Eighth Doctor

Leading a life of great temporal complexity, the Eighth Doctor was so frequently involved in time paradoxes and parallel universes that it was impossible to know with certainty how the major epochs of his existence fitted together, complicated even further by his frequent bouts of amnesia and his claim of being half-human — though sources dispute if this was actually the case.
The Eighth Doctor was inherently a happy adventurer, falling in love with companions Grace Holloway and Charley Pollard, and was not averse to experiencing and appreciating very human emotions, from kissing Grace to providing psychological support for Izzy Sinclair. A playful man who wanted the universe to be a peaceful and beautiful place, even when met with disaster, he was not averse to cheekily giving people hints about their futures as he revelled in life and living, but his lifetime was equally defined by some of the nastiest circumstances possible, from him constantly being captured and tortured to witnessing many senseless deaths. In the later years of his life, he turned colder and angrier and less willing to take on companions when it became clear that a terrible tragedy was brewing in the universe.
== Biography ==
An optimist and romantic at his core, (TV: ) the Doctor tried to remain a cheerful and pacifistic adventurer in spite of a universe that grew ever increasingly hostile around him, (AUDIO: ) eventually culminating in the eruption of the Last Great Time War between the Time Lords and the Dalek Empire. (TV: ) Despite his efforts to avoid the conflict, (TV: ) the Doctor was often forced into involvement by outside intervention, (AUDIO: , , ) through he himself was adamant to keep his distance from the centre of the battle. (PROSE: )
After the end of the Time War, the Ninth Doctor emerged, (TV: ) and some sources and spectators indicated that the Eighth Doctor had regenerated directly into him. (PROSE: , ) However, a far greater number of sources suggested that the Eighth Doctor chose to regenerate, while abandoning his name, into the War Doctor when he succumbed to despair after failing to save a single life during the Time War. (TV: )
== Psychological profile ==
=== Personality ===
With an carefree exterior (PROSE: The Dying Days) and a belief that it was never too late, (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) the Eighth Doctor was an enthusiastic figure who explored the universe for the sheer love and experience of it, (COMIC: By Hook or By Crook; AUDIO: The Silver Turk) craving open spaces and natural things, such as trees, grass, birds and animals, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) and relishing in the unpredictability of his travels. (AUDIO: Echoes of Extinction) Thriving on the activity of righting wrongs, (COMIC: Descendance) and safe guarding the future, (COMIC: Coda) the Eighth Doctor was a direct, sympathetic and emotionally accessible individual, (PROSE: Vampire Science; COMIC: Beautiful Freak) but these traits were balanced by his occasional feelings of self-doubt and weariness of his endless battles to maintain order, (PROSE: Longest Day, Legacy of the Daleks, Interference: The Hour of the Geek; COMIC: Where Nobody Knows Your Name; AUDIO: Scherzo, To the Death) with the Doctor commenting to Fitz Kreiner that his travels had made him "appreciate the beauty and delicate sadness of the interconnectedness of all things." (PROSE: Dominion) While he did not object to being called British, (TV: ) the Doctor "consider[ed] [himself] primarily a citizen of the galaxy", (PROSE: Vanderdeken's Children) and believed that "nothing [was] alien" to a "citizen of the universe". (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress)
Not wanting to be "burdened by [his] past", (PROSE: Vampire Science) and believing it to be his job, (COMIC: The Road to Hell) the Doctor would always make an attempt to save a life if he could, (TV: ) believing that any life was worth saving, (PROSE: The Dying Days) even the life of his Imagineum doppelganger, (COMIC: Endgame) and even risked the Web of Time by warning his seventh incarnation about avoiding the events that would lead to his regeneration. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) He felt guilt when reflecting on the lives he had been forced to take, (PROSE: Revolution Man) and strove to compensate for the lives he had taken by saving just as many. (PROSE: Fallen Gods)
The Eighth Doctor was full of spirit and the joy of life, possessing the willpower to hold off a cyber-conversion on a mental plane, (COMIC: Dreadnought) make his body scream while his soul was in the psionic plane, (COMIC: Bad Blood) and was unable to surrender against the odds. (AUDIO: Neverland) He was also something of a thrill-seeker, hitting the fire alarm of the ITAR building simply to "liven things up" during his and Grace's escape, (TV: ) sneaking into the Gorolith's sphere after he pointed out that he didn't need too, (COMIC: Ophidius) enjoying the feeling of not knowing where the TARDIS had landed, (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) and once indulged in multiple adventures simultaneously for the sheer fun of it. (PROSE: The Wickerwork Man) 
Although full of spirit and humanity, the Eighth Doctor did have a dark side within him, especially when the forces of evil tried to unbalance the laws of the universe, but he still held on to his belief in mercy, offering to save the Bruce Master from the Eye of Harmony, even after he attacked him for killing Grace and Lee. (TV: ) However, he warned Ice Lord Artix that he was "very dangerous when roused", (COMIC: Ascendance) spoke in an icy tone when confronting Niroc about the Sixth Doctor's trial, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) and tried to strangle Qixotl in retaliation for past betrayals. (PROSE: Alien Bodies) He also gave a particularly violent punch to the face while denying their similarities during their duel for the Glory, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) became more abrupt and short-tempered after Izzy got kidnapped due to being in Destrii's body, (COMIC: Uroboros) and slaughtered an entire Cyber-Fleet with the power of the Time Vortex after they had angered him. (COMIC: The Flood) After Lucie's death, the Doctor took his frustration out on for his part in the tragedy, (AUDIO: To the Death) and later felt frustration at the Reborn Master for leaving the Ramossans to die at the hands of the Eminence, hitting the TARDIS in frustration and trying to avert the creation of the Eminence despite the Laws of Time. (AUDIO: The Reviled)
As a coping mechanism, (AUDIO: Zagreus) the Doctor would react to threats of death and torture with dark humour; mocking the Bruce Master's affection for Chang Lee while he was strapped to a gurney, (TV: ) calling the Cybermen unimaginative during their attempt to cyber-convert him, (COMIC: Dreadnought) getting sarcastically formal with the Dalek Supreme, (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone) jesting with Eric Rawden until he could no longer stand the interrogation, (AUDIO: Something Inside) bitterly asking his torturers for some more pain, (AUDIO: Memory Lane) cracking jokes when aboard a crashing spaceship with the Reborn Master, (AUDIO: Masterplan) and brashly listing hobbies he could indulge in after Ohila informed him he had four minutes left to live. (TV: The Night of the Doctor) The Ice Warriors believed he did so to "suppress his fear". (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars)
The Eighth Doctor was willing to help anyone he came across regardless of his connection to them, (AUDIO: Orbis, Prisoner of the Sun) and sacrifice himself for the sake of others, as his was the only life he felt he had the right to give, (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars) to the point that even his TARDIS began scolding him for it. (AUDIO: Zagreus) He told Grace to leave him at the Master's mercy so she could reroute the power of the TARDIS and close the Eye of Harmony, (TV: Doctor Who) ran back into Adisham to save its residents from the Red Death, (PROSE: The Dying Days) was going to kamikaze a helicopter to destroy Donald Stark, (COMIC: The Fallen) and was willing to surrender his life so the Cybermen would copy his regenerative pattern and abandon their invasion of Earth. (COMIC: The Flood)
In contrast to his scheming predecessor, the Eighth Doctor had little patience and could not stay on one train of thought for more than a few seconds, getting distracted by the comfort of his new shoes when recalling his childhood, (TV: Doctor Who) reading books too fast to realise what he was reading, (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) going days without eating due to his forgetfulness, (PROSE: Camera Obscura) and could easily begin rambling when in conversation, going into soliloquies without noticing. (PROSE: The Face-Eater; AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) He also bored of things easily, making an omelette for Anji Kapoor and then proclaiming to be bored with cooking before he could make another for anyone else. (PROSE: Timeless) Sam theorised that the Doctor took on companions because he "couldn't think in a straight line without [them]", (PROSE: Unnatural History) but he was able to make sound decisions when the need called for it, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) and was both aware and annoyed that he "[kept] missing the important bits". (PROSE: Placebo Effect)
