The Eight Doctors

"You cannot fight evil with evil's methods. The end never justifies the means." 

Writer: Terrance Dicks

Format: Novel

Released: June 1997

Series: EDA 01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Sam, Seventh Doctor, Sixth Doctor, Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough, Fourth Doctor, Romana II, Third Doctor, Jo, Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, First Doctor

Synopsis 

"Trust the TARDIS..."

Recuperating after the trauma of his recent regeneration, the Doctor falls foul of a final booby-trap set by his arch-enemy, the Master.

When he recovers, the disorientated Doctor looks in a mirror and sees the face of a stranger. He knows only that he is called 'the Doctor' - nothing more. But something deep inside tells him to trust the TARDIS, and his hands move over the controls of their own accord. 

The TARDIS takes him to a strangely familiar junkyard in late-nineties London, where he is flung into a confrontation between local drug-dealers and Samantha Jones, a rebellious teenager from Coal Hill School. 

But the Doctor soon finds the TARDIS transporting him to various other places in order to recover all his memories - and that involves seeing seven strangely-familiar faces...

Verdict 

The Eight Doctors is just magnificent and it now ranks as my all time favourite Doctor Who novel. I just loved it from start to finish and it was real joy to read this weekend. I don't even know where to start because there's just so much to talk about! I'm actually quite amazed that everything fitted in to the 280 pages that we had. Starting off where The Movie left off, Terrance Dicks made no secret that he did not like that brief revival story but used its elements extremely effectively for the basis of this story. After the Master's demise into the Eye of Harmony in the TARDIS, the Eighth Doctor was now afresh and safe from having his remaining regenerations stolen. But unsurprisingly where the Master is concerned, he had left one more trap even after death. With it, just a little tear survived on the Eye, the Eighth Doctor was once again suffering from amnesia. This time though he had lost nearly all of his memories and knew very little about himself and his surroundings. All he knew was that he was called the Doctor and he was inside the TARDIS. He was told to trust the TARDIS and after all they had been through, why wouldn't he? He was led back to the original control room which did surprise me and from there he left his time machine in charge. The idea of the Doctor having to meet all seven of his previous incarnations to regain his memories is a mightily intriguing idea and I thought it worked wonderfully. Some critics may ask why he didn't just immediately go to the Seventh Doctor, but it was so much more fun this way! We started way back during An Unearthly Child at the moment where the Doctor wanted to return to the TARDIS but his granddaughter and new companions wanted to help with an injury. This was probably the briefest of meetings between the two Doctors but I thought it was outstanding. Once the Eighth Doctor had his memories returned from the life of the First Doctor, he was quite critical of his former self's actions, and quite rightly so. The First Doctor was going to commit murder in a scene we didn't see on TV! The Eighth Doctor interjected though and challenged the First Doctor of still being influenced by Gallifrey and thinking Time Lords were above everybody else. That was magical and gave the First Doctor quite a lot to think about. We then headed to the scene of The War Games which I just loved and we got a nice little alternate scene featuring the Eighth Doctor crossing war zones. The reference to the Romans spotting the ambulance going back through the mist was described beautifully and I just loved that we seemed to even get a little bit of an extract from the Target novelisation with the moment the Second Doctor called in the Time Lords. It was magical reading Jamie and Zoe learning the truth about the Doctor and it has made want to read that very novel soon! The moment the Second and Eighth Doctors minds touched and the memories returned was fantastic and I loved the advice of the latter in showing the Time Lords all the good he had done since leaving Gallifrey. It really was magnificent. I think my perhaps by favourite segment of the novel was that featuring the Third Doctor. It was fantastic as we actually got an extension to The Sea Devils! It actually continued right where part six of that story finished off with the Master escaping by boat. We immediately had the Doctor and UNIT tracking him and a great little adventure took place! The Master didn't take the boat very far and instead hitched a ride to Portsmouth. Or so it would seem. In an unexpected turn of events, we were returned to Devil's End which was of course the scene of The Dæmons. I thought that was superb and I must say that Dicks captured the characterisation of Roger Delgado's Master excellently. To be fair though, I didn't think he characterised one character badly. He is the master of the Doctor Who novel after all. It was entertaining and we had some comedic scenes with Jo and the Brigadier, especially once the Eighth Doctor arrived.  