Eighth Doctor Adventures/Characters

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The Eighth Doctor

https://web.archive.org/web/20130524165027/http://www.redscharlach.co.uk/ Electrical currents short-circuit. Evil masterminds make foolish errors. If you fall out of a window, there’s something to catch you. If you’re drowning, a spar floats by. You find your way unsinged out of burning houses[...] In short, in your presence, the odds collapse."}}

• Bunny Ears Lawyer: This is the Doctor we're talking about. He's a bit crazy, but he gets the job done.
• Cloudcuckoolander: "So that's what he keeps us around for, [Sam] thought, blowing out a long cloud of smoke. He can't think in a straight line without us."
• Combat Pragmatist: He once stuck his fingers up an opponent's nose.
• Creepy Good: Sometimes. Anji occasionally has an Uncanny Valley reaction to him, particularly in Camera Obscura when he faints and she notices that his "muscular-skeletal frame" is unnaturally flexible. Also, his emotional responses are often a little bit off -- he's sometimes not upset by things that upset everybody else, and even when he is upset he tends not to show it. And there's the Stealth Hi Bye thing he often does, and he didn't have a shadow for a while... he even kept a couple of pet bats in the TARDIS at the beginning of the series, one of which almost scares the crap out of someone in Vampire Science.
• The Dandy: Subverted: he dresses like Oscar Wilde on his way to a wedding and is often actually described as dandyish, but seems not to actually take much of an interest in his physical appearance: his hair is usually wild and messy, he doesn't give a damn for the effects going through hell and high water would have on all that fancy velvet and silk he wears, and he has to take others' word for it that he's good-looking, because he doesn't personally notice or care apart from having a vague sense that maybe he should be able to charm people into doing things for him.
• Darker and Edgier
• Deadpan Snarker: Every now and then.
• Ditzy Genius: He understands time travel just fine, but time zones are beyond him. He commits major displays of absentmindedness on what must be an almost daily basis.
• Elegant Classical Musician: He's apparently particularly good-looking when he plays the violin.

The Doctor was standing with his eyes closed, absolutely absorbed in his playing. He looked every inch the devil's fiddler, thought Karl — his slender body carelessly slouching, long fingers flashing, aristocratic face taut with concentration, long copper-gold hair flying. His audience's appreciation was more than musical.

• Forgets to Eat: In Camera Obscura, Anji has to remind him:

‘Do you want some food? You haven’t eaten in days.’ ‘That’s right,’ he said wonderingly, as if she’d made a point that hadn’t occurred to him. ‘You know, I bet that’s one reason I feel so bad.’

• Geek: While on Earth, the Doctor became a fan of Transformers. No, really.

"Someone," Compassion said, "has been watching too much Saturday-morning TV." "There was a time when it always seemed to be Saturday when I was on Earth, and the children's programmes were excellent, if my memory doesn't cheat." He made folding motions with his hand and muttered something that sounded to Fitz like "robots in disguise". The Doctor grinned, disarmingly.

• • As well as comic books:

The Doctor had sat on the high-backed chair with his feet on the console, idly flipping through Marvel Comics. It turned out he was a big X-Men fan.

• • And, of all things, model trains:

(Anji has just found a box of model train things) Though she had hurriedly, if somewhat guiltily, hidden this even further back in the cupboard, she suspected it was only a matter of time until the morning arrived when she couldn't cross the console room without having to step over miniature tracks and leap tiny buildings.

• Gentleman and a Scholar: He has certain gaps in his understanding of human social skills, but he manages to be very polite despite stumbling on a few of the finer points. If he drops the politeness, it's generally well-deserved, whether because someone's genuinely malevolent or just an asshole. (And he's sometimes rude to Fitz, but it's in more of a fraternal way than a mean-spirited way.) And, of course, his appearance and intellect also match the Trope to a tee.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: He gets injured in almost every single book, usually multiple times. He's been shot, stabbed, squished flat, beaten almost to a bloody pulp, etc., and unless he's been Brought Down to Normal it rarely takes more than a couple days for him to heal. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he tends to take advantage of this fact by treating his own body as a meat shield, doing irresponsible and foolhardy things while bleeding all over the place, and just outright acting like a masochist.

