01 - Timewyrm: Genesys

I had several people warn me about this book when I first decided to start the VNAs, and I can't say their warnings were unwarranted!  To put it lightly, this was not a great start to the series; having read the next two installments at the time of writing, I’m glad that it quickly recovers.

Let's start with the positives (because there are some!).  The Epic of Gilgamesh is an excellent setting for the first entry in a new chapter of the Doctor Who franchise - for the first official full-length novel, it’s only fitting that the Doctor and Ace should plunge into one of the oldest stories in the written record.  The character of Enkidu is particularly interesting - the “wild man” who becomes Gilgamesh’s friend in the original story is recontextualized as a wayward Neanderthal, who suffers from profound loneliness due to the knowledge that he is the last of his people.

However, for a story that should focus on new beginnings, Genesys seems to have an obsession with meaningless references to its parent show, as if to reassure the reader that yes, this is in fact Doctor Who, please stick around!  The call to adventure is given by a vision of the Fourth Doctor, and Ace lists off numerous references to her short catalog of stories (including Paradise Towers, which she wasn’t even present for!) within the first few dozen pages.  During the climax, the Doctor assumes the personality of Pertwee’s Third Doctor, and you really get the impression that John Peel did not particularly enjoy writing for McCoy’s more scheming incarnation.

And now for the elephant in the room.  This book, much like Torchwood S1, is obsessed with proving its willingness to stray into adult themes.  However, it goes much, much further, crossing a line in the very first chapter as it sexualizes the prepubescent priestesses of Ishtar in a way that makes me feel gross just reading it.  Gilgamesh, who should ideally be a heroic and prominent character in the narrative, seems to exist almost exclusively to sexually harass and grope every woman and girl in sight.  I’m not opposed to these topics being tackled in principle, and the Doctor has often wandered into societies with less-than-savory customs.  However, here the Doctor not only tolerates this behavior, but actively scolds Ace for daring to resist the advances of Gilgamesh, in a disgusting exchange that’s possibly the most out-of-character I’ve ever seen him behave.

Simply put, this story left me with a bad taste in my mouth within minutes, regardless of its redeeming qualities later on.  Completionists may get something out of it, but casual readers may want to avoid the gross parts and start with Exodus.

This is gonna be a short one, folks, because merely thinking about this book makes me very angry.

Timewym: Genesys is an insult to Doctor Who. As the opener of the Virgin New Adventures range, that's even worse. I almost gave up on the whole book series as a result of just how embarrassingly disgusting the story and its contents are.

For one, John Peel's style of writing isn't for me. That on its own would be fine, but it's his active contempt for the Seventh Doctor and Ace to the point of depicting them out of character for unexplained reasons that make this book a tough pill to swallow. Then he commits the cardinal sin and has the Doctor justify sexual assault with the ‘it was a different time’ excuse. So not only has he deemed these two unfit to be written decently, he also actively goes out of his way to make the Doctor irredeemable because... I dunno, he hates McCoy or something?

Oh, and the book also makes a woman - a grown woman - jealous when a literal child gets her crush's romantic attention. It's bad enough that a grown man is having sexual feelings around a minor, but the fact that a woman three times her age gets envious over this is even worse. Who read this book and went “hell yeah, this is Doctor Who material” and authorised its publication? What was the excuse?! “Oh, we're writing for adults, so we have a license to be edgy”? This isn't edgy, it's unreadably awful and disgusting.

Yeah, and less than five minutes later, said little girl has her bum pinched. How very insipid.

So - the Doctor justified unsolicited groping, a minor is preyed upon, and even then, we're not done with the list of sins this book brings to the table. No no, because Gilgamesh's comments on how he views men and women are laid bare for us in the form of this beautifully sordid quote, “If you came as a woman, we might make love. If as a man, we could fight. As you are, your form seems ill-suited to anything.” What a lovely quote to put in a Doctor Who book, huh? Didn't you pay good money to read about an apish man who sexualises kids talking about how women and men are only good for f*cking and fighting respectively? I know I sure didn't!

