a b s e n t i a

Eight in Comics, Books, and Audios

Because the TV Movie did not result in a new television series, the other Doctor Who media creators (comic artists and fiction writers) were presented with a unique opportunity: there was a totally new Doctor, but with only one adventure to his name and only a baseline characterization. Also, since there was no TV series canon to compete with the books and comics, writers could take the Eighth Doctor on wild new adventures with abandon. And take him on adventures they certainly did, bringing all-new Doctor Who content to an audience who wanted the Doctor to return but didn't know if it would ever happen.

Because the comics, books, and audiodramas were all made by different groups, there are thus three slightly different takes on the Eighth Doctor. They each explore his character, giving him a wide range of companions along the way and placing our happy little cinnamon roll in vastly different situations depending on the medium. The following article is my attempt to delineate the mild differences between these forms and to explain them.

But admittedly, I have not read any of the Eighth Doctor novels, nor have I read many of the comic strips created between 1996 and 2005. I haven't even listened to all of the audiodramas yet. I feel like a terrible fan! BUT I do have contact with lots of awesome Eighth Doctor fans who have read and listened much more than I have, and so in this article I strive to credit them and link their wonderfully detailed explanations wherever possible. The following sections would not be possible without the Eighth Doctor fandom's collective research and thoughts!

Eight in the Comics

Doctor Who Magazine picked up Eight and ran with him starting almost immediately after the TV Movie, bringing in a lighter tone to the Doctor's character development, which had grown quite dark during the Seventh Doctor's run. The comics, which ran weekly in the Radio Times and monthly in the magazine, helped keep audiences in the know about the franchise, and arguably helped expand the fandom with many more new readers. Courtesy of the comics, Eight also got a cool new companion--Izzy, a sci-fi geek who begins as a slightly rebellious "confused teenager" and becomes a "sassy space girl." (Izzy is also canonically lesbian, making her the first gay companion in Doctor Who history).

Eight's care for his companions, first manifested in the TV movie, becomes a hallmark of his in the comics, amid eccentricities like "an extensive collection of silly hats", question-mark boxers (and a killer six-pack), and hilariously grandiose statements. Comic!Eight is admittedly VERY quirky and funny, but he also never stops caring about the ones who travel with him, and he never stops caring about how his actions will affect the timelines he's helping in. His choices bring him dangerously close to greater power, but he never quite grasps it; romance, too, eludes him, but it doesn't seem to matter very much. Comic!Eight's life is all about approachable adventure, exploring the human condition through the Doctor's eyes as more of an observer and helper.

One other interesting point: when Doctor Who was about to be brought back in 2005, the comic writers knew they had to wrap up the Eighth Doctor's adventures, but due to a technicality, they could not actually show Paul McGann's Doctor regenerating into Christopher Eccleston's Doctor in the comics. The problem? They could not spoil audiences for the Ninth Doctor before his series began to air, and nor could they continue to show the Eighth Doctor after Nine's series had begun. The only hint of the connection between Eight and Nine is one of the first scenes from the Ninth Doctor's comic run, in which he is depicted just after regeneration, still wearing Eight's costume. However, this lack of a regeneration allowed Steven Moffat to mod in a regeneration sequence for Eight, regenerating him instead into the War Doctor in the prequel Night of the Doctor to help set up the plot for Day of the Doctor.

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Eight in the Books

As quirky and lighthearted as Comic!Eight's adventures are, Book!Eight's character development gets pushed into the just plain adorable, wacky, and--dare I say it?--progressive. The books' various writers pick up on Eight's poetic and dramatic nature, as well as his fragility and approachable sensuousness (I mean, come on, that velvet coat?!), and they run like mad with it. (Niki of big-finish-sketches describes it thusly: "Acts tall and dashes about and cooks and cuddles with people and saves kittens. Carries a teddy bear around for comfort. [...] Also commits genocide like once a book at least.")

Book!Eight's tactile nature and mental instability combine to create a different type of eccentricity, one that is by turns endearing and a little frightening. Not to mention that Book!Eight is at least biromantic, given his attachment to his companion Fitz Kreiner--this makes the Eighth Doctor the first Doctor to show not only romantic attraction to a companion (Grace), but to show romantic attraction to a male companion. Both these developments are, as noted above, much more progressive and possibly even controversial, but they are excellent places to explore, and certainly paved the way for developments within the new TV series beginning in 2005.

Also, it must be noted that many of the developments we associate with New Who Doctors may have actually originated with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels some years before the series returned to TV (this Tumblr post hits some of the highlights in perfect meme form). Thus, there are some grumblings among us Eighth Doctor fans that sometimes writers for New Who have often "borrowed" things from the EDAs without quite crediting where they got the ideas, and so the innovations that should be associated with Eight often get associated with later Doctors, adding to the "Eight Erasure" phenomenon.) This is compounded by the fact that the novels are (as far as I know) no longer in production for any Doctor since the TV series returned, so a lot of new Whovians have no idea that there were ever any books about the series at all. (You can still find the books out there, though--check the link below!)

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Eight in the Audios

After a long while of the Eighth Doctor appearing in comic strips and books, an audiodrama company called Big Finish contacted Paul McGann to see if he might want to reprise his role as the Eighth Doctor on audio. The company had already started producing audiodramas for the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors in 1999, though their canonicity at the time was questionable, given that the TV series had not yet returned. But thankfully for all of us Eight fans, McGann accepted the offer, and in January of 2001 we got our first taste of Audio!Eight in the audiodrama "Storm Warning." (Personally, I think this was a masterstroke, because Paul McGann is blessed with a voice made of silk and chocolate. Sounds even better in person, too ♥)

Audio!Eight begins as pretty much a continuation of the Eighth Doctor's characterization in the TV Movie. He is that delicate blend of gentlemanly grandiosity that many of us fans adore, tackling all sorts of crazy adventures with the combined power of his intellect, sense of humor, and of course, wonderfully dry wit in the form of excellent sass and sarcasm. But that slightly reckless, ADHD-like approach to life also gets Audio!Eight in trouble on occasion, especially with his companions--most of them get tired of keeping up with him after awhile. Despite being one of the kindest and most practical Doctors, he is ultimately a bit too unstable for most of his companions to stay with him long-term. Add to that his increased instability and fragility after the events of "Zagreus," as well as the irretrievable loss of some of his companions, and Audio!Eight ends up growing himself a tougher outer emotional shell just to survive. Small wonder he changes his costume quite a bit to reflect that!

This is the only form of the Eighth Doctor that continues on to this day, now with the blessing of the TV series behind it. (With only a line or two of dialogue in the Night of the Doctor mini-episode, all of the Big Finish-produced adventures were made official TV series canon, not just for the Eighth Doctor, but for all the Classic and New Doctors, past, present, and future!)

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