Eighth Doctor Adventures/Characters: Difference between revisions

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* [[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 [[Messy Hair|hair is usually wild and messy]], he doesn't give a damn for [[Clothing Damage|the effects going through hell and high water would have]] on [[Impractically Fancy Outfit|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 <ref>(compare "[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S17 E2 City of Death|You're a very beautiful woman...probably.]]")</ref> apart from having a vague sense that maybe he should be able to [[Distracted By the Sexy|charm people into doing things for him]].
* [[Darker and Edgier]]
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Every now and then.
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* [[Kaleidoscope Eyes]]: Usually [[Blue Eyes|blue]] (sometimes described as [[Icy Blue Eyes]]), but sometimes [[Gray Eyes]] or [[Green Eyes|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 Trope|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 [[Black Comedy|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 [[Crapsack World|utter depressingness]] of ''[[Eastenders]]'' <ref>(suggesting, incidentally, that the boredom of [[Walking the Earth]] alone turned him into a bit of a [[Daytime Drama Queen]])</ref>, and due to watching [[Superman]] he got some odd ideas about [[Clark Kenting|disguises]] and "the relative position of the trousers and [[Underwear of Power|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. <ref>(Also, his POV in ''The Blue Angel'' is occasionally written in a subtly strange way — for example, he tends to bring something up which doesn't make a lot of sense without further explanation and then drift away from the topic, which is a [[wikipedia:Thought disorder|symptom of schizophrenia]].)</ref>
** [[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 Carry|Bridal Carrying]] grown men [[Ho Yay|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 [[Bavarian Fire Drill|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 [[Doctor Who (TV)/Characters|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 [[Useful Notes/Political Ideologies|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 "[[Idle Rich|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.
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* [[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 [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane|seems to]]. It doesn't seem to have any more [[Misapplied Phlebotinum|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 [[Technical Pacifist|doesn't like to fight]], he doesn't even seem to really know how. However, he's really quite [[Muscles Are Meaningless|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 [[Epic Fail|stubs his toe quite badly]].
 
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{{quote|"This is Fitz," he said. "This is Fitz Kreiner's life encapsulated in an instant."|''Unnatural History'', [[It Makes Sense in Context|after being mugged in a San Francisco alleyway]] [[Hilarity Ensues|by a unicorn for his chocolate]].}}
 
The Eighth Doctor's second companion and the one who stuck with him the longest, originally introduced in ''The Taint''. Fitz was born in 1936 to a German father and an English mother in London. His entire life was a bit of a [[Trauma Conga Line]], but he maintained a cheerful, laid-back attitude despite it. He met the Doctor in 1963, when he was 27. He's an easy-going but intensely loyal guitarist whose personal timeline [[Cloning Blues|got a bit confusing]]. He's possibly the longest-running companion in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' history and was in a [[Big Finish Doctor Who|BFA]] in Summer 2009. [[Trope Overdosed|He's Trope-tastic.]]
 
