Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
I don't believe that man's ever been to medical school!

Penny: Your "arch-enemy"?
Sheldon: Yes, the Dr. Doom to my Mr. Fantastic. The Dr. Octopus to my Spider-Man. The Dr. Sivana to my Captain Marvel... You know, it's amazing how many supervillains have advanced degrees. Graduate schools should do a better job of screening those people out.

—The Big Bang Theory

Science created the atom bomb, it unleashes monsters, it angers the gods -- Science Is Bad. As a corollary to this, intelligence in media is often used for evil, or belongs to the Mad Scientist.

At least half of the characters in Comic Books whose names begin with "Doctor" are evil. Even the good Doctors are often weird, being prone to mad science, a blind pursuit of forbidden knowledge, or proving their critics wrong.

Actual practicing medical doctors are usually exempt from the evil evil title, probably because it's hard not to get behind a surgeon or doctor who actively works at saving people's lives, even if they're a jerk. Those who aren't in a Medical Drama tend to get less slack on this... In a nutshell, it's a mitigating factor, not an exception. (See "Mad Doctor")

Interestingly, it's actually possible to get a doctorate in the study of evil. The field is called Ponerology, although very few universities actually offer such a degree. May or may not be issued by Gannon University. Definitely issued by the Academy of Evil.

Compare Mad Scientist, which is often synonymous with this. See also Not That Kind of Doctor. Not to be confused with Morally-Ambiguous Ducktorate (though it's also related to evil). For an evil doctor whose field is dentistry or psychology, see Depraved Dentist or Psycho Psychologist, respectively.

Examples of Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate include:

Anime and Manga

  • Mazinger Z: Dr. Hell is a Mad Scientist and the Big Bad. He also was a Large Ham and a Complete Monster. To be fair, knowledge or science did not make him evil; Abusive Parents and shitty early life experiences convinced him Humans Are the Real Monsters. he devoted himself to learn Science because it helped him to keep himself sane. However, after his sanity finally slipped out due to too much abuse, he decided using his scientifical knwoledge to make everyone pay.
  • Most of the adult characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion have doctorates in something. Examples such as Kozo Fuyutsuki (Gendo Ikari's Yes-Man (but with his own reasons), Yui Ikari (The Chessmaster, according to some readings), Ritsuko Akagi ('cause committing mass 2nd degree murder the dummy system is a sane act) and Naoko Akagi (just pure crazy, up to and including murdering Rei I for calling her a "hag"). And all of them are pricks in one way or another. Hey, it is Evangelion after all...
  • Dr. Jackal aka Kuroudou Akabane, from GetBackers is quite amoral...though not really "evil" (he only kills those who get in his way, and has never been known to harm women or children). Likes to slice people up with his special scalpels and giggles in a rather unique way while doing so. His backstory shows that he was a dedicated surgeon in the past, but then his best friend's son died despite all his efforts to save him...
  • The Doctor from Black Cat. Evil. Although technically his superpower is healing (e.g. reattaching limbs), he's much more interested in the pursuit of knowledge, to the point where he's perfectly happy to conduct human experiments and attempt to vivisect a little girl.
  • "Doctor" from Yu Yu Hakusho (Chapter Black saga): Evil, does a Heel Face Turn. Is also an actual medical doctor. And Dr. Ichigaki, an evil, scheming Mad Scientist.
    • The Doctor is freaking insane when Yusuke fights him. He kills at least 10 people, slices open one of the good guys' spines, slashes another one's stomach, and is generally evil as hell. He also controls his body chemistry so that he can stay conscious the entire time while he's unleashing killer bugs. And releases endorphins so he feels good as his arm is getting shot off. He eventually is knocked out/dies briefly, but is brought back by Genkai.
      • Because although he was extremely evil, Yusuke at this point in his moral development can't handle killing a human, although killing demons has never provoked his conscience in the least. (Later on after his genes activate and he's a demon, he offers to go find his ancestor Raizen some people to eat because he doesn't want the old guy to die, so apparently he gets over this.)
      • Doctor never actually does a formal Heel Face Turn, he just gets off Sensui's psycho train and disappears into the world with a new face courtesy of his plastic surgery skills, chuckling. Later, it is mentioned in the voiceover narration that he opened a dojo dedicated to pyschic surgery.
  • Doctor Muraki from Yami no Matsuei who we are assured IS a real doctor and we do occasionally see doing doctor-type things ... when he isn't committing murder, rape and tormenting the main characters...
    • One of the doctor-like things he does is run a black-market organ-trading ring on a cruise liner. Another is encourage the cloning research of a protégé of his grandfather's...by killing women and cutting off locks of their hair for samples.
  • Doctor Tomoe: Evil, possessed, had a Tyke Bomb that ended up on the good side. Does a Heel Face Turn in the anime at the end of his arc.
  • Dr. Nii Jianyi from Saiyuki: so very, very evil. The lead scientist working for Gyokuman Koushou, He's activly trying to resurect Gyumao, an action that will likely bring about the end-of-days, because he's bored. Plus, as it turns out, He's actually a Sanzo, with the power to negate existance. He's also responsible for some of the major evils in the series, such as Brainwashed Kougaiji and Kami-Sama to name a few, particularly creepy, examples.
  • The Doctor, aka William Conrad, from Trigun. Evil, although reluctantly so.
  • The Doktor (sic) from Hellsing: Evil. Part of a (Neo-)Nazi organisation, makes vampires and all that fun stuff. To complete the evil combo he also has a sixth finger. (you only notice it if you put attention in his hands as this is never mentioned in the manga)
  • Cioccolata from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, very, very evil, he became a doctor because he liked seeing people die, and often murdered his own patients for enjoyment, after taking them off anesthesia so they would suffer more. He even falsely diagnosed perfectly healthy people as sick so he could torture them. The narration of his backstory emphasizes that he is a former doctor.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • Doctor Gero. Evil, the Big Bad of the Android Arc, and to put it bluntly, a lunatic. His degree is likely in the field of engineering, and he is acknowledged as a truly brilliant scientist, if only he'd stop making evil androids.
    • GT's Dr. Myuu. Definitely evil, created the parasitic Baby. Later, teamed up with Gero to concoct an evil plan that allowed Hell to invade Earth.
    • On the good side, we've got Bulma's father Dr. Briefs, who is mildly eccentric (he delays an interstellar manned space journey for weeks to install a cappuccino machine in the craft), but generally helpful.
  • One Piece:
  • Dr. Jail Scaglietti of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. Big Bad inter-dimensional criminal Mad Scientist who specializes in biological research and manipulation. Definitely evil.
  • Scythe Master from Phantom of Inferno is eventually revealed to have a doctorate in psychology. It explains how he was able to erase Ellen and Reiji's memories, and brainwash the Zahlenschwestern into being, though it's subverted because he doesn't use the title of "Doctor".
  • Black Butler has a doctor in the manga who seems relatively normal and kind. He made prosthetic limbs for circus performers who had lived on the streets before being rescued by Baron Kelvin. Nice, right? Sure, until we learn that those wonderfully crafted prosthetic limbs were made from bones. Bones of children that were captured and kept in cages until more bones were needed. When Ciel learned this he was NOT happy.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist has quite a few doctorms since alchemy is a field of study as well as a practical military strength. Most of these doctors were working for the shadow government to create Philosopher's Stones using prisoners of war...but special mention goes to Gold-Toothed Doctor, the man responsible for the creation of Wrath, the implanting procses for which took the lives of around 11 test subjects.
    • Shou Tucker, who made his own wife into a talking chimera to get his State Alchemist license, and made his daughter into one to keep it. In the manga omakes, he is the only character to end up going to Hell.
  • Franken Fran. She isn't so much morally ambiguous as much as she is determined to keep you alive through any means. Borderlines on this when she's feeling spiteful of someone who wronged her. She even takes requests!
  • The manga EDD or Eliminate Dangerous Doctors is this trope incarnate. Basically it involves an organization whose sole purpose is to rid Morally Ambiguous Doctorates through "questionable" means (and by questionable I mean outright illegal, including murder, invasion of privacy and espionage).
  • In Cage of Eden, the closest thing the series has to a Big Bad is the doctor who holds the Pyramid group in thrall with a combination of threats and psychological tricks. He gained power in the first place by spreading a disease, and then only giving the cure to those who swore loyalty to him. Except for the previous leader and said leader's daughter. Those he watched die.
  • Dr. Rei Takashima of Deadman Wonderland is very, very evil. The eponymous prison forces inmates to fight in a Deadly Game where losers have their organs harvested (while still alive, assuming they survive the game), and Takashima is the one who does this, loving her job far too much. She has a device resembling a slot machine that is used to decide which part of her victim's body she gets to take, and she's actually upset when the result is an organ the victim can regenerate - a common trait among these inmates. She also does experiments on them simply for fun.
  • Doctor Namba from Pokémon is an evil mastermind who seems to be behind most of Butch and Cassidy's schemes, including the capture of Lugia and its child. Even James and Jesse won't side with him.

