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{{Short description|1997 novel by Terrance Dicks}}

{{Doctorwhobook|

{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}

|title=The Eight Doctors

{{TriviaUse dmy dates|date=June 20072024}}

|series=[[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]

{{More footnotes needed|date=July 2020}}

|number=1

{{Infobox book

|featuring=[[Eighth Doctor]]<br/>[[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam]]

|titlename = The Eight Doctors

|cover=The_Eight_Doctors.jpg

|image = Eight Doctors.jpg

|writer=[[Terrance Dicks]]

|caption =

|publisher=[[BBC Books]]

|writerauthor = [[Terrance Dicks]]

|isbn= ISBN 0-563-40563-5

|set_betweenseries =immediately after ''[[Doctor Who (1996)|The Movie]]'' and<br>''[[Shada|Shada (Eighth Doctor) Adventures]]

|release_number = 1

|pages=

|featuringsubject = Featuring: [[Eighth Doctor]]<br/>, [[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam]]

|date=June 1997

|set_in = Period immediately after [[Doctor Who (1996 film)|''Doctor Who'' (1996)]] and [[Shada (Doctor Who)#Eighth Doctor|''Shada'' (Eighth Doctor continuity)]]

|preceding=

|daterelease_date = June 1997

|following=[[Vampire Science]]

|publisher = [[BBC Books]]

|}}

|pages =

'''''The Eight Doctors''''' is a [[BBC Books]] original novel written by [[Terrance Dicks]] and based on the long-running [[United Kingdom|British]] [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] series ''[[Doctor Who]]''. It was the first of the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] range and features the [[Eighth Doctor]] and introduces his new [[companion (Doctor Who)|companion]], [[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam Jones]].

| isbn = ISBN 0-563-40563-5

|preceded_by =

|followingfollowed_by = [[Vampire Science]]

|}}

'''''The Eight Doctors''''' is a [[BBC Books]] original novel written by [[Terrance Dicks]] and based on the long-running [[United Kingdom|British]] [[science fiction on television|science fiction television]] series ''[[Doctor Who]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dicks |first=Terrance |url=http://archive.org/details/eightdoctors0000dick |title=The eight doctors |date=1997 |publisher=London : BBC Books |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-563-40563-4}}</ref> It was the first of the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] range (it was preceded by a novelisation of the [[Doctor Who (1996)|1996 film]], but the BBC chose not to consider it to be part of the range) and features the [[Eighth Doctor]] and introduces his new [[companion (Doctor Who)|companion]], [[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam Jones]]. The novel takes place immediately after the 1996 television movie.

The novel takes place immediately after the [[Doctor Who (1996)|1996 television movie]]. {{DWspinoff}}

== Plot ==

TakingImmediately placeafter immediatelythe afterevents of the televisionTV film, the [[Eighth Doctor]] finishes reading ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (a book written by his old friend [[H. G. Wells]]). After he checkschecking the [[Eye of Harmony]] in his [[TARDIS]], he falls prey to a final trap set by his old enemy, [[Master (Doctor Who)|the Master]]; which erases all of his memory. The only fact he knows for certain is that hehis isname calledis "the Doctor" -– but Doctor who? His instincts tell him to "trust the TARDIS": the [[Time travel|time machineTARDIS]]", which immediately lands.

He has landedlands at a [[scrap]]yard at [[An Unearthly Child|76 Totters Lane]], [[London]] in 1997;. whereThere, he encounters a young lady by the name of [[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam Jones]], whoa young lady that is being accused by some local [[illegal drug trade|drug dealers]], led by Baz Bailey, of "grassing" them over to the [[police]]. HavingThe saved Sam from these insidious characters, who weredealers intendingintend to force Sam into taking drugs to get her addicted, but the Doctor saves her and falls foul of the local [[police]] who promptly charge him with possession and selling the [[cocaine]] he has confiscated from the thugs. Sam tells her two teachers, who have noticed her lateness, and takes them back to the junkyard to verify the story. The Doctor escapes inIn the confusion of Bailey's desperate attack on the local [[police station]], hethe Doctor escapes and runs back into the TARDIS and it dematerialises -– taking the cocaine with him to dispose of it safely. This leaves Sam alone, defenceless against the knife-wielding druggies...

Taking place immediately after the television film, the [[Eighth Doctor]] finishes reading ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (a book written by his old friend [[H.G. Wells]]). After he checks the [[Eye of Harmony]] in his [[TARDIS]], he falls prey to a final trap set by his old enemy, [[Master (Doctor Who)|the Master]]; which erases all of his memory. The only fact he knows for certain is that he is called "the Doctor" - but Doctor who? His instincts tell him to "trust the TARDIS": the [[Time travel|time machine]] immediately lands.

The TARDIS lands in the year [[An Unearthly Child|100,000 BC]], and he meets his [[First Doctor|first incarnation]] in the jungle and they [[psychic]]ally link (giving the Eighth Doctor his memories fromup histo firstthat lifepoint backin his life). The Eighth Doctor stops his other self from killing a [[caveman]] who was slowing their party down. The First Doctor explains that he must get away before the "time bubble" his Eighth self is in bursts, and starts to damage the timeline. The Eighth Doctor then leaves.