* [[Action Survivor]]: He starts out this way -- he didn't even really want to go with the Doctor that much, but he didn't really have [[You Can't Go Home Again|any other choice]]. But eventually he embraced the whole adventurer thing. He still has almost all the additional traits mentioned under the trope, though: [[Perma Stubble|stubbly]], [[Non-Action Guy|non-actiony]], uncommonly decent, etc.
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* [[Designated Monkey]]: [[Depending On the Writer|In the Lance Parkin stories, at least.]]
* [[Drives Like Crazy]]: Almost every time he's behind the wheel of a car, he hits something with it. It's [[Car Fu|usually intentional]], but sometimes it's not. Is there really any call to "crunch" the gearstick?
* [[Erudite Stoner]]: The personality without the pot. You can't make him angry without a serious effort, his thought processes are often not exactly normal, he eats like it's going out of style, and as the series goes on he becomes a bit of a [[Big Brother Mentor]] to Anji and then Trix, and the Doctor too in a way, not to mention all the [[One -Shot Character|One Shot Characters]] he tends to take under his wing. Also, he's been calm and philosophical about the end of the world. Suddenly becoming a tangled-up [[Noodle People|noodle person]] merely inspired in him dismay about how long it'd take to untangle himself. He once had a couple shots of liquor and fell fast asleep while right under Sabbath's nose — Sabbath being the guy who once ripped out the Doctor's heart bare-handed (well, [[Gloved Fist of Doom|glove-handed, but is that any less scary]]?). Sure, Fitz can be scared easily, but he's just as likely to be extremely calm about terrifying things.
* [[Five -Finger Discount]]: He knows how to pick pockets, although it's never revealed why. The rather boring explanation is that [[Kleptomaniac Hero|the Doctor]] taught him, but it'd be [[Canon Fodder|more interesting]] if he was a street urchin at some point in his childhood. He also carries a lockpick (possibly stolen) because he got tired of picking locks without one.
* [[Friendless Background]]: In ''Frontier Worlds'', he mentions having only had one friend during primary school. By the time he's introduced, he doesn't actually seem to have ''any'' real friends. It's certainly not that he isn't likable -- even before all the [[Character Development]] kicks in he's quite charming -- it's just the half-German thing. It's quite possible that almost two decades after the war ended, plenty of people wouldn't have had a problem with it, but he was sufficiently [[Break the Cutie|embittered]] by a childhood of being [[Kids Are Cruel|physically attacked]] for his heritage that he was afraid to let anyone get too close.
* [[Geek Physiques]]: He's quite tall and almost comically scrawny, and a bit of a [[Lord of the Rings]] [[Fan Boy]]. He also seems to know from ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'', makes a reference to [[HP Lovecraft]], and generally [[Bookworm|really likes to read]]. [[Badass Bookworm|The Doctor]] probably out-geeks him, though, but doesn't really fit the trope, because he's slender but not awkwardly so.
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* [[Nice Guy]]: The only way you can really make him lose his temper is by being cruel or insulting his friends. He had a good relationship with his mum while she was alive and still remembers the advice she used to give him. Sure, he drinks and smokes and swears, and there's that time he was seeing three girls at once, and he ''thinks'' of himself as a selfish coward, but he actually seems to develop almost a reflex to stick his neck out for others, especially those who can't fend for themselves. And he's generally more sympathetic and tactful than the Doctor, despite occasional forays into the land of total immature unhelpfulness.
* [[Nobody Poops]]: For some reason, he's the only character in the series who's ever mentioned to occasionally have to take a leak, which kind of creates the impression he has the world's smallest bladder. It seems to mostly come up in situations where it makes the reader sympathize with him even more, ie., he's in a stressful situation which is made worse by there being no loos for miles, or all that beer he had earlier is messing up his attempt to keep a [[Unbroken Vigil|vigil]] at the injured Doctor's bedside.
* [[Non -Action Snarker]]: He once [[The Klutz|fell down]] what seemed to be a [[Pit Trap]] and [[Sarcastic Clapping|clapped sarcastically]] when the Doctor fell in after him while trying to rescue him.
* [[Perma Stubble]]
* [[Pet the Dog]]: Not only does he like children, he seems to care a lot about animals, and not just the [[What Measure Is a Non-Cute?|cute, cuddly ones]]: robot canaries that bite him, evil monkeys with guns, worms, etc.
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* [[Unfazed Everyman]]: When he finally meets the Doctor, his mother ''really'' snaps, [[Offing the Offspring|tries to strangle him]], and is finally killed by the Doctor. He's also wanted by the police due to a misunderstanding, leading him to join the TARDIS crew. Instead of having a [[Heroic BSOD]] about his new status as an orphan and wanted man, he's pretty sanguine about the whole thing. Then again, he's canonically a fountain of denial.
* [[Unfortunate Names]]: Yes, his name really [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Fitz]] him. Sure, he's [[Never Heard That One Before]]. His last name is still a nuisance, but less of an entertaining one — in recently-post-WWII England, having a German surname is apparently enough to make him worry about getting his head kicked in, so he goes by Fitz Fortune when first introduced. It's mentioned that, since "Fritz" is such a [[Stock Foreign Name|stereotypical German name]] that it's used to refer to all Germans, the other kids used to call him "Fitz the Fritz". This also leads to [[Gannon Banned|newbies who see the German surname, get confused, and call him "Fritz"]].
* [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?]]: Since he's an [[Artificial Human]], he can impress computers with his brain, generate anagrams, play guitar and do crossword puzzles better than he used to, and maybe some other things not even worth mentioning. Apparently, his thoughts have a "deeper structural underpinning" which computers really dig, or something. Considering the fact he's the closest thing you can get to being an [[Erudite Stoner]] without ever being implied to be on any illegal substances, this is kind of funny.
* [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]: When he was a child, he was stung all over by wasps and is thus scared of basically all bugs. Subverted in that he pretty much keeps his composure in ''Eater of Wasps'' which, [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|as you may guess]], is about evil wasps.
* [[Wife -Basher Basher]]: If you bully women in front of him, he's likely to [[Non-Action Guy|hurt his fist on your face]].
 
=== Laura "Compassion" Tobin ===
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* {{spoiler|[[Driven to Suicide]]}}
* [[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:
{{quote| "Working as I am for unspecified higher powers, the nature of my misguided plans remains frustratingly obscure, [[Evil Laugh|ha ha]]!"}}
* [[Everything's Better With Monkeys]]: Monkey henchmen!
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* [[Genius Bruiser]]
* [[A Glass of Chianti]]: Anji earns his respect by knowing the right way to drink brandy.
* [[The Good, theThe Bad, And The Evil]]: The Bad.
* {{spoiler|[[Heel Face Turn]]}}
* [[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]].
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* [[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 Wave|Hand Waved]]: he's not wealthy, but he's resourceful. {{spoiler|And [[I Control My Minions Through...|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 {{spoiler|has him participating in what's apparently a [[wikipedia:May Ball#Ball crashing|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}}.
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* [[Broken Bird]]
* [[Character Name Alias]]: The name she goes by is almost certainly not her real name, and it's surprisingly close to [[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy|Tricia McMillan]].
* [[Femme Fatale]]: Not as much as some examples, but she's sort of [[Goldfish Poop Gang|mildly]] antagonistic when first introduced, she's far from trustworthy, her alignment can generally be best described as [[Chaotic Neutral|Chaotic Selfish]], and she gets Fitz wrapped around her little finger (although she scares [[The Chick|him]] on occasion). <ref>(He probably finds it unusual that in this list, he gets to top for once!)</ref> And she enjoys dressing glamourously ([[WomaninWoman in Black|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]]