Comic Books

  • Doctor Doom: Evil? Yeah. You have to be pretty evil for your father to make his servant promise to always protect the world from you, when you're a little boy.
    • He's closer to a Well-Intentioned Extremist and Noble Demon if anything, also not a real doctor.
    • Note that at best, while he's certainly done enough original work to deserve several doctorates, he's got a degree from the University of Latveria after he took over the country. Remember, he was disfigured when still a student at "State U." and expelled for causing the explosion. Oddly enough, he goes by doctor, while the legitimately multi-doctorate-degreed Reed Richards goes by mister in his super-id.
    • And then there's Doom's lesser-known cousin, Doctor Bob Doom, DDS, a one-shot She Hulk villain.
  • Doctor Octopus: Ambiguously evil. Does the right thing in the movie.
  • Doctor Stephen Strange: Formerly a brilliant but callous and egotistical young surgeon. Currently good, but eccentric, possessing a lot of arcane knowledge he just doesn't have time to explain to you, so stand back and let him save the day already.
  • Doctor Hugo Strange: Sane enough to hold a doctorate in psychiatry; too insane to perform surgery. (Monstrous enough to try anyway).
  • Doctor Light: Two of them in The DCU, the male one (who also uses his surname as his moniker - Arthur Light) is evil, the female one is good (but very abrasive). It helps that the female Dr. Light happens to be a practicing medical doctor as well as an all-around scientist.
  • Doctor Poison, Doctor Cyber, and (with what is probably the best super-villain name ever) Doctor Psycho: Evil.
  • Doctor Phosphorus: Evil... albeit with some justification.
  • The Crime Doctor: Evil ... depending on the continuity. Pre Crisis he was moderately evil; a gang boss who still held by his Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath. In Batman the Animated Series he was basically good, but pressurised into becoming a mob doctor by his evil brother. Post-Crisis, he's a Complete Monster.
  • Doctor Demonicus: Evil.
  • Doctor Alchemy: at least 50% evil.
  • The Doctor, from The Authority: Good, if often stoned and quite weird.
    • Though able and willing to do some really nasty stuff in the name of good. Taking an entire country and freezing it briefly in time so it and all its inhabitants end up frozen and exploded in space, anyone?
    • Several characters in the Wildstorm universe (where Authority takes place) have held the title of "The Doctor," but only the so-called "renegade" Doctor was explicitly said to be an actual doctor, being a heart surgeon. And, ironically, evil. The one given above was a (former) multi-media/dotcom billionaire and his successor was a Palestinian suicide bomber before getting his powers (also good).
  • Who could forget Dr. Quinzell, Dr. Isley, Dr. Crane and Dr. Elliot? [1]
    • Those may actually qualify as an aversion. While they ARE Doctors, their villainous names don't contain the title.
      • That aversion also applies to King Tut AKA The Pharoah. He is also a professor and most likely a Ph.D., but Doctor isn't part of his villainous name, either.
  • Doctor Sivana: Evil and loving it, not to mention stark raving insane.
  • Dr. Voronov: Evil, wants to use a virus in order to wipe out world-leaders. Doesn't hesitate to use children as part in his schemes.
  • Dr. Niles Caulder, AKA, the Chief. Technically a hero, but caused the disasters that made the Doom Patrol metahumans and made them superheroes just to study them. He also tries to keep them in line through emotional manipulation and the most likely empty promise of making them normal again.
  • Doc Magnus, creator of the Metal Men. Good, although he spent a Dork Age brainwashed into a would-be world conqueror.
  • Dr. J.W. Müller: Evil.
    • Dr. Krollspell: Introduced as evil (with a loose resemblance to Dr. Mengele), but later does a Heel Face Turn.
      • Out of self-preservation, because Rastapopoulos under the influence of his truth serum divulged what he planned to do with his henchmen after his scheme succeeded.]
  • Doctor Simon Hurt: Evil.
    • Inverted with Mr. Freeze; as a civilian he was Dr. Victor Fries, but as a villain he goes by Mr.
  • Ink Pen Mad Scientist "Mr. Negato" admits that he was denied his degree.
  • Doctor Destiny. Evil. Dream Weaver.
  • The Surgeon General of Give Me Liberty, a literal Mad Doctor.
  • Lampshaded in Pafman, when a centaur villain presents himself as "Professor Sagittarius" and the main character complains "(All villains) are either professors or doctors".
  • Doctor Impossible from the DCU. Evil.
  • Dr. Moira MacTaggert from the X-Men and related comics is a trusted ally of Professor Xavier, but is clearly an eccentric Well-Intentioned Extremist whose activities would not be approved of by any real-world medical firm; Polaris even called her a "Mad Scientist" in one story, though mostly in jest. While leading a splinter group on Muir Island, she engaged in ethically questionable methods of research like having her wards fight each other in brutal training simulations so she could study their powers. Granted, this wasn’t all-too worse than the Training From Hell the X-Men tend to go through, but by far the worst thing she did was alter Magneto’s genetic code via biochemistry to prevent him from using his powers for evil. Of course, he was furious when he found this out, going so far as to compare her actions to those of Josef Mengele; keep in mind that Magneto is a Holocaust survivor who witnessed Mengele's atrocities first hand.

Film

Buzz: Evil Doctor Porkchop!
Hamm: That's Mister Evil Doctor Porkchop to you!

