It sounds strange to say this about a book that is set during the second world war, but Timewyrm Exodus, is a brilliantly fun book to read.
It isn’t an original idea, but it is well written, intriguing and tense. The oppressive gloomy atmosphere of Nazi occupied London is impressively realised, echoing ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, but instead of alien metaphors we get the real thing.
Despite having the Doctor and Ace revelling in Nazi luxury, Dicks also modifies this by showing the nasty underbelly of Nazi society as well. While the Doctor and Ace may be enjoying a nice dinner in a Nazi-run hotel, we also see the British Museum looted, a Jewish tea shop owner brutalised and blackmailed by local Nazi thugs, and a resistance living in utter paranoia and squalour. In 1939, the Doctor and Ace tour the streets of Berlin which, despite the banner, looks like a pleasant city on the surface. But then they see the ‘no jews’ signs and watch as an SS parade goes by and beats up a man in the street for failing to salute the flag as it went past.
I think this is another example of Terrance Dicks excellent world building and scene setting. Right from the start, this alternative London feels very ominous and unlikeable. He doesn’t skip on how the city is littered with Nazi homages and briefly describes a Union Jack Swastika armband on the soldiers. There is also further explanation and backstory regarding Nazi-Britain given later on in the book as well, so Dicks doesn’t just go “one and done” with the world building but keeps on adding to it, which I love.
The epilogue brings the book full circle with two cups of tea and two buns, except this time, the Doctor and Ace enjoy them. They don’t taste bad. I think these contrasting opening and closing scenes are metaphorical of what a Nazi England would be like. If so, that’s clever, and subtle symbolism is the mark of a good author.
Timewyrm: Genesis elected to use sex as the way to be adult while here it is just pure adult themes. There are sacrificial cults reminiscent of ‘The Stones of Blood’ and ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ and the villain is even from a classic Dicks story from 1969.
Dicks is often criticized for writing the wrong incarnation of the Doctor, but I think he managed to capture the manipulative and cunning 7th Doctor from season 26. I didn’t think this was anyone but Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor.
This Doctor has an aura of power, a natural authority that makes people of the Nazis regime respect & fear him. It was honestly quite funny seeing him run rings around the Nazis, and seeing right through their interrogation techniques.
Reading the Doctor slapping a young Nazi was honestly quite satisfying. Yeah, it was kinda hard seeing McCoy actually doing this, but it was enjoyable, nonetheless. He does actually feel like the Doctor unlike in Timewyrm Genesis, as he goes out of his way to make sure the man behind the coffee shop is alright.
The way the Doctor asserts social dominance over the Nazis, without any proof, is so in tune with the seventh Doctor and its just honestly fun to read. But like I said, he still goes out of his way to be the Doctor – like when a Nazi goes to strike a caretaker or when he insists on helping to clean up the museum – I can’t state how happy I was to have the actual Doctor in this book after Peel mischaracterised him so much in the previous book.
In short, the Doctor is placed in a situation he can’t control and is forced to be more rash in his decision making, which is a difference to their usual adventures, which is somewhere that I really love for writers to take the seventh Doctor. It’s this incarnation at his absolute limits and it’s a joy to read, though the thought of the Doctor working his way behind the scenes in Nazi Germany is quite a disturbing concept I’m not going to lie.
I’ve seen some people comment that Dicks is writing for the 3rd Doctor when he refers to his companion as ‘My dear Ace’ but he says this to her in the TV episode ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ so I don’t see where this issue is coming from?
It was nice to see the duo I know from TV again. There’s even a moment where the Doctor shows a kind of fatherly love towards Ace which was exactly what was missing in Timewyrm: Genesis.
Timewyrm: Exodus is the first time that Terrance Dicks has written for Ace and I think he does a pretty good job at capturing her character.
Ace’s rebellious nature is played down a bit, but she is given a rare vulnerability that I think works for this story. She only breaks character once, under a lot of stress, when she’s faced with possibly being sacrificed, she does the traditional Classic Who companion thing, but I can forgive that given the circumstances that she was facing and what I was put through reading Peel’s version of the character. I don’t think you could do a worst characterisation of someone if I’m being completely honest about it.