Though he felt that talking helped him to concentrate, (AUDIO: Prisoner of the Sun) he would sometimes naively say and do things without taking the situation in, such as suddenly reaching into his pocket for a jelly baby in front of an armed motorcycle policeman, (TV: Doctor Who) unironically telling Detective Inspector Foster he was a Time Lord while being interrogated for drug possession, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) stopping to oink at pigs in the company of Inspector Bengt Nordenstam, (PROSE: Dominion) and almost ruining his cover story by pointing out the brilliance of his interrogator's deduction. (COMIC: The Road to Hell)
The Doctor's mental health was somewhat questionable; while he usually acted like an eccentric gentleman, he also had moments of certifiable insanity, with him describing himself as an "ethnomethodologist", (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) and Compassion noting that he was "prone to flights of fancy". (PROSE: Frontier Worlds) While he dismissed Julya's question of his madness as him being "very, very clever", (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction) he believed he "must be insane" when asked by Anji, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) and Fitz Kreiner worried that the Doctor was aware of his breakdowns, just unconcerned by them. Both the Doctor and Fitz shared a worrying moment when they realised the Doctor seemed to be "unbalanced" to the point of schizophrenia. (PROSE: The Slow Empire)
The Doctor was a fan of Marvel Comics' X-Men, (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) Transformers, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) model train sets, (PROSE: The City of the Dead) Thunderbirds (PROSE: Trading Futures) and Zap Daniel, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) but disliked Babylon 5 (PROSE: Escape Velocity) and the Aggrotron! comics. (AUDIO: Izzy's Story) He enjoyed reading Victorian literature, such as The Time Machine, (TV: Doctor Who) Sherlock Holmes novels, (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) The Strand magazine, (PROSE: Genocide) The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, (PROSE: Option Lock) and Cold Comfort Farm, (PROSE: All Flesh is Grass) and had a liking for the opera. (PROSE: Vampire Science, War of the Daleks, Longest Day, The Janus Conjunction, Demontage, Coldheart; COMIC: The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack)
He also liked solving mysteries, (COMIC: The Fallen) pigs, (PROSE: Dominion) trains, (PROSE: Endgame) butterflies, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) Orson Welles's films, (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars) Christmas, (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) bats, (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) parties, (AUDIO: Neverland) penguins, (AUDIO: The Next Life) dinosaurs, (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars) spiders, (AUDIO: Worldwide Web) and the smell of arriving on a "fresh new planet". (PROSE: Steps)
By his own admission, the Doctor had a "pink bunny slipper fetish", (PROSE: Grimm Reality) and enjoyed the dark, seeing it as "[enhancing] the mystery." (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) He also enjoyed Winnie the Pooh, with his favourite character being Tigger, (AUDIO: Caerdroia) but disliked cats so much that he removed one from the TARDIS on sight, (AUDIO: Nevermore) though did enjoy petting them. (PROSE: Vampire Science) Among his favourite times and places were late 19th century England, (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy) the city of Florence, (PROSE: Fear Itself) and Edward the Confessor's reign. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)
He hated "long goodbyes", (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) pastel colour schemes, (PROSE: Dominion) commercial airplanes, (PROSE: Unnatural History) getting pins and needles, (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) and rats. (PROSE: The Banquo Legacy) He also disliked "pointless things". (AUDIO: Lies in Ruins)
The Doctor "wouldn't have minded being a bus conductor", (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) and, when looking up at the sky, saw rocket trails and animal shapes in the clouds. (PROSE: Frontier Worlds) His lucky stars were a couple of red dwarves in Pavo. (PROSE: To the Slaughter) He prided himself on "being able to find a quick fix, [and] an easy solution to any problem", and would fall into despair when he couldn't help someone. (COMIC: The Way of All Flesh) The Doctor revelled in arriving on new worlds, thinking them as "fresh blank pages" that became his "stage". (POEM: Steps)
The Doctor enjoyed jelly babies, (TV: ) preferring them to Liquorice Allsorts, (PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows) with his favourite being the red ones. (AUDIO: Scaredy Cat) He also got very excited about 99 Flakes, (AUDIO: Memory Lane) cotton candy and chunky monkey ice cream. (AUDIO: Terror Firma) Being a vegetarian, (AUDIO: Relative Dimensions) he rarely touched meat, (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) but did like bacon sandwichs. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) He claimed apricot jam calmed him down. (COMIC: By Hook or By Crook)
He also liked turkish delights, (PROSE: Vampire Science) Darjeeling tea, dry-roasted gumblejack fritters, (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) chocolates with soft centres, (PROSE: Beltempest) ice cream, (PROSE: Unnatural History) walnut muffins, (COMIC: The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack) Manhattan cocktails, (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars) plum pudding, and custard. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) 
He favoured Custard Creams above all biscuits, (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial) and preferred tea to coffee, (PROSE: Dominion) specifically "hot, sweet tea", (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial) with lemon tea being his preference. (PROSE: Casualties of War) He also liked to have his tea with milk and either two sugars (PROSE: Thinking Warrior) or six sugars, (AUDIO: The Zygon Who Fell to Earth) but preferred it white without sugar. (AUDIO: The Eight Truths) He also enjoyed drinking ginger beer and lemonade, (PROSE: The Blue Angel, Parallel 59) but disliked tizer. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell)
The Eighth Doctor believed that "the universe [hung] [on] such a fragile thread of coincidences" that it was "useless to meddle with it", unless the meddler was a Time Lord, (TV: ) but he later confided in Grace that even he shouldn't meddle in the affairs of others, (COMIC: The Fallen) but maintained that it was good to change the universe for the better. (COMIC: Tales of the Dark Times) He also didn't believe in ghosts, (TV: ) coincidences, (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone) or curses. (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice) 
Though he would pray to "whatever gods he [had]" every day, (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) the Doctor didn't have a "faith", (PROSE: Placebo Effect) claimed not to understand the idea of gloating, (PROSE: History 101) and insisted he was psychologically incapable of experiencing survivor's guilt, (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) despite evidence to the contrary. (AUDIO: Hothouse) He though that honour was a matter of "recognising your mistakes and being aware that you [had] to fix them" regardless of the consequences. (COMIC: The Road to Hell)
He deemed "class war[s]" to be "stupid", (COMIC: Descendance) was a firm believer in manners, (PROSE: The Dying Days) thought that "pride and stupidity [were] indistinguishable", (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) tried to keep an open mind, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) didn't view himself as a family man, (AUDIO: Other Lives) claimed to hold a distain for clairvoyants (COMIC: Uroboros) and an admiration for "enquiring mind[s]", (COMIC: The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack) and hated being "cooped up in one place for so long", (PROSE: Unnatural History) such as when being locked up. (PROSE: EarthWorld) Towards the end of his life, he began to think that everything happened for a reason. (AUDIO: The Traitor)
