Eighth Doctor Adventures/Characters: Difference between revisions

=== The Eighth Doctor ===

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Then he was vaulting easily over the railing of the ship, landing smoothly on his toes on the other side. The tourists on board the boat burst into a round of applause. The Doctor broke into a smile, and gave a little bow, letting them take photos.|''Unnatural History''}}

 

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: In normal canon, he's pretty much overtly bisexual and occasionally effeminate. In the [[Alternate Reality Episode|Obverse]] segments of ''The Blue Angel'', he likes cooking and old movie soundtracks and his [[Ambiguously Jewish]] [[Jewish Mother|Mother]] seems to take a particular interest in his love life.

* [[Bi the Way]]: Quite overtly so; he has implied romantic relationships with both men and women, and at least one character noticed.

* [[Bizarre Human Biology]]: ''The Blue Angel'' features an [[Alternate Reality Episode]] in which the Doctor's [[Ambiguously Human|theoretically human]]. He has two hearts, no navel, and an unusual aversion to the cold. It's probably related to the fact that [[Half-Human Hybrid|his mother's a]] [[Our Mermaids Are Different|mermaid]].

* [[Born Lucky]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] at [[The Quiet One|surprisingly-great length]] by Sabbath in ''Camera Obscura''. The Doctor apparently doesn't like to talk about it, apparently because, for one thing, Sabbath can come up with more examples than he should know and the Doctor [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|remembers]], and it also reminds him of the fact that [[Walking Disaster Area|when things]] [[Doom Magnet|go wrong]] [[Cartwright Curse|for him]], [[Where I Was Born and Razed|they tend to go disastrously wrong]].

* [[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."''

* [[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.

* [[Forgets to Eat]]: In ''Camera Obscura'', Anji has to remind him:

‘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.

"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:

** And, of all things, model trains:

* [[Gentleman and a Scholar]]: He has [[No Social Skills|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 [[Beware the Nice Ones|drops the politeness]], it's generally well-deserved, whether because someone's genuinely [[Villains|malevolent]] or just an [[Jerkass|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 [[Awesome Anachronistic Apparel|appearance]] and [[The Smart Guy|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]] [[Healing Factor|it rarely takes more than a couple days for him to heal]]. [[Determinator|Perhaps unsurprisingly]], he tends to take advantage of this fact by treating his own body as a [[Stone Wall|meat shield]], [[I Can Still Fight|doing irresponsible and foolhardy things while bleeding all over the place]], and just outright acting like a [[Macho Masochism|masochist]].

"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. [[Gorn|There was a nasty, tearing, butcher's-shop sound.]] }}

* [[Gorgeous Period Dress]]

* [[Camp Gay|Camp]] [[Camp Straight|Bisexual]]: More than a bit. French accents, Greta Garbo impressions, male renditions of "(I Wanna Be) Bobbie's Girl", swordfighting in a wedding gown, "Ohmigod", "Oh. My. God", his terrible dated jokes when pretending to be Frank Sinatra, most of his acting in ''The Banquo Legacy'', leather trousers, a purple velvet suit, a metallic gold suit...

* [[Casual Kink]]: In ''Mad Dogs and Englishmen''. It's a little ambiguous whether he really has an unusual kink or he's just being flippant.

He grinned. ‘Are you kidding?’ }}

* [[Character Development]]: He has a bit of an early-middle-age [[Coming of Age Story]] going on. Initially, he's a [[True Neutral]] [[Lovable Sex Maniac]] looking for the first chance to bunk off with the [[Girl of the Week]] despite being often impeded by his tendency to be a little sexist, although he obviously has a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|heart of gold deep down]]. By the end of the series, he's a [[Big Brother Mentor]] to all sorts of characters, can pull off a [[Bavarian Fire Drill]] just as well as the Doctor, has a knack for keeping a calm head in a crisis or failing that [[Cowardly Lion|shows great courage in situations that make him shake like a leaf]], occasionally functions as the Doctor's [[Morality Chain]], puts others before himself, is loyal almost to a fault, and is generally competent, responsible, and heroic.

** Based on his rant to {{spoiler|Father Kreiner}} in "The Ancestor Cell", he's also used [[The Saint|Simon Templar]].

* [[Cheshire Cat Grin]]: He does this semi-habitually, but generally just in anticipation of a good time rather than anything you should really be worried about.

'A planet where the party never stops. I was born to land here.' }}

* [[Chew Toy]]

* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]: He'll ogle almost anything female, in addition to fancying the Doctor and coming pretty close to betraying interest in quite a few other men. But he has a definite penchant for falling in love with people who are even more troubled than he is and trying to fix their problems. And he reserves a particular dislike for men who bully women.

* [[Cleopatra Nose]]: Well, Sam doesn't exactly think so.

* [[Cloning Blues]]: Complicated. See [[Loss of Identity]] and [[Replacement Goldfish]] below.

* [[Combat Pragmatist]]: As he's skinny and clumsy, it's very pragmatic for him to go for the eyes when he gets into a fight.

* [[Like Brother and Sister]]: With the Doctor. Her relationship with him is so chaste that she can acknowledge he's attractive without actually being at all attracted to him. She doesn't mind changing her shirt in front of him, because "he seemed to count in her head as another girl", so they're almost just like sisters. The Doctor seems more inclined to discuss his feelings with her than with Fitz, even though he and Fitz are [[Heterosexual Life Partners|practically married]].