The grandfather clock that seemed to accompany him though was of course not his. The Master once again escaped but the Eighth Doctor was getting closer to being whole again with the memories of his first three incarnations returned to him. I loved the foreshadowing of Planet of the Spiders during this segment of the novel very much. What I didn't expect from the story was for the Time Lords to play such a big part! This novel really did have everything. President Flavia was great and I liked how she obviously had respect for the Doctor and gave him some leeway on the fact that he was breaking the Laws of Time to meet his past selves. The tracking of his activity was really good and kept us nearly updated with the Doctor's progress, that was until he left the perimeters of being tracked as we headed to the scene of State of Decay and a meeting with the Fourth Doctor. We got another extension with this story here and I thought it was really good as well! Xan was a very good character and I liked the dynamic in the relationship between the Fourth Doctor and Romana II. I was overjoyed that the Eighth Doctor's arrival saw him interact with Romana for quite some time. They get on really well and once he met the Fourth Doctor, the two Doctors worked very well together trying to put an end to the legacy of the Three Who Rule. It seemed they finally achieved just that with the help of a convenient fire. The Eighth Doctor had over half of his memories returned now and seemed to exit E-Space rather easily! That's where we headed to the aftermath of The Five Doctors and we were met with the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. They had gone to their original destination of the Eye of Orion for a bit of relaxation. That's exactly what they didn't get though! Prior to the Eighth Doctor arriving, the Fifth Doctor and his companions had to deal with a deadly Raston Warrior Robot making a quick return. This was of course thanks to Ryoth and the CIA on Gallifrey but once that wasn't enough, and thanks genius on both Doctors' behalf in using Buridan's ass theory to put the robot out of action, the Sontarans arrived in a marvellous chapter ending. I wasn't expecting them to appear so that was a real treat. As if that wasn't enough once the Robot and Sontarans had destroyed each other, a Drashig turned up! That was quickly sent back to who it came from with deadly consequences but now the Doctor was beginning to be whole again. He was getting close to normality now but things would soon take a spin in the wrong direction after the memories of the Fifth Doctor were restored. We then headed to the chaotic scenery of The Trial of a Time Lord during an unseen alternate timeline where the Valeyard was attempting to kill the Sixth Doctor early! The Eighth Doctor came to the rescue though and ensured this timeline never became reality. We met a Flavia after she was deposed of her first presidency and we actually learned a great deal about the Doctor's trial. It was revealed all to be a ploy by the CIA which involved the President and the High Council. Thanks to an inquiry of their own, the Sixth and Eighth Doctors were able to ensure that the Doctor was not convicted of any crimes. His freedom was restored and for the Eighth Doctor, all of his memories were nearly regained. Just one more stop, and it would be the most dangerous. The segment with the Seventh Doctor was intriguing as it didn't take place during or in the aftermath of a television story and instead we saw the previous incarnation to the current close before the events of The Movie. I was quite surprised by the thoughts of the Seventh Doctor and it seemed that by becoming quite aged in this regeneration and the lack of companion had really gotten to him and he wanted to either die or cure. He set travels for Metebelis III, a place where he died once before and very nearly did so here if it wasn't for the Eighth Doctor's arrival. It was short but sweet and I loved the Eighth Doctor warning the Seventh about upcoming events with the Master. The placement of the Master leading up to The Movie with the Deathworm was magnificent and tried to go some way to fixing some of the continuity problems. However, Dicks himself created some contradictions himself with Borusa (contradicted in Engines of War), Sontara being the home planet of the Sontarans (it has of course now been established as Sontar) and the immediate return to the original console room, something not in line with Storm Warning. However, he made reference to an abundance of stories, such as; The Three Doctors, The Two Doctors, Attack of the Cybermen, The Invasion of Time, The Romans, Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Mind of Evil, The Claws of Axos, Terror of the Autons, The Web of Fear, The Ambassadors of Death, Day of the Daleks, Inferno, Spearhead from Space, Colony in Space, The Curse of Peladon, Full Circle, Mawdryn Undead, Arc of Infinity, The Deadly Assassin and Survival. And they were just the ones I picked up upon! I'm sure there were plenty more. As if all this wasn't enough, the novel actually kicked off a brand new range and introduced a new companion in Sam who I have immediately taken a liking to. I'd like to now do this range's novels in order but I think price and time will derail any hopes of that which is a shame. But for now, I have no issues with jumping around the range now I've read the opening story. It was just wonderful. 

Rating: 10/10