5 Doctor Who Episodes Where the Doctor Was Basically the Bad Guy, Ranked

5. The End of the World (2005)

The Ninth Doctor thought long and hard about where to take Rose on her first off-Earth adventure, and nothing better than Platform One where they could watch her home planet explode came to his mind. As it turned out, Lady Cassandra, the self-proclaimed last human, wanted to explode everyone along with Earth.

Unfortunately for her, the Doctor had just ended the war on his planet, killing everyone involved (or so he thought at the time), and he was in no mood for patience or kindness. The Doctor ended up letting Cassandra die (by not moisturizing her), and he showed no remorse!

4. Hell Bent (2015)

The Twelfth Doctor meant business just as much as the Ninth – especially, after spending billions of years trying to escape from his confession dial. He wasn’t about to let Clara die permanently, so he came up with a clever way to save her.

Of course, the Time Lords weren’t amused that the Doctor was once again defying them and their laws, so the General tried to stop him. The Doctor was so pissed at that point that he broke his golden no-gun rule and just shot the General. Sure, Time Lords can regenerate, but the whole process still feels more like dying.

3. The Waters of Mars (2009)

David Tennant’s Doctor was usually pretty mellow, but this episode changed that. The Tenth Doctor accidentally found himself in the middle of a fixed point in time that should never be changed. The first base on Mars had to explode, and Captain Adelaide Brooke had to die to inspire her granddaughter to continue her space legacy.

The Doctor tried not to get involved, but failed miserably. In the end, he decided to take destiny into his own hands and save Adelaide and the remaining crew. Hungry for power and convinced that he could now change history, the Doctor essentially made Adelaide kill herself. She still died (as she was supposed to), but it was not a hero’s death.

2. An Unearthly Child (1963)

If you think that classic Doctor Who was more light-hearted and cheerful, you are in for a big surprise. The First Doctor only looked like a kind grandpa, but he was a menace when he wanted to be.

In the very first episode, the Doctor discovered that Ian and Barbara knew too much about him and Susan, so what was his solution? Kidnapping. He just took the pair of teachers on a deep dive through space and time against their will, and that was before he knew how to fly his TARDIS properly. Creepy and cruel!

1. A Good Man Goes to War (2011)

The Eleventh Doctor might have looked like an overgrown child, but he was the most terrifying of them all. This whole episode was basically just an ode to the Doctor’s bad side.

First, the Doctor sent Rory to deliver a message to the Cybermen. Then he blew up an entire legion of Cyberships. Did that count as genocide? Kind of. Infuriated by the fact that his loved ones were being used to get to him, the Doctor took it all out on Colonel Manton, whom he tauntingly nicknamed “Colonel Runaway.”

The Doctor is not to be trifled with. Beware!