The War Games The Timewyrm Series Just War Players

Virgin Books Timewyrm: Exodus Timewyrm Part Two

Author	Terrance Dicks
ISBN#	0 426 20357 7
Published	1991
Cover	Andrew Skilleter

Synopsis: The Doctor and Ace land in London, 1951 to discover the Nazi's won the second World War and have occupied England. The Doctor impersonates an inspector in order to discover the truth, but is discovered by the evil Lt Hemmings of the Britisher Freikorps. The Doctor and Ace then travel back to the divergence to discover the Timewyrm has both possessed and become trapped in Hitler's mind. But things get even worse when they discover a very old enemy lurking in the same time zone...

• A Review by Keith Bennett
• Terrance Dicks' Best Story by Tom May
• The 10 Commandments, as featured in the book of Exodus by Matt Haasch
• A Review by Rob Matthews
• A short, spoiler-free, mindless review by Andrew McCaffrey
• A Review by Finn Clark
• A Review by Clive Walker
• Highly Readable by Tim Roll-Pickering
• A Review by Brian May

A Review by Keith Bennett 11/4/98

The most prolific Doctor Who novelist of all has produced a high quality follow-up to John Peel's Genesys. Terrance Dicks has often been critisized for producing lightweight books based on the programme, although they were usually quite good, if not very good, if only for the fact that the stories they were based on were often of high quality.

The Doctor and Ace land in London in the year 1951, believing the evil Timewyrm to be dwelling there, and find it to be German-dominated - the Second World War has not gone the way it should have. The first half of the novel is set at this time, while the second is set before the war, with the Doctor acting as personal advisor to Adolf Hitler so as to find out what is happening and put history back on course. Someone is controlling the Fuehrer, but is it the Timewyrm, or an old enemy of the Doctor...

This is, as expected, a typically easy-to-read book from Dicks, tamer than Genesys, but still most intriguing, amusing and enjoyable, quite a fascinating insight into the Reich, and thankfully, the Timewyrm is given very little to do, just appearing to rant and rave briefly at the end. The only major negative is with the whirlwind changing of scenes from buildings to buildings. All the tree-lined streets and giant offices begin to seem the same after a while. Also, the first two stories of this series have been completely earthbound, and the Coda suggests Nigel Robinson's Apocalypse might be the same. It would be nice to see the TARDIS in space again soon.

But a really good story overall, fast moving and fun.

Terrance Dicks' Best Story by Tom May 2/6/98

The second NA is certainly one of the finest and well plotted of any in the 50+ range. The style helps to set the tone for future NA's, while keeping a foot firmly in Doctor Who's past. When reading the opening chapters I had the feeling I was reading an addition to the wonderful Season 26. Terrance Dicks' plot is gripping, oddly amusing and deeper than any of his previous scripts for Doctor Who.

The plot concerns history, and tampering with it. Dicks, after beginning the book in a Nazi occupied London of 1951, gives major depth to the charcters and situations of Nazi Germany. There's much use of the TARDIS in this book, and it really seems as if the Doctor's plan is as intricate and dangerous of any he's ever faced. The Doctor's role as mentor to Hitler is treated superbly, as are the characters (and rivalry) of Himmler and Goering. Perhaps the best thing about the book is the Doctor's part in it. He pretends to be "Herr Doktor," a leading Nazi with precision, mixing and plotting with and against the Nazis in a subtle way. I was reminded of the Second Doctor's impersonation of an authority figure in Part 2 of The War Games, and I'd love to see McCoy in that leather jacket.

The book sustains interest throughout, and the ending is fittingly magical and ingenious. This story could've been a television masterpiece, yet we'll have to settle for a novel that is adult, intillegent and magical in the Doctor Who tradition. Dicks treats the major Nazi players with subtlty, making them seem human, although we know this is only because of The Doctor's popular presence. It's good that this isn't a simple morality play -- Dicks must've had a good idea of the NA's prospective audience, unlike he did with BBC range opener The Eight Doctors, which was targetted at JNT/continuity fans and kids. The horrors of Nazism aren't truly dwelled upon in this novel, as we know all about them. Timewryn: Exodus is an undeniably superb book that would serve as a great introduction to the NA range for the uninitiated. 10/10