Peel is obsessed with characters talking about or thinking about sex. The main female lead who isn't Ace, Ta-Nin, is literally said to be examining her body when we first meet her, and has a flashback about how Gilgamesh said she was hot when they were making love. Can we go five minutes without characters thinking about what they do in bed? Why is this funny blue box show book going on and on about how goddamn horny all the characters are? Why is this laboured so much in the book?

To add even more fuel to this accursed fire, Ace is introduced... stark naked. How quaint, the book is sexualising a character whom we last saw at age sixteen. Ace is a minor. Even thinking about that just makes me sick. Couple that with a character who is repeatedly described as having “bare breasts” and you realise what kind of book you're reading. It's seedy, it's insipid and it's disgusting.

So once you wade through all this murky and disgusting material... the rest of the plot is incredibly dull. The Doctor fights a shapeshifting alien who's landed in a historic period of Earth's history, and that's about it. Most of the character development for said alien is left off to the next book, so... why should I waste my time with such vapid rubbish?

And that's the whole thing. Who was this book written for? Doctor Who fans? Clearly not, as the book seems to be actively contemptuous towards the show, its characters and its history. The suggestive and explicit content clearly isn't catered to the fandom either, unless the intended readerbase are degenerates. Does it continue Doctor Who effectively? God no, this doesn't feel like the tone the show would take following Survival. Cartmel would probably dismiss this wholesale, and so do I. Don't read this book. Just don't. You're doing yourself a favour if you haven't read it, and if you have, my most sincere apologies.

Timewyrm: Genesys should be best forgotten about. Or burnt to heat your house. Take your pick.

Recommended Prerequisites

N/A

Timewyrm: Genesys

Man, this book was a struggle to get through. Some are saying it has issues but has some good things about it, I don't see them. This book truly has nothing for me.

But the things this book does have includes:

• Pointless Dialogue
• Characters just walking around doing nothing the entire book
• Oversexualisation of every female character
• Fanservice that is awkward and at times, referencing events incorrectly
• A thirteen year old prostitute with no shirt on for half the book

Ishtar, as a villain, was interesting enough, but overall underwhelming, hopefully they're written better in the next three Timewyrm books. Overall, a really sad beginning to the VNAs

Top Quote

“It’s not just the TARDIS that has relative dimensions, Ace, but the societies that we visit, too.”

alien teaches man from 2500 bc what a thermo nuclear bomb is. what could go wrong.

Avoid at all costs.

Let's not beat about the bush, this book is bad. It's very bad. The Doctor and Ace are characterised all wrong, there's some really stupid fanservice towards the end of the book that has no business being there and comes off as incredibly lame, it's boring for long stretches, it's hideously sexist, it handwaves some seriously horrible things (primarily sexual harassment and assault) done by the historic characters as "products of the time". It's an awful, terrible, very bad book, and a horrendous way to start the series. Do not read this. If you're really curious, read a plot summary. Anything else you need to know is more than adequately explained as it comes up in the following three books.

Not only is this book insulting, it's also boring. Do not bother.

Recommended background: None
Worthwhile background: The Invasion of Time (season 15), Ghost Light (season 26)

In my reviews, particularly of the Virgin New Adventures, I prefer to use a 4-tier system of grading:
Essential reading - If you want to read all the best VNAs, get all the most memorable story arc beats, and generally enjoy the VNAs without having to trudge through the mediocre/bad books, or perhaps even if you just want to pick up a good Doctor Who book with no intention of reading the entire series, look for this rating.
Worthwhile for extensive reading - Not outstanding, but I won't outright tell you to skip it if you want a sense of the VNAs overall. If you're determind to only read the best, skip these, but for a read-through of the series, I wouldn't skip them. They're the worthwhile, good-but-not-amazing books. You'll get a stronger sense of character arcs, story arc beats, and the growth of the VNAs as a range if you read these, but it will also take you a lot longer.
Not recommended - Not very good. If you really want to maximise your experience of the VNAs, you could read this, but it's definitely not advised.
Avoid at all costs - An irredeemable lump of human fecal matter. Do not waste your time with this insult to the franchise.

In addition, I list Recommended background that you may find necessary for understanding the story in full, as well as Worthwhile background for some additional details you may find interesting.