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, predating the broadcast of 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...
Plot
In the MegaTech Centre, Trevor the nightwatchman is enjoying his cheese and onion sandwich when suddenly, a humanoid creature made of metal appears in front of him and kills him with a blaster mounted on its wrist. As a second Cyberman appears behind the first one, the two proceed to smash open the glass cases separating them from the electronic devices sold in the centre.
Hearing the sound of shattering glass, Kevin emerges from the storeroom armed with his truncheon, only to find himself facing the Cybermen who are standing over the dead body of Trevor. Kevin tries to run away but the Cybermen gun him down as well.
The next morning, the police issue a statement about how the MegaTech Centre has been robbed of some of the latest hi-tech equipment despite the alarms failing to go off. They also explain the death of the two guards, with the older one having died of what is described as a massive shock to the system caused by an unknown force. The younger one is revealed to have still been alive when found before dying in hospital while talking about silver giants.
Another attack takes place in Whitehall where the only survivor, a research assistant, has been talking about silver giants before being moved to a sanatorium. A search reveals that highly secret equipment, such as a decoding machine, is missing.
In a military camp, Dexter Hanson is standing guard at the main gates of Chadwick Green. Half an hour before he can be relieved, Dexter sees a silver humanoid inside the gates. He tells the figure to halt before he fires at him, but the figure replies by firing its blaster at him. Dexter dodges the blast before opening fire, only for the figure to shoot him. The sound of gunfire alerts everyone else in the camp. As the corporal rushes into action with his automatic pistol, the Cyberman kills him. Another Cyberman appears behind the first Cyberman and they both kill the other soldiers one by one, even managing to destroy an armored vehicle with a heavy mounted machine gun. Once the soldiers are dead, the two Cybermen proceed to break down the door to the nearest lab.
The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones are in prehistoric times feeding a dinosaur which the Doctor has called using a bugle-shaped object. The dinosaur, an Apatosaurus, eats the palm fronds that Martha is holding before it is chased off by a Tyrannosaurus. The Doctor and Martha rush into the TARDIS and dematerialize before the Tyrannosaurus can devour them.
In the TARDIS, the Doctor decides to stick to watching David Attenborough. Martha tells the Doctor that she wants to go to the Royal Hope Hospital so she can see how everyone else is doing after it was placed on the moon, so the Doctor obliges with her request.
The army has removed wreckage from the research center at Chadwick Green and a new security vault has been dug by a large group of Army engineers. Any dead soldiers and scientists have been replaced and any relatives of the deceased have been given compensation.
Major Tom Burton and his second-in-command, Captain Sheila Sarandon are watching the CCTV footage of the Cybermen's attack on the MegaTech Centre. Sheila explains to Tom that the Cybermen have a hidden base inside the old Torchwood tower on Canary Wharf before the Daleks invaded. Once the battle ended, someone stole some vital alien equipment, including spying equipment and something that is believed to be a teleportation device.
Tom wishes to know what the Cybermen are planning. Sheila thinks that they are planning another invasion and that they may have a whole army of Cybermen hidden somewhere. When she suggests to Tom that the public should be warned about the Cybermen, Sheila is refused as any hint of the invasion happening again would cause a nationwide panic so the story must be covered up, despite the scare stories on the internet which Tom thinks are just being created by conspiracy nuts that no one will pay any attention to.
Tom opens a folder marked "Top Secret" and pulls out the reports of the Doctor who cleared up the invasion of Canary Wharf. Sheila suggests that they put out an alert for him and ask the police to keep a lookout for and old police box. After Tom agrees with her, she begins to make a phone call to the Doctor.
In the TARDIS, Martha, who is getting impatient, asks the Doctor if he should be steering the TARDIS, to which the Doctor replies that he has pre-set the course coordinates. He reassures her that despite having the occasional blip during their travels and the incident involving Mount Vesuvius, the TARDIS is reliable, even though he is thinking of fixing the Chameleon Circuit before realizing that when the Chameleon Circuit was working, it would make finding the TARDIS a lot harder to find.
The Doctor continues studying the dials and explains to Martha that he has picked up some strange readings upon entering her sector of space-time, with such readings including energy spikes and Radio 5 Live, as well as possible uses of teleportation devices. He then explains to Martha what cellular dissemination is: another way of saying matter transmission and even buildings can be subjected to it. He then tells her that cellular dissemination is impossible due to the technology used for it not being invented in her time, even saying that Martha's suggestion of a mad scientist inventing it is unlikely. But what he considers more likely and more worrying is someone using alien technology.
Martha is concerned if it's the Cybermen, but the Doctor assures her that the Cybermen have all been sucked into the Void which has been sealed forever, but then his smile briefly fades before the TARDIS lands.
