rpanons | Happy Holidays

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I'm toying with the idea of picking up Eight somewhere, but playing any version of the Doctor is intimidating as hell so I'd appreciate any advice people have. I don't have a canon point decided on yet, but probably either from the TV movie itself or early on in the radio plays, before the Divergent arc.

Also, since I have yet to see anything of Doctors 1-7, I'd really love any advice on which serials to watch to at least bring me up to speed on the basics for them.

I'm so sorry, I hadn't poked my head into this section recently! Eight is actually a rather nice Doctor to play, and he'll be a very different Doctor to play depending on just how much before the Divergent arc you take him from. If you take him from, say, the end of Zagreus/beginning of Scherzo, you'll have a lot angrier Eight on your hands than before that, when he's still mostly the happy puppy.

He's really great to play because you can get a huuuge amount of depth out of him, without having to worry about being quite so hyperactive as, say, Ten or Eleven. They're both great Doctors, but they can wear one out after playing them for a while. Eight is a bit more shy than that. Not completely bashful, but soft-spoken, not quite as interested in getting in everyone's grill like Ten and Eleven are. He's also quite a bit more aware than those two about what's rude and what isn't. He may forget now and then, but it's just a general rule of thumb that Eight has a lot more decorum and won't be grabbing things to put in his mouth, for example. He's a gentleman, after all. And yet...he still has that wonder about him. (At least up until the Daleks pretty much ruin his life in the most horrible way, and then he becomes a man with less wonder and more a desperate need to find hope...but you don't have to worry about that, if you stick to the canon points you're thinking of. That comes much later.)

I can't quite give you any advice based on my RP, because I play him really far into his life, after "To the Death". He's a lot more broken than he is earlier in his life. A lot.

If there's anything from what I said you want to ask about, go for it! :) I can babble on about Eight for ages.

As for serials to watch from 1-7, these would be my suggestions:

1 - An Unearthly Child (or at least, just the first episode, as the rest of the serial is kind of dull), The Aztecs, The Romans, The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Time Meddler (which is kind of essential if you want more info on the story arc in Series 4 of the later Eight audios)

2 - Tomb of the Cybermen, The Ice Warriors, The Enemy of the World, The War Games

3 - Spearhead from Space, The Daemons, The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Planet of the Spiders

4 - The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius (definitely essential since Morbius comes back as a baddie in Eight's time...and you'll get to learn about the Sisterhood of Karn), City of Death, Logopolis

5 - Kinda, Earthshock, Mawdryn Undead, Terminus, Enlightenment, The Five Doctors, Planet of Fire, Caves of Androzani

6 - Attack of the Cybermen, Mark of the Rani, and then just get all of Trial of a Time Lord series. (Let's just say Colin Baker got screwed royally. You might be better off just listening to his audios.)

7 - Paradise Towers (well, I like it, damn it!), Remembrance of the Daleks, Battlefield, Ghost Light, The Curse of Fenric

Hopefully this is in some way helpful.

Hi! Thanks for all the advice, it definitely is helpful. I am thinking it is probably going to be quite a bit earlier before the Divergent arc, yes, since right now I think I'm more interested in playing him in the "happy puppy" stage :P

And I'm happy for all of the babbling - I've really only just been introduced to Eight recently, and my general reaction has pretty much been "why is there not more of him". (It is awesome that we have the radio plays, but god it's sad that he never got an actual tv series). Anyhow, I think some specific things I'd also like to ask about are to do with how you manage some of the things that apply to any version of the Doctor, like his intelligence and tendency for ridiculous amounts of techno-babble, not to mention the sheer history of the character. That's probably a lot of what I find the most intidimiating about the Doctor, and what has me worrying about how well I'd be able to pull him off.

Also, how do you reconcile some of the plot holes/inconsistencies in the TV movie with the rest of the series?

And thank you for the serial suggestions! I actually did just watch the "An Unearthly Child" serial yesterday - but I'll definitely add the rest to my "to watch" list. (It's a list that has me wondering when the hell I'll be able to finish it all, but hey, gotta start somewhere, right?)

It isn't really too difficult. Most other players are pretty good about not expecting a huge amount of knowledge. However, doing research will help a great deal. If you have something you want the Doctor to wax eloquent about, just look it up on the internet. It may not be 100% accurate, but most other players won't notice. If there's specific canon knowledge you're looking for, the TARDIS Wiki is usually helpful.

As for the plot holes, well...it just takes a bit of creativity. Sometimes you may need to just use Eight's unfortunate memory issues to get around it. The one thing I do know is that the whole "half-human" bit has been retconned out several times in all different media, and it's most often claimed to have been a trick Eight pulled on the Master. Who knows why he'd do that, but it's a way to get around it.

That's good to hear! Especially since the Doctor would be a first for me, in terms of playing techno-babble type characters.

Well, I suppose I could always just claim that Eight's memory and regeneration issues just let him temporarily very confused about what species he was? XD (I have seen mentions of that "just a trick" thing around, although I can't really see exactly what said supposed trick was meant to do. It didn't really seem to impede the Master any way)

Ha, whatever works for you, anon. :) I personally haven't even had to address the issue so far, so you may never have to come up with anything.

Let's hope so! Guess I'll just have to see :P

Piping in to say I personally think The Daleks is a very good serial for One too. A lot of the reason is because it's the first one the Daleks appear in, but I think it's a good story overall too. And the first appearance of the Cybermen is The Tenth Planet if you'd like to have a look at that too. And it's One's regeneration serial. c:

Thanks! I think the Dalek's might be one I've already got added to my "To Watch" list, but it is good to know which serial is the Cybermen's origin. I have been told too that it's a good idea to watch all of the regeneration serials too, to get an idea of where each Doctor came from and how they started, so regeneration stories are definitely ones for my list as well.

Oh, yes, regeneration stories! Good, good. You will love Five's it's absolutely wonderful.

Awesome, I shall look forward to it!

Gooooood.

~~By wonderful I of course mean it's kind of awful and painful ENJOY~~

~~But of course! "Wonderful" means "kind of awful and painful", right? Riiiight?~~

~~Correctomundo!~~

Happy Holidays

The Eighth Doctor | Doctor Who

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