System Shock (novel)

System Shock was the eleventh novel in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. It was written by Justin Richards. It featured the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan. This novel is one of two novels in the series to feature Harry Sullivan. The other is A Device of Death.

Publisher's summary

 * "We’re dicing with death on the information superhighway to hell."

A rebellion on another planet. A kidnapping in central London. The head of MI5 assassinated. A hostage siege suddenly and violently ended by the SAS. A computer CD slipped into the Fourth Doctor’s pocket by a dead man...

It’s 1998, and the global information superhighway is about to come on line. OffNet controls everything digital from cars to sliding doors, from interactive television to military command and control systems.

The Doctor and Sarah must join forces with an old friend in a race against time: to prevent the breakdown of technological society and foil an unconventional alien takeover bid.

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Sarah Jane Smith
 * Harry Sullivan
 * Veronica Halliwell
 * Kevin Sutcliffe
 * Johanna Slake
 * Robert Gibson
 * Lionel Stabfield
 * Marc Lewis
 * Eleanor Jenkins
 * Clive Peterson
 * Martin Carlson
 * Hanson

The Doctor

 * The Doctor's CV mentions degrees from the Prydonian Academy.
 * He claims that 1998 is "not one of [his] favourites."

Foods and beverages

 * 1997 was a bad year for ginger beer.

Individuals

 * Winifred Bambera is still a Brigadier in charge of UNIT by 1998.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor blames the helmic regulators for the TARDIS missing the year that he was aiming for.
 * The Doctor tells Sarah that the TARDIS is too advanced to be able to read a CD ROM.

Continuity

 * I2 and OffNet are mentioned again in MA: Millennial Rites.
 * After leaving both the TARDIS and UNIT, Harry was posted to Porton Down where he became involved in highly classified work. (DW: Mawdryn Undead, TC: Harry Sullivan's War)
 * Brigadier Winifred Bambera is still in command of the British divison of UNIT in 1998. (DW: Battlefield)
 * Sarah has written articles for Metropolitan about "the dangers of meditation" (DW: Planet of the Spiders) and "the sudden evacuation of London all those years ago" (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs).
 * The Doctor's CV states that he has obtained degrees from the Prydonian Academy (DW: The Hand of Fear, DW: The Deadly Assassin) and "Lister, 1888" (DW: The Moonbase).
 * In her personal timeline, Sarah's last meeting with Harry took place only a month earlier. (DW: The Android Invasion)
 * The 1950s BBC science fiction television series Nightshade is mentioned. The Seventh Doctor and Ace would later meet its star Edmund Trevithick in Crook Marsham in December 1968. (NA: Nightshade)

For the the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane

 * System Shock occurs after DWAN: The Sea of Faces.
 * System Shock occurs before DW: The Masque of Mandragora.

For Harry

 * System Shock occurs after TC: Harry Sullivan's War.
 * System Shock occurs before PDA: Millennium Shock.