10. He Kidnaps Ian & Barbara

For fans of the long-running British SF institution Doctor Who, it's difficult to imagine a dark side to their favorite Time Lord. For fifty years now, The Doctor, in his various incarnations, has saved the Earth from alien invasion countless times, toppled repressive governments and tyrants in time for tea, and generally been the best friend that humanity could possibly have. But this pleasant, sunny side is not all that constitutes the complex psyche of the Doctor. Here are 10 instances from the history of the series where his moral and ethical judgement could be called into question, and his darker and more disagreeable side has come to the fore....

The fact escapes a lot of New Who fans used to swooning over the dreamy David Tennant and Matt Smith, that in the very beginning of the series, the Doctor was more of a rude and crusty old grandfather type than anyone that your average Twilight fan would want to have tacked to their bedroom wall. Schoolteachers Ian and Barbara were intended to be the figures for audiences to identify with, and through their tenure on the series they are shown as intelligent, courageous, resourceful figures. By contrast, The Doctor was an unabashed anti-hero, a truculent, devious fellow who spends a large chunk of the first episode "An Unearthly Child" first cruelly insulting Ian and Barbara and calling their intelligence into doubt, then, over the desperate objections of his granddaughter Susan, kidnaps them with the TARDIS, when they threaten to report him to the police. To add insult to injury, they even get knocked unconscious when the ship takes off, as the Doctor has not quite mastered the takeoff at this point. Apparently, the seat belt hadn't been invented yet.