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 Doctor
 * Martha Jones
 * Kevin
 * Trevor
 * Dexter Hanson
 * Harris
 * Captain Sheila Sarandon
 * Cyber-engineer

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.