History Main / DoctorsDisgracefulDemotion

* ''Film/Alien3''. Dr. Jonathan Clemens was sent to the penal planet of Fury 161 because he was addicted to morphine and accidentally killed eleven accident victims because he prescribed the wrong dosage of painkillers while high. After his sentence was over he remained as their doctor, both to atone and because no-one else would hire him.
* ''Film/TheBoysFromBrazil'': Doctor Josef Mengele escapes the fall of the Third Reich and flees to Brazil. For his part in wicked experiments on humans, Mengele was stripped of all credentials and branded a war criminal. Nevertheless, Mengele secretly continues to conduct his MagnumOpus experiment: creating clones of Adolf Hitler, which have been seeded with foster parents in foreign countries.
* ''{{Film/Clue}}'': Professor Plum was a psychiatrist until he lost his license for having a fling with one of his "lady patients."

* In the 1998 sci-fi BMovie ''Film/{{Legion|1998}}'', Creator/TerryFarrell recruits a ''Dirty Dozen''-style team of death-row prisoners. One of them is a female MadDoctor who's a religious maniac.
-->'''Fleming:''' Jones, field MD. Served in a [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment POW enemy]] hospital. Did unnecessary surgery on enemy soldiers, with lethal results. Eight died.
-->'''Jones:''' I am a soldier of God. I just [[HearingVoices acted on command.]] The Angel of Death is my superior officer.
* ''Film/MinorityReport''. After going on the run, Precrime cop John Anderton goes to a back-alley surgeon to get his eyes replaced to [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou evade the retinal scans]]. Only after he's been injected with drugs does he realise the surgeon is a MadDoctor he put in prison for setting his own patients on fire, just so he could demonstrate his skills. Luckily for John, the doctor is grateful for being sent to jail, as it gave him the time he needed to continue studying medicine in the prison library.

* ''Literature/TheGodfather'': Jules Segal lost his license for performing underground abortions, and has to settle for the still-underdeveloped Las Vegas. Later, Michael Corleone helps him to get a clinic.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Qyburn lost his maester's chain (the Westerosi equivalent of a medical license) for cutting up the bodies of living patients to study their insides. While working as TheMedic for the [[PsychoForHire Bloody Mummers,]] he dissects live prisoners. Later, he's given permission by [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Cersei Lannister]] to continue his experiments in the castle dungeons.

* One of the antagonists from ''Series/KingdomHospital'' had that in his backstory. He'd gotten in trouble for botching a surgery and it cost him his reputation, getting him kicked out of his cushy New York Hospital and sent to the titular one. He was so arrogant that he actually started to believe that the botched surgery was orchestrated by a conspiracy still trying to ruin his life.
* ''Series/MurderRooms''. In "The Photographer's Chair", Dr. Bell has a barbed conversation with the coroner, who only maintains his position due to being in the same Masonic Lodge as the chief constable. Afterwards Dr. Bell fills in Doyle on the man's notorious past.
-->"To begin with, his surgical technique was remarkable. Swift and steady. But then, alcohol became his master. One spectacularly botched operation was his downfall. His surgical saw, amputated his own two fingers, the patient's leg and a [[GroinAttack pair of perfectly healthy testicles]]."
* ''Series/{{The Punisher|2017}}''. In the final episode Billy Russo goes to a BackAlleyDoctor after being shot. The doctor tries to get him to go to a proper hospital instead. "Look, there's a reason I'm here and not Mount Sinai, okay? It ain't my bedside manner."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In "The Saint", a minor character loses his medical license for testing a serum on Gumball and Darwin that causes horrific mutations.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': "Professor" Rottwood believes in the existence of magical creatures, [[WesternAnimation/FairlyOddparents much like another public school teacher.]] Unfortunately for Rottwood, when he presented his evidence of such, it was not seen as quirky by his peers, but rather an affront to scientific discovery and egregious misuse of research funds. He was summarily stripped of his accreditation, and reduced to teaching middle school while continuing to harangue others about his crackpot theories, a fact he finds very insulting.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': The episode "Paging The Crime Doctor" features Dr. Matthew Thorne, who functions as a private surgeon for Gotham's mob. He's forced to do this because some years ago he lost his license to practice when he took a bullet out of his brother, mob boss Rupert Thorne, and failed to report the incident to the police. He's actually played for tragedy as he regrets the loss of his license, and more than suspects Rupert set him up as the Crime Doctor more to take advantage of his talents than as a way to help him continue to practice. By the end of the episode, Bruce Wayne is offering to help him get his license back in exchange for stories on Matthew's old medical school classmate; Thomas Wayne.

