Eighth Doctor


*The following article is written from an In Universe perspective.*

Grumpy but kindhearted much like his original incarnation, the Eighth Doctor began life as a grumpy and snappish man, but ultimately mellowed out and showed his kinder and softer nature. While the Doctor was no longer a manipulator, he did occasionally slip back into the role in order to stop the Hoothi from taking over Heaven, and when he tricked the Friers Of Panglossion into separating their minds from their bodies.

The Doctor initially travelled with his predecessor's final travelling companion, Katie Tollinger and Henrick. However, Katie was soon killed in the Interstitial Mass Transit System. The Doctor and Henrick were joined in their travels by Professor Bernice Summerfield, an archaeologist from the 26th Century. The trio had many adventures, during which they witnessed the end of the Dalek Civil War. The Doctor eventually reunited with his grandaughter Susan on 22nd Century Earth where he met his great-grandson Alex Campbell, encountered Gregori for the first time and finally fulfilled his destiny to become Merlin.

However, Henrick was killed on Gallifrey, leaving the Doctor alone with Benny. After several more adventures, the Doctor was captured and brainwashed by the Daleks and turned Bernice into a Dalek.

Biography

Post-Regeneration

After using a sample of his blood to create a formula that would nullify the plants created by the Numlocks, the Seventh Doctor died a slow and painful death before regenerating into the Eighth Doctor. (DW: Blood And Iron, Night Thoughts)

Taking Katie into the mansion after she fell into a lake, the trio witnessed a series of deaths amongst the academics that were living there and discovered that they were experimenting with time, with a device they called the Bartholomew Transactor, so they could send a message back in time to their past selves about misdiagnosing a deceased girl known as Eddie O'Neil. However, the interference with the timeline caused Eddie to transform into a zombie-like state of limbo, the Doctor realised that the misdiagnosis had never been genuine and that the whole series of events were part of a cruel time experiment conducted by Major Dickens, who intended to correct the academics' mistake.

The Doctor travelled back in time to undo the damage, but found himself unable to kill the child, allowing the zombie Eddie to come into existence. Returning to the present, the Doctor discovered that all the academics were now deceased, and theorising that the Zombie-Eddie was responsible for the deaths, keeping herself “Alive” through her own use of the Transactor. He, Katie and Henrick departed. (DW: Night Thoughts)

Travels with Katie and Henrick

To be added. (DW: Glory School)

To be added. (DW: The Hostage)

To be added. (DW: Lungbarrow)

Contemplating a solitary retirement, the Doctor visited Crook Marsham in 1968, where he, Katie and Henrick were forced to prevent the reawakening of an ancient sentience that fed on nostalgia, which had been trapped under the Earth since its formation. The Doctor tricked it into feeding on a supernova, trapping it in a black hole. (DW: Nightshade)

To be added. (DW: The Path Not Taken)

Losing Katie

The Doctor took Katie and Henrick to see the Interstitial Mass Transit System in the 22nd Century. While there, the Doctor and Katie met Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart whilst combatting an entity the Doctor nicknamed Fred, which was attempting to enter their universe using the Sol Transit System. After Fred had fully possessed Henrick, the Doctor, Katie and Kadiatu followed him through a portal. It was only later that the Doctor learned that Katie had died, after the tunnel they were in collapsed, sucking her out into the vacuum of space. (DW: Transit)

Meeting Bernice Summerfield

Following the funeral of Henrick's friend Julian Milton, the Doctor brought the TARDIS to 2570 Heaven where they became friends with a group known as the Travellers. The Doctor helped Professor Bernice 'Benny' Summerfield open the way to Heavenite observatory, deciphering writing they found and discovered a plot by the Hoothi to use Heaven to create an army of the dead. Entering puterspace, the Doctor was attacked by the Vacume Church working in league with the Hoothi, and was forced to relive the death of his third incarnation, until he was saved by a psychic traveler named Christopher.

Realising the dangers the falling Hoothi fibres would cause, the Doctor ordered Benny to quickly unearth the observatory which could detect otherwise invisible Hoothi spheres. Knowing that the Pyrokinetic traveler Jan Rydd had been infected by a fibre, the Doctor ordered him to travel to the Sphere. After using brother Phaedrus of the Vacume Church to summon the Sphere to Puterspace, the Doctor used Christopher to send a message to Jan, telling him to ignite the Sphere, killing himself in the process. The Doctor then offered Bernice the chance to travel which she accepted as long as he stopped playing games with people. (DW: Love And War)

Travels with Henrick and Bernice

In search of a Fortean Flicker somehow connected with the legend of Sakkrat and the Highest Science, the Doctor, Henrick and Benny arrived on the planet Hogsumm and after encountering a troop of Chelonians who had been transported to the planet by the Flicker, were separated. Whilst Benny discovered a ruined Citadel, the Doctor and Henrick realised that a group of humans had also been drawn to the planet by the flicker and witnessed the arrival of Sheldukehr, an infamous criminal in search of the Highest Science, alongside a genetically engineered intellect known as the Cell.