He considered eight to be his "lucky number" (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) due to it becoming an infinity symbol when turned. (PROSE: The Knight, The Fool and The Dead) He was not against theft if he saw it in his power to return what he stole, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) but would avoid stealing if he thought it would cause more trouble than it would solve. (PROSE: Dominion)
Despite his enthusiasms, the Doctor had a fear of heights, (TV: ) hospitals, (PROSE: Kursaal, The Ancestor Cell) spiders, (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) and his TARDIS being shattered into a million shards. (AUDIO: Faith Stealer) He also disliked diving because he "[didn't] like the constriction of being cocooned in a diving suit." (PROSE: The Infinity Race) He could be deeply unnerved when imprisoned, (PROSE: Seeing I, Interference: The Hour of the Geek) and acknowledged that he was corruptible when he realised how much he wanted the Glory. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
Like his previous incarnations, the Eighth Doctor stood against wanton violence, (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) and was insistent on solving solutions in a peaceful manner, (PROSE: The Dying Days, Revolution Man; COMIC: Endgame) but knew that that would not be an option all the time, and was not above resulting to violence when needed, even attacking Kroton with lethal intend before he knew he was a sentient Cyberman, (COMIC: The Company of Thieves) and massacring some Torajenn during their attack on Coyoacan. (COMIC: The Way of All Flesh) He killed a pair of vampires, commentating on how melodramatic it was, aware that he couldn't try anything less fatal due to the vampires' strength and healing abilities. However, Romana II noted the regret in his eyes, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) and the Doctor later remarked that he killed them due to "[not] [knowing] [himself] well enough at the time" to know different. (PROSE: Vampire Science)
He later talked Anton la Serre into death for his part in the deaths on the Dreamstone Moon, (PROSE: Dreamstone Moon) and killed Ed Hill with a gun to prevent the imminent destruction of the Earth, and in part to save Fitz Kreiner from having to bear the responsibility of killing him. (PROSE: Revolution Man) When his memories were gone, he pushed murderer Roger Nepath to his death without remorse while Nepath pleaded for his life, (PROSE: The Burning) allowed a guard to be shot in his place, telepathically convinced his interrogator's heart to stop beating, (PROSE: Father Time) and killed Hilary Pink to save him from possession. (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) He didn't complain when he thought someone being attacked deserved the retribution, (COMIC: The Final Chapter) or hold any qualms about destroying a non-living entity. (COMIC: The Road to Hell)
While he sometimes "yearend" for the ability to "hit a rewind button" and fix the pain he had seen, the Doctor knew he couldn't undue the pains of the past, and that he had the accept time's impact as it "move[d] through [him]". (COMIC: Beautiful Freak)
In touch with his feminine side, the Doctor was sometimes called a "ponce," (PROSE: The Turing Test; AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks) or a "poof" on one occasion, (PROSE: Timeless) and had a maternal urge to see to it that everyone around him was well-fed, even carrying food around in his pockets to give to his companions on a moment's notice. (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) He often got teary-eyed around his adopted daughter, Miranda Dawkins. (PROSE: Father Time)
Though it was thought that he was trying to distract himself from its sudden loss, (PROSE: Coldheart) the Doctor allowed himself to become a darker and angrier person with the loss of his TARDIS in the dimensional barrier between Earth and Avalon, and his then reliance on Compassion as a means of travel, (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon) with Fitz noting the Doctor's tendency to throw himself into others' problems to avoid facing his own. (PROSE: The Space Age)
During his time stranded on Earth following Gallifrey's destruction, the Doctor fell into a deep state of depression due to his failure to get off the planet, (PROSE: Endgame) and often dreamt of his TARDIS, (PROSE: Father Time) though he reacted with terror when offered the chance to have his memories restored. (PROSE: Endgame) Throughout his time on Earth, the Doctor was unable to feel "at home", knowing that he didn't belong on the planet. (PROSE: Fear Itself) Once he adopted Miranda Dawkins, he decided to improve his situation in order to be able to provide for her, such as working as a business consultant and taking up beekeeping. (PROSE: Father Time) The Doctor would later realise his behaviour was similar to the symptoms of Albrecht's Ennui, (PROSE: The Book of the Still) and would come to look back on his time stranded with fondness, (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial) but did not wish to be stranded a second time. (PROSE: History 101) Once he was able to travel off Earth, the Doctor was keen to encounter "monsters" again. (PROSE: Vanishing Point)
After being able to leave Earth in his TARDIS, the Doctor became more open to violent acts, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps, Mad Dogs and Englishmen) and would have brief periodic spells of frailty. (PROSE: Grimm Reality) He felt he no longer had the right to interfere in the affairs of the universe due to him no longer having the authority of a Time Lord. Seeing it as the only way for him to continue righting wrongs, the Doctor decided to become "Earth's Champion" and planned to marry Juliette Vierge in a symbolic ceremony in which he would root himself on Earth, until Juliette was lured away by Sabbath Dei. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street)
After the loss of his second heart to Sabbath, the Doctor became an even darker, though more humane, person. (PROSE: Hope, Anachrophobia, History 101, Camera Obscura) He felt weaker on his feet, worried about his lifespan shortening, (PROSE: Hope) felt greater frailty, (PROSE: Anachrophobia) had chest pains when in close proximity to his severed heart, (PROSE: Anachrophobia, History 101) and panic attacks brought on by the single pulse in his body, but felt that the "hollow absence" was the worst of the side effects. (PROSE: Camera Obscura) He thought that losing his heart to Sabbath was his "biggest regret". (PROSE: Anachrophobia) Though he eventually regrew a second heart after Sabbath removed the original from himself, (PROSE: Camera Obscura, Time Zero) Fitz noticed that its long absence had left a change in the Doctor. (PROSE: Reckless Engineering)
After Miranda's death, (PROSE: Sometime Never...) the Doctor became angry at anything that reminded him of her, (PROSE: Halflife) but ultimately chose to move on for the sake of his adopted granddaughter, Zezanne. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)
Though he vowed that he would never travel alone again as he did not want to forget how precious life was after his predecessor's manipulative nature isolated him, (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars) after the deaths of his great-grandson, Alex Campbell, and his companions, Tamsin Drew and Lucie Miller, at the hands of the Daleks, the Doctor decided to travel on his own to limit the deaths that came in his wake. (AUDIO: To the Death) Lucie's death left the Doctor in such a state that he went to the end of the universe just to see what would happen. However, he started having hope again after meeting Molly O'Sullivan, (AUDIO: The Great War) not wanting her killing herself to stop the Daleks plan because he didn't want to lose anyone else to the Daleks, (AUDIO: X and the Daleks) though he did get annoyed when he found Molly squatting in his house. (AUDIO: The White Room) Even after he had been joined by Liv Chenka in his travels, (AUDIO: Time's Horizon) the Doctor greatly missed Molly when Narvin forced them apart. (AUDIO: A Life in the Day)
Towards the end of his life, the Doctor began to reminisce about his adventures with previous companions. (PROSE: The End; AUDIO: Mary's Story) He also developed an extreme distaste for war, (COMIC: Music of the Spherions) with River Song claiming that the outbreak of the Last Great Time War brought down his optimism and robbed him of the joy in his travels. (AUDIO: Lies in Ruins)
The Eighth Doctor remembered his first incarnation as a "fierce old man", his second incarnation as a "gentle little fellow who had sacrificed his own freedom so that others might be free", his third incarnation as an "elegant dandy struggling bitterly against the chains of his exile but unable to resist defending the planet that had become his prison", and his fourth incarnation as a "casual bohemian" who "dared to take on the evil that stalk[ed] the dark". (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
