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

I think, I mentioned it not long ago but reading this one was a tough one. And so far from the few VNAs that I read it was certainly the second weakest (but granted I haven’t read all that much from them).
While Birthright has some great Ideas to it, I mean the Plot is quite genius to really show us this TARDIS Team, even if this Story is very much more cut out as a Doctor-Lite story than anything else. I do think there are some nice Moments to be found, while I am not the biggest Fan of the actual Prose, they do move together quite nicely for the most Part. Although I am also not quite sold on how the Author writes certain Characters at times. That said, there is just something about this one, that just didn’t quite click with me.

I do overall prefer the Benny Adaption over the original Novel, even if that one is also more on the weaker Side of her first Series.

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“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.

17 - Birthright

In Nigel Robinson’s second entry in the New Adventures, Birthright separates the Doctor from his companions, with Benny stranded in Edwardian London and Ace on a hostile alien planet.  While it’s far from perfect, it’s still a compelling read that gives us a look into the escapades of the Doctor’s friends when he’s missing in action!

In 1909, a string of murders throws London into a state of panic, with the more superstitious among them fearing that the mythical Spring-heeled Jack is on the prowl.  One of London’s newer residents, a certain Dr. Bernice Summerfield, has been marooned there for two months, after being unceremoniously thrown out of the no-longer-bigger-on-the-inside police box she once called home.  Enlisting the help of a quirky little Russian detective named Popov, Benny begins investigating the murders, which lead to a mysterious man named Jared Khan.  These parts of the book are by far the most immersive; they’re a slow burn, and before the action starts we get a lovely glimpse into Benny’s life in the 20th century.

Meanwhile, another fragment of the TARDIS has deposited Ace on the barren planet of Antýkhon, on which a group of insectoid aliens called the Charrl have nearly driven the native humans to extinction.  With the help of a mysterious hermit named Muldwych, the Charrl Queen had used a time rift called the Great Divide to enlist Jared Khan’s help in tracking down the Doctor, and now hopes to invade 20th century Earth as a new home.  This section of the book drifts into generic territory, and I found the twist that Antýkhon is a future Earth to be predictable, but luckily it’s shorter than Benny’s half.  After Ace falls through the rift, she reunites with Benny, and Muldwych helps the two of them redirect the Charrl into the TARDIS’s infinite depths.

For a Doctorless novel, there’s a surprising amount of Doctor to be found.  Not only does Benny keep finding her circumstances ensured by several “John Smiths” working in the background, but Muldwych is revealed to be a future incarnation of the Doctor himself, desperately working to recover his TARDIS and escape the post-apocalyptic Earth.  It does feel at times as if Robinson started using the Doctor’s meddling as a crutch to get Benny out of situations; in one particularly far-fetched scene, she is arrested for murder, but the Prime Minister himself shows up to let her out on request from his friend John.  I would have preferred to see Benny being more self-sufficient; she makes a good protagonist and it undermines the conceit of this story to have the Doctor keep intervening.

Still, Birthright is a fun adventure that makes good use of its medium, and Its flawed pacing doesn’t do much to detract from that.  Time to see what the Doctor was up to the whole time...