Eighth Doctor
Biography
Regeneration
The Eighth Doctor's life began when the Seventh Doctor regenerated after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout between rival Chinese-American youth gangs in 1999 San Francisco's Chinatown and dying on the operating table while being attended by Dr. Grace Holloway, who was unaware of, and thus unfamiliar with, the Doctor's alien physiology. Almost immediately, he was caught up in yet another battle with his arch-enemy the Master, whose essence had survived his execution on Skaro and entered the body of a human ambulance driver. Knowing this human body would not last, the Master plotted to use the Eye of Harmony to steal the Doctor's remaining lives. After defeating the Master, the Doctor paid his farewells to Grace and continued on his travels through space and time. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)
Following his regeneration
Leaving San Francisco, the Doctor found himself still suffering post-regenerative amnesia. (Indeed, bouts of amnesia would plague the Doctor at many later points throughout his eighth life.) He found himself travelling to different past points in his own timeline, encountering his previous incarnations and one point securing the release of his old teacher Borusa from the Tomb of Rassilon. At the end of this journey, he acquired his newest companion, Sam Jones, a young woman from the same Shoreditch neighborhood where the Doctor stayed in I.M. Foreman's junkyard with his granddaughter Susan (EDA:The Eight Doctors).
Overture to war with The Enemy
The Doctor first encountered evidence of the Time Lords future war with the (unnamed) Enemy in the East Indies ReVit Zone late in the 21st century where an auction was taking place. (EDA: Alien Bodies)
At this auction he met several players who came to play roles both in the Doctor's own timeline and the Time Lords - The Enemy future war timeline. They included: the Faction Paradox and the Celestis. This is one of the first (but not the last) paradoxical events in the Doctor's eighth incarnation, as he finds out about the war "too early" as Homunculette declared. The Doctor saw more than a glimpse of his own future with the focus of the auction being The Relic; his own corpse. (EDA: Alien Bodies)
The Doctor's companion Sam Jones also experienced a revelation about herself (EDA: Alien Bodies) though these revelations had a far greater impact on him personally when he detected a dimensional scar in San Francisco 2002. Sam Jones fell into the scar and her history and personality changed, back to its original state, before her timeline had gotten altered. The Doctor placed his TARDIS in the dimensional scar to contain the energies and sought out this changed (or rather, restored) Sam Jones. (EDA: Unnatural History)
The Doctor's memories of the events on Dust are fuzzy at best due to the paradoxical nature of the events that took palce there. (EDA: Interference: Book One, Interference: Book Two).
Events following the encounter with The Remote
The Doctor acquired another companion; Fitz Kreiner (EDA: The Taint) and then with the departure of Sam Jones gained another companion; Compassion (EDA: Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)). Both Sam Jones and Fitz played pivotal roles in the Doctor's battles with various enemies, including the Faction Paradox, it was this such battle which would change both companions and the Doctor. (EDA: Interference: Book Two (The Hour of the Geek)).
Following this battle another important event changed the Doctor's view of Gallifrey and changed the lives of his companions in ways that would be felt for a long time. (EDA: The Shadows of Avalon)
Many of these changes and battles collimated in a destruction of Gallifrey and its system. (EDA:The Ancestor Cell) The shock and pain of launching this attack prompted his friend / companion Compassion to deliver him to Earth with his own TARDIS to recover for 100 years.
Events after the Doctor's 100 year Earth exile
Eventually the Doctor learned that just prior to the destruction of Gallifrey, the sum total of the Matrix was placed within his mind, providing a means to rebuild Gallifrey and restore the Time Lords. The Doctor set out to do just this with the assistance of the Time Lord Marnal (EDA:The Gallifrey Chronicles).
- Presumably it was this new Gallifrey that was destroyed in the last Time War, and it was during this battle between the Daleks and the Time Lords that the Eighth Doctor lost his life, regenerating into the Ninth Doctor.
Characteristics
The Eighth Doctor was more romantic than his predecessors, and much more open in his admiration for humans. While earlier Doctors, especially the First and Seventh, would be visibly exasperated by human failings and quirks, this Doctor was more likely to be quietly amused. This may be due to his being half-human on his mother's side, a secret the previous Doctors never revealed.
Psychological profile
Personality
The Eighth Doctor behaves in a more human manner than his predecessors, perhaps tying in to the revelation that he is half-human; this is most clearly seen in his willingness to entertain romantic notions with Grace Holloway, albeit in an innocent, almost childlike manner. Like the Fifth Doctor, he exhibits an endearing vulnerability, but this is contrasted by a sense of urgency and decisiveness. He also demonstrates a flippant sense of humour reminiscent of, though not identical to, the Second and Fourth Doctors. The Eighth Doctor was largely an open pallet early in his life; however as he began to experience life and the universe for himself he soon developed more into a full and developed person.
The Doctor became much down and angrier person with the loss of his TARDIS and home in the dimensional barrier between Earth and Avalon, and his then reliance on Compassion as a means of travel.
Following his exile on Earth and particularly the loss of his heart he became a much darker, though passionate person. (EDA: The Adventures of Henrietta Street, History 101) Though even the return of his second heart still left a changed Doctor. (EDA: Camera Obscura)
Habits and Quirks
The Eighth Doctor had a penchant for late 19th Century style clothing, beginning with a Wild West costume he stole from a hospital worker's locker shortly after his regeneration.
Mysteries and discrepancies
Key Life Events
- Regeneration and "final battle" with the Master. (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie)
- Meeting with Bernice Summerfield, first (for the Doctor) meeting with the Brigadier. (NA: The Dying Days)
- The Doctor re-visits his earlier incarnations, fights the Master and meets Sam Jones. (EDA: The Eight Doctors)
- First suggestion of the Time Lords' future war with The Enemy. (EDA: Alien Bodies)
- The loss of Sam Jones which sparks the Doctor to search for her (EDA: Longest Day), leading him to his incarceration. (EDA: Seeing I)
- First encounter with Iris Wildthyme and witness of her regeneration. (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)
- Encounter with "the original" Sam Jones. (EDA: Unnatural History)
- Revelation of the events of Dust remembered and talked about,the Faction Virus is starting to take effect. (EDA: Interference: Book One, Interference: Book Two)
- A second encounter with Iris Wildthyme, and an encounter in the Obverse makes the Doctor question his trust in Iris. (DW: The Blue Angel)
- The destruction of his TARDIS and the 'birth' of Compassion. (EDA: The Shadows of Avalon)
- The destruction of Gallifrey and its star system. (EDA: The Ancestor Cell)
- The removal of the Doctor's second heart. (EDA: The Adventures of Henrietta Street)
- The Doctor gains a new second heart. (EDA: Camera Obscura)
- The Doctor regains his memory and a memory of what happened prior to his exile. (EDA: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
