Millennium Shock (novel)

Millennium Shock
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Harry
Main enemy:	Voracians, Lieutenant Attwood
Main setting:	London, 31 December 1999
Key crew
Publisher:	BBC Books
Writer:	Justin Richards
Release details
Release number:	21
Release date:	10 May 1999
Format:	Paperback Book; 35 Chapters, 288 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-563-55586-6
BBC Past Doctor Adventures
← Previous	Players
Next →	Storm Harvest

Millennium Shock was the twenty-first novel in the BBC Past Doctor Adventures series. It was written by Justin Richards, released 10 May 1999 and featured the Fourth Doctor and Harry Sullivan.

This novel is a sequel to the Virgin Missing Adventures novel System Shock.

Publisher's summary

It's 1999 and the Millennium Bug is threatening to bring the world's computers to a standstill. Experts struggle to avert disaster, but a powerful force seems determined to work against them.

As the government realises the full implications of Year 2000, one company seems to promise all the technological answers... but what exactly are the methods and motives behind the operation?

What is the connection between the Millennium Bug, a raid on a Russian nuclear base, a break-in at a British defence contractor, and a pen that Sarah-Jane Smith kept as a memento of a past adventure? The Doctor and Commander Harry Sullivan of MI5 must discover the truth before the world is plunged into a digital winter.

No longer just an expensive miscalculation, the Millennium Bug could also be the key to an alien take-over of Earth...

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Fourth Doctor
• Harry Sullivan
• Mike Foley
• George Gardner
• Andi Cave
• General Randall
• Colonel Krimkov
• James Bryant
• Dave Hodges
• Byron Cutter
• Sylvia Webb
• Terry Brooks
• Philip Cotton
• Jennifer Hamilton
• Lieutenant Colonel Vince Attwell

Worldbuilding

Individuals

• Sarah Jane Smith's aunt had died at some time prior to 1998.
• Terry Brooks is Prime Minister of Britain.
• Harry Sullivan is older than when the Doctor last met him. He's still working for MI5.

Foods and beverages

• The Doctor offers a bag of dolly mixtures to George, but insists that they are jelly babies. He produces, and drinks, numerous bottles of ginger beer from his pockets.
• Harry drinks a pint of beer when meeting George. He prefers white coffee.

Notes

• This novel is a direct sequel to System Shock from the Virgin Missing Adventures, the range which the BBC Past Doctor Adventures replaced. This is the only such occurrence between the ranges.
• The name of the book on the frontispiece is misspelt Millenium Shock.
• The chapters of this novel are numbered in base-16 or hexadecimal.
• In the Fourth Doctor's timeline, this story is set between The Deadly Assassin and The Face of Evil.

Continuity

• On the same night, the Sixth Doctor and his companion Melanie Bush saved the Earth from being taken over by Saraquazel, a being from the after-universe, and his servant Ashley Chapel. (PROSE: Millennial Rites)
• Concurrently, the Seventh Doctor and an older version of Mel gate crashed the New Year's Eve party being thrown by Alisha Hammerson, the Auton head of Hammerson Plastic PLC, in London. They foiled her plan to replace her guests with Auton replicas so the Earth could be dominated and absorbed by severing her link to the Nestene Consciousness. (COMIC: Plastic Millennium)
• Furthermore, in San Francisco, an older version of the Seventh Doctor regenerated into his eighth incarnation. After an initial bout of amnesia, the newly regenerated Doctor stopped the Bruce Master from stealing his body and destroying the Earth, with the help of Dr Grace Holloway. (TV: Doctor Who)

External links

• Millennium Shock at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Millennium Shock at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Millennium Shock