He has landed at a [[scrap]]yard at 76 Totters Lane, [[London]] in 1997; where he encounters a young lady by the name of [[Sam Jones (Doctor Who)|Sam Jones]], who is being accused by some local [[illegal drug trade|drug dealers]], led by Baz Bailey, of "grassing" them over to the [[police]]. Having saved Sam from these insidious characters, who were intending to force Sam into taking drugs to get her addicted, the Doctor falls foul of the local [[police]] who promptly charge him with possession and selling the [[cocaine]] he has confiscated from the thugs. Sam tells her two teachers, who have noticed her lateness, and takes them back to the junkyard to verify the story. The Doctor escapes in the confusion of Bailey's desperate attack on the local [[police station]], he runs back into the TARDIS and it dematerialises - taking the cocaine with him to dispose of it safely. This leaves Sam alone, defenceless against the knife-wielding druggies...

The TARDIS lands in the year [[An Unearthly Child|100,000 BC]], and he meets his [[First Doctor|first incarnation]] in the jungle and they [[psychic]]ally link (giving the Eighth Doctor his memories from his first life back). The Eighth Doctor stops his other self from killing a [[caveman]] who was slowing their party down. The First Doctor explains that he must get away before the "time bubble" his Eighth self is in bursts, and starts to damage the timeline. The Eighth Doctor then leaves.

The TARDIS then lands during the events of ''[[The War Games]]'', where he helps his [[Second Doctor|second incarnation]], [[Jamie McCrimmon]] and [[Zoe Heriot]] with their important mission to contact the [[Time Lord]]s. Having regained his second life's memories, he leaves happily.

He next meets the [[Third Doctor]], who himself has just fought the Master and the [[Sea Devil (Doctor Who)|Sea Devil]]s; and has saved [[Human|humanity]] by [[The Sea Devils|blowing up a Sea Devil base]]. He, blaming his Eighth self for his exile to Earth and for the Master's concurrent escape, threatens him with the Master's [[List of Doctor Who items#T|Tissue Compression Eliminator]]. But he tosses the weapon to him instead: the Doctor doesn't kill, after all. The Master has again escaped to fight another day, and the Eighth Doctor leaves.

Having landed during the events of ''[[State of Decay (Doctor Who)|State of Decay]]'', the Eighth Doctor gives the [[Fourth Doctor]] an emergency [[blood transfusion]] after his younger self is attacked and nearly fatally drained by another group of vampires, and leaves with yet more memories (to the astonishment of companion [[Romana (Doctor Who)|Romana]]).

Meanwhile, back on [[Gallifrey]], Lady President Flavia has noticed the Doctor crossing his timelines and demands that he be carefully watched. A Time Lord called Ryoth demands the Doctor be executed: the resulting paradoxes could be irreversible. Flavia denies this. Ryoth alerts the [[Celestial Intervention Agency]] to the situation, and the Agency give him access to the fabeledfabled Timescoop technology, perfectly preserved since the [[The Five Doctors|Death Zone incident]]. He uses it to takesend a [[List of Doctor Who robots#Fifth DoctorR|Raston Warrior Robot]] to the [[Fifth Doctor]] and his companions, [[Tegan Jovanka]] and [[Vislor Turlough]]. Luckily, the Eighth Doctor then arrives at the aftermath of ''"The Five Doctors''", where he saves his fifth incarnation and his companions from the Raston Warrior Robot and a passing platoon of [[Sontaran]]s by tricking the two into fighting each other. The Doctors create a feedback system, so when Ryoth sends a [[Carnival of Monsters|Drashig]] to kill them, it instead materialises in the same room as Ryoth and eats him and the Timescoop. It is then caught and transmatted to the Death Zone by guards in the Capitol in the hopes that it will take care of the other horrors there.

Soon he arrives in the middle of his [[The Trial of a Time Lord|second trial by the Time Lords]]; which his [[Sixth Doctor|Sixth self]] seems to be losing (especially as the insidious [[Valeyard]] has just accused him of a [[Terror of the Vervoids|mass genocide attack]] against the [[List of Doctor Who aliens#Vervoid|Vervoids]]). After giving him advice and encouragement- as well as helping to begin an investigation into his past self's trial on Gallifrey-, he leaves, his memories almost completely intact.

He finally arrives on the planet [[Planet of the Spiders|Metebelis 3Three]], where the alone and [[clinical depression|depressed]] [[Seventh Doctor]] is trapped by a giant [[spider]]. After rescuing his former self (by killing the arachnid with the TCE), he remembers leaving Sam, and immediately dashes back into the TARDIS to her rescue.

HavingOnce saved Samby the Doctor, sheSam decides to join him on his travels...