Taken hostage, the Doctor was forced to reveal his own knowledge of the Science, leading Sheldukeher to the Citadel where they discovered Benny. Managing to enter the inner-sanctum, they discovered that the entire planet had been a trap for Sheldukehr who had stolen the Cell originally known as Project FFXQ84 from its creators, who were desperate to regain it. Giving the Cell the death it desperately desired, the Doctor, Henrick and Bernice managed to escape just in time to save the humans from being slaughtered by the Chelonians by freezing them both in a slow time bubble. (DW: The Highest Science)

Henrick decided to take revenge on the Doctor, manipulating him into travelling to Lucifer and unintentionally murder Paula Engado in order to make him pay for his amoral actions. Whilst investigating the murder of Federique Moshe-Rabaan, the Doctor found that Henrick had began his own secret investigation and after confronting him, Henrick admited to his plan. Henrick explained that while reading in the TARDIS library, he discovered that during the Third Dalek War Spacefleet, the Daleks discovered a star system that would give either side mastery in the war, but were unable to enter, due to some kind of exclusion zone around the system that had sprung up shortly after the collapse of what was known as Project Eden. Henrick wanting to figure out what had happened, manipulated the Doctor into going to Lucifer in order to spite him.

He along with the Doctor and Benny discovered that a man named Alex Bennen caused waves of reality-altering energy to emanate throughout the base, but the TARDIS crew managed to escape. Henrick later apologised to the Doctor for using him, with the Doctor forgaving him. (DW: Lucifer Rising)

The Doctor began tracking an alien signal and tracked it to London in 1941. The Doctor, Benny and Henrick befriended Cody McBride who'd seen the sphere crash land and after investigating the Peddler Institute, the trio discovered that the Cybermen had arrived on Earth from the 30th Century and, with the aid of Wal, were attempting to convert everyone into Cybermen. The Doctor and Benny eventually found their way to the Cybermen's base of operations and rescued a captured Henrick. George Limb ended up using one of the Cybermen's time machines to escape into the future. The Doctor, Bernice and Henrick managed to escape into the TARDIS. (DW: Illegal Alien)

To be added. (DW: Conquest of the Daleks)

The Doctor decided to travel to Earth in the 22nd century, after the Dalek invasion, to visit his granddaughter Susan Foreman. When he arrived, he found that Susan had given birth to a child named Alex, who was now in his late teens. The Doctor wanted Alex to have an education on Gallifrey, where it would be much more beneficial to him than on Earth. After the TARDIS was stolen by a race of aliens known as the Guldreasi's, the Doctor discovered that they planned to turn Earth into a slave planet by manipulating the human race into gaining their trust and signing a peace treaty, which failed when the TARDIS arrived, as they saw it as a trap. The Doctor, with help from Henrick, Benny, Susan and Alex soon revealed their plans, leading to the Guldreasi's being banished from Earth.

The Doctor revealed his offer to Alex, but Alex didn't want to go to Gallifrey, as he saw Earth as his home. After leaving Alex to continue his life on Earth, the Doctor made an attempt to get Susan to come travelling with him, to which she too declined. (DW: An Earthly Child)

To be added. (DW: The Enemy Within)

The Doctor, Benny and Henrick met Christián Xochiti Alvarez who claimed to have met them, much to the trio's confusion. Later when the Aztec God Huitzilin inhabited the mind of the Doctor, Henrick was given some tasks to do but was told not to tell Bernice; unbeknownst to him, Bernice had been told to do the same thing, but wasn't to tell him. Henrick and Benny eventually figured out the truth and were initially mad, but forgave him when the Doctor explained he had to prevent Huitzilin from affecting them. (DW: The Left-Handed Hummingbird)

To be added. (DW: The Reverent Peril)

To be added. (DW: The Legend of Merlin)

Saving Gallifrey

To be added. (DW: The Lords of Time)

Further adventures with Henrick and Bernice

The Doctor was persuing the criminal Nic Reece, when he found himself back on Peladon, which was now under the rule of Tarrol who was the son of Thalira and was currently working with the Galactic Federation to bring peace to the planet. Not long after Ancient Relics were stolen from the citadel and the members of the Galactic Federation were blamed. While investigating and attempting to clear the Galactic Federation Of committing the crime, as he believed the Ice Warriors to be responsible, the Doctor was soon arrested and framed for the crime.