  • Species has a whole team of these guys, who while not the villains of the film, have rather unsound ethics. However, only two, Dr Stephen Arden and Dr Laura Baker, actually have doctorates.
  • Splice has two scientists that are similar to those in Species, namely becoming gradually more obsessed with their creation to the point of throwing ethical considerations out of the window and even having sex with it.
  • Thank You for Smoking has the German scientist doing medical research for the tobacco companies.

Nick: He's been researching tobacco for thirty years and hasn't found any conclusive evidence linking cigarettes and cancer. This guy's a genius. The man could disprove gravity.

  • Perhaps Doc Brown escapes this trope because he's not known as "Dr. Brown."
  • The Doctor.[2] "Ve must hav ze brain on ze table! Chop-chop!" Even his little assistant-bots are designed so that he takes the data they've collected by impaling them to death (a rather inefficient use of resources, you'd think.) When asked what his doctorate is in, he has a tendency to reply with something like 'everything'.
  • House of 1000 Corpses's Dr. Satan. Evil through and through, but he is arguably the best-named doctor of all time.
  • Doctor Tolian Soran in Star Trek Generations was definitely NOT good. In fact he killed Captain Kirk.
  • Dr. Ellison from Joe Versus the Volcano; something of a Walking Spoiler here, suffice to say he clearly does not deserve his degree, but you don't find out why until the final scene.

Literature

  • Doctor Frankenstein: Byronic Hero, obsessive to the point of foolhardy.
    • Victor Frankenstein is a college dropout in the original book. The title is only given to him in later adaptations (as is the title Baron - his family do not hold a barony, and even if they did then the title would belong to his father).
    • In the sequels by Dean Koontz, Victor is indeed a doctor. Also, evil. Also, batshit insane.
  • The Scarlet Letter has Roger Chillingworth, the inquisitive and respected physician, uses his knowledge of medicine and people to manipulate Reverend Dimmesdale on several occasions to satisfy his own personal paranoia and nosy desires. Made more disturbing when he's shown to be getting an obvious pleasure from watching his patient and implied personal friend squirm at his instigation.
  • The Doctor (name not revealed), the illegally-practicing therapist from John Barth's novel The End of the Road: highly intelligent, sometimes very perceptive, but amoral, egotistical, and doesn't seem to be doing any good for his patients. Accidentally kills one of the main characters by performing an abortion, which he botches.
  • Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Eats people, but call him evil and he'll explain just how small-minded the idea of 'good and evil' is. And by the end of it you'll agree with him.
  • From the Discworld are Dr. Cruces, head of the Assassins' Guild and user of the gonne in Men at Arms; Dr. Whiteface and the intimidating and humourless leader of the Fools' Guild.
    • Note that, true to this trope, Dr is a non-doctorate academic title.
  • Doctor Impossible of Soon I Will Be Invincible: not necessarily evil, but he did get up to doomsday machine mark V so pretty morally ambiguous.
  • Dr Nikola, from the novels by Guy Bootby: Evil, but with a very likable disposition.
  • Dr Fu Manchu from the novels by Sax Rohmer, "with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government...the Yellow Peril incarnate in one man."
  • Dr. Cable of Uglies is a sadistic Super Soldier. In Specials she starts a war and almost takes over Tally's city.
  • The Great God Pan: Dr. Raymond is evil or at least extremely callous.
  • Dr.Cornelius Kramm: Villain with Good Publicity'
  • Kind of an overarching trope in Genteel Interbellum Setting mysteries, especially those by Christie herself, wherein doctors are very frequently murderers. Several books reference the Crippen case and other murderous doctors who were in the public consciousness at the time. Additionally, doctors had access to large amounts of barbiturates, giving them the perceived ability to murder by drug overdose and get away with it.
  • Dr Moreau?
  • Dr. Grimesby Roylott, from the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." Attempts to use a snake to kill his twin stepdaughters for their inheritance money, succeeding the first time; however, with a little help from Holmes, the snake turns on him before he can succeed again.
  • Green-Sky Trilogy: Dr. (D'ol) Wissen was definitely stated to have his hand in some...unpleasant matters, and implied to have his hand in many more including ordering the murder of his research partner Dr. Neshom.

Live-Action TV

  • Doctor Forrester: Evil and goofy.
  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Doctor Maggie Walsh slid from good to misguided to evil in short order before "being skewered by her own Frankenstein-like creation."
    • Although he is probably not a true doctor, Doc may be an example.
    • Also there was a season 6 villain called "The Doctor" who dealt in transporting violent demons. It turned out to Spike.
  • Angel's examples run the gamut from fantastical to the creepily mundane, such as Dr. Meltzer, an eye surgeon with animatronic limbs who stalks one of his patients.
    • Though he only appears in one scene, a "Dr. Gregson" is responsible for surgically removing the heart from James in "Heartthrob". This renders James (a vampire who is hell bent on avenging his lost love) totally impervious to stake attacks. Gregson uses his medical practice as a cover for his species' custom of collecting rare organs.
    • By and large, trusting anyone with a labcoat in Wolfram & Hart is...not a good idea.
  • The Doctor: Though good, Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe reveals that he has the potential to become one of the most evil beings in the universe.
  • Mirror Universe Phlox in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "In a Mirror, Darkly" where Phlox's role on the ship is still the same, but is now a (still odd and gleeful) sadistic expert of medicinal torture.
    • The EMH on the Equinox on Star Trek: Voyager. Since they removed his "ethical subroutines" he's psychopathic. Also, when they removed Voyager's Doctor's ethical subroutines, he was ready to gleefully remove Seven of Nine's brain. This wouldn't be so bad, but he has a crush on her.
    • Dr. Chaotica, the Mad Scientist villain from The Adventures of Captain Proton! holoprogram.
  • The Evil Doctor in Season 3 of Beauty and The Beast.
  • Doctor Dark, Big Bad in the second season of Who Wants to Be a Superhero??
  • Doctor Gaius Baltar from the 2004 reboot of Battlestar Galactica. Unwittingly sold out the entire human race to his Cylon girlfriend. Twice. Probably either True Neutral or Neutral Stupid.
  • Doctor Mohinder Suresh of Heroes. A true blue good guy in the first season; evil tendencies started to creep in around the same time he started taking levels in badass in the second season. A screwed-up recipe for homemade Applied Phlebotinum resulted in something a Face Heel Turn, though. At present, the jury is out on whether he's good or evil.
  • Dr. House: Good, but only because he sees deathly ill patients as big puzzles and can't resist "solving" them: saving lives is viewed as collateral damage; he doesn't bat an eye no matter how bleak the prognosis is. Many of his actions when in the process of treating a patient are incredibly unethical, dangerous, totally unnecessary, or all of the above, and he makes all his choices based on his own selfish whims, but his seemingly evil actions almost invariably lead to a lifesaving cure for someone who would otherwise have been royally screwed.
  • Borderline-parodied in Sabrina the Teenage Witch "Sabrina the Teenage Writer," with Sabrina's poorly written Bond villain "Dr. Bad."
  • UFO. The vaguely sinister Dr. Doug Jackson appears to fill a number of roles in SHADO, ranging from psychiatrist and medical doctor to prosecuting officer. In one episode Commander Straker calls him "the eyes of the International Astrophysical Committee" implying that Dr. Jackson's role is to spy on him for his superiors (which would explain his wide-ranging brief). This is only enhanced by his noticeable Eastern European accent, which would automatically make the 1970's audience think of Cold War Espionage Tropes.
  • Lost has Dr. Juliet Burke (initially on the side of the Others, who have the dubious claim of "the good guys"), Dr. Ethan Rom (seems to have been evil, also part of the aforementioned Others).
  • Dr. Bishop, a mad scientist who specializes in bizarre "fringe science" written off by the rest of the scientific community. Probably Lawful Neutral as he seems to be a member of at least one Ancient Conspiracy.
    • He does, however, have some (possibly laser guided) amnesia. It's possible that recovery of those memories would return him to a cackling evil mad scientist of epic proportions.
    • Very, very morally ambiguous indeed. It seems he used to be highly arrogant and not always that concerned about ethics or possible consequences, and that he did do terrible things (including complex drug tests on children). However, it also turns out that most of those terrible things were done with good intentions and that he now feels extremely guilty and tries to atone.
    • As for the other Dr. Bishop, he's a Well-Intentioned Extremist, which probably makes him a morally ambiguous doctor as well.
  • Power Rangers RPM's Dr. K, who was raised by Alphabet Soup operatives for weapons research and development. Although she's technically one of the "good guys," in a textbook case of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero, one weapon she created in particular--the Venjix computer virus--becomes the season's Big Bad after she uploaded the virus to blind Alphabet Soup's security servers in a failed attempt to escape her imprisonment. She spends her life afterwards trying to make up for her mistakes.
  • Dr. Mikoto Nakadai/AbareKiller: Dr. Jerk and a White Ranger... but NO heart of gold, and Evil. He did a Heel Face Turn in the end though, just in time to die.
  • Elaine's psychiatrist boyfriend from the Seinfeld episode "The Wallet" might count. He seems more interested in controlling people than helping them.
  • If you're a doctor in a Kamen Rider series, you're probably not a nice guy.
    • Doctor Shinigami/Ikadevil was one of the main generals of the original series.
    • Kamen Rider W has Dr. Isaka/Weather Dopant, who actually modified Gaia Memories to kill their users so he could take them and incorporate them and their powers into himself later on, and Dr. Prospect/Eyes Dopant, who performed horrifying experiments on children to turn them into psychics, planned to kill the failed subjects by electrocution, and planted eyes on them to watch them and kill them if they strayed out of the village. Prospect was responsible for the Despair Event Horizon of Katsumi Daido, the antagonist of the first W movie "A-to-Z: Gaia Memories of Fate".
    • Dr. Maki.

