Newbies Guide to Doctor Who

Doctor:

The Seventh The seventh Doctor is short, dark-haired, and speaks with a slight scottish accent. He thinks of himself as "Time's Champion", deliberately seeking out situations to "put right". He usually has a plan, and is willing to manipulate everyone - including his companions - to achieve it.

Companions:

Ace: Ace was a teenaged delinquent in 1980s Perivale. She invented her own homemade explosive called nitro-nine, and prefers her nickname of Ace to her real name of Dorothy. She she was swept away from Perivale by a timestorm, ending up on Iceworld in the far future. Ace met the Seventh Doctor in Dragonfire (Classic Series Season 24) and became his companion. During her travels with the Doctor she has grown up considerably. However, she has been hurt by the way the Doctor has manipulated her. In particular, she was hurt by the way he tricked her in The Curse of Fenric (Classic Series Season 26) and the way he forced her to face the evil she sensed in a house her 13 year old self had burnt down in Ghost Light (Classic Series Season 26). She calls the Doctor "Professor".

Recurring Characters:

The Timewyrm: The Timewyrm is a malevolent creature of immense power from ancient Gallifreyan legend. She was created during Timewyrm: Genesys (Virgin New Adventure) when a cybernetic alien called Ishtar interfaced with the Doctor's TARDIS.

The Nazis: Adolph Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) party, a political party who took power in Germany from 1933 to 1945. The Nazis were responsible for World War 2 and the Holocaust. Hitler and many of his inner circle appear in this book. They include Hermann Goering (amongst many titles, he was head of the Luftwaffe, or air force), Heinrich Himmler (head of the SS - the secret police), Martin Bormann (Hitler's secretary), Joseph Goebells (propaganda minister), Joachim von Ribbentrop (foreign minister), and Albert Speer (personal friend of Hitler's, and a professional architect). All you need to know about them is explained in the book.

The War Chief: The War Chief was a renegade Time Lord defeated by the Doctor in The War Games (Classic Series Season 6). During that story, he was apparently executed by the Time Lords for his attempts to create an army for his allies, a race of aliens styling themselves the War Lords. He also briefly appears in Divided Loyalties (BBC Past Doctor Adventure), in scenes set before either he or the Doctor left Gallifrey.

Recommended Viewing:

The Doctor and Ace visited World War Two Britain in The Curse of Fenric (Classic Series Season 26). They also encountered modern day Nazis in Silver Nemesis (Classic Series Season 25) and Nazi sympathisers in Remembrance of the Daleks (Classic Series Season 25).

In The War Games (Classic Series Season 6), the Doctor defeated some aliens called the War Lords and a Renegade Time Lord called the War Chief. They had kidnapped human soldiers from various time zones to create the ultimate warriors. He had to call in the Time Lords to return all their victims home. The War Chief was executed by the Time Lords for his crimes.

Recommended Reading:

This book follows on from Timewyrm: Genesys (Virgin New Adventure), and sets the scene for Timewyrm: Apocalypse (Virgin New Adventure) and Timewyrm: Revelation (Virgin New Adventure).

The "what if the Nazis had won" scenario was first explored in the non-Who book Fatherland. You might also want to read some history books to get a better idea of who the Nazi hierachy were. I recommend The Face of the Third Reich by Joachim Fest - which is a good guide to the major figures in the Nazi party, although there are plenty of other good books around.

Recommended Listening:

None.