially a sequel to the TV series which had finished with the story 'Survival'. However, most fans see the books as just that, and they can be read as such with ease.
Like the series they are based on, the books are a bit hit and miss. A good book often following a bad, although it should perhaps be mentioned that there are only a very few real 'stinkers' in this series. The early books often had plots originally destined for the TV series itself and the cancellation of the show was instrumental in the books being written (it was felt the scripts should not go to waste).
As the New Adventures series progressed the writers let their lead characters develop. There is a sense of change from the old to the new that can be seen when these books are read retrospectively after seeing the new Doctor Who productions from Russell T Davies. Naturally, it helps to be familiar with the 7th Doctor stories as these books are written for the McCoy era fans. Many of the writers of these books have since gone on to write for the new TV shows or have written for Torchwood. Other writers had already been involved with the TV series, and Genesys writer John Peel is a name familiar to all Doctor Who fans.
If you are planning to read them all you should be aware that when the characters are allowed to develop this often involves a certain amount of snogging (and sometimes more, although nothing too graphic), and the entire series suffers from certain writers trying to get their favourite bands mentioned in the plots (this happened a lot until there was a bit of a fan backlash about it).
Timeworm: Genesys is the first of the New Adventure books and as such it is a good place for prospective readers to start. Set in ancient Mesopotamia, the book is basically about the awakening of an entity that the Chronovores call the Timewyrm (Chronovores live in the time vortex). A shape changing creature with the power to contol everything within her grasp, the Timewyrm has crashed on Earth and her power is growing as she consumes the minds of the humans around her. The Doctor and Ace get a message from the fourth Doctor warning them to do something about it. But in tackling the Timewyrm, the Doctor has given her access to the one thing she needs most to escape her confinement and conquer the universe... the TARDIS.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very good story, great start to the new adventures!, 13 Jun 2007
There are a few new adventures ive read before, and i have to admit some of them have been a bit of a let down, but with the timewyrm series, this is not so. a story that does not stop for breath from the word go is a hard type of story to find, but here are a series of four books that all do that easily!
but timewyrm genisys...well, the characters of the doctor and Ace are quite well done, but i feel that after the ending of survival that the start of this story isnt very much of a lead on, however, it is a good sotry anyway and this can be forgiven, cuz the whole story is good. with good storng characters and good pace. better than a lot of the later new adventures. but ive come to expect no less from a writer as good as John Peel, having read his brilliant novelisations of power and evil of the daleks. this is a great story and the timewyrm is a good and totally evil character! cool stuff!
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