Killing Ground was the twenty-third novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. Continuing on from the final events of author Steve Lyons' Time of Your Life, it showed what happened when the Sixth Doctor gave Grant Markham his "one trip" in the TARDIS — a journey back to Markham's home of Agora.
Unlike Time, however, Ground featured Markham as a prominent narrative element, and the book jacket formally dubbed him a "companion". Still, it proved to be his final outing in a licensed work, despite the fact that it ended in a way that promised more adventures for Markham and the Doctor.
Notably, it was one of only two novels published under Virgin Publishing's control of the Doctor Who licence to feature the Cybermen. The other was The Crystal Bucephalus.
Publisher's summary
- "Imagine that you can live forever and life is totally free from pain. You can see all things with clarity, unblinkered by irrelevant details. You will never fear, never sicken, never lose control. That is what the Cybermen are offering."
The Doctor takes his new companion, Grant, back home to Agora — only to find a world in the thrall of some of his oldest and deadliest foes.
The Cybermen have taken control and set up a breeding colony to propagate their own race. While the Doctor languishes in a cell at the mercy of the sadistic Overseers, Grant joins up with a group of rebels and works on a desperate rescue bid.
With time running out, the rebels move into action. But will their solution prove more deadly than the problem itself?
Plot
to be added
Characters
References
Biologically modified species
- Ted Henneker helps create the Bronze Knights.
Cybermen
- Hegelia is an expert on Cyberhistory. She is one of the most respected ArcHivists from the ArcHive.
- ArcHivist Hegelia undergoes the Cyber-conversion process to satisfy her curiosity about what the process feels like.
- When Hegelia undergoes Cyber-conversion after getting Madrox to help her, she initially manages to record her impressions even as the machinery tears into her flesh and replaces it with bionic implants, but when her brain is augmented with a computer unit everything that made Hegelia unique is lost forever.
- The Cybermen found Agora to be an easy conquest, and they placed Overseers in charge. Every three years the Cybermen return and they select 500 people who are healthy for conversion.
- Cybermen are CyberNomads who were affected by the war with Voga and consequently have more organic components than any other model since the CyberMondasians.
- The Cybermen have the means of detecting the Doctor's TARDIS as an early warning system.
- The Cyber-Leader refuses Hegelia's offer of conversion so she can experience it first hand, believing her to be a companion of the Doctor. The Cybermen want the TARDIS.
- The Cybermen have stolen a Selachian battle cruiser.
The Doctor
- The Doctor contemplates suicide.
- The Doctor spends weeks in the TARDIS recovering from radiation poisoning sustained on board the Selacian warcraft.
- The Doctor freezes 500 people undergoing Cyber-conversion rather than killing them outright.
Individuals
- Grant has severe robophobia brought upon by early childhood memories of the Cybermen.
- Arthur Lakesmith was the original rebel leader and was mutilated as a warning to other colonists following a failed rebellion in 2176.
- Hegelia horrifies her assistant Graduand Jolarr when he learns she set the time coordinates to bring them both to the final year of the Cyber occupation.
- Hegelia knows of the Doctor and is disappointed upon meeting him.
Notes
- This book was the second and currently final appearance of companion Grant Markham in official media.
- The cover, by Alister Pearson, contained the only official image of Grant.
- The character Hegelia was from David Banks' book Cybermen.
Continuity
- The Doctor exiled himself to Torrok (TV: The Ultimate Foe) and was forced to leave when the Time Lords revealed him to the Watchers. (PROSE: Time of Your Life)
- The Cybermen are those of the post-Cyber-Wars variant. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, AUDIO: Sword of Orion, Cyberman audio series)
- The Doctor refers to the painful beginnings of his third regeneration in the TARDIS. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
- When discussing the subjects of government cover-ups with Grant, the Doctor mentions the Great Intelligence, (TV: The Web of Fear) the Autons, (TV: Spearhead from Space, TV: Terror of the Autons) the Axons (TV: The Claws of Axos) and the Zygons. (TV: Terror of the Zygons)
- Earth is still rebuilding after the decade long Dalek occupation. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth)
- Grant had a recurring nightmare about being hunted by robots, which was cured. (PROSE: Time of Your Life)
- The TARDIS has an emergency exit. (PROSE: Original Sin)
- The Doctor recalls his visit to Thoros-Beta in 2379. (TV: Mindwarp)