The Doctor eventually cleared his name and discovered that an evil intelligence trapped inside a Diadem had influenced an expedition group led by Nic Rease into unleashing it, where it possessed the body of Siabohn Sadler before eventually dying. After this, the Doctor Benny and Henrick made their goodbyes, before leaving in the TARDIS. (DW: Legacy)

To be added. (DW: Knight Falls)

To be added. (DW: Pipe Dreams)

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Landing on an alternate Earth where the Silurians had killed the Doctor in his third incarnation, the TARDIS trio lost the TARDIS and became embroiled in an inter-species conflict. Managing to escape in his parallel counterpart's TARDIS, the Doctor was forced to destroy the alternate universe in order to generate the energy needed to restore the original. (DW: Blood Heat)

The Doctor took his two companions to the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire to see the human race at its zenith. Pretending to be management on the news broadcaster, Satellite Five, the Doctor and his companions found the Empire had been manipulated into remaining secluded from the wider universe. Benny, suffering from severe culture shock, was left on her own.

Captured by the Editor, the Doctor and Henrick found that the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe had been controlling the human race from Satellite Five by manipulating information. Thanks to Cathica Santini Khadeni, one of the workers who learned of the truth, the satellite's heat was rerouted, sending heat to the Jagrafess's control room, freeing the Doctor and Benny and killing the Jagrafess and the Editor. Upon learning that Bernice was trying to learn about the future for her own gain, the Doctor was furious and after returning to the TARDIS, threatened to take Bernice back to her own time, but Henrick convinced him to give Bernice another chance and the Doctor decided to forgive her. (DW: The Long Game)

Losing Henrick

To be added. (DW: The Prisoner of Time

Travels with Benny

The Doctor decided to take Benny to the planet Olleril to witness the annual Tragedy Day. However after arriving, they found shadowy soldiers attempting to assassinate someone and strange creatures found in the water. As they tried to leave, the Doctor and Benny were arrested and taken into the custody of the Police. Benny was soon sent to a Refugee camp. Eventually the Doctor escaped and made his way to an unknown island.

There, he discovered that the planet was being ruled by a boy genius named Crispon who had hidden away in his submarine and ruled under the guise of the Supreme One. The Doctor was able to defeat him by tricking the Friers Of Panglossian into separating their minds from their bodies and causing their slaves to destroy their bodies. After this, the Doctor and Benny escaped. (DW: Tragedy Day)

To be added. (DW: The Societal Step)

The Doctor was contacted by his Tenth incarnation and summoned to Gallifrey where he met his Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth selves. After the Keeper explained that there were time distortions throughout time and space, the Doctor and Benny were given a device to help track one of these time distortions.

The Doctor and Benny arrived in 2003 Newcastle, where they met the Leftover team and discovered that the time distortion was causing people from different time periods to show up in Newcastle. The Doctor and Benny helped the Leftover team send the displaced people back to their proper times, and after a swordfight with a medieval knight, the Doctor sent him back and closed the distortion in Newcastle. He and Benny were then taken back to the hanger area along with their other incarnations and companions. After the Tenth Doctor regenerated, he and Benny were teleported back into their TARDIS, and to their own time with their memory wiped. (MOV: Doctor Who)

Final adventures with Benny

The Doctor and Benny arrived on the planet Betrushia and were soon caught up in a war between the Cutch and Ismetch. However, the war was brought to a halt when the Chapter of Saint Anthony arrived and attempted to convert the inhabitants to their beliefs. They ended up destroying the rings surrounding Betrusia, unleashing an organism known as the Keth. The Doctor convinced the Magna to help him destroy Betrusia, the Keth being destroyed along with the planet. (DW: Saint Anthony's Fire)

After receiving some clues regarding Benny's missing father, the Doctor helped Bernice discover that her father, Issac Summerfield was living on Earth in Sydney, 1996 after falling through a space-time rift. Issac was leading a team of aliens who had also come through the rift, helping aliens who had also become stranded. With help from his team, the Doctor and Benny thwarted the plans of a Navarino known as Albinex who planned to revive his race's warrior past. After Issac turned down the Doctor's offer to be taken back to his own time, the Doctor and Bernice departed. (DW: Return of the Living Dad)

To be added. (DW: Shakedown)

To be added. (DW: The Game of Resurrection)

After Bernice began hearing voices, she and the Doctor arrived in the Sahara Desert in the future. They discovered that Cuthbert, the CEO of the intergalactic corporation known as the Conglomerate had declared war on a race known as the Lann who had destroyed one of his spaceships and believed the Sahara desert to be their spawning ground. The Doctor, with help from Benny and Sheridan Moorkurk - the current president of Earth - managed to teleport the Lann away from Earth before they could all give birth at once and destroy Earth with time energy. (DW: The Conglomerate)

Death

To be added. (DW: Hatred of the Daleks)