The 10 Commandments, as featured in the book of Exodus by Matt Haasch 7/6/00

Here we are. Fresh off of Genesys, which I haven't read due to lack of good reviews on John Peel. Here we get a taste of War Games, which this is practically a sequel to. This is also tied into Players very well with many characters remaining in both books. Here we see not necessarily a manipulative Doctor, but one which can adapt to anything. He also seems to get along very well with the Nazis, which is fun, do to all the duping he does just by rasing his voice. Explanations as to why he didn't stop Hitler in the first place are pretty good. The action is well written and keeps the reader immersed. I read this one in about 4 days. The Nazi group are well characterized, with Hitler being infected with the timewyrm. Von Ribbentrop plays a smaller part in this book as apposed to Players, but there are plenty of fighting between Hitler's right hand men, to the point where the Doctor has them chasing each other's tails -- Nazi forces against the SS. All of this, the action, plot, and everything seem perfect, as well as the interpretation of the Doctor and Ace, who seem just as they do in the show. There's even a moment where the Doctor shows a kind of fatherly love toward her which is extremely touching. A good buy in the field of NA's. Recommended for an enjoyable tale.

A Review by Rob Matthews 24/9/01

One of this site's reviews of the novel Damaged Goods makes a good point about the discomfort it causes when it invokes the subject of AIDS. It's a potent criticism, partly because the author's use of it comes across as an aside or afterthought, but mostly because its incredibly crass to use a subject so serious and current in what is essentially light entertainment (no matter how high-quality).

The problem is that Doctor Who's time-travel format occasionally asks us to compromise our respect for history, and potentially our sense of the reality around us. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but some things are too huge to play games with. Doctor Who rarely encroaches upon real-life tragedy and injustice, except through allegory and parallels. By this, I mean we're not offended by Tom Baker acting silly or making flippant remarks if he's up against an oppressive and murderous regime on the planet Pluto, but we would scarcely expect the same lightness of tone if we were asked to imagine him materialising in Afghanistan and opposing the Taliban. The notion of the Doctor and his companions accidentally giving the world a cure for AIDS is no more destructive to our worldview than the idea of the Fendahl influencing the development of our ids, Scaroth advancing our civilisation or the Osirans inspiring the Egyptian gods. Real lives were involved in all those things too (well, except in any specific way the Fendahl one). But these things are too far out of living memory for anyone to be too offended by them, and they intrigue rather than annoy us because its all plainly daft.

Those examples come from a few disparate stories, but if you start to add them up it builds a view of the world which quite thoroughly negates human civilisation and creativity. Of course, the show's creators ever intended us to add all these stories together - Doctor Who the TV series never meant to offer us a coherent and consistent view of its universe -, and as ingenious as we might often find these ideas, we can't take them seriously because it's just entertainment. We can suspend our disbelief and believe for the purposes of a story that the Cybermen accidentally wiped out the dinosaurs, because real though the dinsosaurs were, it's all academic; it's all history; all backstory. Something terrible which is happening now is not.

Which brings me to Timewyrm: Exodus. I don't believe World War II happened long enough ago for this historical gameplaying to be tasteful. It worked in The Curse of Fenric because the details of the war were not dealt with too directly - it dealt with the Allies' antagonism toward the Russians rather than the Germans, and the plot did not actually impact upon the war itself. WWII was evoked for atmosphere, a perfect correlative for a story dealing with the release of Evil, but was not nudged for effect. Millington reminded you of Hitler, but it wasn't overemphasised. The story played on inference and association rather than direct rewriting of horrendous factual occurences.

Unlike Timewyrm: Exodus, which goes too far. Hitler did not rise to power because of a rogue Time Lord and a telepath-entity telescoping his charisma. He did it because his country was in a bad economic state, because human beings have a terrible appalling tendency to scapegoat and demonise, and because of a widespread and insidious antisemitism that can be found, for example, in Edgar Allen Poe and Henry James as easily as in the Third Reich.

The image of the Doctor chummying up to Hitler is not treated carefully enough. It should be horrifying, but is made merely temporarily disturbing.

