Eighth Doctor Adventures/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Sam was such a pointless character that you'd think you'd be happy to find out about her Bus Crash. But since Fitz is so broken up about it, you can't help but feel a little sad...
  • Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: The Doctor. Those who meet him for the first time often think he's going to a wedding or a fancy-dress party. When he's actually in the 19th Century, it's commented on that for once he actually fits in. And apparently his outfit came back into fashion in The Eighties. He occasionally averts Limited Wardrobe, although mostly in the books Kate Orman and Jon Blum coauthored.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Halfway through Vampire Science the Doctor and a vampire break into a hairdresser's so she can give him a haircut (with wash and conditioner). This is never mentioned again.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Fitz may well be more popular than the Doctor himself in this line.
  • Fanon: It's practically accepted as fact amongst the fans that the Ninth Doctor's coat is Fitz's old leather jacket.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: The series' Dalek books are almost universally reviled by fans for upending Dalek/Skaro canon.
  • Fan and Author Preferred Couple: The Doctor and Fitz. Not only do many fans notice and expand upon their relationship, many of the authors put in frankly ridiculous amounts of subtext into the books, especially post-Earth Arc.*
  • Foe Yay: The Doctor mostly just thinks it's hilarious that Sabbath literally "stole his heart", but there is quite a lot of legitimate sexual tension. Camera Obscura really lays it on thick between the Doctor and Sabbath (flirting, kissing, generally getting all up close and personal), and in Sometime Never, Sabbath actually admits he's "more than a little fond of" the Doctor. (Aww.) Well, with the Master gone, the Doctor clearly needs a recurring Friendly Enemy to have sexual tension with, right? More on the Doctor Who Foe Yay page. It seems like Lloyd Rose likes this trope, since in City of the Dead, one of the villains is a Mad Artist who makes a bit of a fuss over the Doctor's attractiveness, and another one who... well.

'[...]You're my key. Or my bait. Probably both. But in either case -' he traced a forefinger along the Doctor's long upper lip - 'you're all mine.'
The Doctor twisted away but Dupre tightened his grip, holding him still. 'You can't get free,' he said softly. 'I've made very sure of that.' He slid his hand down to the Doctor's chest.

  • Ho Yay: Tons.
    • The Doctor was "more than friends" with Alan Turing and mentions having been in love with William Shakespeare.
    • The Doctor has a sometimes-tempestuous, sometimes-adorable relationship in The Year of Intelligent Tigers with composer Karl Sadeghi. Karl spends most of the book being very obliquely in love with him, waxing poetic about the Doctor constantly[1][2]
    • Fitz and the Doctor act Like an Old Married Couple, and Fitz admits to the fact he loves the Doctor and might like to have sex with him. Given the Doctor occasionally flirts with Fitz,[3] there's some interest there. He also did some very morally dubious things to get his version of Fitz back when he'd been lost. See the DW HoYay page for much more.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Some pretty awful things happen to Compassion. For example, she turns into a TARDIS, and just to make it worse the Time Lords try to capture her for "breeding purposes". Whenever Fitz or the Doctor tries to show her any sympathy, she doesn't take it well.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: In the fandom, The Taint is almost universally panned as a sub-par book that's only saving grace is introducing the reader to Fitz Kreiner. It's often advised to new fans to just skim until you see his name, then read those bits.
  • Memetic Outfit: Fitz often wears leather coats, which is probably mentioned more often in Fanon than in canon.
  • The Scrappy: Samantha Jones.
  • Stoic Woobie: The Doctor's life is basically terrible, in case previous entries in his trope list haven't already made this clear. He's rarely seen crying about it. Very rarely. Possibly only in Halflife, in which it was quite obviously helped along by the fact he was still somewhat under the influence of swapping minds with Fitz, who's significantly more emotive, and it was appropriately manly Tears of Remorse, at any rate.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Anji Kapoor.
  • Too Good to Last: Many found Sam's Dark Sam personality in Unnatural History an improvement.
  • Villain Decay: Sabbath. He's still a compelling, likable character despite all the more-powerful villains mocking him for being gullible, the Doctor just generally mocking him and trying to be friends with him, the bit where he takes his Morality Pet to the zoo, the fact all his Mooks are apes who wear uniforms,[4] his apparent inability to pick a pseudonym that doesn't have to do with holidays or days of the week, etc. It's just that he reaches a point of being no more menacing than any other character.
  • The Woobie:
    • The Doctor.
    • Fitz Kreiner. He was peer pressured into smoking to prove he's not some kind of rule-abiding Nazi (he's now addicted to nicotine), and worried about "getting his head kicked in" when he was three. There's a poem about it. It's almost like every EDA he's in is required to add another reason (or five) to why Fitz should be a horrible, cynical, broken person. The fact he's not is absolutely astonishing.
  1. Karl watched the Doctor doze. He had flopped back on to the soft grass, his golden-brown hair spreading around his face. The bright sunshine highlighted the exotic whiteness of his skin.
  2. The numen had left the Doctor: he was no longer a god of thunder, but only a beautiful man lying in the grass.
  3. Fitz gaped. ‘A sailor? I don’t believe it. Go on, give us a jig!’ The Doctor laughed. ‘Not likely – but I’ll show you my tattoo if you’re lucky.’
  4. He must spend half his time stuffing them into their uniforms and trying to stop them from climbing things and crapping everywhere