The Eighth Doctor had no love for the Third Doctor, describing him to Josie Day as having "no appreciation of art," and that he "spent all his time taking things apart and leaving bits lying about," concluding that Josie wouldn't like him. (COMIC: The Pictures of Josephine Day) However, he had a fondness for the Fourth Doctor, sharing a lot of his tastes in common, and the two got along easily, (AUDIO: The Light at the End) though he did not enjoy the idea of seeing his fourth incarnation when George Litefoot brought it up. (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) Also, while he found the Sixth Doctor obnoxious and embarrassing, he had a great deal of respect for him. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
He viewed his seventh incarnation as "terrible old duffer who wouldn't tell [anyone] what was going on, would shout [at] [someone] as soon as look at [them], would expect [his companions] to be quiet and do what [he] said, and be there to untie [him] in cellars and scream out when [they] saw danger heading [their] way". (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) He also distastefully looked at his immediate predecessor as being "a man with the master plan" working for the "greater good" under the belief of the ends justifying the means, unfavourably comparing him to in that regard. (AUDIO: The Resurrection of Mars)
When meeting his ninth, tenth and twelfth incarnations, the Eighth Doctor was pleased to see them acting "as childish as ever." (COMIC: The Lost Dimension)
The Doctor had "intrinsic faith" in his friends, (PROSE: The Blue Angel) and took their well-being as his primary concern, (COMIC: Perceptions) almost giving the TARDIS to the Cybermen to protect Stacy Townsend, (COMIC: Dreadnought) helping Izzy adjust to Destrii's body, (COMIC: Beautiful Freak) giving up the power of the Time Vortex the second he noticed Destrii needed his help to escape an exploding Cyber-ship, (COMIC: The Flood) and stealing the Master's TARDIS to save Liv Chenka and Molly O'Sullivan from the Dalek Time Controller at a Dalek retreat on the Eye of Orion. (AUDIO: Eye of Darkness) Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the Seventh Doctor, the Eighth Doctor did not order his companions around. (PROSE: Interference: The Hour of the Geek)
The Doctor still felt regret for giving Katarina hope after taking her away from her home, only for her to be killed shortly afterwards. (AUDIO: The Last) He also regretted his fourth incarnation's hesitation to avert the creation of the Daleks, and was adamant not to repeat the mistake with Martez's Mutant Daleks. (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks)
The Eighth Doctor showcased his love for humanity by admiring how they "always [saw] patterns in things that [weren't] there", (TV: Doctor Who) and how they were "one of the most adaptable, versatile, [and] adventurous species in the galaxy", (PROSE: Halflife) but also was aware that some were "barbarians" (PROSE: Dreamstone Moon) who "never lost their inability to learn from their mistakes", (PROSE: Halflife) degrading them for "heading towards [an Ice Warrior] ship like moths to the flame", (PROSE: The Dying Days) and found a police officer's refusal to believe him as "typical". (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game) 
Due to his regeneration "[shaking] up his molecules so comprehensively that certain aspects of his character had come to the fore that had previously been buried so deeply within him they had seemed virtually nonexistent", (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) the Eight Doctor was a romantic at heart, (TV: ) though he thought it an "unpleasant problem" to fall in love with humans. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) It was during his eighth incarnation that the Doctor began feeling a desire for romance — "the excitement of being close to someone, the need to exchange ideas on a more personal level, to be able to tell someone what you really believe". While he told I.M. Foreman it would be unfair to get sexually involved with his companions, (PROSE: Interference: The Hour of the Geek) the Doctor shared an experience with Bernice Summerfield, (AUDIO: Benny's Story) and also proclaimed his love for Charley Pollard, (AUDIO: Neverland) but when she tried to broach the subject, he claimed that it was merely an urge brought on by his belief that she was about to die. Although uncomfortable with Charley's "yearning" for him, the Doctor did later admit to loving her, but then told her that they couldn't pursue a romantic relationship, opting to remain friends instead. (AUDIO: Scherzo) For a time, Sam Jones had a crush on the Doctor, (PROSE: Longest Day, Dreamstone Moon, Seeing I) something that he was aware of. (PROSE: Placebo Effect) Alan Turing likewise developed feelings for the Doctor, (PROSE: The Turing Test) who would later recall being "more than friends" with Turing. (PROSE: The Domino Effect) During his time in 1951, the Doctor became to desire of Penny, a waitress at the Café des Artistes, with spy Guy Burgess also eyeing him up. (PROSE: Endgame) On one occasion, he was described by Daqar Keep as someone who used flattery to deceive. (AUDIO: The Next Life)
He also saw the Cybermen as "evil, rapacious creatures." (COMIC: Dreadnought) 
Viewing them as "the worst thing [one] [could] possibly imagine," the Doctor saw the Daleks as "cold, ruthless killers", (COMIC: Fire and Brimstone) believing that they "[had] no interest in anything but conquest and war," with "art, decoration, poetry, music all [being] irrelevant to them." He also had no qualms with killing Daleks with high frequency shock waves. (PROSE: War of the Daleks) His hatred of the Daleks escalated after they started to pursue him and Molly through time, (AUDIO: Fugitives) though he considered a war between the Daleks and the Time Lords to be a ridiculous thought. (AUDIO: Tangled Web) However, when he thought that the Eminence was a greater threat to the universe, he decided to ally himself with the Dalek Time Controller. (AUDIO: Eyes of the Master) After their alliance ended, (AUDIO: Time's Horizon) they resumed their animosity to each other, with the Doctor being particularly angry with the Time Controller's plans to make a New Dalek Paradigm from the artists of Montmartre. (AUDIO: The Monster of Montmartre)
Sam Jones described the Eighth Doctor as a "hero" who "never does anything wrong", (PROSE: Revolution Man) and Charley Pollard referred to him as "an unbelievable, impossible, marvellous man." (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard) While Lucie Miller originally took against him, describing him as a "patronising git," and a "spineless fish", (AUDIO: Blood of the Daleks, The Skull of Sobek) she claimed that the Eighth Doctor was "the best bloke [she'd] ever met" just before her death. (AUDIO: To the Death) The Doctor's first TARDIS described the Eighth Doctor as "the idealist". (AUDIO: Prisoners of Fate) While the called him a "dilettante fop", Jo Grant though the Eighth Doctor was "very dashing". (AUDIO: The Elixir of Doom) Destrii described the Eighth Doctor as "quite the package" due to him possessing "brains, buns and barrel-loads of bravado". (COMIC: Ophidius)
Jacob Hynes believed that, "despite his weird nineteenth-century costume, [the Doctor] had the air of a man from the Golden Age". (PROSE: Genocide) Upon staring into the Doctor's eyes, Daniel O'Ryan saw "the alienness of [the] so often warm and human-seeming [Doctor]." (PROSE: Dreamstone Moon) A Kulan assumed the Doctor to be "some sort of congenital idiot". (PROSE: Escape Velocity) When he had a tarot card reading, the Eighth Doctor was identified as "the Magician". (PROSE: The City of the Dead)
By his own admittance, the Doctor "mustn't" think about death, (PROSE: Longest Day) and wished to die alone. (AUDIO: Scherzo) Unafraid to die due to having "died many times before", the Doctor could think of no better epitaph than to have inspired others to hold back death and go forward in all their beliefs. (PROSE: The Dying Days) When faced with execution, the Doctor confided in Izzy that one of his few regrets was being unable to show her more of the universe's wonders. (COMIC: By Hook or By Crook) When he though he felt a regeneration coming, he likened the feeling to "a caterpillar wrapping itself in a chrysalis". (PROSE: Fear Itself)
