The 8th Doctor

The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann. Though he appeared in only one TV film, his adventures are extensively portrayed in other media.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. McGann portrays the eighth such incarnation, a passionate, enthusiastic and eccentric character. His only companion in the television movie is Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), a medical doctor whose surgery is responsible for triggering his regeneration. In the continued adventures of the character depicted in audio dramas, novels and comic books he travels alongside numerous other companions, including self styled "Edwardian Adventuress" Charley, the alien Destrii and present-day humans Lucie and Sam.

The Eighth Doctor is the first since the original incarnation (portrayed by the late William Hartnell) not to have his face appear in the opening title sequence. This trend would continue throughout the revived series with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors.

The Eighth Doctor made his first and only television appearance in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, the first time the Doctor had returned to television screens since the end of the original series in 1989. Intended as a backdoor pilot for a new television series on the Fox Network, the movie managed to draw 5.5% of the US audience, according to Nielsen Ratings. In the UK, it was received well, attracting over 9 million viewers and generally positive reviews. It was also generally well received in Australia.

Although the movie failed to spark a new television series, the Eighth Doctor's adventures continued in various licensed spin-off media, notably BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, audio plays from Big Finish Productions, and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. As these stories spanned the nine years between 1996 and the debut of the new television series in 2005, some consider the Eighth Doctor one of the longest-serving of the Doctors. He is unarguably the longest-serving Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. In the wake of the positive reaction to the revived television series in 2005, several of the Eighth Doctor's Big Finish audio dramas were also broadcast on BBC7 radio in an edited form. The trailers for these broadcasts explained that these adventures took place before the destruction of Gallifrey as described in the revived TV series. In 2007, BBC7 aired a new series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures, created specifically for radio broadcast. Paul McGann has continued to portray the Eighth Doctor in the various audio spinoffs.

The canonicity of the spin-off media with respect to the television series and to each other is open to interpretation (the "Beginner's Guide to Doctor Who" on the BBC's classic Doctor Who website suggests this may be due to the Time War).It has been suggested that the Eighth Doctor's adventures in three different forms (novels, audio, and comics) take place in three separate continuities. The discontinuities were made explicit in the audio drama Zagreus. In response, it has become increasingly common to consider the three ranges separately. The final Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles, obliquely references this split in timelines, even suggesting that the split results in the three alternative forms of the Ninth Doctor (a reference to the fact three different versions of the incarnation have appeared in various media). Even so, all matters of canonicity remain typically unclear.

Despite the fact the Eighth Doctor appeared on television only once, he is the most prolific of all the Doctors (to date) in terms of number of individual stories published in novel, novella, short story and audio form. In 2007, the Eighth Doctor finally made a second appearance (of sorts) within the television series' continuity. In the episode "Human Nature" he appears on-screen as a sketch (alongside other incarnations) in the book A Journal of Impossible Things by John Smith. In 2008 and 2010 he appeared again as a brief image in "The Next Doctor" and "The Eleventh Hour" along with every other incarnation up to that time and "The Lodger" with his first, second, third, fourth, ninth and tenth incarnations.

Sometime after the events in San Francisco, the Doctor found himself wandering alone through the Vortex. In the wake of a Vortisaur attack, he was forced to land on Earth, in October 1930, aboard the doomed R101 airship. Aboard the vessel, the Doctor met a young adventuress by the name of Charley Pollard. In the course of his adventure, the Doctor saved Charley's life and took her aboard the TARDIS as his latest companion (Storm Warning). Though done in good faith, the Doctor soon understood that Charley's rescue would have much greater impact upon the timestream.

For two "seasons" of audio adventures, Charley's continued existence despite established history being in part contingent on her death on the R101 formed a rough plot arc in which the universe became infected with "anti-time", culminating in a conflict with the wraithlike Never People and the Doctor choosing to sacrifice himself and his TARDIS by absorbing anti-time energy and transforming into the bogeyman Zagreus. This was only resolved when, restored to sanity but still infected with anti-time, the Doctor chose to sacrifice himself for the sake of Charley and the universe as a whole by removing himself from space and time, plunging into a divergent universe, of which he had no knowledge or frame of reference and in which there was no concept of linear time (Zagreus). Charley stowed away on his TARDIS, in a sense nullifying the Doctor's sacrifice by again placing herself in danger; for a time, this fact caused great friction between the characters and personal angst for the Doctor.