Upon exiting the TARDIS, the Doctor and Martha find themselves in the Royal Hope Hospital's car park. Martha eagerly decides to introduce the Doctor to her colleagues, but the Doctor tells her not to as some of them might remember him and ask unnecessary questions, instead deciding to walk around the hospital for a couple of hours so he can get the feel of the place. Once the Doctor has walked off, the disappointed Martha makes her way into the hospital.
Some time later, a young police officer named PC Jim Wilkie finds the TARDIS and contacts the Desk Sergeant to inform him that he has found an old police box with no ticket. the desk sergeant congratulates Jim for finding it and tells him that he will pass the message on before telling him to keep an eye on the box in case someone decides to drive it away. After relaying Wilkie's report, the desk sergeant thinks that someone pinched the police box from a museum before drinking his tea.
In the Cybermen's secret base, the two Cybermen who broke into the MegaTech Centre inform their leader that their force field is in place and the monitor is functional, but the teleportation device isn't completely reliable and they don't have the scientific knowledge to carry out their final plan. They also say that the raids they have been conducting, as well as the power losses will attract human attention which will result in them being tracked down.
The Cyberleader tells them that their plan is the only one they have. When his soldiers tell him that only the Doctor has the knowledge to reopen the void, the Cyberleader says that he will return due to them attacking the Earth. Almost immediately, the Cybermen's technology informs them that the Doctor has returned, which will give them the chance to use the Doctor for their plan.
The Doctor comes across a place called "Nick's Internet Café" and enters it. Inside the café, he meets Nick and asks for one hours on one of the computers in the café. After paying four quid for the computer and a cappuccino, the Doctor sits down at the computer at the end of the row. After a young law student asks the Doctor if he needs any help, the Doctor politely refuses her before using the computer to find a series of news channels.
Eventually, the Doctor finds some news reports of the Cybermen and the raids they carried out. After telling the law student that he has found more than he wanted, the Doctor leaves in a hurry as the law student remarks that he was completely bonkers, but rather interesting for what she calls a "geek" before returning to work on her thesis.
Chapter Titles
- The Raiders
- Field Trip
- Crisis Conference
- Homeward Bound
- Cybermen
- Reunion
- Caught
- Arrest
- Interrogation
- The Doctor Takes Charge
- Hostage
- Attack
- Battleground
- The Gateway
- Arrival
- The Gateway Opens
Characters
- Tenth Doctor
- Martha Jones
- Kevin
- Trevor
- Dexter Hanson
- Harris
- Major Tom Burton
- Captain Sheila Sarandon
- PC Wilkie
- Rachel Swales
- Cyber-engineer
- Cyber leader
- Fanshawe
References
- The MegaTech Centre was the biggest and best computer and electronics store in Britain, possibly the world. It stocked everything from PCs to the latest MP3 player.
- Trevor drinks tea and eats cheese and onion sandwiches.
- The Doctor mentions David Attenborough and Radio 5 Live.
- Martha jokes the Cybermen aren't customers of Teleports R Us.
- The captain compares the stay-behind Cybermen group to the Nazis that called themselves Werewolves after World War II in 1945.
Notes
- This was the first BBC Wales-related work to be written by prolific Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks.
- This is the first time the Cybermen have featured in a prose piece since the beginning of the revived series. They would not appear in text again until Plague of the Cybermen featuring the Eleventh Doctor. The Cybermen had, however, featured in past novels such as Killing Ground, Illegal Alien and Iceberg.
- This novella was also released as an ebook available from the Amazon Kindle store.
- Because this novel refers to the events of Smith and Jones, and The Lazarus Experiment, but was released well before either, it slightly spoiled these episodes. This wasn't the first time prose from Dicks had spoiled a televised story; his novelisation of The Five Doctors was also released in advance of transmission.
- The Torchwood episode Cyberwoman also focuses on the issue of Cybermen left behind after the events of Doomsday.
- The character Rachel Swales may be intended to be the same person as Julia Swales from the episode Smith and Jones.
Continuity
- Martha met the Doctor when alien forces had invaded and "kidnapped" the Royal Hope Hospital, where she was training. (TV: Smith and Jones)
- Martha's journey of "one trip" became the first of many. (TV: The Shakespeare Code, Gridlock et al.)
- The Cybermen's base in Torchwood One and their exile to the Void is mentioned. (TV: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday)
- The Doctor remembers finding websites dedicated to finding him. (TV: Love & Monsters)
- Martha's cousin Adeola worked at Torchwood and never came home after the Battle of Canary Wharf. The Doctor remembers killing her and several of her colleagues. (TV: Army of Ghosts)
- The military know that the Doctor has a companion, usually a young attractive female. (TV: Army of Ghosts et al.)
- The Doctor uses power from the TARDIS. (TV: Utopia)
External links
- Made of Steel at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Made of Steel at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Made of Steel
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