Music

  • Doctor Worm: He's not a real doctor, but he is a real worm, he is an actual worm.
  • When "Dr. Sin is In", you want to be out.
  • Doctor Steel: No one's sure what he's a doctor of, exactly (he's said he's a Doctor of "Reality Engineering"); but he's hellbent on taking over the world using an army of robotic toys and brainwashed "toy soldiers" so that he can make the world a better place (for him).
  • Doctor X from Queensryche's concept album Operation: Mindcrime has one.

Professional Wrestling

  • "Dr. Death" Steve Williams. Usually a Heel, always a Badass.
  • Dr. Stevie. Evil psychiatrist, has a habit of brainwashing his patients to become his submissive lackeys. Also probably not a real doctor, since his ECW and WWE past is mentioned.
  • Dr. Cube. Evil, trying to take over the world with an army of genetically-modified Kaiju.

Radio

  • Adventures in Odyssey had the evil Dr. Regis Blackgaard. Not sure what he's a doctor of. When his "good" identical twin brother Edwin came to town he introduces himself as "Mister"; Lucy, mistaking him for Regis, asked if he had to give the title back because he was evil.
  • In Round the Horne, a recurring villain was Doctor Chu-En Ginsberg, M. A. (failed).

Tabletop Games

  • From Warhammer Fantasy Battle Fantasy the Skaven scientists mostly make hideous mutants and terrifying war machines.
    • Often at the same time.
  • Every scientist in Warhammer 40,000, simply because no one is interested in research that can't be used to kill people in large numbers. The king of this is Fabius Bile, a geneticist who's reduced planets to shambling mutants and created a race of murderous superbeings. In battle he shoots people with syringes that can make them explode. He's also thousands of years old, preserved by Black Magic pumped into his veins, and doesn't worship any of the Chaos Gods despite extensive dealings with them, which may actually be scarier than any of his other accomplishments.
    • The Dark Eldar Haemonculi, from whome Bile actually learned his skills. They're functionally immortal [[Mad Scientist Mad Scientists] that specialise in all kinds of body modifications, from replacing their own blood with acid to turning people into horrible biomechanical abominations. In battle they wield all sorts of freaky weapons, from guns that fire their own acid blood at enemies to syringe-gauntlets that cause the victim to grow out of their skin and caskets filled with invisible fiends that strip the flehs from their victim's bones.
    • Ork Mad Doks/Pain Boyz are no more evil, and quite a bit more eccentric than other Orks. Probably Chaotic Neutral if pressed.
  • Dr Kholera, from Spycraft fluff: Evil Mad Scientist. Very evil.
  • From Ravenloft, Doctor Victor Mordenheim, Affably Evil and obsessive Mad Scientist.

Theater

  • Doctor Morbius: Evil, because With Great Power Comes Great Insanity.
    • His unconscious mind was evil. Awake, he's just a grouch.
      • Whatever else you say about Morbius you must admit he's a fine single parent who somehow managed to raise a very well adjusted daughter with nothing but a robot for a mother-figure.
  • The Doctor from Woyzeck. A bit of a Punch Clock Villain, although he also defenestrates his cat as a hobby. Gets one hell of a Villain Song in the rock opera version.
  • Older Than Steam: Doctor Faustus:
    • Evil. He sells his soul to the Devil, for Knowledge and Power and Helen of Troy. Very Mad Scientist because Knowledge is one of his goals.
    • Or, ambiguous: in some versions, he has his 7 years of Glory, and goes to Hell, ha ha ha, serves him right for being Evil. In some versions, Faust is presented as a sympathetic Character who wants to be redeemed: when he fails, it is tragic Grand Opera, when he succeeds, it is happy ending Light Opera. Goethe's version has him as Distracted Neutral if not Chaotic Neutral more than anything else. He sells his soul for knowledge, and most opera versions of Goethe end right after Mephistopheles has done his job by pushing Faust firmly over the Moral Event Horizon. At the end of the second half, after much weirdness, Faust a Heel Face Turn because he looks around and then gives himself a What the Hell, Hero? speech.
  • Dr. Einstein: Evil assistant to an Ax Crazy serial killer.
  • Doctor Miracle from act III of The Tales Of Hoffman. His plot is to get the sick Antonia to literally sing herself to death. It takes place in Ancient Greece, so it would've been when the Hippocratic Oath was fairly new.