For another two seasons, the Doctor, Charley, and a new companion by the name of C'rizz, explored the divergent universe, gradually unravelling a deep plot designed around the Doctor by Rassilon, founder of Time Lord society. Eventually, with the aid of his companions, the Doctor escaped the trap built for him, overcame his emotional burden, learned that he had been purged of Zagreus and returned to his normal universe with Charley and C'Rizz in tow (The Next Life).

Following that point, which coincided with the end of the official Big Finish "seasons" in light of the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, the trio wandered freely. The only continuing plot element involved C'rizz and his unusual, potentially destructive psychological development. This culminated in C'rizz's death (Absolution) which led Charley to also wish to leave the Doctor's company. Due to an episode of amnesia, brought on by a healing coma induced by a cyber planner, the Eighth Doctor believes Charley has left him (The Girl Who Never Was), when she was in fact stuck in the year 500002, where she is rescued by the Sixth Doctor (The Condemned) suggesting that when the Eighth Doctor first met Charley he already knew her in some form. However, in a Big Finish Productions podcast, executive producer Nick Briggs , when speaking on this development, confirmed that the Eighth Doctor in fact does not know Charley at "their" first meeting, which itself strongly suggested that when the Sixth Doctor and Charley ultimately part company any memory on his part of their adventures will either be altered or erased. This was later confirmed when Charley departed after she was replaced for a while with a woman called Mila who assumed her appearance; before Charley's final departure, she had an alien race called the Viyrans alter the Sixth Doctor's memories to replace his memories of her with Mila's true face and name in order to preserve the timeline, telling the Sixth Doctor that he had died before she left him so that he would 'accept' the new memories (Although this assumption was a mistake on Charley's part, the Eighth Doctor having merely fallen into a healing coma after an attack).

It has also been revealed (in Terror Firma) that prior to meeting Charley, the Doctor travelled with at least two other companions – a brother-and-sister pair (Samson and Gemma Griffin) – of whom the Doctor's memories had been erased by Davros, as part of an elaborate revenge plot.

Romana and K-9 briefly travelled with the Eighth Doctor in the 2003 remake of Shada.

In September 2006, Doctor Who Magazine announced a new audio miniseries featuring the Eighth Doctor and new companion Lucie Miller (played by Sheridan Smith), set later in the character's chronology, after he has parted ways with Charley and C'rizz. Produced by Big Finish Productions, the miniseries was broadcast on BBC7; they began on New Year's Eve 2006 and ended on the 18 February 2007. The miniseries, which we call series 7 here on A Victorian Englishman, consisted of eight episodes, constituting six stories (the first and last stories having two parts). These are Blood of the Daleks, Horror of Glam Rock, Immortal Beloved, Phobos, No More Lies and Human Resources. In this series, the Time Lords have placed Lucie Miller in the Doctor's care as part of a "witness protection programme", contrary to the wishes of either the Doctor or Lucie. A second series of adventures featured the Doctor and Lucie (series 8)and ended on a cliffhanger, and in April 2009 a third season (Series 9) was streamed from the Big Finish website, as well as being available on CD. A fourth season (Series 10)started in 2009 with the Christmas episode Death in Blackpool which dealt with the departure of Lucie Miller. In Situation Vacant the Doctor gained a new companion, Tamsin Drew - drawn from four prospective companions. This season puts the Eighth Doctor up against a new incarnation of the Meddling Monk - who is now travelling with Lucie Miller. However in the course of the season Tamsin is seduced to the Meddling Monk's way of thinking, while Lucie Miller - having no taste for his violent methods - resumes travelling with the Doctor..

An alternate version of the Eighth Doctor, from a timeline where the Seventh Doctor regenerated after being shot by the Nazis in the 1950s, was first mentioned in the audio drama Colditz, and appears (played by McGann) in Klein’s Story. Under the name Schmidt he taught Klein how to pilot the TARDIS, thereby putting her in a position to inadvertently assist the Seventh Doctor in preventing this timeline from occurring.

The Doctor's relationship with Mary Shelley will be explored in three regular range stories (which we will call series 11) in fall 2011 with The Silver Turk in October, The Witch from the Well in November, and Army of Death in December. This will be The Eighth Doctor's return to the regular range after an extended absence since 2005 other than a special for part.