The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)

The Eighth Doctor is a fictional character, the eighth incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann. Though he appeared in only one TV feature, his adventures are extensively portrayed in other media.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. McGann portrays the eighth such incarnation, a passionate, enthusiastic and eccentric character. His only companion in the television movie is Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), a medical doctor whose surgery is responsible for triggering his regeneration. In the continued adventures of the character depicted in audio dramas, novels and comic books he travels alongside numerous other companions, including self styled "Edwardian Adventuress" Charley, the alien Destrii and present-day humans Lucie and Sam.

The Eighth Doctor is the first since the original incarnation (portrayed by the late William Hartnell) not to have his face appear in the opening title sequence. This trend would continue throughout the revived series with the Ninth and Tenth Doctors.

The Eighth Doctor made his first and only television appearance in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, the first time the Doctor had returned to television screens since the end of the original series in 1989. Intended as a backdoor pilot for a new television series on the Fox Network, the movie was inadequately marketed and advertised (and in some markets even pre-empted by televised sporting events), ultimately leading to poor US ratings. In the UK, however, it was received well, attracting over 9 million viewers and generally positive reviews. It was also generally well received in Australia.

Although the movie failed to spark a new television series, the Eighth Doctor's adventures continued in various licensed spin-off media, notably BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures novels, audio plays from Big Finish Productions, and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. As these stories spanned the nine years between 1996 and the debut of the new television series in 2005, some consider the Eighth Doctor one of the longest-serving of the Doctors. He is unarguably the longest-serving Doctor in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip. In the wake of the positive reaction to the revived television series in 2005, several of the Eighth Doctor's Big Finish audio dramas were also broadcast on BBC7 radio in an edited form. The trailers for these broadcasts explained that these adventures took place before the destruction of Gallifrey as described in the revived TV series. In 2007, the BBC7 aired a new series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures, created specifically for radio broadcast. Paul McGann has continued to portray the Eighth Doctor in the various audio spinoffs.

The canonicity of the spin-off media with respect to the television series and to each other is open to interpretation (the "Beginner's Guide to Doctor Who" on the BBC's classic Doctor Who website suggests this may be due to the Time War). It has been suggested that the Eighth Doctor's adventures in three different forms (novels, audio, and comics) take place in three separate continuities. The discontinuities were made explicit in the audio drama Zagreus. In response, it has become increasingly common to consider the three ranges separately. The final Eighth Doctor Adventures novel, The Gallifrey Chronicles, obliquely references this split in timelines, even suggesting that the split results in the three alternative forms of the Ninth Doctor (a reference to the fact three different versions of the incarnation have appeared in various media). Even so, all matters of canonicity remain typically unclear.

Despite the fact the Eighth Doctor appeared on television only once, he is the most prolific of all the Doctors (to date) in terms of number of individual stories published in novel, novella, short story and audio form. In 2007, the Eighth Doctor finally made a second appearance (of sorts) within the television series' continuity. In the episode "Human Nature" he appears on-screen as a sketch (alongside other incarnations) in the book A Journal of Impossible Things by John Smith. In 2008 he appeared again as a brief image in "The Next Doctor" along with every other incarnation up to that time.