Doctor Who: How Big Finish helped to make the Eighth Doctor my Doctor

On television, Paul McGann’s Doctor was hardly explored. But on audio, that’s a very different matter…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

How did one of the most briefly seen Doctors in Doctor Who history become “my” Doctor? A key reason for that is the many audio adventures of Big Finish…

If you’re a regular reader of Doctor Who Watch, you’ve probably noticed that we tend to cover a lot of work from Big Finish. You may have also noticed that we’re especially keen to cover anything relating to the Eighth Doctor, as played by Paul McGann. Well, I say “we” when I really mean “I”, in this case.

For a long time, the Eighth Doctor has been “my” Doctor. The one that I feel the most attached to. This is at least partly due to watching the TV movie when I was eight years old. But only partly. A lot of it has to do with the excellent work from Big Finish.

However, oddly enough, I wasn’t a major follower of the Eighth Doctor in any media for a long time. In fact, I’d say that he only really became “my” Doctor after the show had been brought back. I would get the occasional audio drama or novel, but I didn’t get anything regularly for years.

This is partly for two reasons. The first is that, as a child of the Wilderness Years, a lot of the new original fiction was aimed at a maturer audience. It didn’t help that, with the novels at least, they were released on a monthly basis and I was an incredibly slow reader.

The second key reason was cost. Especially when it came to the audios. While I would pick and choose the ones that I wanted to listen to most – such as Neverland or fortieth anniversary story Zagreus – I didn’t buy them on a regular basis, mainly through lack of funds.

The Eighth Doctor Adventures began on New Year’s Eve 2006, and represented a fresh start for the Eighth Doctor.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The Eighth Doctor Adventures

It was around 2007 however that my interest began to change. Mainly thanks to the free broadcast of the first series of The Eighth Doctor Adventures, starring Sheridan Smith as Lucie Miller. I caught every episode I could every single week, and while it wasn’t the greatest series of Doctor Who ever made, it was a strong enough start.

When later series started to be released on CD and download considerably earlier than on the radio for free and I finally had a full-time job, I started purchasing those series as soon as I could. I was a heavy follower of the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller audios.

This was especially true in 2009. Doctor Who was taking a break from television for a year (barring a few specials, of course), but Big Finish had a neat way of filling that gap. Every Saturday, for sixteen weeks, they started releasing episodes of the third series of The Eighth Doctor Adventures on download. It was the perfect way of filling in that huge Doctor-less gap on TV.

After listening to the final season from 2010 to 2011, I then started making my way backwards with the audios. While I’d listened to some key stories with the Eighth Doctor and Charley before, I finally decided to listen to their stories in order. It was quite the experience, and helped to fill the long wait for Dark Eyes, the epic box set that would continue where the final series of The Eighth Doctor Adventures had left off.

By that point, I knew for sure: Eight was my Doctor. As much as I enjoyed all the others, it was McGann’s Doctor that truly defined the character for me.

But that just covers when Eight became my Doctor. A bigger question to ask is: why?

While stories like To The Death were incredibly dark, they still managed to avoid losing sight of their younger audience completely.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The perfect balance

There are a few reasons why Eight became my Doctor. One key reason is the stories themselves.

When I listened to the stories of Eight and Lucie Miller, it was the perfect time for it. During the Wilderness Years when there was no new Doctor Who on-screen, instead of reading or listening to new stories in expanded media, I wanted to catch up on the Classic Series first. It took a long time to do that, particularly as the stories were released in entirely random order. But I enjoyed watching those stories, and grew attached to virtually all of the original Doctors.

Not that I didn’t love the brand new adventures when the series finally came back on television. In fact, while in some ways it was a different style, the New Series was still very recognizably Doctor Who, and I adored every second that we got a brand new Doctor Who story. (Except Fear Her, that I wasn’t so keen on, but everything else was wonderful.)

Beginning just at the end of 2006 on New Year’s Eve, The Eighth Doctor Adventures was the perfect balance of both worlds. It had the style of the New Series, particularly with the modern companion, the series arcs and the exploration of her family history. But it was all firmly in the world of the Classic Series, or at least in the gap between the two. Especially with the Time Lords playing a major role throughout.

