The eighth Doctor's era (1996-2005)

Paul McGann

• So Much More Than Just The TV Movie by Stephen Maslin

So Much More Than Just The TV Movie by Stephen Maslin 19/10/10

Here's an old chestnut: canon. What is or is not Doctor Who? Naturally, the TV stories are the backbone of any list (though Dimensions in Time is a moot point) but there is of course that annoying fifteen year gap. The Doctor never left us but the medium changed. After the 'classic' TV from 1963 to 1989 came the Virgin New Adventures book range, then the 1996 TV movie, then more books (the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures), then Big Finish's first four seasons of Eighth Doctor stories, then back to TV in 2005. To the alarm of Tom Baker fans, taking all these as canon, the Seventh and Eighth Doctors were thus incumbents for longer than any of the others, nine years apiece (as opposed to Tom Baker's seven, Jon Pertwee's five, David Tennant's four and so on). If TV appearances were the only relevant yardstick, then the Eighth Doctor would remain a very peripheral figure. But he wasn't. In the dark days after the TV movie, the image of the current Doctor, in all media, was that of Paul McGann: on the covers of original fiction, in DWM's comic strip, and latterly that gorgeous voice on audio.

What makes people reluctant to accord the Eighth Doctor a loftier status is the sad fact that the 1996 TV movie just wasn't any good. Shame, as many of the books and audios really are. One thing that made them so much better was a general acceptance that a return to TV was not coming any time soon. They were allowed to explore, without worrying how that exploration might upset the plans of television execs or Mary Whitehouse. Initially, however, the BBC books seemed to have gone for a far too generic companion in Sam Jones (her comic strip counterpart, Izzy, being far more believable) but with the introduction of Fitz (and later Anji and Trix) the TARDIS became a more compelling place to be. The audios went the opposite way, starting with the peerless Charlotte Elspeth Pollard, the quintessential Eighth Doctor companion, only to ruin the dynamic by adding C'rizz to the mix. Charley, like Fitz, added the extra fun of a having a non-contemporary British human, the world of the audience almost as strange as the worlds they visited. C'rizz added a lot of talk about alien lizard physiognimy. I shall leave you to pick which has the more dramatic potential.

There are three distinct periods when the Eighth Doctor was at the centre of sustained runs of really good stories: the Caught on Earth books of the second half of 2000, the books and audios of the first half of 2002 and a late flowering during the latter half of 2004. Elsewhere, the books were cursed with lengthy and uninteresting story arcs and the audios disappered for nearly 18 months in mid-2002 prior to a somewhat mixed return. Yet with each recovery of form there was still a great deal to say, the Eighth Doctor proving himself a very durable character (and an extremely likeable one).

Of the early books, Alien Bodies, Seeing I, The Janus Conjunction and Shadows of Avalon are classics, as are the first two stories of the Caught On Earth arc, The Burning and Casualties of War. As with those Seventh Doctor New Adventures that came after the TV movie, some of the finest EDAs came after the focus had perhaps shifted elsewhere (to having Paul McGann actually voicing the Doctor for Big Finish). EarthWorld, The City of the Dead, Anachrophobia and The Crooked World are four of the best Doctor Who novels ever written and though The Council of Eight arc leaves me cold (in fact, story arcs in general), four of the novels that follow, The Tommorow Windows, The Sleep of Reason, The Deadstone Memorial and To The Slaughter maintain an impressive level of quality (before The Gallifrey Chronicles ambiguously wrapped things up).

The problem with the books before 2001 was that the voice in one's head had to be based upon the TV movie, which wasn't much to go on, either quantitively or qualitively. It was Big Finish's audios that allowed McGann's distinctive interpretation to flourish. Suddenl, the current Doctor was right there in front of your ears. But Big Finish almost blew it. The first four stories were rushed, both in terms of writing and production; Storm Warning aside, they can hardly have convinced anyone that a run of Eighth Doctor audios would be a good idea. Thankfully, Season 2002 dramatically changed all that. Big Finish excelled themselves in every department: casting, sound design, music, scripts. Paul McGann finally was the Doctor. The six stories of Season 2002 are the pinnacle of Eighth Doctor stories in any media, though Season 2004 (Faith Stealer, The Last, Caerdroia and The Next Life) is not that far behind. Those that came after Eccleston's TV stories were in too much of a shadow to make any impact which, in the case of Other Lives and Memory Lane at least, is a great shame. But these are outside the Eighth Doctor era, as are the often-infuriating New Eighth Doctor Adventures.

The McGann moment that gave me more pleasure than any other was the audio release of Shada. (Forget the webcast. The images are rubbish and only serve to remind you that it's not proper telly. Close your eyes and use your imagination.) Part of the audio bunfest that accompanied the 40th anniversary year, Shada 2003 had the future and the past cosying up together in a sumptuous rendition of a Douglas Adams script that never got its due. Paul McGann and Lalla Ward have a great chemistry and carry off the action and the comedy gloriously. A joy, a perfect joy.

By the time Christopher Eccleston was on our screens, I had come to love the Eighth Doctor in a way that I'd never have thought possible back in 1996. The only unquestionable success of the TV movie was that Paul McGann was a superb bit of casting and I'm extremely grateful to the BBC, and particularly to Big Finish, for not letting his Doctor just disappear.