Doctor Who: How to make the Doctor less “likable” (but in the right way)

Hugh Laurie played a rude and arrogant leading character in House, but audiences easily loved him. What made that combination work so well for this character?

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Is it possible for the Doctor to be rude and impolite and still come across as a likable character, at least to the audience? We look at both examples in Doctor Who and other TV series to see how it could be done right.

When Peter Capaldi’s Doctor was introduced five years ago, Steven Moffat and his team took a big risk with the character. Whereas previous Doctors in the New Series had been likable and generally nice – especially David Tennant’s and Matt Smith’s Doctors – with Capaldi, they wanted to go for something different. Something that stood out. Instead of a Doctor who tried to get on well with humans, the Twelfth Doctor had less time for that. He would often say the wrong thing or take a more pragmatic approach to things than before.

This was a big risk. The producers had tried something similar with Colin Baker’s Doctor in the Eighties, and it arguably backfired. Colin Baker was a great fit for the role – if it wasn’t clear from his TV stories, it certainly is from his many Big Finish releases – but the Sixth Doctor wasn’t handled properly, at least not initially.

For example, one thing that immediately put viewers off him was seeing him strangling Peri in his first story! Now, it was clear that he was suffering from post-regenerative trauma, but it was still a wrong move to make with the character, as that was an image that stuck with the viewers.

The coat didn’t help, either. Producer John Nathan-Turner wanted the most tasteless coat imaginable. And that’s exactly what the viewers got. It doesn’t exactly offer much incentive to keep the viewers watching if there’s something intentionally awful looking on screen. (Having said that, I’d be lying if I said that coat hasn’t grown on me over the years.)

Examples in other series

Making someone “unlikable” is a risk, but it can work if done right. After all, it has to be said: the audience loves a jerk. Whether it’s Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House or Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes, people just love watching someone who’s rude, blunt and arrogant, so long as they show off how brilliant they are. In essence, the Doctor should be a great fit for that. So how can it go wrong?

The best way to handle it is to make that character’s viewpoint as clear to the audience as possible, so that they’re in some way sympathetic. In House, he would often see patients that don’t know what they’re doing or think they know more than he does, so seeing him be incredibly rude to them is satisfying to watch. In Sherlock, we’ve given clear visual indications of how Sherlock sees the world, and so, his belief in his incredible abilities is justified.

The Twelfth Doctor – when it worked

Was that true of Capaldi’s Doctor in his first series? Close. Overall, the new approach worked well, better than it did with Colin Baker’s Doctor. There are many moments when he’s coming across as rude or blunt, but you can understand why.

For example, when he meets the soldier Journey Blue in Into the Dalek, she’s understandably angry over the death of her brother. The Doctor however doesn’t have time for it, but considering he did what he could to save someone’s life, it’s an attitude that’s understandable.

Perhaps one of the most interesting examples is Kill the Moon. While it does have a plot point that hasn’t been thought through in the slightest, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara’s disagreement in the episode is interesting to watch. Clara wants him to save the day and make the right decision, while the Doctor believes that it’s too important a decision for him to make. It’s a bold moment, but it’s one of the episode’s strongest points, especially during its final scenes.

Going too far?

Having said that, there were moments when the writers tried too hard to make him unlikable. At the beginning of the episode, Clara is yelling at the Doctor for casually saying that one of her students Courtney wasn’t “special”. Considering this went against everything that the previous three Doctors had believed in, and how everyone was important, that seemed a bit much. Even with the reveal at the end that the Doctor knows Courtney’s going to be President of the United States, it seemed too forced.

More from Winter is Coming

• For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
• Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
• Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
• Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
• Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”

Perhaps the worst example though was how much the Doctor hated Danny Pink in The Caretaker. There’s a recurring joke about believing Danny to be a P.E. teacher that gets old real quick. The Doctor having an attitude where he doesn’t suffer fools gladly is nothing new – in fact, this was a key character trait of the Third Doctor. But it’s just infuriating when he has that attitude while being the fool himself.

The Twelfth Doctor was handled better over time, particularly in Series 9 and 10. There were moments when he didn’t act with a great deal of tact, but he was at least funny and likable. (Reading from a few cards that Clara had given him to show some sympathy in Under the Lake is a classic example.) And I think the Doctor acting less “nice” could be done again, if handled right. It’s a big risk, but risks are what make Doctor Who stand out to this day.

What do you think? Do you prefer the Doctor when they’re trying to act nice and polite to people, or do you prefer it when they don’t get on well with others? Which Doctors do you think handled being rude and impolite the best? Let us know in the comments below.