He placed his foot on the Doctor's injured leg. The Doctor gasped. "How long until this heals? A few days? A few hours? Twenty minutes?[...]" "Well, you're right of course," said the Doctor tightly. "And since it heals so quickly, why not do this?" Teeth clenched, he began to wrench his leg free. There was a nasty, tearing, butcher's-shop sound.

• Gorgeous Period Dress
• Idiot Hero: This merits a mention although it's not strictly true. Some fans have referred to him as "the congenital idiot", or "the congenial idiot". He gives the impression of having less Obfuscating Stupidity and more genuine, guileless foolishness than most Doctors, but he is regularly shown to actually have brains he just doesn't always use.
• Innocent Fanservice Guy: He seems to consider life clothing-optional, although recognizes that the preference is for clothing. Good thing he's attractive.
• Kaleidoscope Eyes: Usually blue (sometimes described as Icy Blue Eyes), but sometimes Gray Eyes or green. Depending on the Writer and his own mercurial personality, a lot of the associated characteristics of each eye color apply.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Suggested that it might be justified by the fact that when he starts to get his memory back, he still finds it useful to pick and choose the things he lets people find out he remembers.
• The Mentally Disturbed: His mental health is somewhat variable. He's usually sort of a high-functioning Cloudcuckoolander, but he has moments of being certifiably insane. The Slow Empire plays this for fairly dark humor and mentions that after developing Trauma-Induced Amnesia, he occasionally couldn't distinguish between TV and reality, and so had attacks of being able to be Driven to Suicide by the utter depressingness of Eastenders , and due to watching Superman he got some odd ideas about disguises and "the relative position of the trousers and underpants". He also seems to think that someone who was having a nosebleed four days ago may still need a handkerchief. He even had what may have been a momentary Axe Crazy blackout in City of the Dead. In The Blue Angel he has an alternate self who apparently suffers from schizophrenia, completely averting Funny Schizophrenia; it's reasonably understated and not Played for Laughs at all.
  • The Mad Hatter: In Eater of Wasps, Anji asks him rhetorically if he's insane. He replies that he "must be". However, he seems to go back and forth on this.
• Muscles Are Meaningless: Bony fingers, all the better to stab you with. He doesn't even blink at Bridal Carrying grown men such as Fitz.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Even worse than other Doctors.
• No Social Skills: He clearly has them; he's often very polite and charming, and often uses social engineering to achieve his goals. It's just that there are certain gaps in his social skills and times when he just doesn't feel the need to use them. Almost every conversation he has has some element of weirdness in it, he's occasionally Sarcasm Blind, and he sometimes hurts people's feelings by mistake or has inappropriate reactions to things that shock everyone else. Most people are shocked if they find a dead body, even if it's no one they know; he's just pleased to have a mystery to solve.
• Playful Hacker: Particularly in Seeing I. Apparently he's even better with computers than you might expect, and uses his skills to distract a Mega Corp while he uses its information to search for Sam. Aside from making it appear that employees are being laid off at an astonishing rate, he also assigns one of the executives to read one of his friend Benny's books, and orders a bunch of sandwiches for a non-existent seminar. One of the employees suggests it might be a "weird prank", and another says, "It’s like a huge kid has broken into IXNet."
• Political Stereotype: It's occasionally suggested his political beliefs are a bit out there in some ways, although they're never firmly defined and rarely taken seriously. He gets offended at being called a "plutocrat" and claims to be "probably the least plutocratic person you are likely to meet" at one point, is accused of being a "libertarian" at another, and the beginning of Revolution Man vaguely implies some Marxist leanings.
• Rail Enthusiast: He doesn't seem to be all that interested in actual trains, but he owns a model train set, and he's quite pleased to get the opportunity to drive a tractor and a double-decker bus.
• Real Men Get Basically Pulverized In Several Nasty Ways
• Real Men Wear Pink: It's hardly even a "real men" thing at times; Anji apparently thinks of him as effectively almost a girl.
• Super Strength: A fairly low-key case. It's clear that he's stronger than he looks and can do things most humans can't, but just how strong is never really explored, and he very rarely uses it.
• Team Chef: Very much so. While Fitz is also said to be a competent cook, it seems the Doctor's an accomplished chef. In Camera Obscura, he stress-bakes a Lady Baltimore cake, although he just worries more because of its "very complicated icing"; in The Year of Intelligent Tigers, he makes a massive picnic for his friends and is said to hold several dinner parties in his flat; his Alternate Universe counterpart in The Blue Angel also makes a large meal for his visitors and frets over ruining the potatoes. Mind you, this doesn't include small moments when he happens to just carry food with him (apples, bits of candy, etc.) to give his companions on a moment's notice.
  • Through His Stomach: That said, the Doctor only seems to cook for his Nakama and people he cares about. In Timeless, he makes Anji a very nice omelette but immediately after won't do the same for the current One-Shot Character, claiming to be bored with cooking.
• Telepathy: He sometimes responds to things his companions are only thinking, or seems to. It doesn't seem to have any more practical applications than making everyone a little unsettled.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Which he never quite gets over.
• Unskilled but Strong: Actually, this is pretty much how he fights. Maybe because he doesn't like to fight, he doesn't even seem to really know how. However, he's really quite disproportionately tough. In To the Slaughter, he lifts a woman in an office chair over his head. In Frontier Worlds, he kicks someone in the head and stubs his toe quite badly.

