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TARDIS Guide
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Overview

Released

Monday, June 2, 1997

Written by

Terrance Dicks

Pages

280

Story Type

Multi-Doctor, New Companion Introduction

Time Travel

Past, Present

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Amnesia, Reverse the polarity, Space Station, Vampires

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

E-Space, Vampire planet, Eye of Orion, Space Station Zenobia, Earth, England, Gallifrey, London, Metebelis III

Synopsis

Recuperating after the trauma of his recent regeneration, the Eighth 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...

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The Eight Doctors

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11 reviews

A bit of a jumble, narratively. The central conceit is actually not a bad way to start a range, a sort of “best of” to familiarize newcomers with what’s come prior is actually quite sensible. Cracks only start to show when considering the range’s titular character. The Eighth Doctor feels distinctly like a nonentity, rattled to and fro in a cosmic game of pinball without much volition. He’s a permanent victim of circumstance, perpetually going through the motions.

The Sixth (“a big, powerful fellow with a tendency to put on weight”) and the Seventh (described as “[s]mall, dark and not particularly handsome”) Doctors randomly catch several strays, which, though funny, felt oddly out of place. I understand this was to differentiate each incarnation, I just found it particularly jutted out to me in comparison to every other description.

I would consider this an unnecessary entry, if you’re not like me and you don’t feel the need to go for completion, I’d say to skip it entirely, as it doesn’t set any real expectations nor points of interest for the following books.

TheTruestRassilonian

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Review last edited on 22-03-25

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This review contains spoilers!

it doesn't work as a main-series book (especially as the first of the range) but it's fun! i liked the writing style a lot. there were a lot of underutilized plot threads (i wonder what happened to baz?) but all-in-all, pretty decent, even if nothing to write home about.

evilsophie2002

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Review last edited on 27-01-25

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[cross-posting from my goodreads]

is this a good book? not particularly.
did i get very happy, blushed, and said “OMG IT’S YOU, HIIII” every time any of the Doctors and companions showed up? yes, yes i did.

the story does hold, although it’s not very inspired. the same goes for the writing. but it’s only the first book of the series, the mise en place, so to speak. it was enjoyable enough, so i’m hyped for the rest of this series.

mndy

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Review last edited on 20-01-25

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Ngl my journey into the Classic Who started with this book. YEAH. I was 10 and I randomly decided that I should start the Eighth Doctor Adventures. And there was no moment in this story when I would question if I should've watched the episodes first. No, I was really fine with everything, and it only encouraged me to start watching the show. I would even say it helped me to have a bit of expectations and a little information about some of the characters and stories. I also slightly fell in love with Eight before even seeing the movie. I could call him my bisexual awakening I suppose? Lol. Anyway, I reread it a year ago and damn it was strange. Not the best start. Can't say it was THAT awful but I just think it is very unnecessary and its only purpose in life was introducing my 10 yo self to the classic who and the wilderness era

MrFinch

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Review last edited on 16-01-25

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Pretty entertaining for the most part and it’s nice to see how older incarnations interact with the more “dashing” 8th Doctor, but the entire concept is fundamentally flawed.

Probably not the best idea for the first story in the EDAs to be largely focused on completely different characters that come and go every few chapters.

connorpurnell99

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Review last edited on 10-01-25

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