Doctor Who Overview: The Eighth Doctor and Charley, the final stories

After hearing Charley’s goodbye to the Eighth Doctor, we look back at how strong their stories were during their final years together.

So, I’ve finally reached the end of my journey. Or at least, the first distinct era of it. While I plan to continue reviewing the Eighth Doctor’s stories in order – continuing with The Eighth Doctor Adventures very, very soon – it was sad to reach the end of that journey again.

When the Eighth Doctor’s and Charley’s stories began back in Storm Warning, it was originally the closest thing that we had to a “new” series. There was no sign of Doctor Who ever returning to television. Just to have McGann back in the role in any format was exciting. It took the Classic Series template of stories told in serials, usually in four parts. But it also found a way to make it feel incredibly fresh and modern. I’ve already mentioned how their second season together is one of my favourite seasons of Doctor Who in any media.

More from Winter is Coming

During the last three years of these stories, however, some of that freshness went away. I think part of the reason for that was that the stories were no longer told in “seasons” anymore. With the slight exception of the first, most of the seasons had clear arcs and development.

Stand alone stories

However, after season four and the New Series was launched, Eight’s stories were no longer given their own seasons. Releases would simply be mixed with other Doctors. For example, one month, you’d get an Eight story. The next month, you’d get Seven. Finally, a couple of months later, you’d finally get another Eight story. And then you’ve have to wait another couple of months for the next one.

While I can understand the reasoning for this, as Eight was no longer the “current” Doctor, I do think this lead to the weakest part of Eight’s run. I don’t just mean of his run with Charley and C’Rizz, but of his entire history. I had my criticisms of the Divergent Universe seasons, but at least you had some development across those stories.

Big Finish

The eight standalone stories aren’t terrible by themselves, but there’s very limited development that happens across those stories. Not just in terms of an ongoing plot arc, but in terms of character, too. After Terror Firma, the slightest hint of an arc in any sense was of C’Rizz’s darker side.

I had initially considered reviewing the more spread out releases across two posts. (This was due to the fact that they were the length of two seasons anyway.) However, because of the relative lack of development, I decided to do just one more overview, instead. There is a total of eight stories there, and yet, until Absolution, hardly anything changes.

Highlights

That’s not to say that I think the stories are bad. Quite honestly, I enjoyed quite a few of them. Terror Firma allowed for a great performance from McGann and Terry Molloy. Other Lives was a rather fun historical romp. And Memory Lane was absolutely brilliant, and a great debut from one of my favourite Big Finish writers.

But honestly, it’s only with the final two stories, Absolution and The Girl Who Never Was, that events start to feel big once again. What’s kind of funny is that these last two stories weren’t made until after the Eighth Doctor’s first season with Lucie Miller was broadcast. I decided that it would be better to review Charley’s and C’Rizz’s exits first, however, before moving onto any new companions.

Next: Doctor Who: What will Twelve always be associated with?

It’s a shame that the Eighth Doctor’s stories lost some of their drive for a while. But it was finally brought back with a vengeance for The Eighth Doctor Adventures. More than that, I suspect that some of that drive carried over for giving Charley and C’Rizz the overdue and brilliant epics they each so richly deserved. So while I didn’t think much of their final stories as a whole, it was enough for me to still be sad when they eventually left, and the Eighth Doctor’s first era was brought to a definitive close.