So what was the Eighth Doctor really like?

[Cutter John]

Okay I admit I've never really really gotten into any of the original DW novels or audio adventures, so besides the TVM, I've never really experienced any of Eights stories. So what sort of personality did he end up with once he settled down. Any really wierd mannerisms or personality quirks?

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Not read any 8th Doctor books, but in the audios he's infectiously cheery, mainly. Every new experience exciting him, every little discovery making him giddy. His companion Charley once likened him to Peter Pan, calling him the little boy who never grew up. Charley herself has a strong Alice in Wonderland vibe to her.

 

[captcalhoun]

well, i'm damn sure he didn't keep suffering amnesia all the time...

 

[Brendan Moody]

well, i'm damn sure he didn't keep suffering amnesia all the time...

Only six more times after the movie!

(The Eight Doctors, The Ancestor Cell, Halflife, "Minuet in Hell," "Terror Firma," and "Orbis." And there may be some I've missed...)

The eighth Doctor in the books starts off a lot like the one in the audios- that wild childlike enthusiasm for everything, in contrast to the seventh Doctor's world-weary age. Later on, as a traumatic backstory develops, there's also some of the lonely god/mythic figure stuff that the new series has explored, bringing in the contrast between archetypal power and joyful exuberance.

 

[Stevil2001]

Not read any 8th Doctor books, but in the audios he's infectiously cheery, mainly. Every new experience exciting him, every little discovery making him giddy. His companion Charley once likened him to Peter Pan, calling him the little boy who never grew up. Charley herself has a strong Alice in Wonderland vibe to her.

He gets pretty morose and taciturn in some of the later audios, though, once he's been exiled to the Divergent Universe. But he soon brightens up again, but never quite to his Storm Warning/Seasons of Fear levels of excitement, I don't think. He's a little more subdued in the Lucie audios, for that matter.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I always imagined the Eighth Doctor to be a lot like the Fourth Doctor, but perhaps a bit more suave...

 

[FlyingLemons]

Quite a lot of stuff goes on in the novels, but generally he's a bit darker than the films due to a variety of things...

Spoiler: confusing canon

He gets his heart taken out leaving him with one heart for a bit, loses the Tardis for a while and his memory getting stuck on past Earth due to events concerning the destruction of Gallifrey, but NOT in the series Time War but a different War caused by Faction Paradox who may actually be lead by the future Doctor, thus causing a canon mismatch between the 2005 series and the novels, however I suppose it could have been restored and destroyed again... Trek XI has nothing on canon violation compared to Who...

 

[The]

Spoiler: confusing canon

He gets his heart taken out leaving him with one heart for a bit, loses the Tardis for a while and his memory getting stuck on past Earth due to events concerning the destruction of Gallifrey, but NOT in the series Time War but a different War caused by Faction Paradox who may actually be lead by the future Doctor, thus causing a canon mismatch between the 2005 series and the novels, however I suppose it could have been restored and destroyed again... Trek XI has nothing on canon violation compared to Who...

That's because the books aren't considered canon, really. Just what airs on the screen...

 

[Stevil2001]

Quite a lot of stuff goes on in the novels, but generally he's a bit darker than the films due to a variety of things...

Spoiler: confusing canon

He gets his heart taken out leaving him with one heart for a bit, loses the Tardis for a while and his memory getting stuck on past Earth due to events concerning the destruction of Gallifrey, but NOT in the series Time War but a different War caused by Faction Paradox who may actually be lead by the future Doctor, thus causing a canon mismatch between the 2005 series and the novels, however I suppose it could have been restored and destroyed again... Trek XI has nothing on canon violation compared to Who...

Spoiler: The Gallifrey Chronicles

The Gallifrey Chronicles pretty obviously sets up a return for Gallifrey and the Time Lords. It is a bit crappy that it gets rebuilt and then destroyed, though...

 

[FlyingLemons]

I'm not entirely sure about the canonicity of the books in relation to the series. I would just dismiss it out of hand, but then various episodes of the series refer to elements of the novels (some crappy prison planet, for instance) so it's kind of a grey area.

Who canon is some of the murkiest and most inconsistent in the world of sci-fi, anyway, so I don't really let it bother me that much.

 

[The]

Yeah, agreed. If it helps, just accept the book bits that the show touches on, and toss the rest until it's included...

 

[Stevil2001]

Why?

 

[The]

Why not?

 

[Stevil2001]

I was primarily being flippant; this ehn't a debate I feel any need to get drawn into yet again. Especially not in a thread that was obviously designed to be accepting of so-called "extracanonical" sources.

 

[The]

Wasn't looking for a debate or anything. Just an opinion.

Personally, I'll take the audios quicker than any of the novels. Primarily because by at least using Paul McGann's voice, it's closer to an episode of the series rather than an obscure novel.

Luckily, with episodes like Human Nature, the genius parts of the novels are brought in, leaving what doesn't fit out. I pretty much keep this as a baseline rule, since the aired episodes are all that really matters in the mythology of the show. If that mythology wants to incorporate fragments of alternative media, then those fragments are accepted as canon, as well. As I said in another thread, I'm a bit of a "purist"...