Video Games

  • Fallout: New Vegas: Dr. Usanagi deals in cybernetics research for the betterment of people in the Mojave Wasteland, and J.E. Sawyer's own game mod makes her in universe Good status official.
  • Dr Jaime Reyes. Good guy. Dr. Megan Reed. The jury is still out, but evidence heavily suggests she's very amoral.
  • Dr. William Birkin and Dr. Alexia Ashford: The former being a megalomaniacal scientist who starts getting crazy about his research, which causes people to turn into zombies, and eventually causes the outbreak. This makes it okay to shoot him. The latter is another scientist who is also crazy about her designed virus, but also wants to rule the Earth. This also makes it okay to shoot her.
  • Dr. Loboto, who harvests the brains of young psychic children and attempts to put them in psychic-powered tanks. His PHD is in dentistry, however, which makes one wonder why Coach Oleander has him working with brains.
  • Dr. Breen, if not evil, then still the willing head of a puppet government.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog has Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik: Evil. Nobody has any idea what Ivo's doctorate is in. Probably engineering, if the robots he designs are any indication.
  • Dr. Albert W. Wily: Evil, but his creation Zero wound up fighting for the side of good.
  • Doctor Cid: Mad with power. And very theatrical.
  • Doctor Richtofen. Would make Mengele cringe.
  • Dr. Neurosis. Evil, but most certainly not "average".
  • Dr. Johannsen (from the video game XIII). Evil member of the XX conspiracy. Incidentally, arguably a harder boss than the next six bosses or so—apparently doctors can be total killing machines.
  • Doctor Neo Cortex: Evil.
  • Dr. Fuyuhiko Date: As evil as they come. Master of the Player Punch. Actually is a medical doctor.
  • Dr. Baldhead, from Guilty Gear: Evil, murderous, totally insane; a medical doctor as well. It's implied that he does a Heel Face Turn later in the series, but when he does, he changes his name to Faust, dropping the Doctor from his name. However, as he still practices medicine, other characters call him "Dr. Faust".
    • From the Spiritual Successor BlazBlue; Dr. Litchi Faye-Ling: Good, compassionate, medical doctor, but corrupted with the Boundary, and currently among the antagonistic NOL, with Complete Monster like Hazama around and her morality is in danger whether it will plummet hard to complete evil thanks to Hazama's influence, or she will retain it and consider it a Dirty Business to save the one she loved and herself.
  • City of Heroes has |Doctor Vahzilok]]: Dr Frankenstein turned even more evil and insane, and with a veritable army of equally evil followers. Baaaaaaad.
  • Dr. Kira from Arcana Heart: Evil, Unusually young to have a doctorate, basically a mix between Doctor Evil and Brain AS A LITTLE GIRL.
  • Dr. Repulsor in Heroes of Newerth, a grinning goblin obsessed with magnets.
  • Doctor Ion: Evil as per his programming.
  • In a subversion, Mad Scientist and Big Bad Caulder/Stolos from Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin was revealed to have been a doctor, but he doesn't use the prefix—he was kicked out of the medical academy for ethical violations. He's just THAT evil.
  • In addition to being a hilariously over the top Spy Fiction game, Metal Gear Solid deals a lot with questions of ethics in extreme situations. As a results, the series has lots of scientists with highly morally ambiguous pasts and presents.
    • The prime example in the series and for the trope in general would be Dr. Naomi Hunter. She is introduced as the medical advisor for the operation on Shadow Moses, but is actually an agent planted by Ocelot. She murdered people, send people who trusted her into ambush, and handed vital technology over to the enemy. Then she repents and helps snake, disappears from prison, joins Ocelot again and develops weapons for him, and then has the guts to ask Snake to rescue her. Then she becomes Otacon's girlfriend and betrays him and Snake by stealing important data for Ocelot, again! She then switches sides again to help Snake a last time and commits suicide. And all the time she seems to be genuinely sorry for what she did, but would do the same things again without hesitation. And she never really explains what she is trying to achive.
    • Para-Medic starts as a genuinely nice young physician, but somehow got forced to sign up with the team in MGS3 after the events of the Virtuous Mission, or would have had her license revoked (although she hints that she intended to do the mission anyways). MGS4 later reveals that she was Dr. Clark, who created the clones of Big Boss and made Grey Fox into the Cyborg Ninja against his will. She got killed by Gray Fox as payback for what she did to him, and partially after EVA/Big Mama told him that she was one of Zero's Patriots and told him to kill her.
    • Also Otacon is in fact Dr. Hal Emmerich. While a good guy, he was too naive to realize he was building a superweapon, and after going underground with Snake, he frequently broke into high security military computer networks to steal intel and blueprints for Snakes gadgets. Even before meeting Snake, he has done a few instances of hacking into high security networks: One instance was when he hacked the FBI's central database while he was within the Engineering Research Facility branch of the FBI, which got him fired.
    • Dr. Emmerich, Hal's father, was similar. Although a good guy, he did work with nuclear weapons and was involved in a project to create a perfect deterrent. Although he was initially willing to work on the project, it was only because he legitimately believed Coldman when he said that it wouldn't be used even once. Unfortunately, Coldman proved his lying/insane nature when he intended to launch a live nuke to test its retaliation abilities.
    • Strangelove worked with AI development, and also did torture to Snake, although it is implied that she personally felt disgusted at herself for having to resort to torture. In addition, she intended to create the Mammal Pod so she could revive The Boss, find out what really happened in Operation Snake Eater, and clear her name. Her working to develop the Peace Walker weapon was more or less a necessary evil she had to put up with in order to do it.
    • Dr. Wilheim Voigt ("Doktor") is slightly eccentric and monologues a LOT, but is a good guy and has some rather decent morals for a guy who tends to invoke a lot of Mad Scientist tropes, even offers some moral support to Raiden during Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Turns out to be such a good guy {{spoiler|he establishes a center for helping kidnapped children turned into cyborgs against their will readjust to living in their cyborg bodies in the ending.
  • The Medic of Team Fortress 2: Likely a confirmed doctorate, given that most of his team-mates refer to him as "Doctor", "Doc", "Herr Doktor" and the like. Fully aware that healing his team (actually a side-effect of his Medigun) means that they are that much more efficient at killing the other team. By the way, his bio states he never took the Hippocratic oath. And TF Industries still hired him.
  • Doctor Killjoy from The Suffering, a 1900s level doctor who kills most of his patients in attempts to cure their mental problems. Like Josef Mengele, but British, and he can come back from the dead. EVIL! Still, he apparently has a genuine desire to help Torque with his problems even through extreme means.
  • Though never called a doctor outright, you'd have to have a couple doctorates in badass to engineer MULTIPLE plagues which nicely complement each other, as Hakke Dal from Maken X (Maken Shao on Playstation) so capably demonstrated. Also he shows he has no moral compunction against killing his own daughter should you brainjack her to use against him. Not to mention the reason she was trapped in a psych ward in the first place was because he tested the one of the first prototypes of the Uvad virus on her. He'd likely be BFFs with Killjoy above in his college days and may have even roomed with him. Also, he's an oddly black man in a game world full of greys. (Though all Hakkes intend to kill a lot of people to forwards their utopia, Dal seems to be the only one enjoying his work. Margaret is just Ax Crazy and hopped up on designer drugs like Eugenics and Relativism. Big Bad Geist is actually one of the sanest members of the group, as both he and right-hand Yusef can be diplomatically reasoned within a couple endings, provided you made the appropriate storyline choices.)
  • Dr. Mercer, Challus: Evil, evil, evil bastard. Who passed this guy in medical school?
  • Another Mercer for the list: Dr. Alex Mercer of Prototype, The real one. Equally evil as Challus.
    • Dr. McMullen: Evil. Not as much as Mercer, but still evil.
  • Dr. Prokhor Zakharov: Not evil, but completely, utterly amoral.
  • Dr. Zomboss, from Plants vs. Zombies. He has a doctorate in Thanotonology.
  • Surprisingly, even World of Warcraft has a few of those. Most of them are undead. However, the two who really stand out (both of them evil) are not. Scholomance boss, human, utterly insane, Doctor Theoden Krastinov (doesn't help that his title is "The Butcher"). His sadism is related to the heroes by the ghosts of two of his victims. And even more badass, gnome Dr. Weavil, obviously a blatant parody of Dr. Evil. He even has a minion called Number Two. No Mini-Me unfortunately...
  • Doctor Thrax from Command & Conquer: Generals is quite evil, or at best a religious extremist a la Osama Bin Laden. He wants you to tell stories of your defeat to your three eyed grandchildren. He also wonders if he shouldn't have gotten his degree from a mail-order college. He specializes in bioweapons.
  • Dr. Boskonovitch: Mad Scientist, generally shown somewhat on the side of good (ally of good-guy Yoshimitsu, for one).
    • Dr Abel: Evil. What kind of monster tries to blow up an innocent 400 lb cybernetic killing machine with no voice? (I'm serious... it's complicated. A.I. Is a Crapshoot, folks.)
  • Dr. Zed: The last person you want near you with anything sharp, but one of the very few people that you can rely on in the Death World that is Pandora. May or may not have somehow been responsible for a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Dr. R. Muckly, who you have to rescue from the Vietcongs in Neo Geo launch title NAM-1975. It turns out, in a rather screwy manner, that he is a Mad Scientist who wants to use a Kill Sat to take over the world, and so you have to fight him as the game's final boss.
  • Dr. Mordin Solus. Before you actually meet him, all you have is a name and the space station he can be found. As you investigate, basically everyone tells you that he's crazy and that they don't expect you to survive the encounter, the tales getting more horrid every time.

