Timewyrm | |
---|---|
Doctor Who character | |
First appearance | Timewyrm: Genesys |
Last appearance | Happy Endings |
Information | |
Affiliated | None |
Species | Cybernetically enhanced humanoid |
Home planet | Anu |
Home era | 2700 BC |
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 Lords of Gallifrey, she cybernetically enhanced her body giving herself the power to steal life energy from her subjects, and stealing their neurons 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.