When the Eighth Doctor met his demise, he had been thoroughly broken by the breakout of the Time War, to the point that he decided to remain onboard a crashing spaceship, pleading with Cass Fermazzi to put aside her hatred of the Time Lords for him to save her. When it ended in failure, the Doctor died in the crash, having lost the will to regenerate until the Sisterhood of Karn temporarily restored him to life. Though he continued to refuse joining the Time War, seeing Cass's lifeless body caused the Doctor to finally lose all hope, claim the deceased Cass's bandolier and abandon the title of "Doctor" with extreme disparity after being coaxed by Ohila to embrace his regeneration into a warrior, expressing bitter delight when informed the change would hurt him. (TV: The Night of the Doctor) Thinking back to times he was not alone to comfort himself, (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) the Doctor saluted his past companions, and apologised to Cass, before drinking the Elixir. (TV: )
In an account where he fought to the very end of the Time War, the Doctor was driven to destroy the Time Lords and the Daleks with the Moment, and feared he had "fixed" his existence by using the Moment, though was content to permanently die. As he found comfort in being in his "home" in the TARDIS, the Doctor found that the Restoration had reset his life-cycle, enabling him to regenerate. While he first thought that "last words [were] useless", as he began to regenerate, the Doctor spoke his final words aloud. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Time War)
=== Habits and quirks ===
The Eighth Doctor made a habit of randomly kissing or getting kissed by others, such as Grace Holloway, (TV: ) Bernice Summerfield, (PROSE: The Dying Days) Sam Jones, (PROSE: Longest Day, Seeing I) Fitz Kreiner, (PROSE: Dominion) Destrii, (COMIC: Uroboros, Sins of the Fathers) the Master-Maid, (PROSE: Grimm Reality) and Charley Pollard. (AUDIO: Scherzo) He also kissed Anji Kapoor when she and him were possessed by the spirits of Hanstrum and Elizabethan. (PROSE: EarthWorld) Much to Charley's annoyance, the Doctor himself had a penchant for platonically kissing people on the lips when excited. (AUDIO: Enemy Aliens)
Because he was a Time Lord, (PROSE: The Queen of Eros) the Doctor occasional had "flashes" of people's future, (PROSE: Dominion, The Shadows of Avalon) and made a habit of giving people hints about their future, while not expressing outright the nature of that future, (TV: ; PROSE: The Bodysnatchers, Option Lock, Placebo Effect, Timeless; AUDIO: The Stones of Venice) though he dropped this habit after Grace called him out on being cryptic about her future. (COMIC: The Fallen) He could also see into someone's past, at least in the case of Guy Adams. (PROSE: Timeless)
Often repeating himself due to his enthusiasms, (TV: ) the Eighth Doctor was unafraid to raise his voice when he needed to heard or was unable to contain his emotions, (TV: , ) though his voice would turn "icy" when he was taking authority over someone. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) He would often lean towards making a sarcastic quip, especially when in the company of Lucie Miller, leading her to nickname him "Sarcasmo". (AUDIO: The Vengeance of Morbius)
He would often utter, "blazes", when annoyed or surprised, (COMIC: The Fallen, The Company of Thieves, The Glorious Dead, Ophidius, Beautiful Freak, The Land of Happy Endings) and was known to say also "good grief". (PROSE: War of the Daleks, Interference: Shock Tactic, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street; COMIC: The Glorious Dead, The Way of All Flesh, Uroboros)
He would sing or hum to himself when travelling to a location, or to simply relax himself. (TV: ; PROSE: Vampire Science, The Bodysnatchers, Longest Day, The Scarlet Empress, The Janus Conjunction, The Fall of Yquatine, Coldheart)
Like many of his predecessors, the Doctor would often flick the long tails of his frock coat back and stand with his hands in his pockets, (TV: ; COMIC: Ascendance, Perceptions, Endgame, Fire and Brimstone, By Hook or By Crook, Tooth and Claw, The Final Chapter, The Fallen, The Road to Hell, TV Action!, The Glorious Dead, The Autonomy Bug, Ophidius, Beautiful Freak, Uroboros, Where Nobody Knows Your Name, Bad Blood, Sins of the Fathers, The Flood, The Body Politic; AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) or stand with his arms crossed behind his back. (COMIC: Endgame, The Keep, Tooth and Claw, The Road to Hell, The Company of Thieves) Like his first incarnation, the Eight Doctor was known to grasp the lapels of his frock coats. (COMIC: Ascendance, Coda, Endgame, Wormwood, The Fallen, The Body Politic; PROSE: The Dying Days, Beltempest, Interference: Shock Tactic)
Like his fourth incarnation, the Eighth Doctor could be pedantic at times, focusing on a minor annoyance when under a greater threat, (TV: ; PROSE: Dominion, The Taking of Planet 5; COMIC: TV Action!, Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game, The Power of Thoueris!, Briarwood) making a quip in the face of danger, (TV: ; PROSE: The Dying Days; COMIC: Endgame) or cracking jokes that unnerved those around him. (PROSE: Seeing I, Parallel 59) Also like the Fourth Doctor, the Eighth Doctor was known to clutter his pockets with random objects. (PROSE: The Dying Days, Alien Bodies, Kursaal, The Janus Conjunction, Coldheart, Dark Progeny, The City of the Dead, Hope, The Tomorrow Windows; AUDIO: Something Inside, The Girl Who Never Was)
He could be literal minded, (TV: ) and would often explain or answer a rhetorical question asked to him. (PROSE: The Dying Days, The Taint)
The Eighth Doctor regularly suffered with bouts of memory loss, either brought on by trauma, (TV: ; AUDIO: Minuet in Hell, Zagreus, The Girl Who Never Was, Orbis) forced on him by another, (PROSE: The Eight Doctors; AUDIO: Terror Firma, Something Inside, Master of the Daleks, One Life, In the Garden of Death, Darkness and Light) self-inflicted, (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell, The Gallifrey Chronicles) or brought on by natural circumstances. (AUDIO: Lost Property, Dreadshade)
=== Skills ===
The Eighth Doctor had a talent in pick-pocketing, (TV: ; PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks, The Scarlet Empress; COMIC: The Company of Thieves, The Way of All Flesh, The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack; AUDIO: Other Lives, The Monster of Montmartre) and claimed his skills were "well-honed" enough for him to know a fake jostle on contact. (COMIC: The Flood) He was also skilled at transmigration, (PROSE: Vampire Science, The Bodysnatchers, Demontage, Frontier Worlds, EarthWorld) lock picking, (PROSE: Unnatural History, The Crooked World) and hacking and code-breaking. (PROSE: Seeing I, Endgame; AUDIO: Wild Animals)
Like his predecessor's manipulative streak, the Eighth Doctor could convince others to follow his train of thought, such as convincing the Celestis that the Relic was a temporal paradox, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) haggling for a lower price of a dying begonia, (PROSE: The Taint) and tricking the Eminence into destroying itself. (AUDIO: Rule of the Eminence) He was also still skilled at chess, (PROSE: Father Time) but substituted his seventh incarnation's planning and foreword thinking with his great improvisation skills, (PROSE: Vampire Science, Legacy of the Daleks; COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game) being able to assess a situation and calculate a way around it with relative ease. (PROSE: The Dying Days)
While he mostly abandoned his predecessor's manipulative tendencies, (PROSE: The Threshold) the Doctor possessed the cunning to lead his foes into a battlefield of his choosing, tricking the Threshold into lowering their guard by letting them think he had regenerated by switching places with Shayde, (COMIC: Wormwood) turning Andrelina Hastoff's minions against each other with a few choice words, (COMIC: The Autonomy Bug) and stalling his execution by the Ophidians so a servicer drone he had left in the anti-gravity regulator could disable their ship and allow him to escape. (COMIC: Ophidius)
While fighting wasn't his "forte", (AUDIO: Worldwide Web) the Eighth Doctor was both a highly proficient swordsman and skilled in the art of Venusian aikido, (PROSE: The Glorious Dead) even using it on instinct when an amnesiac. (PROSE: The Burning, Endgame, Grimm Reality, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, The Book of the Still, The Gallifrey Chronicles) He was also able to restrain Homunculette with his finger, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) jump-kick an armoured guard through a broken window, (PROSE: Parallel 59) sword-fight across the omniverse at equal strength, (COMIC: The Glorious Dead) quickly overpower Destrii with Venusian aikido, (COMIC: Oblivion) and knock out North with a single jab to the face. (COMIC: The Flood) However, when he used Venusian aikido on C'rizz, he injured himself due to being "out of practice." (AUDIO: Faith Stealer)
He was also stronger than the average human, (PROSE: Endgame) being able to punch his way out of a morgue, (TV: Doctor Who) knock out two Zygons barehanded with ease, (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) throwing Axel out of a vehicle, (PROSE: Endgame) and lift a heavy lectern with ease. (PROSE: Sometime Never...) He once boasted the ability to "break a human in two". (PROSE: Demontage) He could also dress himself in record time. (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction, Unnatural History)