I think this is the best book Terrance Dicks has written for Doctor Who, at least the ones I have read so far. This book surprisingly doesn’t have much to do with the Timewyrm story arc. Maybe Dicks just wanted to write his own book so decided to dismiss her to the side so that he could write the book he wanted to write? So here we have a Timewyrm book with very little to do with the Timewyrm.
I say this but we do feel her presence. Dicks always keeps the reader guessing if she is the source of the interference in history or if it’s a time meddler from the Doctor’s past. He weaves this suspicion masterfully through the story and than pulls the ultimate trick of revealing that there are actually two entities interfering with history. If we compare this to John Peel’s work in Timewyrm: Genesis we got introduced to the Timewyrm in the first chapter, but we also didn’t have any mystery about her, because everything was explained to us. Only in the last few chapters of Peel’s book did we feel like we understand the true power of the Timewyrm, but Dicks took a completely different approach by keeping her an elemental force who isn’t seen. We can get actually afraid of her as a raw force of evil.
And of course, the ending is excellent, setting up the next conflict and enticing the readers to move on to the next book in the saga.
The Timewyrm seems to be a great villain for the 7th Doctor because of how much she knows, and she is connected to the Doctor and the TARDIS and knows what the Doctor is going to do. The stakes were raised here as if she dies the Doctor and the TARDIS die as well.
It honestly depends on the story if I enjoy the Doctor hanging out with historical people, but Dicks manages to successfully portray Hitler as a historical figure by showing him in several points along his life. Having the Doctor meet such a real-life evil could have been disastrous. Fortunately, I think it was handled with the right amount of sensitivity.
I think my favourite part in the book is when the Doctor and Ace are captured by the Nazis and put in prison where they proceed to interrogate them using a variety of psychological techniques to break them down and even attempt to fool them to sign false confessions, but the Doctor knows all of their tricks and makes the whole situation into an absurd history lesson for Ace. Its almost like he’s watching historical re-enactments. He even gives them feedback like it’s a talent contest which understandably only infuriates the Nazis.
The only part of the book that I found a bit disappointing, if I can say disappointing as I like ‘The War Games’, was the inclusion of the War Chief and his allies. I just thought this book was strong in its own right that didn’t need the addition of continuity elements from the TV show. I think the threat of the Timewyrm and the Nazis is more than adequate. I will say that having the War Chief and the Timewyrm working separately could have cluttered things up, but this was avoided, and the reader is allowed to put some effort into guessing what’s happening, he even included some red herrings. Dicks also keeps things interesting with the sudden disappearance of Hemmings into the TARDIS midway through the story which sets up a cryptic anticipating sequel conclusion.
Speaking of the War Chief, who I honestly never thought could be brought back, he is brilliantly depicted here. For the sake of controversy, I’m not going to talk about this character being the Master. I’ll leave my thoughts on the matter in my review of The War Games In Colour.
I also want to address the consequences of Kriegslieter’s aborted regeneration as it’s so grotesque and honestly disgusting that I love it. I actually love the idea that regeneration isn’t always guaranteed to work. The contorted extra limbs and the implication of his irregular skull; it’s not pretty to imagine it and this instantly makes it clear why he wants revenge on the Doctor.
Because this is a Terrance Dicks book there are a lot of references to other adventures, let’s be honest this was completely normal for all of his books, so I’ll call them Terrance-isms. There are a hell of a lot more than the ones I’m mentioning by the way. The Doctor calls himself Johann Schmidt which is the German version of John Smith – he uses this again in Storm Warning, Colditz, and Klein’s story. Ace references events from ‘The Curse of Fenric’, the Doctor references the death of his 3rd incarnation by radiation, he uses the line ‘sleep is for tortoises’ which was said by the 4th Doctor. Ace mentions that she can’t speak German and the Doctor replies that she never studied Cheetah language either.
Overall, I truthfully think that Timewyrm: Exodus is the novel that should have started this range. It’s dark and gritty in all the right ways and isn’t immature like its predecessor.
This is a well researched story with the surprise return of an old villain. Because it takes us from an alternative Nazi London to multiple eras of historical Nazi Germany, I think this book can act as both a pure historical and an alternative history in one which is further accessible to more fans as it appeals to multiple tastes.
The story has a vast amount of stakes and exploits them enormously feeling like a natural extension of season 26’s darker tones without going overboard.
I highly recommend this book, and I think it’ll be a great introduction to anyone who hasn’t read a Virgin Doctor Who New Adventure book before.
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