Timewyrm: Apocalypse is the penultimate novel in the
Timewyrm tetralogy and personally it is the weakest link of the three I’ve read
currently. Nigel Robinson basically uses
his novel to rewrite The Krotons while bringing in new ideas that would be stolen
in The Doctor’s Daughter and Utopia. The
plot should be interesting. It involves
the Doctor and Ace arriving on a planet where everything is too perfect so they
are going to make hiccups in paradise as the novel puts it several times. Robinson does his best work when he writes
for Ace as she feels like a direct development from Timewyrm: Exodus with a few
inconstancies. For instance, in
Timewyrm: Exodus, Ace throws Nitro 9 at Nazis without a care for their lives,
but here she cares to see that the people she threw explosives die.
The Doctor also feels out of character and is almost as if
it is written for other Doctors at various different points, especially the
First and Second Doctors. There are also
a lot of flashbacks to the Second Doctor’s era at various points in the
story. The Timewyrm seriously got a
downgrade in her story arc as she is really powerless and is easily
defeated. This shouldn’t be the case as
she is featured prominently and if Terrance Dicks or John Peel were writing the
story she would be even more powerful.
The supporting characters are the most interesting thing about the
novel. Raphael would be the most
interesting and he would have made a good companion.
The biggest problem of the novel is that it’s a really
forgettable one. I finished it last
night and already I’m having trouble remembering everything about it. This is especially weird considering that the
book is much shorter than Timewyrm: Genesys and Timewyrm: Exodus. I also didn’t really like the writing style
as it was bland compared to the other novels.
All in all I give Timewyrm: Apocalypse 50/100 as it wasn’t bad but it
wasn’t good either
No comments:
Post a Comment