Timewyrm
Encyclopedia
The Timewyrm is the name of a recurring villain from the Virgin New Adventures
spin-off novels based on the BBC
science fiction
television series Doctor Who
. The character featured in a four-novel story arc
: Timewyrm: Genesys
, Timewyrm: Exodus
, Timewyrm: Apocalypse
and Timewyrm: Revelation
.
The Timewyrm started life as Queen Qataka on the planet Anu. Fearing her own mortality and stories of the Time Lord
s of Gallifrey
, she cybernetically enhanced her body giving herself the power to steal life energy from her subjects, and stealing their neuron
s to replace her own. Her people rebelled against this, but she retaliated by linking her mind to a computer, and using her enhanced mental powers, dominated the minds of her opponents. However, after a further rebellion, Qataka was captured, tried and executed. She escaped death by uploading her mind into a cybernetic body — a giant snake
with a platinum
alloy skin. She then devastated the planet using a cobalt bomb. Some of the Anusians, led by Utnapishtim, escaped in a space ark and pursued Qataka and her followers to Earth
. Utnapishtim released a computer virus
into Qataka's ship's computer, causing her ship to crash into the planet.
In 2700 BC, the Seventh Doctor
and Ace
travelled to the ancient city of Mesopotamia
after seeing a message from the Fourth Doctor
in the TARDIS
warning them of an ancient Gallifreyan mythical creature known as the Timewyrm and detecting a temporal anomaly. After an encounter with Gilgamesh
, they found Qataka in Kish
, posing as Ishtar
, the goddess of sex. She had given some of the citizens of Kish cybernetic implants so they had the technical skill to build a giant copper transmitter. Ishtar planned to use the transmitter to mesmerise the whole planet. The Doctor and Ace allied themselves with Utnapishtim to defeat Ishtar, but they discovered she had a thermonuclear device
triggered to detonate if she died. When Utnapishtim released a computer virus into Ishtar's computer systems, the Doctor was forced to link the TARDIS's telepathic circuits to Ishtar's systems to prevent the bomb detonating. However, Ishtar's consciousness was then able to invade the TARDIS, so the Doctor ejected the affected systems into the Time Vortex. Ishtar's consciousness then merged with the virus and the TARDIS systems to become a powerful new entity — the Timewyrm.
The Doctor and Ace traced the Timewyrm to London
of 1951. To their horror they discovered a Britain occupied by Nazi Germany
. The Timewyrm had changed history by preventing the Dunkirk evacuation
. They travelled back to 1923 and 1939 to discover the cause of the divergence from established history, and after meeting Adolf Hitler
and the War Chief (an old enemy of the Doctor's), they realised that the Timewyrm was living within Hitler's mind. The Doctor expelled the Timewyrm and history returned to its normal course.
The Doctor and Ace then pursued the Timewyrm to the planet Kirith, sometime in the far future. The Timewyrm had used the Doctor himself as a host, weakened from his first regeneration, but then left him and entered the body of Lilith, Grand Matriarch of Kirith. After frustrating her plans once again, the Doctor and the Timewyrm's final battle took place inside the Doctor's own mind. Facing the spectres of his past incarnations and dead companions, it was only when he released the Fifth Doctor
's innocence back into his personality that the Doctor could overcome the Timewyrm. The Timewyrm's power was banished into dormancy within the structure of the universe, while the memories of its human core — Qataka — were erased and that essence deposited in a mindless baby.
That baby grew up into a woman known as Ishtar Hutchings, and met the Doctor once again at the wedding of Bernice Summerfield
and Jason Kane in the later Doctor Who novel, Happy Endings
. She became the girlfriend of the Doctor's companion, Chris Cwej
, and eventually gave birth to their child, Jasmine Surprise Cwej-Hutchings.
comic strip story The Last Word (DWM #306), which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the New Adventures. The Timewyrm essence had reawakened and was hiding in "Puterspace"
. The Seventh Doctor sent Ace and Bernice to change history in order to lure the Timewyrm out of hiding, whereupon he tricked it into changing history back and finally used a device to alter the Timewrym's data structure to ensure that it could never emerge into the real universe.
Virgin New Adventures
The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
spin-off novels based on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The character featured in a four-novel story arc
Story arc
A story arc is an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, boardgames, video games, and in some cases, films. On a television program, for example, the story would unfold over many episodes. In television, the use of the story...
: Timewyrm: Genesys
Timewyrm: Genesys
Timewyrm: Genesys is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels...
, Timewyrm: Exodus
Timewyrm: Exodus
Timewyrm: Exodus is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels...
, Timewyrm: Apocalypse
Timewyrm: Apocalypse
Timewyrm: Apocalypse is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace, as well as brief flashbacks- as well as a telepathic message- of the Second Doctor.-Synopsis:The Doctor and Ace follow...
and Timewyrm: Revelation
Timewyrm: Revelation
Timewyrm: Revelation is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels...
.
The Timewyrm started life as Queen Qataka on the planet Anu. Fearing her own mortality and stories of the Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s of Gallifrey
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and is the homeworld of the Doctor and the Time Lords...
