Ms Cohen is travelling on a starliner that falls through a time rift and is boarded by giant mechanical ants. She wakes up on board a vessel known as The Ship, where the ants and human prisoners they use as slaves are slowly processing the captured humans and storing their minds inside Ship's systems. The human guards, however, have a problem. One prisoner, whom they call the "Gingerbread Man", repeatedly escapes from cold storage despite their best efforts. Ms Cohen witnesses several of these escapes and watches the guards brutally beat him to the point where he seems to be suffering a heart attack. As Ms. Cohen tries to start him breathing again, she realises he has two hearts. Eventually she realises that the "Gingerbread Man's" escapes always go to a different part of Ship, therefore he is looking for someone. In his next escape, he reaches the freezers, where Ace is trapped. The Doctor is finally able to summon Bernice to rescue them. But the attempt fails and the Doctor, Ace and Bernice are thrown out into the rift. Ms Cohen is trapped on Ship and eventually processed like the others.
Some months earlier, the Doctor shows Bernice and Ace a mysterious cafe that manifests itself at different locations in time and space, ranging from Glebe, New South Wales to Argolis. The Doctor says this as a result of a Time Rift, which has punched through the fabric of reality. An unknown force is using the rift to snare passenger ships. The Doctor and Ace plan to get captured and learn what is happening having failed, the three travellers are separated.
Ace falls out of the rift in the Egyptian desert during the Akhenaten period, where she is found by nobleman Sedjet and becomes part of his household body guard. Because she is a woman, she has to constantly prove herself. The only person who seems to accept her is the priest, Sesehaten. Although she can still hear Egyptian as English, she eventually accepts that the Doctor will not be coming to rescue her. When Sedjet tries to take her on as his mistress, Ace realises that he will only ever see her as a curiosity. She leaves his house, abandoning the force field generator she used to travel through the rift. Unable to find work as a soldier, she is reduced to working as a waitress. She encounters Sesehaten again, who tells her that odd lights have been seen in the sky. Ace realises that the rift may be opening and rushes back to Sedjet's house. The building is empty and the ants are there looking for the force field generator. Sesehaten reveals that he is part of the cult of Set (also known as Sutekh), which has been outlawed since Pharaoh forced Egypt to accept a single religion and one god Aten. Sesehaten's cult will help Ace leave through the rift, if she helps them kidnap the Pharaoh. Ace agrees, as she sees Akhenaten as another in the long line of fascists she has fought. Ace breaks into Akhenaten's palace and takes him hostage, but Ace realises through talking to him that he is no better or worse than any other ruler. In the courtyard he reveals the TARDIS, which his army recovered when it fell from the sky, explaining how Ace could understand Egyptian. Using the instruments, Ace discovers that Sesehaten is not human, but a machine built by Ship to control the rift.
Bernice lands in France in 1798 and makes friends with Vivant Denon, a founder of modern Egyptology and one of her heroes. Together they travel to Egypt with Napoleon's army and Bernice attempts to find the Amarna Graffito, a mysterious phrase written on a tomb wall in modern English, which she has a strange feeling can help her find the TARDIS. Searching inside a tomb, she is trapped by survivors of Set's cult, who steal her diary thinking it and the message are key to releasing their god from his prison. Denon rescues her and together they lead French troops to the Cultists camp, where Benny recovers her diary and finds the location of the graffiti.
The Doctor, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, appears in 1871 Paris, as the events of the Paris Commune unfold. He finds himself in the care of Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart, whose time travel experiments created the rift. Now they are both trapped in Paris. The ants have followed them and Kadiatu takes the Doctor to M. Thierry's house for shelter. Despite his confused state of mind, the Doctor still realises that Thierry's young son is not all he seems and suspects Thierry is really in league with the ants. Thierry and Kadiatu have been helping the Doctor recover, playing for time and hoping that he will reveal to them the information that Ship couldn't take from his mind.
Ace has the TARDIS buried in the monument at Amarna and writes a message on the wall, so the Doctor or Bernice will eventually find it. She then uses Sesehaten to open the rift and with the help of the force shield, escapes through it. In 1798, Bernice does indeed find the TARDIS and after saying goodbye to Denon, she too leaves for the Doctor's location. In Paris, Thierry uses the ants' technology with Kadiatu's time machine to stabilise the rift, but unfortunately the Doctor has filled it with explosives, hoping the ants would take it back to Ship. The resulting explosion kills Thierry and tears the rift completely open. A little boy appears and attempts to stabilise the rift as first Ace, then the TARDIS come through. He is a machine built to stabilise the rift like Sesehaten. As the rift widens, Ace shoots the boy, sealing the rift in the process.