But what really appalled me in this book was the attitude of the Doctor and Ace. In one scene, the Doctor - posing as a high-ranking Nazi - chucks a couple of fascists out of their box overlooking Hitler's rally and says to Ace something along the lines of "Oh look, they've left some champagne and chocolates'. In another scene, the Doctor and Ace discuss the injustice of the luxuries of the Nazis and the deprivation of those they subjugate, only for Ace to finally shrug, "Oh well, it's hard work but somebody's got to do it. More caviar, Professor?"

Now, my usual attitude to Doctor Who is that anything goes, but this is wrong, wrong, wrong. The Doctor is not someone who travels through time and space righting wrongs and, if he's lucky, feasting on luxury chocolates. The seventh Doctor, in particular, would not care about chocolates, would not be remotely interested. Colin Baker's Doctor, who everyone derides as a porky pig, would most likely say, "We've got more to worry about than chocolates, Peri". No-one as sensitive to misery and tyranny as the Doctor is supposed to be would so smugly and thoughtlessly feed on death and suffering. But it seems that as far as Terrance Dicks is concerned, any pretext for an orgy of gluttony will do - look at the way he has the sixth Doctor and Peri swanning around in fancy hotels and going on expensive shopping sprees in Players. Doctor Who is about many things, but not about travelling through time so you can accumulate interest on a bank account and then paint the town red. And especially not when your story is about one of the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.

Of course - moving on to lesser matters -, with a Terrance Dicks novel it's pointless to comment on whether he's being true to the characer of the Doctor in question. He is perennially writing for Jon Pertwee, still writing for seasons seven thru eleven. Witness the Doctor referring to his companion as "My dear Ace" and advising her that if she pays attention she 'might learn something'. Has Terrance Dicks even seen any of McCoy's era?

Ace, meanwhile, gets beaten up by a misogynist and later offered as a sacrificial virgin. Oh yes, the rationale that gave us Jo Grant over Liz Shaw 'triumphs' again. I'm afraid it's too easy to imagine someone getting their jollies over these scenes.

Anyway, this is in fact a well-structured and clearly well-researched story with the surprise return of an old villain handled interestingly. But it's too badly misguided for any of that to matter.

A short, spoiler-free, mindless review by Andrew McCaffrey 30/10/01

"What we're seeing here are the effects of interference."

As usual with Uncle Terry's books, the characterization of the regulars is excellent. His Doctor is spot on; Dicks makes it look easy. The Doctor gets all the best lines and all the best scenes. He even gets the best costume, shedding his regular coat for a creepy black leather jacket. Ace also gets some good scenes though there are one or two moments when she appears weaker than in past.

The plot runs at quite a pace and contains some of Dicks' best writing to date. The whole if-Hitler-won scenario is handled quite well. The view of what England would be like if it had lost the Second World War is interesting, but it is wisely kept to a short section before it can fall into one of the numerous science-fiction parallel universe cliches.

There are a few places where the author's Target television novelization experience comes back to haunt him. A few characters give away elements of the plot by having them explain things to each other that surely they would already know. But, thankfully, this is kept to a bare minimum.

The thought of the Doctor working his way behind the scenes in Nazi Germany is quite a disturbing concept. Although I usually dislike the stories in which the Doctor hangs out with historical persons, Dicks manages to successfully portray Adolf Hitler as a historical figure by showing him at several points along his life (Dicks would use this method even more successfully in his later book, Players, in his depiction of Winston Churchill). Having the Doctor meeting a real-life evil such as Hitler could have been an enormous disaster. Fortunately the events are handled with just the right amount of needed sensitivity.

There really isn't all that much to say about this book. It almost defies discussion. It's really good and that's all one needs to know.

A Review by Finn Clark 6/2/02

Initial reaction: wow, actual prose! In a Terrance Dicks pamphlet! The poor chap has acquired a reputation for shallow runarounds - but for his Virgin debut, nose met grindstone. This is a novel.

Second reaction: how odd, an NA taking its reference points from the TV stories (Curse of Fenric in this instance, and perhaps a subtle Remembrance of the Daleks ref on page 69). It feels strange, a mismatch of influences. I don't mean to imply that the Virgin books ignored the TV episodes, but by and large they used them as a source of fanwank references rather than the latest bit o' story.

