Killing Ground (novel)

Killing Ground was the twenty-third novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Steve Lyons. It featured the Sixth Doctor and Grant Markham in his second and final appearance in a novel. This is the only Missing Adventures novel to feature the Cybermen and it is only one of two novels published under Virgin Publishing's control of the Doctor Who licence. The other is PROSE: Iceberg.

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

 * Sixth Doctor
 * Grant Markham
 * Jean Markham
 * Ted Henneker
 * ArcHivist Hegelia
 * ArcHivist Graduand Jolarr
 * Arthur Lakesmith
 * Ben Taggart
 * Madrox
 * Maxine Carter
 * Cybermen

Biologically modified species

 * Ted Henneker helps create the Bronze Knights, cybernetically augmented volunteers designed to match the strength of a Cyberman in combat.

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. She loses all interest in the question and destroys her notes following her total 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. They use artificial emotional responses to intimidate opponents. They can swim.
 * Cyber-leaders can send out a disabling pulse to all Cyber-technology upon death.

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 is very good at resisting torture, and enjoys mocking his interrogator.

Individuals

 * The Doctor does not have much faith in his new companion Grant.
 * Grant Markham has severe robophobia brought upon by early childhood memories of the Cybermen.
 * Jean Markham was Grant's mother. She was shot dead by the Cybermen as punishment for the colony.
 * Ben Taggart was Grant's father. He surrendered instead of sacrificing himself to detonate a bomb in Population Control.
 * Ted Henneker leads the Agoran rebels.
 * Arthur Lakesmith was the original rebel leader. He was mutilated as a warning to other colonists following a failed rebellion in 2176.

Continuity

 * The Doctor exiled himself to Torrok after the events of TV: The Ultimate Foe and was forced to leave when the Time Lords revealed him to the Watchers in PROSE: Time of Your Life.
 * The Cybermen are those of the post-Cyber-Wars variant seen in TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, AUDIO: Sword of Orion and the 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 in PROSE: Time of Your Life.
 * The Cybermen in this novel periodically journey to the colony in a spacecraft similar to that seen in TV: Revenge of the Cybermen.
 * The Bronze Knights' brutal crushing of Maddox's hands is an infamous reprise of Lytton's punishment in TV: Attack of the Cybermen.
 * Grant comes face-to-face with his father in mid-conversion, a scene that brings to mind Natasha meeting her father as a glass Dalek in TV: Revelation of the Daleks and Lytton in TV: Attack of the Cybermen.
 * The events of various Cybermen stories are mentioned: TV: Attack of the Cybermen, PROSE: Iceberg, TV: Revenge of the Cybermen and TV: The Moonbase.
 * Reference is made to the Valeyard seen in TV: The Trial of a Time Lord.
 * The TARDIS has an emergency exit. (PROSE: Original Sin)
 * The Doctor recalls his visit to Thoros-Beta in 2379. (TV: Mindwarp)