Samantha "Sam" Jones

https://web.archive.org/web/20130524165027/http://www.redscharlach.co.uk/ a posturing ham like Sabbath. If he pulls that sinister, mysterious act on me again –}}

• Laser Guided Tykebomb
• Made of Iron: After deciding that the whole transplant-the-Doctor's-heart-to-himself plan wasn't such a good idea after all, he rips the Doctor's heart back out of his chest while standing up, then makes a dramatic exit while carrying his deceased Morality Pet.
• The Man Behind the Man: It's revealed that he's acting on someone else's orders.
• Manipulative Bastard: He enjoys it, too.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: He's often very well-dressed (i.e., "a beautifully tailored dark suit"), although he sometimes wears a military-style coat which is big even on him and which he feels the need to justify by saying he wears it "in a spirit of irony".
• Morality Pet: He runs through them pretty fast, though.
• Not So Different: The main difference between them, morality-wise, is that the Doctor feels more remorse when he has to Shoot the Dog or do anything else dubiously moral, and when he doesn't it's because of his Blue and Orange Morality tendencies. But Sabbath is only slightly more likely to think the ends justify the manipulative or murderous means.
• Not So Above It All: Apparently, he's seen The Wizard of Oz. Well, it's clearly relevant to his interests, what with the monkey henchmen.
• Offscreen Villain Dark Matter: Hand Waved: he's not wealthy, but he's resourceful. And his bosses probably pay him. He also might be using Time Travel for Fun and Profit. Anyway, he somehow manages to get a Big Fancy House in the Victorian era (while the protagonists have to settle for subletting Sherlock Holmes' flat), apparently just because a classy villain has to have his creature comforts.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: There are a lot of these, aren't there?
• Oxbridge: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street mentions both that he went to Cambridge and has him participating in what's apparently a fine old Cambridge tradition of party-crashing in a gorilla costume. Except he was invited. But he still had to be an enigmatic, incognito jerk.
• Pet the Dog: In both The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and Camera Obscura, he has a Little Miss Badass as a Sidekick, and seems to care about them quite a bit. Also, he becomes more likable as he and the Doctor become more like Friendly Enemies, and his civility towards Anji demonstrates that he has good taste.
• The Quiet One: Relative to the Doctor, at least, and the Doctor tends to get kind of grabby to get his attention when he seems to have decided to let the Doctor's Motor Mouth run out of fuel on its own:

"What the wraiths were warning you about," Anji chipped in when it became apparent Sabbath still wasn’t speaking. The Doctor waved a hand in front of Sabbath’s eyes as if to break a trance.

• Staying Alive: Once or twice, just enough to elicit grumblings from the audience about how much of a Master-expy he is.
• Steampunk: He built a time-traveling boat sort of thing in the 18th century. It's about as good at clanking and steaming as it is at time-traveling.
• The Stoic
• Stout Strength
• Sue Donym: Close enough, anyway: almost all his aliases are terrible, obvious, and related to his usual pseudonym, such as Holiday, Mistletoe, and Mr. G.K. Thursday (the Genius Bonus just makes it worse).
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Except not really.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Justified: they're not idiots, they're apes, and it wasn't his idea to hire them.
• Übermensch: He certainly seems to be aiming for this trope, in a less mindlessly destructive way than the typical villainous Nietzsche Wannabe. He's surprisingly charismatic, considers himself Above Good and Evil, and thinks the Doctor is old-fashioned for having a strong moral code. In The Domino Effect, he gives quite a lecture about how the Doctor's values and the Doctor himself are hopelessly outdated:

‘You think of yourself as Time’s Champion, Doctor. You believe everyone should subscribe to your cosy, libertarian values. [...] The universe would be a nice, safe place if only everyone followed your proper, civilised code of conduct. [...] You couldn’t be more wrong. Everything you believe is a lie. You’re an anachronism, a leftover from a previous reality – I see that now[...] You don’t hold the solution to anything any more – you’re part of the problem. The sooner you step aside, the better for all concerned. A new history is coming!’