Family friendly tone

My favorite thing about the stories with Lucie Miller – and this is something that still remains true of the Eighth Doctor’s stories currently being made by Big Finish – is that they are family friendly.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy darkness or mature themes in Doctor Who. But I think the TV series works best when there are limits, so it can push and test itself against them, without breaking them completely. The TV series certainly never featured anything as out-of-place as a companion attending an orgy. (And in case you’re wondering, that actually happened. Don’t worry, they didn’t stay, at least.)

This was why I enjoyed the Lucie Miller adventures. Like both the Classic and the New Series, they told great stories while still keeping the family friendly audience in mind. Even while it has one of the darkest endings ever with To The Death, the story still avoids going too far in terms of content. While I have admittedly enjoyed a few Doctor Who stories that handle adult themes just right, I enjoy it most when it feels accessible to all the family, and I think that was achieved from the series featuring Lucie Miller onwards.

Today, we’re seeing stories told of McGann’s Doctor in the Time War – something that seemed like a dream when The Eighth Doctor Adventures first began.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

A broader scope

What also appealed to me about Eight’s stories was that there was a broader scope to tell his stories with. Especially when compared to telling stories with older Doctors.

When The Eighth Doctor Adventures were originally made, we had no idea how he regenerated, or anything about his involvement during the Time War. Big Finish could take his Doctor anywhere. Not just in the sense of other times and other places, which has generally been part of the huge appeal of Doctor Who, after all. But in terms of character, too.

This is best shown with both To The Death and Dark Eyes. The former story features the deaths of many of the Doctor’s friends. Unsurprisingly, the weight of it all leaves the Doctor in a bad place by the end. The Doctor’s grief and anger are explored in the latter story.

But it’s not just the Doctor who’s explored in these stories. The Eighth Doctor’s audio adventures have given us an excellent number of strong companions over the years. These include, to name a few: Charley Pollard; Lucie Miller; Molly O’Sullivan, and more recently Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair and Bliss. All of them stand out in their own way and go on their own character journeys. In fact, the companions’ development are just as much of an incentive for me to check out the Eighth Doctor’s latest adventures as the Doctor’s own development.

So even when we now know the Eighth Doctor’s ending, there’s still a lot of scope for his character, as well as for his companions. We’re exploring what his Doctor got up to in the Time War at last, but there’s also a huge period before then that’s still worth exploring. As a result, there’s still plenty of rich potential story and character development for the Eighth Doctor and his friends.

One of the biggest reasons why Eight is my Doctor is, of course, the man himself: Paul McGann.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

Paul McGann

Of course, the last reason why Eight’s my Doctor is the most obvious: Paul McGann. This is something that the other mediums don’t have in terms of telling stories with the Eighth Doctor. Even the TV series only has the movie and The Night of the Doctor. Hardly any stories at all compared to the huge volume of adventures that Big Finish has given us over the years.

Through hearing all of these many stories, Paul McGann has become the Doctor for me. He just embodies everything I enjoy about the character. He’s able to play the humor and the eccentricity of the role exactly right.

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But he’s also able to play the more emotional side of the character brilliantly, too. A side that’s arguably been explored more with the New Series Doctors than the Classics, highlighting another key reason why his Doctor represents the perfect balance of the two eras.

Naturally, Big Finish has constantly explored the deeper and more emotional sides of his character. Whether it’s the Doctor admitting that he loves his companion (such as in Neverland or Scherzo), or going through a period of grief (such as in Dark Eyes), Big Finish has never shied away from giving us a Doctor more open and more vulnerable, while still giving us a distinctly alien character.

As a result, through the combination of strong, consistent writing and McGann’s continually strong performance, the Eighth Doctor became “my” Doctor years after his era. I think that says a lot about just how brilliantly Big Finish has handled the character, and how they continually to handle him today. The Eighth Doctor is “my” Doctor, and that will continue for many years to come thanks to Big Finish.

Is the Eighth Doctor “your” Doctor? If not, who is? When did you know that they were “your” Doctor? Let us know in the comments below.