Stories Book Virgin Books Birthright 1 image Overview Characters How to Read Reviews 1 Statistics Related Stories Quotes Overview Released Thursday, August 19, 1993 Written by Nigel Robinson Pages 224 Time Travel Past, Future Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Lost the TARDIS, Stranded on Earth Location (Potential Spoilers!) Antykhon, Earth, England, London Synopsis "I feel like a pawn in a blasted chess game, Ace." "I know what you mean. Trouble is, they keep changing the chess-players." The TARDIS has died. Stranded in early twentieth-century London, Bernice can only stand and watch as it slowly disintegrates. In the East End a series of grisly murders has been committed. Is this the work of the ghostly Springheel Jack or, as Bernice suspects, something even more sinister? In a tiny shop in Bloomsbury, the master of a grand order of sorcerers is nearing the end of a seven-hundred year quest for a fabled magic wand. And on a barren world in the far-distant future the Queen of a dying race pleads for the help of an old hermit named Muldwych, while Ace leads a group of guerrillas in a desperate struggle against their alien oppressors. These events are related. Perhaps the Doctor knows how. But the Doctor has gone away. Read Read Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Characters Ace Charrl First Appearance Jared Khan Bernice Summerfield Show All Characters (4) How to read Birthright: Books Birthright Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Newest First Oldest First Most Likes Highest Rating Lowest Rating Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 1 review 30 April 2024 · 946 words Review by Speechless Spoilers 2 This review contains spoilers! Virgin New Adventures #17: --- "Birthright" by Nigel Robinson Timewyrm: Apocalypse is a book I think is a little underrated. I'm not saying it's good, it's thoroughly average, but people calling it the worst of the Timewyrm quadrilogy is a take I just can't agree with. It's entirely inoffensive and hell, Nigel Robinson had some good ideas. But, he managed to get a second chance and everybody pretty much unanimously agrees that this is the better of his two novels. A dark, Edwardian, slightly gothic tale of war and survival underpinned by some pretty boring pacing and a surprising amount of padding for such a short book. The Doctor is gone. Ace and Benny have been split up, the former in the far future, on a dead world, protecting an indigenous population against the monstrous Charrl, an insectoid warmongering species and the latter being stranded in Edwardian London, forced to play in the Doctor's cosmic chess game. As these two worlds collide, the Earth prepares for war. (CONTAINS SPOILERS) This story is what is known as "Doctor-Lite", featuring mainly the companions with the Doctor either only in parts or completely absent. For one half of the book, it follows Benny trudging through Edwardian London, investigating a series of gruesome killings whilst the second half has Ace leading a revolution on a dead planet. Immediately from that description you can tell that one half is going to be better than the other. The devastated world of Antýkhon isn't an inspiring setting and the side cast is notably hostile and uninteresting but the grim dark, gothic characterisation of early 1900s Britain is so very vivid and alive, and the same goes for the story in each. The most notable pro of this book is easily its characterisation of our two leads - Ace and Benny. Benny was a character who, with no visual aid given to me, I had a hard time visualising as I read her books but for some reason, in Birthright, it just clicked. Same goes for Ace; New Ace is an idea I'm on the fence about, I like it in concept but most writers just interpret it as "be edgy and get Ace naked at some point in the book" but Robinson got her down as a tough but fair woman who could handle herself in the new, mature landscape of the VNAs, which I adore. The voice of these characters is so clear and well-written that I can't help but love them in this book. However, this book has some major flaws. Side cast is something it really struggles with, I mentioned that not a single character in Ace's half of the book is interesting but the same kind of goes for Benny's story. There is one exception, a rather sweet Russian Detective called Mikhail but his character just got simpler and simpler to the point of him just being "the nice one". One aspect of the VNAs I really like is Seven, I find the dark trickster and cosmic chess player to be such an interesting interpretation of the Doctor's character but here he just feels over mythologised. The idea of the Doctor going around, setting up traps for enemies years after already beating them with said trap, helping companions out of situation by jumping in in the future and saving them is great on paper, but Robinson uses it for every other conundrum in this book and it quickly just becomes a way to write himself out of problems. There's a section where Benny is sent to prison for all of one chapter before the Doctor, low and behold, had written her a way out of prison. A major complaint of Timewyrm: Apocalypse was that it was "too formulaic", being a pretty generic false utopia plot and Birthright doesn't exactly stray away from the simple either. It's revealed late in the book that the ruined world of Antýkhon is, say it with me now, actually Earth from the far future. Planet of the Apes did it and everyone just decided to copy it, that twist isn't original and it adds nothing to the grand scheme of things. There's a lot more to say about Birthright, like the hermit Muldwych, who is actually an alternate version of the Doctor who was also Merlin (the Virgin New Adventures everybody!) or how there are very Timewyrm: Revelations sequence in the TARDIS towards the end of the book, but this review is long enough. Birthright gets the characterisation of its lead down perfectly but then encapsulates that in a pretty middling story. 7/10 Pros: + Pitch perfect characterisation of Ace and Benny + Edwardian London is a great and realised setting + Mikhail is a very likable, if simple, side character + Having the Doctor own a flat in 1900s London is a concept I really like. The Doctor owning property across Earth in case he needs to seek refuge just seems like a no brainer idea to me + The chapters in the TARDIS' telepathic circuits are wonderfully surreal Cons: - First half is much better than the second half - The side cast are mostly forgettable or straight out of a pantomime - Jared Khan is a pretty lame villain with a pretty cool idea behind him - that of a man who has lived for centuries wanting to possess the TARDIS - The twist that Antýkhon is just future Earth is boring, contrived and logicless - The Doctor is way too over-mythologised to the point of becoming a writing loophole - A few too many ideas for its own good Like Liked 2 Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating23 members 3.74 / 5 GoodReads AVG. Rating272 votes 3.57 / 5 The Time Scales AVG. Rating14 votes 3.55 / 5 Member Statistics Read 36 Favourited 4 Reviewed 1 Saved 2 Skipped 0 Owned 3 Related Stories DWM Preludes Prelude Birthright Rating: 3.90 Story Skipped Short Story More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Doctor Who Magazine Preludes Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other adaptations of this story: We define an adaptation as a recreation of a similar story but on a different medium or with different characters. Bernice Summerfield S1 • Episode 4 Birthright Rating: 3.28 Story Skipped Audio Drama Reviews(5) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Bernice Summerfield Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Submit a Quote