* [[The Napoleon]]: At least in the opinion of tall, laid-back Fitz.

* [[Not So Above It All]]: She tends to disapprove of Fitz and the Doctor's [[Man Child|childish]] antics, but on rare (and funny) occasions, she comes across as a little bit of a [[Cloudcuckoolander]] herself.

* [[Only Sane Man]]

* [[Enemy Mine]]: He works together with the Doctor about as often as they work against each other.

* [[Enigmatic Minion]]: Heavily lampshaded when Fitz, Trix, and Anji make a short film about [["Previously On..."|the plot developments so far]]. Trix, playing Sabbath, declares:

* [[Everything's Better with Monkeys]]: Monkey henchmen!

* [[Expy]]: Of the Master. He's far from the same character with the [[Serial Numbers Filed Off]], but they have a lot of similar personality traits, such as [[You Make Me Sic|pedantry]], [[Man of Wealth and Taste|a fondness for elegant dark clothes]], [[Deadpan Snarker|snarkiness]], etc.. They both function as a recurring villain who often [[Enemy Mine|collaborates with the Doctor against a more immediate menace]], occasionally [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|of their own making]]. In general, their relationships with the Doctor are quite similar: they often get along civilly, are [[Not So Different]], and have a ton of [[Foe Yay]], despite the fact they're, you know, arch-enemies. Also, Sabbath was originally supposed to have been [[The Man Behind the Man|working for the Daleks]], something the Master's done once or twice. Where the Master had Ogrons (ape-like aliens) as henchmen, Sabbath just has regular old apes. Interestingly, Lawrence Miles, who came up with Sabbath, objected to Sabbath's gradual drift into [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|Suspiciously Similar Substitutehood]], as he intended the character as more of a [[Darker and Edgier]] version of the Doctor.

* [[Ignore the Fanservice]]: His sidekick du jour in ''Camera Obscura'' [[Show Some Leg|Shows Some Leg]] to convince him to help her get out of the [[Bedlam House]] where she's locked up, but he doesn't even look. She has a fairly low opinion of men and considers it strange that he's [[Pet the Dog|nice to her]] without showing any sexual interest in her. So, on the one hand, he claims to be [[Above Good and Evil|amoral]]; on the other, he does have some [[Even Evil Has Standards|standards]].

* [[Kavorka Man]]: His kavorka powers seem to work on [[Narrator|narrators]] just as well as on attractive women, considering the poor narrator's [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|three-paragraph]] tortured attempts to make him sound good-looking upon his introduction:

* [[Kick the Dog]]: He wastes basically no time doing this. He starts out ''The Adventuress of Henrietta Street'' giving the impression he's going to be hardly antagonistic enough to count as a [[Friendly Enemy]]. And then he rips out the Doctor's heart. Also, since he considers himself [[Above Good and Evil]], he doesn't hesitate to kill if doing so has sufficient utility. In ''The Last Resort'', [[The Heart|Fitz]] has to talk him out of stabbing a [[Innocent Bystander|nursing mother]] who wanted to kill him for seemingly having killed her husband but probably wouldn't have been able to anyway.<ref>Although generally when he does gratuitously vicious things like that, it's implied that it's part of some [[Batman Gambit]] that tends to almost [[Failure Is the Only Option|but not quite]] pay off by the end. For example, he probably hadn't actually killed the woman's husband, but he wanted Fitz to think he had, and coming across as [[Ax Crazy]] would play into that.</ref> And in ''The Domino Effect'', an [[Alternate Universe|alternate version]] of him even {{spoiler|goes ahead and shoots a particularly innocent and [[Woobie|woobieish]] [[Barrier Maiden|barrier person]]. [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|Who went to his own]] [[Oxbridge|alma mater]], too! It's really quite satisfying when it has the [[Hoist by His Own Petard|direct result]] of getting him [[Karmic Death|shredded]] by an extradimensional [[Creepy Child]].}}

* [[Large Ham]]: In sort of a quiet, mysterious way, anyway.

* {{spoiler|[[Laser Guided Tykebomb]]}}

* [[Made of Iron]]: {{spoiler|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]].}}

* [[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 Enemy|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 [[No Sense of Personal Space|grabby]] to [[Attention Whore|get his attention]] when he seems to have decided to let the Doctor's [[Motor Mouth]] run out of fuel on its own:

* [[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. [[Awesome but Impractical|It's about as good at clanking and steaming as it is at time-traveling]].

* [[Surrounded by Idiots]]: Justified: they're not idiots, they're apes, and it wasn't his idea to hire them.

* [[Ubermensch|Übermensch]]: He certainly seems to be aiming for this trope, in a less [[Omnicidal Maniac|mindlessly destructive]] way than the typical villainous [[Nietzsche Wannabe]]. He's surprisingly charismatic, considers himself [[Above Good and Evil]], and thinks the Doctor is [[Good Is Old-Fashioned|old-fashioned]] for [[The Fettered|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:

* [[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.

* {{spoiler|[[Unwitting Pawn]]}}

* [[Wicked Cultured]]

* [[Wild Card]]:

 

=== [[Faction Paradox]] ===