• The Unfettered: Yeah, we've kind of gone over this already. He's pretty clearly against taking pointless immoral actions, but morality isn't going to stop him achieving his goals. His morality contrasts with his conduct; he's much more straitlaced than the Doctor, who likes bothering him with immature humor.
• Unwitting Pawn
• Wicked Cultured
• Wild Card:

Anji: So, Sabbath will be up to another of his dopy schemes, desperate to ally himself with the next nasty to come slinking out of the vortex with a bunch of hollow promises.

Faction Paradox

Essentially a cult of Time Lords devoted to causing temporal paradoxes through voodoo. Following the events of their final encounter with the Eighth Doctor, they now exist in a separate timeline. They also fought Sutekh.

• Cult: Albeit one powerful enough to eventually invade Gallifrey. Successfully.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Compare the Faction Paradox of the earlier Eighth Doctor and stand-alone novels to the Gallifrey- and time-destroying Complete Monsters in The Ancestor Cell. They barely seem like the same organisation.
• Hollywood Voodoo
• Mind Screw: They were created by, and largely written by, Lawrence Miles, so this is only to be expected.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Did we mention they wear black robes and animal skulls?
• Powers as Programs: A strange sort-of-inversion in that the Faction makes extensive use of biodata (the importance of which was established in The Deadly Assassin) in the "rituals" that fuel their technology.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Their armor is carved from the bones of impossible creatures, as seen here.
• Timey-Wimey Ball: They're doing their best to smash it into little bits.

Beatrice "Trix" MacMillan

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A rather mysterious young woman who comes from sometime after the 21st Century and used to work for the villain. (It doesn't stop her making fun of him, though.) Talented at disguising herself and had a rather entertaining habit of appearing in disguise before she was officially introduced. Her first book is Time Zero.

• A-Cup Angst: It's not a very prominent trait, but she does on occasion bemoan her lack of anything resembling cleavage.
• Ambiguously Human: She claims to much older than she looks and from a reality without humans, and it sounds almost plausible. Then she adds that her kind ate all the humans and she's had her flesh-devouring jaws surgically reduced, and it starts to sound like she's just lying her head off.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: She has a notoriously short attention span, and the Doctor becomes resigned to the uselessness of telling her to not wander off. She once ate most of a box of chocolates because she said chocolate helps her concentrate, and after eating them said she couldn't concentrate because of all the caffeine.
• Broken Bird
• Character Name Alias: The name she goes by is almost certainly not her real name, and it's surprisingly close to Tricia McMillan.
• Femme Fatale: Not as much as some examples, but she's sort of mildly antagonistic when first introduced, she's far from trustworthy, her alignment can generally be best described as Chaotic Selfish, and she gets Fitz wrapped around her little finger (although she scares him on occasion). And she enjoys dressing glamourously (often in black) as often as possible.
• Green Eyes: Her green eyes are often described as "catlike", and she's a rather untrustworthy Tsundere.
• Heel Face Turn
• The Hedonist: For her, saving the universe is almost as important as money, clothes, and chocolate.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Master of Disguise: Usually with a dose of Wig, Dress, Accent.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: She's a cute, quirky, mysterious, larcenous young woman who falls in love with Fitz because he's dependable. But despite being a bit of an Every Man, he's also already quirky and adventurous and, unlike her, has his life together about as well as can be expected. In short, it looks like the normal guy is going to be fixing up the weird girl's life, and they try to settle down together and use Time Travel for Fun and Profit to be rich yuppies.
• Mysterious Past / Multiple Choice Past: Because she lies her head off about it all the time.
• Pet the Dog: She's a little greedy and, shall we say, acquisitive, but uses Time Travel for Fun and Profit to send money to an orphan.
• Tsundere: She's occasionally dere for Fitz.