While initially he couldn't dance, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) the Doctor was fast and strong enough to break a man's ribs before he could react with a few punches, (PROSE: Endgame) and could use a gun to shoot his opponents' bullets out of the air. (PROSE: Grimm Reality, Trading Futures) He later learnt to dance. (PROSE: The Book of the Still)
He could read minds if he wanted to, (PROSE: The Book of the Still) being able to use post-hypnotic suggestion to calm Carolyn McConnell into sleeping, (PROSE: Vampire Science) render Rifaat unconscious with a touch, (PROSE: Seeing I) make telepathic contact with the Proximan group mind, (PROSE: The Face-Eater) and put Johann in a hypnotic trance, (PROSE: Dominion) but preferred to read expressions and body language to save time. (PROSE: The Book of the Still) Under "exceptional circumstances", the Doctor's brain could communicate via reduced-frequency alpha waves, (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction) and he could perform hypnosis, (AUDIO: Faith Stealer) being able to use a Red Indian hypnosis trick to stop Fitz feeling the pain of a broken wrist. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial) When subjected to a mind probe, the Doctor could use the procedure to read his interrogator's thoughts and memories. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game, The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack) The Doctor also had the ability to enter another being's mind, but his morality prevented him from doing so. (AUDIO: Caerdroia)
The Doctor was able to devise a cure for radiation sickness by studying the biology of a dead spider, (PROSE: The Janus Conjunction) perform an autopsy, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) knew the Heimlich manoeuvre, and could perform dentistry. (PROSE: Grimm Reality)
The Doctor could see in the dark better than humans, (PROSE: Vampire Science) tell the difference between human and Gallifreyan blood by smell, (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) detect subtle toxins, (PROSE: Vanderdeken's Children) smell pollutants in Earth's atmosphere, (PROSE: Dominion) see a force shield that was invisible to human eyes, (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) and identify human blood types by taste. (AUDIO: Absolution)
The Eighth Doctor could play the piano, (PROSE: Casualties of War) the violin, harpsichord, flute, transverse cello, harp, banjo, theremin, and wobbleboard. He could play anything composed by somebody else, but was unable to improvise his own music. (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) He could also sing opera. (PROSE: Vampire Science, The Scarlet Empress)
Possessing a liking for travel machines of all kinds, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) the Doctor showed great proficiency at commandeering transport, being able to drive a police motorcycle (TV: ) and a regular motorcycle, (PROSE: Revolution Man) singlehandedly pilot a Lockheed F-40 Stealth helicopter, (COMIC: The Fallen) drive a jeep, pilot an L5 and a B.E.2c plane, (PROSE: Autumn Mist; AUDIO: Fugitives) steal a space shuttle, (PROSE: Father Time) drive a motorbike with a sidecar, (PROSE: EarthWorld) drive a tractor, (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) fly a Mobox flyer, (COMIC: Uroboros) pilot a lifeboat, (PROSE: Rip Tide) commandeer a bus, (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game) and pilot and land an Overseer craft with no prior experience. (COMIC: The Body Politic) He could also ride a horse and a dragon unaided. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon; COMIC: Bad Blood)
The Doctor was also an accomplished chef, making cocoa for Benny and the Brigadier, (PROSE: The Dying Days) cooking an English breakfast on board Iris Wildthyme' bus, (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) stress-baking a Lady Baltimore cake with "very complicated icing", (PROSE: Camera Obscura) making a massive picnic for his friends, holding several dinner parties in his flat on Hitchemus, (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers) and cooked baked salmon with a classic English parsley sauce for the McKeown family. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial)
The Doctor could sing in Italian, and sing the Venusian lullaby, (PROSE: Vampire Science, Longest Day) speak Esperanto, (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks) Martian, (PROSE: Father Time) and Russian, (AUDIO: The Natural History of Fear) and sign in the language of the Delphon. (PROSE: Beltempest) He also claimed to be skilled in speaking the "local patter." (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars)
The Doctor could deduce his location by studying his surroundings, (AUDIO: Mary's Story) and how fast a spaceship was travelling by feeling its vibrations. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) He noticed that his body healed faster than his previous one. (AUDIO: Scaredy Cat)
Being a Time Lord, the Doctor could will his respiration, heartbeat, brain activity, lindal gland, and reflex response systems to shut down, though he would require a few days to fully recover to full strength afterwards. (PROSE: The Dying Days) He could also sense fissures in time, (AUDIO: Benny's Story) and will his hearts (AUDIO: Death in Blackpool) and even half of his body to shut down. (AUDIO: Nevermore)
He could imitate others' voices, (PROSE: Dominion, Father Time) juggle, (PROSE: EarthWorld) escape handcuffs with ease, (PROSE: Trading Futures) and stitch up his clothing. (PROSE: Fallen Gods)
The Doctor had an eidetic memory, (PROSE: Father Time) and was able to remember all the Liverpool F.C. strikers and goals from 1964-1965 and 2013-2014, (AUDIO: The Next Life) as well as the inspirational fifth victory of European Cup by Liverpool's football club in 2005. (AUDIO: Something Inside)
== Appearance ==
According to Grace Holloway, the Eighth Doctor looked like a man in his mid-thirties. (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) Bernice Summerfield thought "his long face was angular, with a jutting chin and aristocratic nose, but it was softened by a mass of dark brown hair that swept back down all the way from his high forehead to his broad shoulders". (PROSE: The Dying Days) He weighed approximately 180 pounds, (TV: ) and was ambidextrous. (PROSE: The Turing Test) It was claimed that he smelled of "sandalwood", (PROSE: Dominion) "old exitronic circuitry", (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5) and honey. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)
The Doctor had blue eyes after he regenerated. (TV: ) However, due to Faction Paradox interfering with the Doctor's biodata, his eye colour was changed to green, (PROSE: Alien Bodies) before reverting to blue after the majority of Faction Paradox was erased from the timeline. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell) During his travels with Mary Shelley, his eyes were ice blue, the left eye being slightly darker than the right. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk) When asked about where he came from, the Doctor's eye colour would change between grey and blue, (PROSE: Mad Dogs and Englishmen) and they sometimes appeared as brown. (COMIC: A Matter of Life and Death) When discussing it, Adrienne Kramer and Carolyn McConnell were unable to agree on what colour the Doctor's eye were. (PROSE: Vampire Science)
He once wore blue eye-shadow, (PROSE: Growing Higher) and had a tattoo of a man transforming into a jaguar. (PROSE: The City of the Dead)
As the Time War reached its height, the Doctor's face showed prominent crow's feet and some wrinkling as a result of his fatigue. (TV: )
Carolyn McConnell described the Eighth Doctor as "tall, dark, [and] handsome". (PROSE: Vampire Science) Coldicott, in comparisons to his other incarnations, described the Eighth Doctor as "the Young Edwardian version". (PROSE: Interference: Shock Tactic) Constance Clarke thought the Eighth Doctor was attractive. (AUDIO: The End of the Beginning)
The First Doctor described his eighth incarnation as the "younger, handsome one, with hair dangling to his shoulders". (PROSE: Five Card Draw)
=== Grooming and hair ===
The Doctor had long, wavy hair after his regeneration, (TV: ) but, after falling in the ocean at Dunkirk, he had his wavy hair cut short. (AUDIO: Fugitives) He grew it out so that he again had curls. (AUDIO: The Eleven, The Gift)
Towards the end of his life, the Doctor's hair started to go grey, (PROSE: Father Time, Not in My Back Yard, DS Al Fine) and, after cutting his hair again, (PROSE: Natural Regression) he had regained enough length to form messy curls drooping over his forehead. (TV: )