== Notes Continuity==

#Terrance Dicks madewrote nothis secretbook ofnot only to begin this ongoing book series, but also as an attempt to rectify the factvarious hecontinuity hatedproblems that had emerged from the 1996 television film,;{{citation andneeded|date=July at2020}} the veryhe beginningmade no secret of the bookfact he hashated the 1996 television film, making the Doctor lookinglook back over the preceding adventure as though it was the most confusing, nonsensical time of his life (as Dicks pointed out in a [[2005]] edition of ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'').

{{Trivia|date=June 2007}}

#This is one of several multi-Doctor stories, including the 10th Anniversary story ''[[The Three Doctors]]'' (1972), the 20th Anniversary story ''[[The Five Doctors]]'' (1983) (also written by Dicks), and the 1985 story ''[[The Two Doctors]]''.

This story appears to contradict some of the continuity set in place by the [[Virgin New Adventures]] and [[Virgin Missing Adventures]], such as the freedom of [[Borusa]] from Rassilon's imprisonment (Borusa having been freed in ''[[Blood Harvest (Dicks novel)|Blood Harvest]]'', itself written by Dicks), the identity of the President of Gallifrey (Flavia in this novel), and Romana in the subjectively later [[Virgin New Adventures]], and the circumstances (albeit described only in brief) of the [[First Doctor]]'s departure from Gallifrey. The BBC novels were not initially intended to be part of the same continuity as the earlier Virgins, although BBC novelists restored some continuity between the two ranges, for example by reinstating Romana as president in ''[[The Shadows of Avalon]]''. Some issues at least may be explained away by assuming that, from the point of view of the Time Lords, the Eighth Doctor's role in ''The Eight Doctors'' actually occurs prior to the seventh Doctor's role in ''Blood Harvest''. However, throughout the range certain contradictory elements still exist.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

#Terrance Dicks wrote this book not only to begin this ongoing book series, but also as an attempt to rectify the various continuity problems that had emerged from the 1996 film.

#Terrance Dicks made no secret of the fact he hated the 1996 television film, and at the very beginning of the book he has the Doctor looking back over the preceding adventure as though it was the most confusing, nonsensical time of his life (as Dicks pointed out in a [[2005]] edition of ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'').

#When Sam tells herthe Doctor that her surname is Jones, and the Doctor tells himher that his is "Smith", she says that they were made for each other. This is a reference to the television series ''[[Alias Smith and Jones]]'' as well as the comedy duo of [[Mel Smith]] and [[Griff Rhys Jones]], who had a television series punningly named ''[[Alas Smith and Jones]]''. It also foreshadows the revelations that would eventually be made about Sam's origins. A similar pun shows up in the title of the 2007 series episode "[[Smith and Jones (Doctor Who)|Smith and Jones]]"., Thiswith hasthe also[[Tenth beenDoctor]] includedand innew companion [[Martha Jones]]. Martha also uses the incarnationalias of "Sam Jones" in the 10thspin-off Doctorseries ''[[Torchwood]]''.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

#This story contradicts some of the continuity set in place by the [[Virgin New Adventures]] and [[Virgin Missing Adventures]]. Although some of this would be restored by later writers, the BBC and Virgin novels were not initially intended to be part of the same continuity, and some contradictory elements still exist.

The story has an inconsistency to Tegan knowing her Doctors as she mistakenly believed the Eighth Doctor to be the Fourth even though she had met the Fourth Doctor in Logopolis when he regenerated into the Fifth Doctor.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}

#In this story, the High President of Gallifrey is Flavia (as she was at the end of ''The Five Doctors''). From the next story onwards, the Time Lord President would be former companion [[Romana]].

#In terms of publication, this book was preceded by a novelisation of the 1996 film, however the BBC chose not to consider the novelisation to be part of the Eighth Doctors Adventures series.

==References==

{{Reflist}}

==External links==

*{{Doctor Who RG TardisIndexFile| id=whobbc01 | title=The Eight Doctors}}

*[httphttps://membersweb.lycosarchive.org/web/20140304110925/http://www.comagnetopia.ukorg/cloisterlibrary/eigh.htm The Cloister Library -– ''The Eight Doctors'']

*{{DWRGISFDB title| id=eigh 378221| title=The Eight Doctors}}

===Reviews===

*[{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125080955/http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/ED01.php |date=25 November 2010 |title=The Whoniverse's review on ''The Eight Doctors''] }}

*{{OG review | id=bbc8-1 | title=The Eight Doctors}}

*[https://zealotscript.co.uk/2019/07/06/review-doctor-who-the-eight-doctors-terrance-dicks/ Zealot Script's review on ''The Eight Doctors'']

*{{DWRG | id=eigh | title=The Eight Doctors}}

*[http://www.whoniverse.org/reviews/ED01.php The Whoniverse's review on ''The Eight Doctors'']

{{Doctor Who books|seriesselected=[[Eighth Doctor Adventures]]}}

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[[Category:1997 British novels]]

[[Category:1997 science fiction novels]]

[[Category:Eighth Doctor Adventures]]

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