It's genuinely spooky. Setting a big chunk of the book in an altered timeline of occupied Britain was a masterstroke, making the Nazis unpredictable and scary rather than Indiana Jones villains. Terrance trademarks are already making themselves felt, but they're generally to the story's advantage. As with Players we have a Doctor who dresses well, lives the high life and allies himself with the authorities... but since these authorities are high-ranking Nazis, I was constantly on the edge of my seat. It's scary watching the Doctor befriending evil people! You're constantly waiting for betrayal and discovery.

The Doctor is very good - but in a way that today might be criticised. We've become more sensitive to Doctors being specifically characterised as that incarnation rather than any other, and the Doctor of Timewyrm: Exodus is perhaps more Dicksish than McCoyish. But having said that, there's some great material that Sylvester would have loved and I never had trouble imagining the Season 26 crew. [There's a great line on page 51, too.]

Terrance-isms... there's lots of surprising references, such as to Gallifrey or to books Terrance hadn't yet written. Reread today, Exodus feels like a sequel to Players! (The two books form a trilogy with The Shadow in the Glass which I recommend highly, though you might want to rewatch The War Games before embarking upon it.)

However I have two niggles. Suggesting that aliens influenced our development is generally a mistake, here implying that Hitler's evil was partly down to people from outer space - an amazingly tasteless idea and one that incidentally hurts Shadow in the Glass. Having said that, I bought it here. I also don't like the Doctor's amazing never-before-seen ability to summon the TARDIS telepathically, a catch-all Get Out Of Jail Free card that puts the TVM's temporal orbit to shame.

This is a great book - chilling and nowhere near the comic book Nazi runaround I'd been half-expecting. The history is interesting, the TARDIS crew are charming and the writing's really good. Terrance worked hard on this one. You can tell.

A Review by Clive Walker 1/4/02

Virgin was playing it safe and sticking with established writers at this early stage in the life of the New Adventures. The second part of the Timewyrm series fell to Terrance Dicks, that stalwart of the Target range, and what a wise choice this turned out to be.

There are few people with a better understanding than Dicks of what makes good Doctor Who. Here he produces an exciting and engaging tale of Nazis and alternate time streams that draws the reader in from page 1 and never lets go. The scenes where the Doctor poses as a high ranking Nazi official and proceeds to run rings around the enemy are a joy to read and one can almost hear Sylvester McCoy speaking the lines. Indeed, one of the great successes of this book is its recreation of the Doctor and Ace and their relationship just as they were in their final TV season.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Dicks can tell a good tale but he also displays in this novel an unexpected (for those brought up on his Target novelisations) talent for description and characterisation. In the first part of the book he evokes wonderfully a vision of a grey and downtrodden London. Later he brings to life the terrifying theatre of the Nuremburg rallies and the grandiosity of Hitler's Berlin. Best of all though is his depiction of the paranoid, back-stabbing freak show that made up the senior ranks of the Nazi hierarchy. Dicks's portrayal of these men may, or may not, be accurate but it is chillingly believable.

The only significant element of this book that I found disappointing was the inclusion of the War Chief and his allies. This is a strong novel in its own right that simply did not need the clumsy addition of continuity elements from the TV show to appeal to its readership. The eponymous Timewyrm is a more than adequate protagonist and re-introducing an old enemy that just happens to be simultaneously interfering in Earth's history stretches credibility and feels like a gimmick.

My other gripes are minor. The Doctor, unwilling as ever to shoot people, at one point hands a gun to Ace so that she can do so instead. This incident seems jarringly out of character in a novel that is, as noted above, for the most part true to the TV series. It might be seen in retrospect as the first foreshadowing of Ace as the killing machine she becomes in later novels. Oh, and two novels into the series I'm already getting sick of her use of Nitro 9 as the get-out clause in every sticky situation.

In summary this novel is highly recommended - a great read marred only slightly by the needless inclusion of elements from the TV show's past. I give it 9/10.

