I found this book completely unreadable, despite being a Cornell fan. Perhaps someone can explain to me what's going on - especially how Ace keeps getting killed and coming back to life again.
Go to www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/6600/bwld.html to check out the excellent Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide, which offers in depth guides (with remarks from the authors some of the time!) to some of the New Adventures and BBC books, there's one for 'Timewyrn: Revelation' there where Paul Cornell points out the Sixth Doctor.
The guides are also good because they help understand some otherwise pretty unintelligable novels.
Oh yeah, and check out the 'Alien Bodies' guide with commentary from Lawrence Miles, it's a must.
Human Nature/The Family of Blood were so fantastic I decided to give Revelation another try. Bad, BAD mistake. I don't care if I now worship Paul as a god...I was right first time about this book. Boring, repetitive stuff - about hell, about the Timewyrm changing bodies, about Boyle not being a nice boy, about Ace's childhood, about the Doctor's subconscious, about running round and fighting and getting killed. I'm sure it would all have been great at about a tenth of the length. And can he PLEASE stop referring to Ace as 'the woman from Perivale' all the time?
Well, at least I can see where RTG might possibly have got his building-transported-to-the-moon idea from...
If Saul is the 'accumulated wisdom' of lots of god-bothering...why aren't there loads more of him?
'His niece Melanie' - since when (Susan aside, obviously) has the Doctor pretended that his Companion is related, particularly to people who already KNOW he's a shape-changing alien?
'Ace was in her early twenties, but had wisdon [sic] beyond her years' - early TWENTIES? And she was sixteen in Dragonfire. So she's spent FIVE YEARS with the Doc?! Why hasn't she, um, grown up a bit then?
'She supposed that the Doctor hadn't changed the way the thing [the TARDIS] looked because he liked it. Or not' - FIVE YEARS and the Doctor's never tried messing with the chameleon circuit? Never given the old girl an Eccleston-like pat and announced he LIKED her this way?
'Ace realized that she had only assumed that the Doctor slept' - FIVE YEARS and she's never seen him snoring away on the beach a la Tom Baker? Never heard a 'sleep is for tortoises'?
OK, am getting a bit tired of shrieking FIVE YEARS! all the time, you get the picture.
'From Dorry to Dotty to Dorothy, Dorothy to Ace'...aha! No mention of that 'Call me McShane' nonsense from the audios! Does that mean they happened after the early NAs, or am I stupid even trying to fit them into the same canon when the books and audios are always deliberately spitting on each other?
'She'd even got off with an alien' - OK, WAS Glitz an alien? I'm assuming that's who is referred to, given that according to Cornell's own Happy Endings he's the only person Ace has slept with pre-Love and War *quietly ignoring all Ace's PDA sex, but then Ace DIED in the PDAs too, so I pretty much HAVE to ignore 'em* but I always assumed that Glitz, whilst from the future and another planet and all, was human.
Rather mean calling the Third Doctor a bit of a Nazi. Even for the book that claims he's the Inferno dictator.
'Silly sort of things, humans, you know, short life spans, far too few limbs' - WHAT! This is supposed to be the Doctor's subconscious (as per usual) we've got the same number of limbs as HE has, what's his problem?!
That really is some FAST maternal love Emily develops for Ace.
'"We try to tell him"' sighs the late lamented Companion. Er...WHEN?! They spent their time moaning, attacking, and blaming the poor Doctor. Now they're claiming they were trying to help all along?
'"And maybe somewhere there is an afterlife, more genuine than the Matrix or the dimensions of an old Time Lord's mind. It is a dream I have"' - UH? Since when has the DOCTOR been one of those feeble-minded people who have to picture themselves in wings and a halo cos they can't face the fairly obvious fact that death is THE END?
Plus, the afterlife's nothing to dream about. Well, if you believe Camera Obscura rather than Ghosts of N-Space.
'She hoped there was a heaven for him somewhere' - bloody hell, et tu Ace!
'Used the Timewyrm's power to restructure reality' - isn't THAT a convenient way of resurrecting so many people.
'The strange figure in the paisley scarf seemed to bridge the gap between infinity and humanity, between the Holy Grail and the cup of tea' - OK, he's certainly got a knack for describing the Doctor.
RTG is RAVING about Revelation in DWM 305, for some reason. 'Faced with a writer as good as that, all I ever want to do is copy. So I did!' - when did RTG ever copy Cornell?
when did RTG ever copy Cornell?
Teleporting a building to the moon, as you said in 2007.
'Silly sort of things, humans, you know, short life spans, far too few limbs' - WHAT! This is supposed to be the Doctor's subconscious (as per usual) we've got the same number of limbs as HE has, what's his problem?!