[[/folder]]

-->-- ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', "[[Machinima/TeamFortress2 Meet the Medic]]"

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': In [[Machinima/TeamFortress2 "Meet the Medic"]], while Heavy is on Medic's operating table, Medic is telling him a funny story about a patient who woke up with his skeleton missing, and finishes it with, "...anyway, [[HerrDoktor zat's]] how I lost my medical license!" causing Heavy to stop laughing and look worried.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureGoldenWind'': When Cioccolata was working as a surgeon, he would deliberately mess up the dose of anesthetic so his patients would wake up mid-operation, allowing him to enjoy seeing them in agonizing pain. He was fired after killing one of his patients but didn't get arrested because the murder was mistaken for an accident. Now he works for [[TheMafia Passione]] as the boss's personal TortureTechnician.

* ''Film/{{Evolution}}'': Dr. Kane lost face with the military after he developed a vaccine for them that had a wide variety of unpleasant side effects. As such, he ended up teaching Biology to indifferent high-schoolers in a small town.

->'''Medic:''' ''Vait, vait, vait, it gets better. Vhen zhe patient voke up, his skeleton vas missing, and zhe doctor vas never heard from again!''\\
''(Medic and Heavy laugh uproariously)''\\
'''Medic:''' ''Anyvey... zhat's how I lost my medical license, heh.''\\
'''Heavy:''' ''([[OhCrap worried expression]])''
-->-- "Meet the Medic", ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''

* In the 1998 sci-fi BMovie ''Legion'', Creator/TerryFarrell recruits a ''Dirty Dozen''-style team of death-row prisoners. One of them is a female MadDoctor who's a religious maniac.

-->-- '''Det. Jake Peralta''', ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'', "The Therapist"

Sub-trope of BackAlleyDoctor, DrJerk, and MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate. If the character telling the story is a villain, they might be [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims Reminiscing About Their Victims]]. They're also likely to say, "TheyCalledMeMad" and/or "IDidWhatIHadToDo" Related to MeatgrinderSurgery, BackstoryHorror, NoodleIncident, and MedicalHorror.

Sub-trope of BackAlleyDoctor, DrJerk, and MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate. If the character telling the story is a villain, they might be [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims Reminiscing About Their Victims]]. They're also likely to say, "TheyCalledMeMad" Related to MeatgrinderSurgery, BackstoryHorror, NoodleIncident, and MedicalHorror.

* ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': When Cioccolata was working as a surgeon, he would deliberately mess up the dose of anesthetic so his patients would wake up mid-operation, allowing him to enjoy seeing them in agonizing pain. He was fired after killing one of his patients but didn't get arrested because the murder was mistaken for an accident. Now he works for [[TheMafia Passione]] as the boss's personal TortureTechnician.

* ''Series/ThePunisher''. In the final episode Billy Russo goes to a BackAlleyDoctor after being shot. The doctor tries to get him to go to a proper hospital instead. "Look, there's a reason I'm here and not Mount Sinai, okay? It ain't my bedside manner."

-->'''Fleming:''' Jones, field MD. Served in a [[DepartmentOfRedundencyDepartment POW enemy]] hospital. Did unnecessary surgery on enemy soldiers, with lethal results. Eight died.

-->'''Jones, field MD. Served in a [[DepartmentOfRedundencyDepartment POW enemy]] hospital. Did unnecessary surgery on enemy soldiers. With lethal results. Eight died.

* In the 1998 sci-fi BMovie ''Legion'', Creator/TerryFarrell recruits a ''Dirty Dozen''-style team of death-row prisoners. One of them is a female CombatMedic, a religious maniac imprisoned for doing "unnecessary surgery on soldiers".

* ''Film/MinorityReport''. After going on the run, Precrime cop John Anderton goes to a back-alley surgeon to get his eyes replaced to [[BigBrotherIsWatchingYou evade the retinal scans]]. Only after he's been injected with drugs does he realise the surgeon is a MadDoctor he put in prison for setting his own patients on fire , just so he could demonstrate his skills. Luckily for John, the doctor is grateful for being sent to jail, as it gave him the time he needed to continue studying medicine in the prison library.