"He's not just a doctor. Doctors don't execute people and display their bodies as a warning."

    • When you meet him, he turns out to actually be quite crazy, but seems to be fully aware of what's going on around him and a genuinely nice person. He also seems to be a former member of the salarian Special Tasks Group and has tech powers to burn people alive.
    • And he is also revealed to be one of the leading scientists who spent some time re-engineering the genophage, an incurable genetic disease that causes massive rates of miscarriages in pregnant krogan to keep the numbers of the species low. He's aware that the bioweapon was ethically reprehensible, but does not regret his actions. How he ended up in a tiny practice in the slums of Omega is a mystery.
    • Also, Dr. Saleon. Need spare organs? Grow them in the natural environment of a subject's body!
  • Dr. Hojo from Final Fantasy VII. Quite. Crazy. It's hard to find anything he did that is not For Science!. Arguably responsible for every single calamity that happens in FFVII universe.
    • Except Jenova. She fell before he was born. However, he did contribute greatly to making Jenova problem far worse (can you say Sephiroth)?
  • Dr. Suchong: Absolutely mercenary at nature and willing to commit scientific atrocities as long as he's paid well in the end.
    • Dr. Tenenbaum: Created the Little Sisters and initially ambivalent since it's all For Science!. Eventually develops a maternal instinct and becomes The Atoner.
    • Dr. Lamb: Enemy of Free Will and devoted to the destruction of individuality.
    • Dr. Steinman: Lethally experimenting on people in order to satisfy his twisted perception of beauty. Evil and completely out of his mind.
  • Zahra from Suikoden Tierkreis, who is always a little too excited to dissect examine every non-human specimens in your base.
  • Dr. Keith Fetus from Meat Boy series who is on evil side. In Meat Boy universe, you don't even have to be born to get a university degree.
  • Dr. Balfour and Dr. Neis from Tales of the Abyss, who between them created fomicry in the form we currently know it. They split sides into good and evil when Balfour who had since been adopted by the Curtiss military family and taken their surname gave up his research and declared a ban on fomicry, but Neis refused to do the same and joined the God-Generals so that he'd have the resources to continue.
  • League of Legends has Dr. Mundo, The madman of Zaun. As stated in his bio: In his eyes, you are already dead.
  • Dr. Venom from the MSX Gradius games: Evil.
  • EarthBound: Dr. Saturn. Appears to be well-meaning if eccentric. Even so...
    • Dr. Andonuts is also quite eccentric (and something of an absentee father to his son Jeff), but he does care about his son and turns out to be a really good guy.
  • Dr. Iwamine "Fat Bird" Shuu: Very, very evil.
  • Ripper Roo from Crash Bandicoot, Laughably Evil. Not a doctor until the second game (where he's called Dr. Roo), having gained his degree in the time between the first game and this one, as the ending reveals

Web Animation

"I am not a doctor!"
"He's a real doctor!"

Web Comics

  • Ansem Retort's Dr. Zexion Doreone: A complete and utter Jerkass who once implanted an Oreo in one of his patients for no apparent reason; the Oreo fused with his DNA somehow, so the patient became half-man, half-cookie. He also planted a firecracker in Riku's liver, fashioned a new heart for Riku out of bendy-straws and a Hot Pocket, and replaced another guy's lung with a monkey's ass. Then there's the fact that during his time as Governor, he's been implicated in 5 sex scandals and 3 murder scandals. The only other person on the cast who likes him is Axel, who happens to be a sociopathic serial killer. Everyone else puts up with him only cause he's part of the cast.
  • Doctor Ink of Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures: His intro comic sets the tone for most, if not all, his appearances.
  • Doctor Narbon of Narbonic: Helen is Evil with a capital E. A rare female example; most supervillainous doctors seem to be men. Her clone "Beta" is cute-evil - aspires to evilness and has the reputation and imagery down, but never got around to actually pulling anything off.
    • Also she (Beta) isn't a real doctor.
  • Doctor Malpractice: Uh, you figure it out. In the employ of Chancellor Usurper no less.
  • The Evil Doctor Mongfish (reformed) from Girl Genius.
    • May not be reformed. At all.
    • Anyone called "Doctor" in this comic, and many more would qualify if they used their formal title.
    • Wulfenbach's medical genius, Dr. Sing, last seen talking to a reanimated severed head.
  • Doctor Max Destruction: a real doctor with a degree in astronomy [dead link] (which entitles him to call himself 'Master of Space').
  • Dr. X of Casey and Andy. Evil. Goal: conquest of all Earth. Managed to conquer France once.
  • In-story example in Questionable Content:

Jimbo: Oh man, I gotta write that down. 'Doctor Heteronormative' would be a BITCHIN' name for the main villain dude.

