Eighth Doctor comic stories

Eighth Doctor comic stories are two ranges of comic series that featured the adventures of the eighth incarnation of The Doctor, the protagonist of the hit sc-fi series, Doctor Who.

Two separate series of original comic strips featuring the Eighth Doctor (and thus the likeness of actor Paul McGann) were published during the character's original tenure. Radio Times published a weekly comic strip for a time. There was also the standard Doctor Who Magazine strip. The two series introduced brand-new companions, although the Eighth Doctor's only on-screen companion, Grace Holloway, also appeared twice. There were also cameo appearances by companions from past DWM series, and The Master was resurrected.

During the latter period of the DWM's comic stories, the stories switched from black and white strips to full colour.

One of the strip's most noted fans was Russell T Davies, the future executive producer and head writer of the revived Doctor Who series. Davies had proposed that the Magazine's strip regenerate McGann's Doctor at the conclusion of "The Flood". Whilst a draft was prepared to include the regeneration, the idea was abandoned as the Magazine team had reservations about taking such an important element from the television series should McGann ever be used in the series for flashback purposes. Eventually, the decision was taken to simply end "The Flood" on a note similar to Survival, with the Eighth Doctor and Destrii's later adventures left a mystery to the readers.

It has been speculated that Davies loosely adapted elements from "The Flood" in his later Doctor Who storylines "The Parting of the Ways" and "Army of Ghosts" (in particular the Doctor absorbing the time/space vortex to save Rose Tyler's life, triggering his regeneration, and the ghost-shifting infiltration of the Cybermen on an unsuspecting public).