He grew a beard shortly before his wedding to Scarlette, (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) but later shaved it. (PROSE: Hope)
=== Clothing ===
==== Main attires ====
After walking around with a white sheet following his regeneration, the Doctor stole a Wild Bill Hickok costume from Ted Kriechel's locker at Walker General Hospital. Though he discarded the cap and gunbelt, he kept the double-breasted frock coat made from forest green velvet with peaked lapels, double breasted waistcoat of silver grey paisley with 10 gold buttons and a shawl collar, golden fob watch, white dress shirt with a high collar, battleship grey cravat with a bronze pin, and moss green trousers. After walking around the hospital barefoot, he was given a pair of black ankle boots by Grace Holloway that originally belonged to her ex-boyfriend, Brian. (TV: ) He also took to wearing question mark-fashioned boxer shorts, (PROSE: Seeing I; COMIC: The Glorious Dead) and would occasionally discard the cravat and leave his top buttons undone. (COMIC: Uroboros, Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game, The Land of Happy Endings) The Doctor had replacement jackets, (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers) made for him by a tailor on Savile Row in 1892. (PROSE: Genocide, Seeing I)
The Doctor varied the colour scheme of his costume, such as wearing a navy blue frock coat, a violet purple waistcoat, an indigo cravat, mauve trousers, (COMIC: Dreadnought) a plum purple cravat, (COMIC: Descendance) an amber cravat, a hunter green frock coat, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) an olive green frock coat, a cream waistcoat (COMIC: Ophidius) a gold cravat, an ochre yellow waistcoat, (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice) a lime green waistcoat, (AUDIO: Caerdroia) sapphire blue trousers, (AUDIO: Time Works) fern green trousers, (AUDIO: Absolution) a jade green waistcoat, (AUDIO: The Battle of Giant's Causeway) a burnt orange waistcoat, (AUDIO: Audacity) a burgundy cravat, and a maroon waistcoat. (AUDIO: Twenty-Four Doors in December) 
Immediately following the War in Heaven, the Doctor began to wear a shirt and trousers, but felt that they did not suit him, and soon changed back into his Wild Bill Hickok clothes. (PROSE: The Burning)
During his travels with Fitz and Trix, (PROSE: We Can't Stop What's Coming) the Doctor took on another outfit that was more rugged and unkempt than his Wild Bill outfit, (TV: ) which the War Doctor described as being "swashbuckling". (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) The look consisted of a double-breasted overcoat of moleskin with peaked lapels coloured in either bottle green (TV: ) or Prussian blue, (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) with a single-breasted waistcoat done in mustard yellow velvet, (COMIC: The Pictures of Josephine Day) wine brocade, (AUDIO: He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not) vermillion brocade, (AUDIO: Meanwhile, Elsewhere) or bronze brown brocade with a gold fob watch. (TV: ) In place of a cravat, he wore an ascot tie of dupioni done in flaxen yellow, (COMIC: The Pictures of Josephine Day) eggplant purple, (COMIC: A Matter of Life and Death) dark teal, (COMIC: The Lost Dimension) azure blue, (AUDIO: Cass) ebony black (AUDIO: Meanwhile, Elsewhere) or midnight blue. (TV: ) He left the points of the shirt's collar drooped across his shoulders as he left it open-necked and wore the ascot crookedly on his own naked neck. He also sported wrinkled tan trousers haphazardly secured by a slouching belt only buckled by an S-link chain, with a pair of caramel brown British Army Calvary boots with a set of matching leather gaiters strapped across his shins, all of which were loosely laced and knotted improperly. (TV: ) After a period of wearing his Wild Bill Hickok costume, (PROSE: Ghost of Christmas Past) the Doctor continued to wear his swashbuckling outfit throughout the Time War and to the end of his life, the clothes growing battered and frayed from action and abuse. (TV: )
After ruining his clothes during World War I, the Doctor began wearing an alabaster t-shirt under a double-breasted peacoat of navy blue leather with anchor symbols three golden buttons, with dark blue jeans and sandy-brown trainers. He also took to carrying a brown messenger bag, wearing the single strap over his left (AUDIO: Fugitives) or right shoulder. (AUDIO: The Eleven)
==== Other clothes ====
When bathing, the Doctor would wear a baggy, all-in-one, stripy outfit. (PROSE: Kursaal)
During his holidays, the Doctor wore long shorts and a straw cap in Egypt, (COMIC: The Power of Thoueris!) a black tie and top cap with his blue coat and yellow-grey double-breasted waistcoat in Victorian London, (COMIC: The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack) and a black leather duster coat, a cream neckerchief, with a stetson cap, boots and gloves in America. (COMIC: Bad Blood)
While in India, the Doctor wore a grey homburg cap with scarlet trousers, stout boots and a linen jacket. (PROSE: The Eye of the Tyger) While visiting a village on the Cornish coast in 2003, he dressed in a loose cotton shirt and trousers, with a floppy white sun-hat, but later changed into a white shirt and jeans. (PROSE: Rip Tide)
In New Orleans, he wore a dark shirt and trousers with a dove grey coat made out of an alien synthetic, (PROSE: The City of the Dead) and changed into a dark red coat and shorts whilst in Barcelona. (PROSE: History 101)
He also owned a black velvet coat (PROSE: Vanishing Point) that he won in a bet with a member of Faction Paradox. (PROSE: The Book of the War) He wore this coat with a green waistcoat and boots in Marpling in 1933. (PROSE: Eater of Wasps) After having his clothes ruined in the Slow Empire, the Doctor put on a dark suit and a greatcoat. (PROSE: The Slow Empire)
While forcibly recruited by Kim Philby in 1951 during his amnesic "exile", the Doctor wore an old brown corduroy suit, but soon changed into a brown checked sports jacket, grey flannel trousers and an old cloth cap, before again changing into a dark suit, white shirt and tie, with a bowler hat and an umbrella. (PROSE: Endgame)
When the Doctor first arrived on Hitchemus, he wore a dark brown frock coat with metallic green highlights, buff flannel trousers, low-heeled boots and a grey silk cravat. He later wore a loose white shirt over hemp trousers and a black waistcoat embroidered with orange designs. (PROSE: The Year of Intelligent Tigers)
While infiltrating Hulbert Logistics as a new member of the board, the Doctor wore a blue suit he found in a wardrobe. (AUDIO: Human Resources)
==== Hats ====
Occasionally, the Doctor wore a top hat, (COMIC: The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack; AUDIO: Other Lives) and, along with Fitz, once wore wide-brimmed hats. (PROSE: Camera Obscura)
When intending to travel to Egypt, the Doctor wore a fez so he could fit in with the locals. (COMIC: Doctor Who and the Nightmare Game)
== Mysteries and discrepancies ==
During the early hours of his life, the Eighth Doctor remarked that he was half-human on his mother's side, (TV: Doctor Who) a statement he would affirm several more times, (PROSE: Alien Bodies, The Infinity Doctors, Unnatural History, The Shadows of Avalon, Grimm Reality; COMIC: The Fallen) and reaffirmed by the Bruce Master when he saw the Doctor's retinal structure. (TV: Doctor Who)
Since his past was being rewritten simultaneously by the Faction Paradox, the Matrix Rassilon, the Enemy, (PROSE: Unnatural History) he had memories of both being loomed and having parents. (PROSE: The Shadows of Avalon, Autumn Mist) Patriarchal psychic river jellyfish-like creatures on the planet Hyspero once told him that he only thought he had a human mother, having actually been loomed in reality. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) Later, it was suggested the Doctor subconsciously made himself half-human in order to better experience life and reject the Seventh Doctor's role as Time's Champion. (PROSE: The Blue Angel) Changes made to his biodata such as this would have rewritten his history (PROSE: Unnatural History) Flavia mentioned the Eighth Doctor's heritage from "his mother's side" in her book Tales from the Matrix - True Stories from TARDIS Logs Retold for Time Tots. (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium)
According to one source, however, the Eighth Doctor had been made to believe he was half-human due to his previous incarnation using a Chameleon Arch for a plan to trick the Master. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
== Behind the scenes ==
=== Information from invalid sources ===
* In AHistory, Lance Parkin explained how a deleted line from his 2009 novel The Eyeless would have revealed that the Eighth Doctor was betrayed by his companions during the Last Great Time War, leading him to ending his life alone.
