Time of Your Life (novel)

Time of Your Life was the eighth book in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. Written by Steve Lyons, it featured the Sixth Doctor and introduced the short-lived companion Grant Markham. Much like Jamie McCrimmon in The Highlanders, Grant was largely a background character in his debut story until the Doctor offered to take him on "one trip" in the TARDIS at the end of the novel. This proved to be no hyperbole; Markham did get only one more official trip, in 1996's Killing Ground.
In presenting a society that had begun to devolve because of its innate addiction to television, the narrative had a lot of obvious similarity to the television stories Paradise Towers and Vengeance on Varos. The story also contains a mostly subtle, but sometimes gross, criticism of Doctor Who fandom, of a kind also seen in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
== Publisher's summary ==
:"Organic bugs must be purged from the system," the screen told him. Then, more succinctly, "You die."
The Network broadcasts entertainment to the planets of the Meson system: Death-hunt 3000, Prisoner: The Next Generation, Bloodsoak Bunny... Sixteen channels, and not one of them worth watching. But for the citizens of poverty-stricken Torrok, television offers the only escape from a reality too horrible to face.
Angela, a young inhabitant of Torrok, leaps at the chance to travel to the Network with a hermit who calls himself the Doctor. However, all is not well on the giant, chaotic space station. A soap star has murdered his wife's lover; the robotic regulars of Timeriders are performing random kidnappings; and a lethal new game show is about to go on the air.
Can the Doctor uncover the cause of the apparently random disturbances — or will his appearance as a competitor on Death-hunt 3000 be the last of his life?
== Plot ==
to be added
== Characters ==
* Sixth Doctor
* Grant Markham
* Krllxk
* Angela Jennings
* Anjor
* Anson Hammond
* Dan Brookes
* Dominic Shepherd
* Firn Kaerson
* Giselle
* Glynda
* Jak Martyn
* Mae Jordan
* Miriam Walker
* Nik Calvin
* Raymond Day
* Stuart Revell
* Terry Marston
== Worldbuilding ==
to be added
== Notes ==
* The decision by the Doctor to become a recluse is a reflection of the television story The Twin Dilemma following after another violent episode involving Peri.
* Steve Lyons originally proposed this novel as an introductory story for the character of Melanie Bush, whose first meeting with the Doctor had not been shown in televised Doctor Who. Rebecca Levene, Virgin New Adventures editor at the time, rejected the idea in favour of introducing a new companion for the Doctor. Mel's introduction would later be written by Gary Russell in the novel Business Unusual.
* The front cover is the only one in the Virgin Missing Adventures to feature no other character alongside the Doctor on the left. In breaking this convention, it joins Invasion of the Cat-People, which features two other characters as opposed to one.
* This story marked the debut of new companion Grant Markham. Due to the end of the range, Grant never received a departure story. Short Trips: Repercussions would however later imply one.
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor was put on trial by the Time Lords (TV: The Mysterious Planet) and faced the Valeyard, an evil future incarnation of himself. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
* Reference is made to Drathro, the L3 maintenance robot. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
* The Celestial Intervention Agency make an appearance. (TV: The Brain of Morbius, AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks)
* The mass transit systems were outlawed long ago. (PROSE: Transit)
* The Doctor recalls the poison vines and acid baths on Varos (TV: Vengeance on Varos) and Lytton's death on Telos. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
* The Doctor refers to his visit to the last Intergalactic Peace Conference. (TV: Frontier in Space)
* The Doctor recalls his treatment of Peri Brown on Thoros-Beta in 2379. (TV: Mindwarp)
== External links ==
* 
* The Cloister Library: Time of Your life
Category:MA novels
Category:Sixth Doctor novels
Category:1995 novels
Category:Stories set in 2191