Made of Steel (novel)
Made of Steel was a novella written by Terrance Dicks. It was the second Doctor Who Quick Reads release, and is notable for being the first appearance of Martha Jones in any medium. It predated the release of TV: Smith and Jones by a month.
Publisher's summary
A deadly night attack on an army base. Vehicles are destroyed, building burned, soldiers killed. The attackers vanish as swiftly as they came, taking highly advanced equipment with them.
Metal figures attack a shopping mall. But why do they only want a new games console from an ordinary electronics shop? An obscure Government Ministry is blown up - but, in the wreckage, no trace is found of the secret, state-of-the-art decoding equipment.
When the TARDIS returns The Doctor and Martha to Earth from a distant galaxy, they try to piece together the mystery. But someone - or something - is waiting for them. An old enemy stalks the night, men no longer made of flesh...
Characters
- The Tenth Doctor
- Martha Jones
- Kevin
- Trevor
- Dexter Hanson
- Harris
- Captain Sheila Sarandon
- Cyber-engineer
References
- Martha indicates that she is the cousin of Adeola Oshodi, a Torchwood Institute employee who died in TV: Army of Ghosts. This fact was confirmed in the later-released Smith and Jones. It's a bit unclear, therefore, whether the idea originated with RTD or Dicks.
Notes
- This was the second release in the BBC Books paperback-only Quick Reads series. It was the first New Series-related work to be written by prolific Doctor Who writer Dicks. Dicks also served a script editor for the series in the early 1970s and wrote many episodes in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, making this the first time a writer from the original series has been involved in a New Series-related product. The book marked Martha Jones' public debut. It was not only released before her debut in the standard hard cover book series, but before her first television appearance in Smith and Jones.
- This was the only Quick Reads novella of the five to feature an enemy which is not featured in another New Series Adventure novel. The Daleks appered in Prisoner of the Daleks, the Judoon appeared in Judgement of the Judoon, the Sontarans appeared in The Taking of Chelsea 426 and the Krillitanes appeared in The Krillitane Storm. The Cybermen, however, do not feature in any other such novel. This is the only time the Pete's World variant have featured in print, and the only time so far any Cybermen have featured in a new series novel.
- The Weeping Angels also appeared in the New Series Adventure novel Touched by an Angel and they also appeared as the Quick Reads novellas continued for the Eleventh Doctor in Magic of the Angels,. This leaves the Cybermen as the only Quick Reads-featured enemy to appear in a standard novel.
- This novella was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
- This novel was published before the broadcast of TV: Smith and Jones, yet it refers to the events in that episode, making the book something of a spoiler for the season premiere (and, as noted below, the novella makes reference to the plot of TV: The Lazarus Experiment too, another episode readers would not have seen yet).
- The Torchwood episode TV: Cyberwoman also focuses on the issue of Cybermen left behind after the events of TV: Doomsday.
Continuity
- The events of the book must take place after TV: The Lazarus Experiment as Martha says something about facing mad scientists again.
- Martha is forced to wait outside the TARDIS in the Doctor's absence, placing the events of the book before TV: 42, when Martha receives a key to the TARDIS.
- One of the Cybermen says: "Promises made to inferior species have no meaning". A similar line is said by a Cyber-Leader in The Five Doctors ("Promises to aliens have no validity."), also written by Dicks.
- The Doctor has taken Martha to Mount Vesuvius, though it's not stated explicitly that she experienced the destruction of Pompeii, which would have contradicted the later TV: The Fires of Pompeii in which the Doctor and Donna Noble ended up there.
External links
- Made of Steel at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Made of Steel at The Whoniverse
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