History Main / MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate

* A ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' story in ''All-Winners Comics'' had a one-off MadScientist named Dr. Botan, who kidnapped people and merged them with plants.
* Characters/DoctorDoom: 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 also not a real doctor; he's got a degree from the University of Latveria, but it's a self-granted one that he "received" after he took over the country. To his credit, he ''was'' a legitimately brilliant student at New York State University prior to being expelled for causing the explosion that disfigured him and has done enough original work that he could easily get a real doctorate if he really wanted to and wasn't a notorious criminal dictator. Oddly enough, he goes by doctor, while the legitimately multi-doctorate-degreed Reed Richards goes by mister in his super-id. This is probably an attempt at soothing his ego, as he has always been ruefully jealous of Reed's success in university.

* ''Comicbook/DoctorStrange'': Doctor Stephen Strange: [[TheAtoner Formerly]] a brilliant but [[DrJerk callous and egotistical]] young surgeon. Currently [[BunnyEarsLawyer good, but eccentric]], possessing a lot of arcane knowledge he really doesn't have time to explain to you, so just stand back and let him save the day already.

* ''ComicBook/Nova2007:'' Doctor Evlyn Necker, an attractive but slightly shady scientist who turns out to be working as a mole for A.I.M., even if she's actually quite nice on-page (though naming her robot project "Minion" is pretty sus as it). When she returned a few years later in ''Revolutionary War'', she'd scratched out the "morally ambiguous" bit and gone full MadScientist. Of course, given she's a younger, alternate version of the mad scientist who created Death's Head II for HYDRA, the madness was probably a given.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsOttoOctavius Doctor Octopus]], cephalopod-themed supervillain and MadScientist. Unlike most examples, he does hold an actual doctorate, although [[NotThatKindOfDoctor it isn't in medicine.]]
* Dr. Jonas Harrow, occasional Spider-Man villain who is responsible for the Kangaroo and Hammerhead becoming villains; evil MadScientist, and [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain not a very good one]]. He once did have a license to practice medicine, but he lost it for practicing illegal experiments.
* Dr Oonagh Mullarkey is [[EvilInc Mys-Tech]]'s most prominent scientist and responsible for creating or enhancing many of their superhumans and monstrous minions. She eventually gets tired of working behind the scenes, attempts to give herself superpowers and makes herself an even worse human being by exporting her conscience and the 'good' parts of her personality into ''ComicBook/{{Plasmer}}''.
* ''Comicbook/{{Thunderbolts}}'': Dr. Karla Sofen, aka Moonstone, is one hell of a PsychoPsychologist (or Psychiatrist; either way, her knowledge of the human mind makes Karla a dangerous [[ManipulativeBastard Manipulative Bitch]]).

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': The villain Doctor Ruthless. She doesn't go for the medical doctor slant as she is covered in armor, but no attempt is made to address whether she actually has a doctorate.

* In ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', Dr. Emil Hamilton started as a minor antagonist who quickly became Superman's go-to guy for technical know-how. He eventually became a villain.

* A ComicBook/CaptainAmerica story in ''All-Winners Comics'' had a one-off MadScientist named Dr. Botan, who kidnapped people and merged them with plants.

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'': The Doctor. "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'.

* Not to be outdone, the ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers Generation 1]]'' cartoon 3-parter "The Ultimate Doom" had Doctor Arkeville[[note]]Sometimes misspelled "Dr. Archeville," so as to read more like "arch-villain"[[/note]], the self-proclaimed evil genius who assisted the Decepticons in developing a microchip that could control human minds.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': Dr. Doofenshmirtz is evil, yet also [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain incompetent]]. Sometimes Perry the Platypus doesn't even have to get involved to thwart his schemes; Doofenshmirtz once got beaten by a ''potted plant''! It turns out he isn't actually a doctor, he just uses the title. [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter His own daughter]] pointed out that his diploma was fake.

%%* ''Film/DrStrangelove'': Probably ChaoticNeutral.

* The Dr. Who of 1966's ''King Kong'' cartoon was your standard issue power mad scientist. And he'd always fail thanks to Kong.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'': in "The Bear Who Came to Dinner", Square Bear is faking an injury and is taking advantage of zookeeper Peevly's hospitality. Peevly calls for a doctor, and who he gets is zoo gorilla Bananas, with whom Hair Bear pulled an allnighter teaching him about medicine. Bananas introduces himself as Dr. Rudolph Von Faker: M.D., B.A., Ph.D and P.D.Q.

** Daffy Duck's qualifications for being in medicine in "The Daffy Doc": he has a sheepskin (the actual pelt and fleece of a sheep) and a license (a car plate that reads "2B OR NOT 2B").

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'': in "The Bear Who Came to Dinner", Square Bear is faking an injury and is taking advantage of zookeeper Peevly's hospitality. Peevly calls for a doctor, and who he gets is zoo gorilla Bananas, with whom Hair Bear pulled an allnighter teaching him about medicine. Bananas introduces himself as Dr. Rudolph Von Faker: M.D., B.A., Ph.D and P.D.Q.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheHairBearBunch'': in "The Bear Who Came to Dinner", Square Bear is faking an injury and is taking advantage of zookeeper Peevly's hospitality. Peevly calls for a doctor, and who he gets is zoo gorilla Bananas, whom Hair Bear pulled an allnighter teaching him about medicine. Bananas introduces himself as Dr. Rudolph Von Faker: M.D., B.A., Ph.D and P.D.Q.

** Daffy Duck's qualifications for being in medicine in "The Daffy Doc": he has a sheepskin (the actual pelt and fleece of a sheep) and a license (a car plate that reads "2B OR NOT 2B).

** Doctor Shinigami/Ikadevil was one of the main generals of the original ''Series/KamenRider'' series.

** ''Series/KamenRiderOOO'': Dr. Maki, whose obsession with endings led him to allow a bomber to continue his work and, ultimately, [[spoiler:turn himself into a Greeed and become the BigBad with the goal of ending everything except himself]].
** ''Series/KamenRiderGaim'' gives us Ryoma Sengoku, who created all of the [[TransformationTrinket Drivers]] in the show. His ultimate goal is {{godhood|Seeker}}, and he will do anything, including [[spoiler:throwing the world into anarchy, and murdering someone who possessed the Forbidden Fruit within them]], in order to achieve his goals.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'':

* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'' Dr. Frank. N. Furter: Okay, so we don't know if he's REALLY a doctor, but he's sure deep into the [[MadScientist Mad Science]]. Not really evil, just hedonistic and petulant.