Highly Readable by Tim Roll-Pickering 20/6/02

Terrance Dicks' first original novel is one of the fastest moving and entertaining of all the New Adventures. Moving rapidly between an alternate Festival of Britain in 1951 to Munich in 1923 to Nuremberg, Berlin and Drachensberg in 1939 to Felsennest in 1940 to the real Festival of Britain in 1951 it never once lets up but at the same time tells an extremely strong and memorable story. What makes it work especially well is the way that the story could so easily have been told without the addition of the Timewyrm linking theme but at the same time it feels like it is an integral part of the novel.

The story is notable for being the first time an 'official' Doctor Who story has directly featured the Third Reich and key Nazis (Silver Nemesis only featured latter day Nazis in exile) and as such there is the difficulty as to how to present the Nazi hierarchy and Nazi Germany. Terrance Dicks manages to convey a strong sense of the horror of the Nazi's crimes whilst at the same time not letting the plot become bogged down by the moral arguments. The question of whether or not it is morally right for a time traveller to kill Hitler is addressed and answered only through reference to the case in hand and the book's core premise that the Second World War was only lost by Germany due to Hitler's incompetence. Terrance Dicks' knowledge of the period is strong and we get to see an up close examination of the state of Germany at the outbreak of the Second World War. The third part of the novel is perhaps the strongest, showing the scheming and jostling for influence amongst the key Nazis whilst also showing them for what they were, most obviously Goering (who is almost the heroic support character for the story) and Himmler, a loyal little monster. Hitler himself is only seen for brief periods, but is shown very clearly as a driven insane individual. The story also enhances the Doctor's detachment from the situation and his values through the way that Ace is routinely horrified by what she sees him do, yet later in the castle he demonstrates how he feels about her in a very moving brief scene.

The alternate 1951 sequence is more clichéd and could easily have been shortened but at the same time it allows for some enjoyable scenes such as the Doctor's impersonation of the Reichinspektor General and his general demolition of the military. This is very much an action adventure and there is a lot of this throughout the book, whilst at the same time we get to see some of the less well publicised parts of Nazi Germany and the parallels between Nazism and religion are paralleled. And in only the second of the New Adventures we get to see the return of an old enemy, in this case the War Chief and the 'Aliens' from The War Games. Since Dicks co-wrote that story it is appropriate that he should be the one to revive the characters and their new plan is noticeably different. This is a surprising resurrection but all the necessary details about the Doctor's previous encounter with them are given so it doesn't matter if a reader is familiar with the events of that story or not.

Terrance Dicks' prose style has been accused of being over simplistic and traditional but it does flow exceptionally well, making it easy to read the book in a few hours without ever feeling the need for a break from the book, which is something that not every New Adventure can boast. The result is a good strong traditional story that breaks new ground and remains highly readable again and again. 9/10

A Review by Brian May 22/10/04

The first of the New Adventures was written by a name familiar to Doctor Who fans. John Peel - the author of various anthologies and the Target novelisations of several Hartnell and Troughton Dalek stories in the late 1980s; so in 1991 readers had a name they were acquainted with. For the second book, there was an even more familiar name to assure readers this new series was in capable hands. Terrance Dicks. Uncle Terrance. Script editor of the programme for five years. Script writer. The ultimate Target author - he wrote countless adaptations, which ranged from quality efforts through to unimaginative, churned-out rubbish. But when Dicks was good, he was very good! Timewyrm: Exodus, is Uncle Terry at his best.

It's well written, easily readable and is at times a tense and nail-biting piece of escapist adventure. It's hardly what you would call original - most of Doctor Who is similarly derivative - but it's a stylish take on the well worn "what if the Nazis won?" alternate history scenario. The oppressive, gloomy atmosphere of Nazi occupied London is wonderfully realised, echoing The Dalek Invasion of Earth, but instead of alien Nazi metaphors, here we have the real thing. The interference in human history and the imperative to go back and prevent this timeline are also successfully conveyed, complete with the proper sense of urgency.