  • Dr. Germahn: Started as Mr Exposition, although the role's been taken by others. Also technically doesn't exist in continuity.
  • Dr. Catastrophe... although he was a respected scientist before being recruited to be an Evil Overlord
  • Dr. Daisy Archanis: Well, at least Jason thinks she's evil... of course, given that she's accused of / confessed during torture to taking down the Galaxy Girl Scouts, he might be onto something.
  • Dr. Aloysius Luprand seems to exist mainly to torment his roommate, but once in a while the puppy puts his knowledge to use. And then it gets creepy.
  • Dr Edward Upton from Misfile, the protagonist’s father. He's a gynecologist who tends to creep out Ash's friends by remembering the details of their... ahem....girl parts.
  • Doc Worth hasn't even actually got a doctorate; he dropped out of medical school. He doesn't let that stop him practicing medicine, and he's also terribly shady just generally. Hanna even implies that he developed a crush on Conrad because Conrad beat him up. And then there's Hanna's freaking torso, and the "classified" procedure Worth decides Hanna needs after being attacked by a ghost. It seems to be working out all right for Hanna, so, cool, but, also, WTFFF.
  • Subverted/averted by Nailbat's resident mad scientist, Mister Simian. This trope is, in fact, lampshaded in the author commentary on the page of his first appearance.
  • Doctor Steve (megalomaniac, brainwasher, and Cloudcuckoolander), Doctor Crabtree (killing and experimenting on people For Science!), and eventually Doctor Schlock (coward turned megalomaniac).
  • Dr. Nonami: Dr. Mechano is an evil madman.
  • Vigil: Myriam seems to be a fairly benign version. Of course, she doesn't actually have a degree, due to being kicked out of medical school for failing the psychological test. And she's learned most of what she knows by robbing graves.
  • Minions At Work supervillains include Doctor Coldblood. Who hates all mammals. Well, almost all.

Web Original

  • The facility in which the entire story of Ruby Quest takes place in, known as The Metal Glen, was—in a nutshell—built out of an odd, isolated, geological-formation from out in the middle of a secluded loch for the specific purpose of doctors and medical researchers practicing/ testing treatments[3] without the need of the proper permits, license, or the possibility of criminal prosecution.
  • Dr. Calvin Hart of Lonelygirl15: Debatably[please verify] good, but fairly creepy.
  • Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Dr. Horrible repeatedly informs us he has "a Ph.D. in Horribleness", even though he is a Technical Pacifist who pretty steadfastly refuses to endanger children and balks at killing.
    • At least until Penny dies, at which point he starts playing this trope dead straight.
  • Dr. Leonard J. Alderman from LG15: the resistance: Evil.
  • Dr. Insano of The Spoony Experiment, nemesis of Linkara and alter ego of Spoony. His running mate is Fu Manchu.
    • And he wants to take the world (of course!)... WITH SCIENCE!!!!
      • Dr. Insano's brother, Dr. Linksano of Atop the Fourth Wall, has now been created due to a crossing of parallel dimensions brought on by Dr. Insano during the Spoony-Linkara review of Warrior #1. The sequel to said review introduces the Insano equivalents of several That Guy With The Glasses regulars, including The Nostalgia Critic, Film Brain, and...Beary (who uses a mind-controlled Benzaie to get around).
  • Dr. William Griffin: Good, but formerly evil.
    • Dr. Reece and Dr. Kavorkian: Presumably evil, but harmless.
  • The Director of Project Freelancer, Doctor Leonard Church.
  • Dr. Tran. Not only is he a REAL DOCTOR (from AMERICA), he's a dashing secret agent with a PhD in KICKING YOUR ASS!
  • In the Global Guardians PBEM Universe, no one is really sure what specific areas Doctor Heinrich Frankenstein, Doctor Phillipe Moreau, Doctor Blight, Doctor Sinister, Doctor Emilio Astonishing, Doctor XX, Doctor Devastation, Professor Sunday, Professor Septimus, Professor Penelope Periwinkle, and Doctor Gavin von Leggend (all villainous Mad Scientists) hold their degrees in.
  • SCP Foundation:
    • Quite a few Foundation researchers seem to have doctorates, and the Foundation as a whole is very morally ambiguous, being admitted Well-Intentioned Extremists. Those that stand out are Dr. Clef (who is rumored to be The Devil, or at very least, some sort of demon) and Dr. Bright (suffice to say, the O5 Council has a very long list of things he isn't allowed to do.)
    • SCP-231-7 is a woman who can only be attended by medical personnel who haven't taken the Hippocratic Oath. Why? Because she has to be permanently strapped to a hospital bed, and once daily she has to be subjected to a medical procedure so horrific that most of the details can't be disclosed or else she gives birth to... something which could cause untold death and destruction. Eventually, however, this was revealed to be what the Children of the Scarlet King wanted the Foundation to believe; the child is, in fact, SCP-999, who is possibly the Anti-Anti-Christ.
    • SCP-431, Dr. Gideon. A former SCP researcher, he is evidently not a real doctor, as no records anywhere indicate that he was hired by the foundation, mostly because there's no records of his existence - birth records, fingerprints, name... One possibility is that he was a mole who intended to destroy evidence or information for unknown reasons, and may still be at large.

Western Animation

  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers:
    • Doctor Blight. She's sually evil for the cash, the looks, or the fame, sometimes evil for the sake of being so.
    • Duke Nukem also had a doctorate of some ill-defined sort. It's implied he's a walking radioactive rock because of his experiments, and Kwame calls him Dr. Duke Nukem once or twice.
  • Kim Possible:
    • Doctor Drakken: Evil, but not especially dangerous. Not surprising given that he was a college dropout and therefore possesses no degree.
    • Professor Dementor. Somewhat more competent than Drakken, who would rather steal his inventions than invent his own.
  • The Venture Brothers:
    • Doctor Venture is... kinda good. He isn't plotting world domination or looking for dogs to kick, but he is a bitter grouch at the center of a Sadist Show. And he did once build a wish-fulfillment machine that was powered by the heart of an orphan. ...and then there was the bit with reanimating the corpses of his enemies (and implied killing of the cloned bodies of his children) and selling them to the army. Of course he isn't actually a doctor.
    • Doctor Byron Orpheus is good, but obnoxious and overbearing, and not above mind-wiping his own daughter repeatedly so she'll forget that her closet is the doorway to the underworld. He has a degree in Women's Studies, but accredits his Doctorate to a higher power.
    • The Phantom Limb was a professor before his lab-accident-powered Face Heel Turn, and likely had a doctorate.
    • Dr. Mrs. The Monarch: Not only evil, but better at it than the Monarch himself.
      • It is later revealed her Doctorate is Honorary from donating money to a Evil College.
  • Doctor Weird: Bat-shit insane.
  • Dr. Zin: Evil.
  • Doctor Claw: Evil.
  • Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Evil, yet incompetent. Seriously, he makes Drakken look like Victor Von Doom. He's always beaten by a platypus for crying out loud!
    • That's not just any platypus, mind you. Perry the Platypus is "a semi-aquatic, egg laying mammal of ACTION!"
      • In a recent episode, he was beaten by an ordinary "doesn't do much" platypus.
      • He's also been beaten by an ordinary doesn't-do-anything-whatsoever potted plant.
    • Actually, this is kind of a parody---he isn't actually a doctor, he just uses the title. His own daughter pointed out that his diploma was fake.

Doofenshmirtz: Soon, the world will tremble before the might of Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz!
Vanessa: Doctor? Since when are you a doctor?
Doofenshmirtz: *shows diploma* They don't give these out to just anyone, you know.
Vanessa *reveals price tag* Anyone with fifteen bucks, they do.
Doofenshmirtz: That's enough looking!