=== Casting ===
, who once expressed interest in playing the Fifth Doctor before having to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts, was the BBC's top choice to play the Eighth Doctor, had the show continued after 1989. He was later approached for the role of the Eighth Doctor in the TV movie, but was unavailable. Ian Richardson was also a popular choice for the Eighth Doctor, had the show continued after 1989. In the early 1990s, Verity Lambert was approached by the BBC to revive the series, with her choice for a new Doctor at the time being , but she eventually declined involvement.
, , , , , Michael Palin, and Jonathan Pryce were all considered for the role of the Eighth Doctor. Lindsay actually auditioned for the role, together with , Anthony Head, Tim McInnerny, , Liam Cunningham, and . came close to being cast and met with the approval of Fox and Universal but was vetoed by the BBC.http://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-the-eighth-doctor-casting-newsupdate/ Future Doctor actors Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi were offered the chance to audition for the role, but both declined.
=== Claim for the most prolific Doctor ===
Although the eighth incarnation has only appeared onscreen twice so far, he has appeared in more stories than any other Doctor , due to the fact that he was the de facto "current Doctor" from 1996 to 2005, and naturally became the focus of attention in all non-televised media, including a nine-year tenure as the star of the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, an eight-year 73-book novel series, and, beginning in 2001, regular releases from Big Finish Productions.
Indeed, the Big Finish situation was particularly favourable to McGann, as their license with the British Broadcasting Corporation at the time did not allow them to use any incarnations of the Doctor who originated from BBC Wales series. Consequently, McGann was their "current" Doctor, and effectively made the "first amongst equals," with his adventures treated as ongoing, and eventually giving him his own series. Unlike the other Doctors, most of his Big Finish releases were deliberately organised into "seasons" and his annual output was typically greater than that afforded to the others. 
His adventures with Lucie Miller received far greater exposure than any of Big Finish's prior output, due to the fact that they were commissioned by BBC Radio and employed Sheridan Smith, an actor who already had a following from her work in mainstream British comedy. Four series were made in all, with most stories eventually being broadcast on radio and the internet. Given that the web broadcasts were not ed, they had the potential to reach the most people worldwide of any performed Doctor Who adventures ever made.
=== Continuity across mediums ===
The Eighth Doctor's adventures after the TV movie took place across three different branches of media: comics in the form of the Doctor Who Magazine and Radio Times comic strips, prose in the form of a Virgin New Adventures novel, the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, a BBC Past Doctor Adventures novel, and audio adventures from the Big Finish series. The continuity between these three separate mediums, however, remains complicated to integrate.
The second BBC Books novel Vampire Science established that the Doctor left his companion, Sam Jones, at a rally for a few hours from her perspective while he travelled for approximately one year without her. The stories The Dying Days and the Radio Times comic strips were all referenced within the novels as taking place during this gap.
Big Finish Productions' Eighth Doctor stories, which were published after the start of the EDAs in 2001, initially made subtle references to the continuity of the books, including a reference in Minuet in Hell to a companion named Sam. This approach suddenly changed with Zagreus, which placed the other ranges in alternate universes, only converging with this one on occasion, and later going so far as to make the Minuet reference uncertain by retroactively inserting a new companion called Samson. However, later audios The Next Life and The Zygon Who Fell to Earth made references to the events of the DWM strips and the EDAs, respectively. 
The 2009 audio Mary's Story offered some detail on the extent of these convergences, depicting a "future" Eighth Doctor directly referring to comic strip and novel companions. Going through a list of his previous companions in chronological order, he places novel companions before audio ones. However, the comic strip companion Destrii was later mentioned separately to the others, still leaving the placement of the comic strips in relation to the EDAs uncertain. In addition, the anthology The Company of Friends contained the stories Fitz's Story and Izzy's Story, firmly establishing the books and comics as part of the same continuity as Big Finish's releases.
However, there are many cases where the significant contradictions in the Eighth Doctor's media were embraced by the continuity of the BBC Books. Throughout their encounters in the novels, Faction Paradox often altered the Doctor's history, or at the very least his perception of it. Lance Parkin's The Infinity Doctors, while supposedly set in an alternate universe, featured many important lore connections with the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, subtly proving Omega's belief in the novel that contradictions and alternate timelines still coexisted with their opposites and melded together in a single universe. Kate Orman and Jon Blum's Unnatural History, a spiritual successor to Parkin's novel, showed that all of the Doctor's conflicting origins and adventures exist in differing degrees of temporary priority within strands of his biodata. In Lance Parkin's The Gallifrey Chronicles, the Time Lord Marnal established that the Eighth Doctor's life was so tangled due to paradox and temporal manipulations that no one could make sense of it. Many of these stories, intentionally or not, managed to make the concept of the Eighth Doctor's inherent media contradictions part of his narrative.
=== Other matters ===
* Many authors for the BBC Books lent a degree of ambiguous sexuality and gender to the Eighth Doctor in the themes and implications of their writing, adding an element of the character unique to the novels. The Doctor's relationships with Alan Turing in Paul Leonard's The Turing Test and Karl Sadeghi in Kate Orman's The Year of Intelligent Tigers are implied to be deeper than platonic friendships, and many novels imply (but never explicitly state) something deeper in his relationship with Fitz Kreiner. Regarding gender, Jim Mortimore's Beltempest and Paul Magrs' The Scarlet Empress both assert that the Doctor was "not a man." Lawrence Miles' duology of Interference - Book One and Interference - Book Two showed the Doctor blatantly denying a cisgender male identity.
* An actor called David Burton claimed to have been filmed as "the Eighth Doctor" in one company's own version of the Doctor Who show in 1988. The pilot episode was allegedly called Doctor Who and the Monsters of Ness. (DWM 209) According to David Burton, his version of the Doctor was similar to the First Doctor and the show was more of a children's programme. The pilot episode was sent to the BBC but Burton was never officially confirmed as the new Doctor by the BBC.
== External links ==
== Footnotes ==
 
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