Maybe he secretly wishes he had 6 more legs, and four more arms. He's never once said anything to suggest that, true, but the Doctor can keep a secret, as with his true name.
when did RTG ever copy Cornell?
Teleporting a building to the moon, as you said in 2007.
Gods. I obviously had WAY more brain-cells back in '07.
Maybe he secretly wishes he had 6 more legs, and four more arms.
He managed to hold his own in Venusian Akido AND Alpha Centurion table-tennis despite their unfair advantages...but still, I suppose he MIGHT have been harbouring an inferiority complex, unlikely as this sounds for ANY Doctor.
He's never once said anything to suggest that, true, but the Doctor can keep a secret, as with his true name.
Still, you'd think TEN would have spilled the beans. He wasn't exactly shy about his desire to be ginger...
'The sixth Doctor is almost a pariah, a madman in the seventh doctor's mental attic...locked safely away where he wouldn't trouble the seventh Doctor's mind...they disowned the murky ethics and violence of the second Baker era...' - Shooty Dog Thing. It really should have occurred to me before: did Moffat nick the whole War Doctor thing from Timewrym: Revelation?
The Doctor in Timewyrm: Genesys: 'How can anyone in the Universe be safe when I've unleashed that abomination? It's a virus in the lifeblood of time, Ace. It can lurk and strike anywhere and anywhen it pleases. We'll never be safe again until I can destroy it' - so why, in Timewyrm: Revelation, does the Doctor go to such ridiculous lengths to SAVE THE TIMEWYRM'S LIFE?
And how come, according to Happy Endings, does this actually PAY OFF? A couple of human adoptive parents, an impregnating encounter with the Doctor's latest Companion, and hey presto! The Timewyrm is TOTALLY tamed, give or take some bitchy remarks in the back of Ishtar Hutchings' head!
'His niece Melanie' - since when (Susan aside, obviously) has the Doctor pretended that his Companion is related, particularly to people who already KNOW he's a shape-changing alien?
Well, Bernice pretended to be his niece in Human Nature, but then that was a slightly different situation, what with him being some loser-human at the time.
'She'd even got off with an alien' - OK, WAS Glitz an alien?
OK, according to TARDIS Wiki, he's a 'rogue from the planet Salostopus in the galaxy of Andromeda.' Which doesn't necessarily mean he's not of human stock.
'Silly sort of things, humans, you know, short life spans, far too few limbs' - WHAT! This is supposed to be the Doctor's subconscious (as per usual) we've got the same number of limbs as HE has, what's his problem?!
Though the Dave Stone NAs imply he's some extra-dimensional being and the 'Doctor' we all know and love is just the shadow he casts, maybe the real thing has numerous arms...
'"And maybe somewhere there is an afterlife, more genuine than the Matrix or the dimensions of an old Time Lord's mind. It is a dream I have"' - UH? Since when has the DOCTOR been one of those feeble-minded people who have to picture themselves in wings and a halo cos they can't face the fairly obvious fact that death is THE END?
Well, Capaldi did try to go to hell, I suppose...
the Doctor can keep a secret, as with his true name.
He obviously CAN'T, it just takes a bit of nagging from River...
Bookwyrm:
'The Doctor has lost sense of his female self, explaining why he needs young women around him all the time' - no it doesn't. Not when he can just REGENERATE INTO A WOMAN, DAMMIT.
Quite an enthralling way to end the Timewyrm arc with much of its focus on Ace.
This plus appearances from the first five Doctors, certain deceased companions and how this involved a literally Hell.
Fascinating on how the Timewyrm is ultimately dealt with.
Fascinating on how the Timewyrm is ultimately dealt with.
I dunno, I'm never particularly convinced by the 'make one of the most evil beings in the universe into a baby and everything'll be fine next time, honest!' solution.
I seem to remember the Leisure Hive novelisation was similarly sceptical of whole 'bring Pangol up properly this time' happy ending.
And I bet if we're ever blessed with Blon's presence again she won't be a goody.
So she's spent FIVE YEARS with the Doc?! Why hasn't she, um, grown up a bit then?
I got the feeling (even before Power of the Doctor) that Ace grows up a bit and then just...reverts.
'The sixth Doctor is almost a pariah, a madman in the seventh doctor's mental attic...locked safely away where he wouldn't trouble the seventh Doctor's mind...they disowned the murky ethics and violence of the second Baker era.
Well, he's RIGHT THERE with the rest of 'em (er...SOME of the rest of 'em) in JODIE!'s subconscious.
AND Five isn't being crucified, disappointingly...