  • Doctor Anton Sevarius: Evil for cash. Also voiced by Tim freaking Curry.
  • Professor Chaos: Evil, but harmless. Not actually a professor, but rather Butters wearing tinfoil.
  • Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Senile to the point of insanity, but mostly harmless. Has a penchant for creating doomsday devices, only keeps Amy around because she's his blood type, tries to harvest Leela's organs, is implied to be a cannibal, implanted Hitler's brain in the body of a shark, has been frequently cited for public nudity, and frequently, knowingly sends his crew on life-threatening adventures without warning, to the point of hiring replacements. In his youth, he created the modern robot, an ecological disaster. Opposed the legalization of Robosexual marriages, but eventually changed his mind.
  • The Simpsons
    • Dr. Nick Riviera, ak "Dr. Nick". Not truly evil, but clearly missing a few marbles, something his patients often suffer as a result of. He has indeed been to medical school (proven by a flashback) but it isn't known if he actually graduated, and while he practices medicine, he uses controversial and often illegal methods. To give some examples, in one episode a hospital review board brings up the accusations against him which include performing surgery with a knife and fork from a seafood restaurant and misuse of cadavers (he had put them in his car in order to use the carpool lane and get to work quicker). In another episode, he is asked to talk to the coroner, and he says, "Ugh, the coroner. I'm so sick of that guy!" suggesting his patients get sent there rather often. Ironically, this is the episode where Nick does Homer's double bypass surgery, and actually does it right, but Lisa helps him a little.
    • Dr. Hibbert is almost a complete inverse of Dr. Nick, more competent, but also more evil. Initially he was viewed as a benevolent doctor (and sometimes the Only Sane Man in Springfield), but he fits the Trope more often in later seasons, often as an extreme satire of the profession itself. Much of the humor involving him centers on trying to find ways to prevent his patients from suing him for malpractice, and he was glad to support the elimination of healthcare programs so he could charge higher premiums. Among the worst things he has done include approving of an obviously unhealthy eating contest (as it was in a restaurant he held half-ownership of) where one contestant actually died of beef poisoning and then claiming it was caused by another restaurant, and in the Flashback where Maggie is born, suggesting he could help her sell Maggie when she claims she is unsure she can afford a third child. One episode even suggests he doesn't have a valid license at all.
  • Doctor Rabbit: Evil as sin. Also, he is an actual doctor. Well, a dentist, but still...
  • Herr Doktor from ReBoot. Obediently Evil. Whenever Megabyte needs to have something nasty done to a prisoner, this is the binome for the job.
  • Dr Fossil, a one-time villain from Darkwing Duck: Evil.
    • Dr Slug: So evil you wouldn't believe.
    • Dr. Reginald Bushroot: Evil, if a bit of a Woobie.
  • Doctor Paradigm: Crazy but his experiments don't always make much sense. Is obsessed with gene-slamming everyone and anyone he can get a hold of. Then there's Doctor Bolton, who's a really nice guy but is forced to go into hiding for most of the series, after getting an injection and experiencing some Body Horror.
  • Played for Laughs with "Dr. Patrick" from the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Splinter". It's pretty doubtful Patrick has a degree, but anyone whose watched this show knows trusting him to work as anything (much less a doctor) is a disaster waiting to happen. And it did. His attempt to heal poor Spongebob's splinter only made it worse.
  • Gorillaz bassist Murdoc Niccals earned a doctorate from an Open University course when in jail in Mexico. He claims he is now "legally entitled to experiment on monkeys".
  • Dr. Nuvo Vindi: Crazy and Evil.
  • Dr. Scientist: Well, it is Miseryville.
  • Smash Adams nemesis Dr. Decay.
  • Dr. Owen Negata of BETA. Casually talking about using a teenaged boy as a control for a genetic experiment will land you here. Funny thing, he's considered one of the good guys. GR could be a real World Half Empty.
  • Dr. Algernop Krieger. Batshit insane and possibly a clone of Adolf Hitler.
  • Lampshaded in Harley Quinn, where Doctor Psycho (who fits the Trope himself) looks over his stored contacts on his mobile phone:

Doctor Psycho: Let's see here, Deadshot, Deathstroke, Dee Dee, Doctor Aesop, Doctor Death, Doctor Hurt, Doctor Trapp, Doctor Rabinowitz...
Riddler: What is Doctor Rabinowitz's super-power?
Doctor Psycho: Skin-care, that's my dermatologist. I get adult acne.

  • Dr. I.C. Spots from the Looney Tunes short "Which is Witch", Laughably Evil witch-doctor. Also, Dr. Jekyll himself appears in "Hyde and Hair".
  • Doctor Eugene Hartman from Family Guy is the type of doctor who should never have been given a degree. Often acting childish and always careless in his practice, it's hard to imagine how he got one to begin with. While he did volunteer to be the donor when Peter needed a kidney transplant, that's was really only for job security, seeing as the Griffin family are his only patients, seeing as nobody else is desperate enough to trust him.

Real Life

  • Doctor Josef Mengele. A Real Life mad scientist, performing lethal medical experiments (mostly designed to be cruel, rather than for actual scientific value) on people in Nazi death camps.
  • Dr. Oskar Dirlewanger, whose unit was used to suppress uprisings due to their sheer brutality, including injecting nude Jewish girls with strychnine so his unit could enjoy their deaths. He also did hold (before the Nazis came) a Political Science doctorate and multiple medals from World War I.
  • Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister. His doctorate was literature.
  • Andrei Snezhnevsky, the Soviet psychiatrist who discovered "Sluggishly-Progressing Schizophrenia"... which turned out to have no obvious symptoms and could be seen in anyone who had no other known psychiatric conditions and had desires beyond basic survival needs. Apparently it was a pretext to have particularly troublesome dissidents, for whom even a show trial would have potentially unfortunate consequences for the powers that be, institutionalized. When asked to defend his discovery in this regard, he is said to have chosen instead to relinquish his emeritus positions in Western universities.
  • Dr Harold Shipman MD, believed to be the most prolific Serial Killer in recorded history; there was sufficient evidence to prosecute him for the murders of fifteen elderly patients to whom he administered overdoses of morphine and other painkillers, but estimates of his total body count exceed three hundred. Probably evil, but one of the most chilling things about the case is that Shipman's motive is a total mystery; he could have been operating an inheritance scam, some sort of Well-Intentioned Extremist for the pro-euthanasia movement, a high-functioning schizophrenic or even just doing it because he could.
  • Dr. Keith Ablow of Fox News, known for being a Heteronormative Crusader and for not doing the research on pretty much anything. Considering his views on transsexuals, one wonders how he treats them during his psychiatrist sessions... He also keeps using the wrong pronouns, which is serious dickishness on his part.
  • Former Dr. Andrew Wakefield, famous for his controversial studies regarding the Measles/Mumps/Rubella vaccine, and his more controversial methods of research involving needlessly invasive diagnostic procedures.
  • Dr. Ishii Shiro, commander of Unit 731 (biological weapons research) responsible for the deaths of 3,000 people in lab experiments, 200,000 people in field tests, and between 20,000 and 30,000 Chinese as a result of plagued rats breaking containment.
  1. ↑ (Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow and Hush repectively)
  2. ↑ No, not that one or that one. The toyline calls him Scalpel.
  3. ↑ (treatments that would likely be deemed as "unconventional" by most)
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