Legacy

The Tenth Doctor wrote about his Eighth incarnation in the manuscript about his life. He then showed Sandra Armstrong the memory of his, Katie and Henrick's battle against the Sentience in Crook Marsham. (DW: The Name's Shakespeare, William Shakespeare)

While in the Virtual Simulation reliving his past, the Thirteenth Doctor relived his, Katie and Henrick's stay at Sibley Hall and battle against Major Dickens. During this, the Doctor wore his Eighth incarnation's clothes and took on his role in that adventure. (DW: Now Those Days Are Gone)

Personality

The Eighth Doctor was an incarnation who tended to be abrasive, combative and even patronising. He would often react to people and events with irritation, impatience and copious amounts of snark; he was not one to "suffer fools gladly." In addition, he would frequently take a stubborn, authoritative stance, as he was quite proud of his own knowledge, quite eager to show it off in any way he could and quite insistent that he was always right.

However, he also proved to be very caring of his companions, and was haunted by their respective demises, constantly blaming himself for putting them in harm's way. Like his first incarnation, he acted as a grandfather-like figure towards his companions, and would often lecture them, and look out for them, also displaying compassion, warmth and wit.

Although he did not like to be a dark, driven gamemaster like his previous incarnation, the Eighth would reluctantly embrace his calculating, ‘master manipulator’ tendencies in occasional circumstances, sacrificing Jan Rydd's life to defeat the Hoothi, however, he did feel emotional guilt about the situation.

The Doctor later became more mellow, relaxed, amenable and adventurous, with a kinder approach to how he handled situations, also developed a whimsical, oddball demeanor and a flippant sense of humour, that he sometimes used to cover up deep feelings of depression, shame and self-loathing resided within. Out of all the Doctors, he was arguably the most capable of flying the TARDIS, and usually managed to land where he wanted to go. After making contact with the ship's psyche, the Doctor was able to fully control his destination, with rare exceptions.

Physical Appearance

After regenerating, the Eighth Doctor appeared as a middle aged man of average height in his forties, looking older than his previous incarnation. (DW: Night Thoughts)

He was the most rotund of all his incarnations and while this effected his ability to run away from incoming threats, he was still able to hold his own in a sword fight. (DW: Knight Falls; MOV: Doctor Who)

Hair and grooming

After regenerating, the Eighth Doctor had short grey-white hair. While trapped in the TARDIS, he began growing a beard, (DW: The Enemy Within) which was due to his ongoing grief over Katie Tollinger's death. (DW: Transit) The Doctor allowed his beard to continue growing until his regeneration. (DW: The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Hatred of the Daleks)

Clothing

After looking through the TARDIS wardrobe, the Eighth Doctor settled on a red suit with a white shirt, a paisley red waistcoat, an orange paisley necktie and black shoes. (DW: Night Thoughts) The Doctor would also wear variants of his necktie, waistcoat and pullover and would often not wear his jacket. (DW: Night Thoughts, Return of the Living Dad; MOV: Doctor Who)

Due to the iron poison causing him to have poorer eye-sight, the Doctor chose to wear glasses after his adventure at the Scottish Mansion, the only Doctor to do so, choosing frames in the style of those from the 1980s and 90s. (DW: Night Thoughts)

Behind the Scenes

Personality Decisions

After Garwood cast Griffiths, he originally wanted the Doctor to go back to a grandfatherly figure. However Ben Aaronovitch painted the Doctor as a dark figure who did not clearly know right from wrong; Garwood fell in love with the idea and went with it.

Clothing Decisions

Originally, both Aaronovitch and Griffiths wanted the Doctor to wear a black velvet jacket with a blue dress shirt, black and purple polka dotted waistcoat and purple trousers to show both the darkness and eccentricity of his incarnation. Garwood eventually came up with the idea of the Doctor wearing a red business suit with a white shirt, red paisley waistcoat, a orange paisley necktie and black dress shoes.

Other Information

Miscellaneous

The Eighth Doctor is one of only three incarnations not to encounter the Master on-screen or have a Master focused story: the other two are the Twelfth Doctor and Thirteenth Doctor.
The Eighth Doctor is the only incarnation to wear glasses throughout every story of his tenure.
He is also the only incarnation to have permanent facial hair throughout most of his tenure.
The Eighth Doctor is tied with the Third and Ninth Doctors for the second longest run with five seasons, just behind the Fourth Doctor, who had seven seasons.
For the Nine Faces of Doctor Who repeat season, Richard Griffiths reprised his role as the Eighth Doctor for two short scenes where he briefly recapped the events of The Celestial Toymaker episodes 1-3 and The Tenth Planet Part Four.

List of Appearances

Doctor Who

Movies

Doctor Who

Footnotes

↑ Archive footage

[1] Archive footage

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