The various stages of German history, from the Munich putsch of 1923 to Hitler's absolute power of 1939 are also well done, with a good sense of historical mood and feel. The characterisations of the various real-life Nazis are good, and thankfully Dicks refrains from making them personable or sympathetic. They are the historical figures they should be. The way Hitler is written emphasises what a megalomaniac he really was, with or without the influence of the Timewyrm. The Doctor and Ace are pretty good renditions of their televised selves, especially the former. His interactions with the Nazis are interesting - he rightly loathes and despises them and everything they stand for, but he knows he must ally himself with such people. His promise to Hitler in 1923 that he will rule Germany one day, along with his "All I ask is that you remember me" request, are great dramatic moments; you can tell he doesn't want a bar of him, yet he must maintain a link in order to restore the proper course of history. Ace's attempt to kill Hitler is problematic - it's well within her aggressive character, but I think even she would have the intelligence to realise he must live (for the time being).

During the 1939 sections, the scenes between the Doctor and Hitler, especially during the latter's fits of possession, are truly creepy. The build-up to the climax and the revelation of the War Chief are well done, although the sacrificial rites of the Black Coven and the final battle in Drachensberg are somewhat flat, too dependent on action and seem like padding. Also, the Doctor summoning the TARDIS from its "parking spot" in the space-time continuum is a cop-out. It appears out of nowhere to save him and Ace from a nasty scrape - if he can do this, why doesn't he simply do it every adventure? Exodus is better when it's in slow burn mode; the better parts are made up of conversation, dialogue and moments when the Doctor and Ace venture into the unknown. The action scenes earlier in the novel are better - their attempts to escape from their captors and reach the TARDIS in Nazi Britain are quite engaging, because of the aforementioned need to travel back in time.

Also mentioned above is the return of the War Chief - the villain from Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke's The War Games. This book is very early in the Who fiction scene - the constant references to the programme's past and continuity would in time lead to the creation of the dreaded "f"-word. This story's immediate predecessor, Genesys, went slightly overboard, including dreadful usage of the third and fourth Doctors. Exodus is a different matter - Dicks is setting out to write a sequel to the televised Troughton adventure, so references to it - and the use of characters - are more justifiable than the simple recitation of stories/characters/monsters in the attempt to show off knowledge of the show. (But that mention of Dr Solon's Special Morbius Lotion? Hmmmmm, maybe an overstep there...) And Dicks expands on his characters - the War Chief is fleshed out extremely well; he leaves plenty of clues as to his identity (including the blatantly obvious title of Kriegslieter). The aborted regeneration and the description of his deformed body are quite gruesome.

Dicks also keeps him in the shadows for a while, letting on to the reader there's an old enemy present, but they're going to have to keep reading to find out who it is (or work it out for themselves). There's one small section he should have left out - when the War Chief attempts to kill the Doctor in 1923 Munich, his yelling out "No, Doctor, you lose!" This is rather silly. He alerts the Doctor to his presence - and allows Ace to throw a canister of nitro-nine-a at him. He could have just attempted to shoot him - Dicks could have thought up a way to make him miss - and vanished. The Doctor still would have been aware of an alien presence. There's another small problem: The War Chief is working with the son of the War Lord - who was dematerialised at the end of The War Games. Effectively he never existed, so therefore wouldn't his son never have existed as well?

The use of the Timewyrm is extremely good. She's kept in the background for much of the adventure, under the (quite clever) idea of her being trapped in Hitler's mind. The rampaging, omnipresent character of Ishtar in Genesys couldn't have been convincingly repeated so soon - so good on Uncle Terry for this move. However, this leads to another disappointing factor at the end - the Doctor disposes of her (for this story at least) too quickly and easily. Like the disappointing runaround in Drachensberg, it lacks a dramatic edge.

However, Exodus is for the most part a satisfying, enjoyable story. The plotting is excellent; the presence of two different alien influences - the Timewyrm and the War Chief - working separately, could have cluttered things up, but Dicks avoids this, allowing for some effort and guesswork on the part of the reader - and some red herrings. He also keeps things interesting, what with the sudden disappearance of Hemmings into the TARDIS (apparently) midway through the story, setting up a cryptic and sequel-anticipating coda. A few overlong action sequences and a rather lukewarm conclusion aside, Exodus is gripping, page turning and highly recommended. One of the best of the early NAs. 8.5/10