BASIC PLOT
A temporal projection of the fourth Doctor warns the seventh Doctor and Ace about the Timewyrm, a cybernetic living data-eater that can take over minds. In ancient Mesopotamia, the Doctor and Ace team up with Gilgamesh and Enkidu to help free the city of Kish from the entity posing as the goddess Ishtar. But what is Ishtar's connection to the Timewyrm?

DOCTOR
Seventh.

COMPANIONS
Ace.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
A field near Kish, Mesapotamia, 2700 BC (twice, on pages 47 and 216-217).

The TARDIS lands in London at the end of the book (leading in to Timewyrm: Exodus).

PREPARATORY READING
None. Obviously.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 22 "I've been editing a few of my useless memories" This is the first appearance of this, although the Doctor will do so again in later NAs. It's a very contrived way to introduce the characters, but it provides a handy get-out for some of the continuity problems.

"A long burgundy-coloured coat" This is the fourth Doctor (but see Continuity Cock Ups).

Pg 35 Reference to Leela.

Pgs 35-36 "He - me - had to enter the Matrix when Gallifrey was invaded by the Sontarans." The Invasion of Time.

Pg 37 "It's in ancient High Gallifreyan" Presumably similar to Old High Gallifreyan, first mentioned in "The Five Doctors".

Pg 38 "Ace felt like she'd been kicked in the brain by a bad-tempered Cyberman." Silver Nemesis.

"They had fought the Master [...] on the planet of the Cheetah people." Survival.

Pg 39 "Iceworld [,...] I was a waitress." Dragonfire.

"Then there's something about Fenric." The Curse of Fenric.

"The Cloister Bell. [...] It's not sounded since - since the Logopolis affair." The Cloister Bell was first heard in Logopolis (but see Continuity Cock-Ups).

Pg 41 Cameo appearances by the Brigadier, Victoria and Jamie.

Pg 42 Cameo by Katarina.

Pg 58 "He reminded her uncannily of Nimrod..." We get a summary of Ghost Light.

Pg 92 "You can explain to them about my respiratory bypass system" First mentioned in Pyramids of Mars.

Pg 134 "I've removed the time path indicator from the TARDIS" Used in The Chase and The Daleks' Masterplan.

"It had been the time the Daleks were chasing him, seeking to regain the Tarranium Core he had stolen from them." The Daleks' Masterplan.

Pg 140 "The Doctor tried to apply all the techniques that his old mentor K'Anpo had taught him" Planet of the Spiders.

"It had been at the time the Sontarans and their gullible henchmen the Vardans had managed to invade Gallifrey." The Invasion of Time.

Pg 141 "His old companion Leela and that silly husband of hers" The Invaison of Time.

"Katarina, killing herself to save a Universe she didn't even comprehend; Sara Kingdom, dying to defeat the daleks; Adric, perishing in a fireballover prehistoric earth to stop the Cybermen from destroying the human race." The Daleks' Masterplan, Earthshock.

Pg 164 "Right now, a character called Nimrod is sleeping." Ghost Light.

Pg 166 "The wonders of Iceworld, the terrors of Paradise Towers,the evil of the Psychic Circus" Dragonfire, Paradise Towers (see Continuity Cock-Ups), The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

Pg 172 "Ace could still recall the cold grip of the Cybermen she had faced quite recently." Silver Nemesis.

Pg 205 Cameo by the third Doctor.

Pg 206 References to the Brigadier, Jo and Sarah.

"Maybe I should reverse the polarity of the neuron flow?" It's not clear if this is a typo or a pun on the third Doctor's favourite phrase.

Pg 207 References to Sergeant Benton and the Brigadier.

Pg 208 References to Sergeant Benton.

Pg 209 References to Liz Shaw and Jo.

Pg 214 "Secondary control room. [...] It's a rather nice wooden affair." First seen in the Masque of Mandragora.

Pg 216 References to Dodo and Jo.

Pg 222 Reference to the Master.

Pg 224 "The Chronovores. [...] I met one once." The Time Monster.

Pgs 224-225 " I heard the Chronovores whispering in the time-winds" Time Winds were seen in Warriors' Gate.

Pg 226 "Time ram." Also used in The Time Monster.

Pg 230 "We are in London, then." This leads in to Timewyrm: Exodus.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
The fourth Doctor appears on page 22.

The Brigadier, Victoria and Jamie appear on page 41. Katarina appears on page 42.

The third Doctor manifests his personality in the seventh's on page 205.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Qataka/Ishtar/The Timewyrm. The Timewyrm appears in the following three books and Ishtar appears in Happy Endings.

Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Avram, En-Gula, Ninani.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS

1. Pgs 22 and 35-36 The fourth Doctor is supposed to be from just after The Invasion of Time, but he wears the burgundy costume of Season 18.
2. Pg 38 "The Cloister Bell. [...] It's not sounded since - since the Logopolis affair." Not true, it sounded in Enlightenment.
3. Pg 81 "It was one of her real talents, her voice. She had perfect pitch, and only had to hear a song through a few times to get it downright." In The Happiness Patrol, Ace admitted to having a terrible singing voice.
4. Pg 140 "He's over a thousand years old, you know" According to later New Adventures continuity, the Doctor does not celebrate his one thousandth birthday until Set Piece.
5. Pg 166 "The wonders of Iceworld, the terrors of Paradise Towers,the evil of the Psychic Circus" It was Mel who visited Paradise Towers, not Ace.

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]

1. Presumably the Doctor decided to try out his new costume before changing back.
2. The Doctor obviously edited out the memory of other times the Cloister Bell rang, as not being important enough.
3. The Doctor is playing a vast practical joke on Ace, having implanted a false memory of her ability to sing when he restored the rest of her memories.
4. Ace is just exaggerating for effect.
5. The Paradise Towers reference is explained in Timewyrm: Revelation, as Ace gaining one of Mel's memories when the Doctor restored her memories.

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Aliens from Anu (who appear as tall white haired humans) and their robot guardians.

The Timewyrm, formerly Ishtar, formerly Qataka. She's capable of insinuating herself into other people's minds. She's like a super advanced computer program, capable of being incorporeal or solid and with the power to move throughout time.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
A starship in the prologue

Mesapotamia, 2700 BC.

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
Even aside from the wealth of continuity mistakes, juvenile sexuality and fanwanky appearances of the third and fourth Doctors, Timewyrm: Genesys is pretty poor. The Mesopotamia stuff is decidedly uninteresting and the Doctor's characterisation appears to be taken straight from season 24 (so much so that he has to summon his third self in order to work a piece of technology!) The NAs would go on to great things, but this was a very humble beginning indeed.