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.

[10] The Big Finish Productions website describes the Eighth Doctor as "an enthusiastic figure who explores the universe for the sheer love of it", always surviving on the strength of his excellent improvisational skills rather than preparing elaborate plans.

The site states that he is "passionate, direct, sympathetic and emotionally accessible", but notes that these traits are "balanced by occasional feelings of self-doubt and weariness of his endless battles against evil.

While transporting the remains of his longtime nemesis the Master to Gallifrey, the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is caught in the crossfire of a gang shoot-out in 1999 San Francisco's Chinatown, USA.

The Eighth Doctor initially wore a Wild Bill Hickok costume made up of a double-breasted frock coat made from forest green velvet with peaked lapels, a double-breasted waistcoat of silver grey paisley with a shawl collar and a gold fob watch, a white shirt, a battleship grey cravat, and moss green trousers intended for a New Year's fancy dress party, which he liberated from the lockers at the San Francisco hospital where he regenerated.

This costume was intended to reference the character's original one, with the long green coat and grey waistcoat; after the positive reception of "The Night of the Doctor", it has been featured on many Big Finish Productions' audio plays set during the Time War and has also been used as promotional material.

While exploring the issue of the war, the Doctor discovered that his Sam was not the original Samantha Jones; rather, her biodata had been manipulated by an outside agency with the intent to mould her into a prosaic distraction for him (Alien Bodies).

The close dynamic between the pair was shifted with the introduction of Fitz Kreiner, a sixties bar singer incorrectly suspected of matricide, and a sort of younger brother to the Doctor.

While his immune system would allow him to resist the virus for a time, it would gain a greater hold on him with each subsequent regeneration, until it would finally transform him into a faction member in his eighth incarnation (Interference: Book One and Two).

In a final confrontation with his future self, the Doctor resolved the timeline conflict by channelling the TARDIS's built-up energies through its weapon systems, thereby destroying both the Faction Paradox fleet and Gallifrey itself.

Back in 1889, meanwhile, the Doctor awoke in a railway carriage to discover no memory as to his real identity, and no possessions save a small, shapeless box– what was left of the TARDIS after its power loss— and a note, simply stating "Meet me in St. Louis', 8 February 2001.

He experienced a particular funk in the 1950s, feeling that his efforts to learn about his past were pointless, but his interest in life was re-inspired when he was recruited to defeat his old enemies the Players as they sought to escalate the Cold War (Endgame).

With the aid of new companion Anji Kapoor, the Doctor and Fitz completed the TARDIS's regeneration, dealt with a race of invading aliens, then set back again to exploring time and space (Escape Velocity).

During this adventure, the Doctor appeared to become a bit colder and calculating, sacrificing an innocent man to escape a pocket universe and even leaving alternate versions of Fitz and Anji to die to preserve continuity.

However, in the end, their sacrifices paid off, the Doctor managing to stabilise reality by resolving a paradox that had been hanging over them since the beginning of the crisis, and then, with Sabbath's help, they confronted his masters; the Council of Eight, mysterious beings who gained power by foreseeing likely future events and then ensuring that they came to pass.

Big Finish released a 50th-anniversary story in 2013, The Light at the End, in which the Master (Geoffrey Beevers) implements a plot to trap and destroy all eight incarnations of the Doctor by keeping him on Gallifrey.

Companions Susan (Carole Ann Ford), Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Vicki (Maureen O'Brien), Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh), Polly (Anneke Wills), Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury), Jo Grant (Katy Manning), Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding), and Turlough (Mark Strickson) also appeared in the audio drama.

With the aid of his companions the Doctor escapes the trap, overcomes his emotional burden, learns that he has been purged of Zagreus, and returns to his normal universe with Charley and C'rizz (The Next Life).

The set introduced a new companion, Molly O'Sullivan (played by Ruth Bradley), an Irish Voluntary Aid Detachment nursing assistant in World War I.

He, Liv and new companion Helen Sinclair (played by Hattie Morahan) hunt for the insane Time Lord known as the Eleven, all of whose past personalities are active in his mind at once.

Ravenous is a series of four four-part box sets which are a sequel to Doom Coalition, initially exploring the Doctor and Liv's efforts to find Helen after she is trapped with the Eleven.

The Ravenous' attack on the TARDIS has made it inoperable so the trio move into the Doctor's house on Baker Street, which has since been turned into flats and already occupied by several tenants, including Torchwood agent Tania Bell.

In volume three, the Daleks appear to have been destroyed with the Time Lords surviving the conflict, which the Doctor discovers to be the work of a benevolent manifestation of the Valeyard (Michael Jayston).

Bliss does not appear in the fifth volume, with no explanation of her whereabouts, and the Doctor is travelling with an alternate version of his great-grandson, Alex Campbell (Sonny McGann), rescued from the parallel universe.

The Doctor was specifically sent to times and places that would undermine him – discovering he had upset the course of Grace Holloway's life in 2001, encountering an alien race with motivations uncomfortably similar to his which caused death and horror in 17th Century Japan, and almost killing the benevolent Kroton by mistake.

In 17th Century Japan, the Doctor's attempt to save the life of samurai Katsura Sato, a friend of Izzy, left the man inadvertently immortal and thus robbed of both an honourable death and any sense of empathy.

Unable to prevent their tragic end – self-destructing to escape the machinations of the malevolent psychic Kata-Phobus -, the two of them were distracted and caught off-guard when Helioth and Hassana, two of the energy-beings called the Horde, abducted Izzy thinking she was Destrii.

However, BBC Wales vetoed the Year One arc and indicated the Ninth Doctor could only be shown travelling with Rose Tyler, Hickman and writer Scott Gray eventually decided not to depict the regeneration as they would have been unable to give Destrii a proper departure.

In July 2024, Big Finish announced that Paul McGann and India Fisher would appear on stage to perform a live recording of a new play - The Stuff of Legend, written by Robert Valentine - to mark 25 years of producing Doctor Who audio dramas.

They were joined by Alex Macqueen as The Master, Nicholas Briggs voicing the Daleks, and Nisha Nayar and Carolyn Seymour sharing a dual role as young and old versions of Emily Barnfather respectively.