The Doctor, his mind recovering, explains to Ace and Benny that Ship is an organic computer, built by a human colony to store their minds in a gestalt entity, but having fallen through Kadiatu's rifts, it is now trying to store all organic matter in the universe and has built the ship and the ants to fulfil its purpose. The travellers return to Paris and Ace watches the chaos around her. Knowing that the Commune will fail and thousands will be killed, she tries to persuade the woman fighters that their attack are pointless, just as Akhenaten's religious reforms were ultimately undone and forgotten. But the fighters believe that fighting for their beliefs is more important than winning.
Bernice finds Kadiatu is giving Ship dead bodies killed in the Commune to process into organic machinery for time travel. Ship has also infected Kadiatu with an organic virus that is slowly taking her over. She has been playing for time hoping to come up with a virus to kill Ship. Ship overcomes her virus and she becomes a part of Ship and goes back for the Doctor, whom his companions now realise has also been infected, which will allow Ship to read his mind and use the knowledge to open more rifts and process more minds.
Refusing to let the Doctor be sacrificed Ace uses one of Kadiatu’s organic time hoppers to follow them to Ship, where she tries to track down the Doctor. All the prisoners and the human guards have been processed and the three people are the only ones aboard. Kadiatu shoots Ace, but she is only badly wounded. The Doctor is connected to the fabric of Ship, but the moment he accesses Ship’s central nervous system, he is able to shut it down directly. As Ship dies, Kadiatu leaps into the rift and disappears. Ace gets the Doctor back to Paris, where he allows himself to die temporarily, thus killing the organic material which Ship had implanted in him.
As the TARDIS is about to leave Ace chooses to stay. She knows she can't change history, but actions maybe able to save some lives. She also plans to use the surviving technology to monitor the rifts and protect Earth from any other threats like Ship. The Doctor reveals that he has known where she would end up since soon after he met her. The Epilogue shows Ace, now using the name Dorothee McShane, meeting Denon and telling him that Bernice is safe. She again meets the Doctor in Sydney, 1993 and helps him fight an alien invasion. In the present of 1871, Ace helps defend a barricade until the last moment, then puts down her gun and disappears into history.
The Virgin New Adventures are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the television programme went into hiatus from television in 1989.
The Genocide Machine is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It forms the first serial in the Dalek Empire arc, which continues in The Apocalypse Element and The Mutant Phase. It concludes in The Time of the Daleks.
Zagreus is a 2003 Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was presented on three compact discs, and was made by Big Finish as their primary release to celebrate forty years of Doctor Who. As of February 2015, it is being sold as a download.
Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart is a fictional character from the Virgin New Adventures range of spin-offs based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is a descendant of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001, accompanied by limited animation.
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.
Birthright is a novel by Nigel Robinson from the Virgin New Adventures. The New Adventures were a spin-off from the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Although part of the main run of New Adventures featuring the Seventh Doctor, the Doctor only appears in the beginning and end of the novel; most of the story involves his companions Bernice Summerfield and Ace. The events in this book occur simultaneously to those in the New Adventure Iceberg, which was written by former Doctor Who actor David Banks. A prelude to this novel was published in Doctor Who Magazine #203, penned by the author.
Timewyrm: Genesys is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It was the first book in that series, and was thought of by some fans as a continuation of the television series; in effect, a Season 27 to follow the televised Season 26.
Timewyrm: Exodus is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It is a sequel to author Terrance Dicks' 1969 Second Doctor story The War Games as well as the second part of the ongoing four novel Timewyrm narrative.
Timewyrm: Revelation is an original Doctor Who novel, published by Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures range of Doctor Who novels. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace, as well as cameo appearances by the Doctor's mental representations of his first, third, fourth and fifth incarnations.
The Also People is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz and Kadiatu.
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible is an original novel written by Marc Platt and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor and Ace.
Love and War is an original novel written by Paul Cornell and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and introduces a new companion, Bernice Summerfield. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Cornell, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #192.
Transit is an original novel written by Ben Aaronovitch and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice and the first appearance of Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Aaronovitch, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #195.
Deceit is an original novel written by Peter Darvill-Evans and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. Also included is Doctor Who Magazine comic character Abslom Daak, in his first appearance outside DWM. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Darvill-Evans, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #198.
Blood Heat is an original novel written by Jim Mortimore and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Mortimore, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #205. This novel is the first novel in the "Alternate Universe cycle" which continues until No Future.
Head Games is an original novel written by Steve Lyons and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Seventh Doctor, Bernice, Chris, Roz, Mel and Ace.
Escape Velocity is a BBC Books original novel written by Colin Brake and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It features the Eighth Doctor and Fitz and introduces the new companion of Anji Kapoor. This book completes the story arc in which the Doctor was trapped on Earth for a hundred years.
The Vengeance of Morbius is an audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. This audio drama was produced by Big Finish Productions.
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