Occasional saga about one's party given a lift (8)
I believe the answer is:
episodic
'occasional' is the definition.
(I know that occasional can be written as episodic)
'saga about one's party given a lift' is the wordplay.
'saga' becomes 'epic' (I've seen this before).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'one's' becomes 'i's' (Roman numeral).
'party' becomes 'do' (do is a kind of party).
'given a lift' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'do' back-to-front is 'od'.
'is'+'od'='isod'
'epic' placed around 'isod' is 'EPISODIC'.
(Other definitions for episodic that I've seen before include "Occurring irregularly or in instalments" , "Serialised" , "Discursive" , "Occurring irregularly - is copied accordingly" , "piecemeal" .)