, she cybernetically enhanced her body giving herself the power to steal life energy from her subjects, and stealing their neuron
Neuron
A neuron is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information by electrical and chemical signaling. Chemical signaling occurs via synapses, specialized connections with other cells. Neurons connect to each other to form networks. Neurons are the core components of the nervous...
s to replace her own. Her people rebelled against this, but she retaliated by linking her mind to a computer, and using her enhanced mental powers, dominated the minds of her opponents. However, after a further rebellion, Qataka was captured, tried and executed. She escaped death by uploading her mind into a cybernetic body — a giant snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
with a platinum
Platinum
Platinum is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Pt and an atomic number of 78. Its name is derived from the Spanish term platina del Pinto, which is literally translated into "little silver of the Pinto River." It is a dense, malleable, ductile, precious, gray-white transition metal...
alloy skin. She then devastated the planet using a cobalt bomb. Some of the Anusians, led by Utnapishtim, escaped in a space ark and pursued Qataka and her followers to Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. Utnapishtim released a computer virus
Computer virus
A computer virus is a computer program that can replicate itself and spread from one computer to another. The term "virus" is also commonly but erroneously used to refer to other types of malware, including but not limited to adware and spyware programs that do not have the reproductive ability...
into Qataka's ship's computer, causing her ship to crash into the planet.
In 2700 BC, the Seventh Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
and Ace
Ace (Doctor Who)
Dorothy Gale McShane, better known by her nickname Ace, is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
travelled to the ancient city of Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
after seeing a message from the Fourth Doctor
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
in the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
warning them of an ancient Gallifreyan mythical creature known as the Timewyrm and detecting a temporal anomaly. After an encounter with Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh was the fifth king of Uruk, modern day Iraq , placing his reign ca. 2500 BC. According to the Sumerian king list he reigned for 126 years. In the Tummal Inscription, Gilgamesh, and his son Urlugal, rebuilt the sanctuary of the goddess Ninlil, in Tummal, a sacred quarter in her city of...
, they found Qataka in Kish
Kish (Sumer)
Kish is modern Tell al-Uhaymir , and was an ancient city of Sumer. Kish is located some 12 km east of Babylon, and 80 km south of Baghdad ....
, posing as Ishtar
Ishtar
Ishtar is the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility, love, war, and sex. She is the counterpart to the Sumerian Inanna and to the cognate north-west Semitic goddess Astarte.-Characteristics:...
, the goddess of sex. She had given some of the citizens of Kish cybernetic implants so they had the technical skill to build a giant copper transmitter. Ishtar planned to use the transmitter to mesmerise the whole planet. The Doctor and Ace allied themselves with Utnapishtim to defeat Ishtar, but they discovered she had a thermonuclear device
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
triggered to detonate if she died. When Utnapishtim released a computer virus into Ishtar's computer systems, the Doctor was forced to link the TARDIS's telepathic circuits to Ishtar's systems to prevent the bomb detonating. However, Ishtar's consciousness was then able to invade the TARDIS, so the Doctor ejected the affected systems into the Time Vortex. Ishtar's consciousness then merged with the virus and the TARDIS systems to become a powerful new entity — the Timewyrm.
The Doctor and Ace traced the Timewyrm to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
of 1951. To their horror they discovered a Britain occupied by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The Timewyrm had changed history by preventing the Dunkirk evacuation
Operation Dynamo
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 26 May and the early hours of 3 June 1940, because the British, French and Belgian troops were...
. They travelled back to 1923 and 1939 to discover the cause of the divergence from established history, and after meeting Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and the War Chief (an old enemy of the Doctor's), they realised that the Timewyrm was living within Hitler's mind. The Doctor expelled the Timewyrm and history returned to its normal course.
The Doctor and Ace then pursued the Timewyrm to the planet Kirith, sometime in the far future. The Timewyrm had used the Doctor himself as a host, weakened from his first regeneration, but then left him and entered the body of Lilith, Grand Matriarch of Kirith. After frustrating her plans once again, the Doctor and the Timewyrm's final battle took place inside the Doctor's own mind. Facing the spectres of his past incarnations and dead companions, it was only when he released the Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
's innocence back into his personality that the Doctor could overcome the Timewyrm. The Timewyrm's power was banished into dormancy within the structure of the universe, while the memories of its human core — Qataka — were erased and that essence deposited in a mindless baby.
That baby grew up into a woman known as Ishtar Hutchings, and met the Doctor once again at the wedding of Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures...
and Jason Kane in the later Doctor Who novel, Happy Endings
Happy Endings (Doctor Who)
Happy Endings is an original novel written by Paul Cornell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the fiftieth book in the Virgin New Adventures series...
. She became the girlfriend of the Doctor's companion, Chris Cwej
Chris Cwej
Christopher Rodonanté Cwej, usually just known as Chris Cwej, is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures range of spin-offs based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, and eventually gave birth to their child, Jasmine Surprise Cwej-Hutchings.
Other appearances
The Timewyrm reappeared in the Doctor Who MagazineDoctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
comic strip story The Last Word (DWM #306), which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the New Adventures. The Timewyrm essence had reawakened and was hiding in "Puterspace"
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is the electronic medium of computer networks, in which online communication takes place.The term "cyberspace" was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story "True...
. The Seventh Doctor sent Ace and Bernice to change history in order to lure the Timewyrm out of hiding, whereupon he tricked it into changing history back and finally used a device to alter the Timewrym's data structure to ensure that it could never emerge into the real universe.