* ''Series/MurderRooms''. "The Photographer's Chair", Dr. Bell has a barbed conversation with the coroner, who only maintains his position due to being in the same Masonic Lodge as the chief constable. Afterwards Dr. Bell fills in Doyle on the man's notorious past.

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': When Cioccolata was working as a surgeon, he would deliberately mess up the dose of anesthetic so his patients would wake up mid-operation, allowing him to enjoy seeing them in agonizing pain. He was fired after killing one of his patients but didn't get arrested because the murder was mistaken for an accident. Now he works for [[TheMafia Passione]] as the boss's personal TortureTechnician.

* ''VideoGame/Persona5'': Dr. Tae Takemi, the Death Confidant, appears to be this on the surface, and she even calls herself a quack. Her deal with Joker is to provide medicine for purchase with no questions asked in exchange for Joker acting as a Guinea pig in her drug research. But as her story unfolds, it turns out that she was actually a prodigy who got burned by her erstwhile boss, a GreenEyedMonster with mediocre skills but abundant connections. [[spoiler:After changing her boss's heart, he's arrested for malpractice and Takemi completes her research on a previously incurable disease, her reputation presumably restored.]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo'': When Cioccolata was working as a surgeon, he would deliberately mess up the dose of anesthetic so his patients would wake up mid-operation, allowing him to enjoy seeing them in agonizing pain. He was fired after killing one of his patients, but didn't get arrested because the murder was mistaken for an accident. Now he works for [[TheMafia Passione]] as the boss's personal TortureTechnician.

* ''Film/TheBoysFromBrazil'': Doctor Josef Mengele escapes the fall of the Third Reich and flees to Brazil. For his part in wicked experiments on humans, Mengele was stripped of all credentials, and branded a war criminal. Nevertheless, Mengele secretly continues to conduct his MagnumOpus experiment: creating clones of Adolf Hitler, which have been seeded with foster parents in foreign countries.
* ''{{Film/Clue}}'': Professor Plum was a psychiatrist until his lost his license for having a fling with one of his "lady patients."

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong'': "Professor" Rottwood believes in the existence of magical creatures, [[WesternAnimation/FairlyOddparents much like another public school teacher.]] Unfortunately for Rottwood, when he presented his evidence of such, it was not seen as quirky by his peers, but rather an affront to scientific discovery and an aggregious misuse of research funds. He was summarily stripped of his accreditation, and reduced to teaching middle school while continuing to harangue others about his crackpot theories, a fact he finds very insulting.

There's a reason why [[MadDoctor Mad Doctors]] and [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] (and sometimes other kinds of evil doctors, such as the DepravedDentist) work in secret underground labs and not in public hospitals where they have to follow inconvenient rules like codes of ethics and the Hippocratic oath. They might have ''started'' there, but then they were fired because...well, they'd love to tell you that story themselves. It's a darkly hilarious (or just plain dark) story about how they lost their medical license, usually for performing some kind of gruesome, horrifying experiment ForScience Bonus points if they're telling it to the poor sap on their operating table.

* Jules Segal of ''Literature/TheGodfather'' lost his license for performing underround abortions, and has to settle for the still-underdevelopped LasVegas. Later, Michael Corleone helps him to get a clinic.
* ''Literature/TheSevenPerCentSolution'' has Sherlock Holmes meet Doctor Sigmund Freud. A SherlockScan of Freud's office leads to Holmes deducing that the doctor has become a pariah among his medical peers, and subsists purely as a private practitioner. "These blank spaces on the wall where certificates and awards would be. One might become disenfranchised with one or two, but not all six at once. No, doctor, I deduce it was they who became appalled by you, and withdrew their credentials."

The doctor's attitude towards their lost medical license also depends on how seriously they're taken by the narrative. If they're a jovial, AffablyEvil sort, they'll laugh it off. If they're a WellIntentionedExtremist trying to save lives or cure a deadly disease, they'll nurse a grudge against whoever stopped their morally dubious research in its tracks. In the latter case, they'll defend their actions and claim they were for the greater good.

* ''Film/TheBoysFromBrazil'': Doctor Josef Mengele escapes the fall of the Third Reich and flees to Brazil. For his part in wicked experiments on humans, Mengele was stripped of all credentials, and branded a war criminal. Nevertheless, Mengele secretly continues to conduct his MagnusOpus experiment: creating clones of Adolf Hitler, which have been seeded with foster parents in foreign countries.