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“BIRTHRIGHT – BERNICE AND ACE TAKE THE REINS IN A DOCTOR-LITE TIME-HOPPER”

Nigel Robinson’s Birthright is a fascinating outlier in the Virgin New Adventures: a Doctor Who story that largely omits the Doctor. It’s a rare Doctor-lite entry, and in fact, he only appears at the very beginning and very end, with the rest of the narrative driven by his companions. But his influence is everywhere, with the story structured around the intricate manipulations he set in motion long before Bernice and Ace stepped into their respective threads of the tale. The result is an engaging time-split narrative that showcases the range’s most memorable double act in strikingly different settings.

For those familiar with the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield audio adaptation (which excises the Doctor, Ace, and the TARDIS altogether), reading the original novel offers an illuminating comparison. The core story remains—but it’s fascinating to discover just how much the Doctor’s spectral presence shapes the events of the book.

LONDON’S CALLING: BERNICE IN 1909

Part One follows Benny, stranded in Edwardian London following a TARDIS mishap. As she tries to blend into society—failing amusingly at her Cockney accent and frequently reverting to her unladylike academic self—she gets tangled in a series of brutal murders. The Benny we know and love is fully formed here: resourceful, sarcastic, and totally unflappable, even in the face of blood-soaked corpses and tipsy aggressors.

What makes this segment shine is its grimy, tactile atmosphere and Benny’s clear evolution into a leading lady. It’s easy to see why she would later front her own spin-off range. She teams up with two enjoyable side characters: Popov, a gruff Russian private investigator, and Charlie, a Dickensian street urchin with thieving fingers and a heart of gold. Sadly, their roles diminish significantly in the latter half.

The era’s backdrop is peppered with period detail, but the story’s real hook is how the Doctor’s long game is gradually revealed. A hidden base in London, once gifted to him by Victoria Waterfield, is now tended by Margaret Waterfield—until her untimely murder. It’s a clever twist on continuity, suggesting a domestic side to the Doctor, with echoes of later stories like Stranded or The Giggle. That said, the late reveal that Margaret was secretly working against Benny as part of the New Dawn cult feels like one twist too many.

FUTURE SHOCK: ACE IN ANTHYKON

Part Two shifts perspective entirely, following Ace into the distant future on the desolate planet Anthykon—a brutal, ozone-depleted future Earth. The slow-burn revelation that this wasteland is Earth adds real weight to the setting. Here, Ace allies with the Hairies, a race of mutated future humans, as they attempt to infiltrate the Charrl hive.

Ace’s section isn’t quite as strong as Benny’s, but it offers some nice character beats. There's light friction with the Hairies’ leader, but it’s resolved too quickly. And while the Charrl—arthropodic creatures bent on escaping extinction by migrating into Earth’s past—are suitably alien, their role in the narrative leans more towards background threat than active menace.

The two plotlines converge in an excellent transitional moment: Benny's section ends with someone hitting her; Ace’s ends with her hitting someone—revealed in Part Three to be each other. It’s a delightful symmetry, and the moment they’re reunited in 1909 adds momentum to the back half of the book.

THE CHARRLS, THE CULT, AND THE CHRONIC MANIPULATOR

The Charrls’ plan to repopulate the past via grotesque body horror—implanting human women with Charrl eggs—is disturbing in that uniquely New Adventures way, combining the body horror of Alien with a Victorian murder mystery. The Springheel Jack legend is repurposed cleverly to bridge the two timelines, linking urban myth with sci-fi menace.

Jared Khan, the primary antagonist, is a standout. A psychic, centuries-old zealot, his philosophical devotion to the New Dawn cause is both chilling and convincing. The interludes tracking his pursuit of the Doctor across historical eras—from Kublai Khan’s court to the Tudor court—are compelling vignettes. He’s far more effective here than in the audio version, radiating quiet menace rather than cartoon villainy.

THE TARDIS, THE FIGHT, AND THE FINAL REVEALS

The climax shifts into near-surreal territory, with Benny battling Khan psychically within the TARDIS across multiple planes of existence: from Revolutionary France to spider-infested voids, sea-of-blood horrors, and even a cryptic lamb who guides her through the madness. It’s imaginative and visually rich, pushing the medium into dreamlike abstraction in a way only prose can.

This sequence, omitted in the Big Finish adaptation, is the book’s most striking set piece. Benny’s battle of wills with Khan, who has psychically merged with the TARDIS itself, is both thrilling and thematically rich. The TARDIS becomes a battlefield, a memory palace, and a haunted house all in one.

Muldwych—mysterious, meddlesome, and semi-Doctoral—is another curious element. Trapped on Anthykon and assisting the Charrl, he’s hinted to be a future incarnation of the Doctor, exiled and bitter. In the end, he tries to steal the TARDIS for himself but is unceremoniously expelled. He’s an odd character, but one whose implications add depth to the mythos.

And in the final scene, the Doctor emerges from the same room he entered at the beginning, as if no time has passed for him. But hints that he’s been somewhere cold and snowy tease the next entry, Iceberg, with elegant precision.

📝VERDICT: 8️⃣3️⃣/1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣

BIRTHRIGHT is a standout entry in the Virgin New Adventures range: an ambitious, tightly plotted, and refreshingly Doctor-lite story that allows Bernice and Ace to shine. Benny’s grim, murder-filled London adventure is particularly strong, showing off her adaptability, courage, and charm. The future-set material with Ace is a bit thinner but still packed with strong ideas, from the fate of future Earth to the creepy legacy of the Charrl. Jared Khan is a terrific villain, and the TARDIS-based psychic climax is one of the series’ most memorable showdowns.

Though some supporting characters are underused and one or two twists feel surplus to requirements, this is a smart, slickly structured novel with few slow patches and plenty of invention. It proves that Doctor Who can survive—and even thrive—without the Doctor at the centre, so long as the companions are this compelling and the plot this cleverly woven.