Not That Kind of Doctor: Difference between revisions

If someone in TV-land is referred to as "the doctor", it means hethey'sre a medical doctor.<ref>With [[Doctor Who|one famous exception]] who travels in a TARDIS.</ref> It might not be explicitly mentioned, possibly even outright denied, but anyone called the doctor seems to be [[Open-Heart Dentistry|able to deliver any and all surgical operations]] and medical [[Techno Babble]] required by the plot. There are no exceptions (well, other than [[Doctor Who|him]]). All those other guys who've got doctorates in science, law and philosophy are helpfully distinguished from ''real'' doctors with vaguely-academic titles like "professor", if they're even awarded one at all.

This'''"Not That Kind of Doctor"''' as a trope stems from a modern convention: in the past, "Doctor" had a purely academic connotation—theconnotation — the word itself derives from the Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher". At some point, the word (in English, at least) began to shift from being the title of a learned person/ or a person with a doctorate, to meaning the same as "physician". Originally, the M.D. was a doctorate in medicine, but in some places, like the US and Canada, it became the first professional degree. (In the UK and Ireland, an MB ChB—bachelor of medicine & surgery—are the first ''undergraduate'' degrees; holders are addressed as "Doctor" regardless. While Surgeons—which require a graduate degree, equivalent to a North American MD in length of education—are only addressed as Mr, Mrs, or Miss in a form of reverse snobbery.<ref>Historically, being a doctor (the equivalent to GP today) was considered a more upper-class and gentlemanly career than surgery, as they do not have to get their hands dirty. Most surgeons are simply working-class barbers. However when the modern era rolled around and surgery become a more specialized and prestigious line of work than ''mere'' doctoring, the surgeons refused the title of Doctor as a sort of passive-aggressive middle-finger to the snobs who denied them the title 300-ish years previously.</ref>) It is easy to see how the term "doctor" was slowly divorced from its academic roots. This has gone so far that it is common for it to be thought that "real" doctors are physicians... which brings us to this trope. And [[MD Envy]] to boot.

** The heretofore unseen Dr. Vegepunk may or may not be that kind of doctor, as he is [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist| a genius in ''several'' fields]], some of them at least related to medicine.

* TheIn [[The DCU|female]], Kimiyo Hoshi (AKA Dr. Light]]) started out as Not That Kind of Doctor, being an astrophysicist. Then,; she was later shown as That Kind of Doctor, working in a hospital and healing a fellow hero., Thusand beganmarking her eventual upgrade to [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]]...

* [[Batman| Bruce Wayne's]] deceased father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, was that kind of doctor.

** The satire film ''[[Dracula: Dead and Loving It]]'' showed Helsing as a medical professor, demonstrating how to perform an autopsy, causing all of his students to faint.

* ''[[Sherlock Holmes|]]'': Doctor Watson]] ''is'' that kind of doctor, if only to underline how much above even medical doctors Holmes is cognitively. That said, when faking an illness to lure out his would-be murderer, Holmes is forced to keep Watson at a distance by claiming risk of infection, but really because he's afraid Watson's medical knowledge would easily penetrate the disguise; Holmes's own medical insight is mostly limited to forensics, criminal and otherwise.

* ''[[Stargate Verse|]]'': Dr. Beckett, Dr. Frasier and Dr. Keller]] are all That Kind Of Doctor. Actually two of them ''were'', both being somewhat dead. And don't forget Dr. Lam, even if [[Brother Chuck|the writers did.]] Dr. Jackson and Dr. Lee, however, are Not That Kind Of Doctor. Jackson is rarely even referred to as "doctor" except when he's being introduced to someone.

*:* Major Carter isn't that kind of doctor either, but no one has ever thought she was... except in "Moebius", when she introduces herself to Dr. Jackson.

*:* In "Harmony", a girl believes that Dr. Mckay should know something about, well, being a doctor. His responce is similar to Jackson's above.

* ''[[Star Trek]]'': Doctors [[Star Trek: The Original Series|McCoy]], [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Crusher, Pulaski]], [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Bashir]], [[Star Trek: Voyager|Placeholder]], and [[Enterprise|Phlox]] are definitely that kind of doctor. To emphasize the [[Mildly Military]] nature of Starfleet, is is apparently ''not'' appropriate to address them by their rank (if any). Further, as a psychiatrist, Deanna Troi is likely a Doctor as well, ''sort of'' that kind.

* During one episode of ''[[Leverage]]"'' ("The [[Rashomon Style|Rashomon]] Job"), Sophie runs into Dr. Wes Abernathy. She asks what his PhD is in, and he announces that he is a surgeon.

'''Reid''': Um... Second opinion.

* [[Doctor Doom]] dropped out of school after his [[Freak Lab Accident]] and then proceeded to learn magic and take over a country. He never actually finished his doctorate. No one would argue that he doesn't deserve one, but he simply never finished the paperwork. Ordering the [[Ruritania|University of Latvaria]] to give him a degree (what the fanon suggests he did) doesn't count, even though the thesis defense would have been... interesting.

* [[Spider-Man|Spider-Man's]]'s foe Dr. Octopus has a doctorate in nuclear physics.

** Lampshaded in ''[[Secret Wars]]'': Volcana asks Doctor Octopus to tend to the severely wounded Molecule Man; Octopus replies that his doctorate is in nuclear physics, not medicine, but he'll see what he can do...

* Used in, of all places, ''[[Growing Pains]]'' where Dr. Seaver has to help a young girl during her [[Born in Anan Elevator]] moment. When she hears his title he admits that he is a Psychiatrist, not a Medical Doctor, but assures her that he is still trained in basic medicine.

** [[Played With]], however—his knowledge of physics allows him [[The Incredible Shrinking Man|to shrink down]] and pull off a [[Fantastic Voyage Plot]] to save [[Batman]] anyway.

** Is he [[Small Name, Big Ego|claiming]] to be [[Blatant Lies|to be a genius]] in that field, too?

* Doctoral students everywhere. After going through the very long, sometimes soul-sucking process of actually getting that PhD, you damn well want some acknowledgmentacknowledgement for it. And yet the public insists on thinking that all doctors are physicians.

* Aversion: ''Every'' university graduate in Italy is referred to as "Dottore" or "Dottoressa." Unless, that is, they have some more prestigious title, such as "Avvocato" (<s>avocado</s> lawyer) or even better, "Ingegnere" (engineer.).

** Madalyn Murray O'Hair actually was commonly referred to as "Dr. O'Hair" in American Atheist publications, though technically she earned a L.L.B which was [http://books.google.com/books?id=PitAMz7VfKAC&pg=PA29&dq=South+Texas+College+of+Law&hl=en&ei=Y3PATLGlM4W0sAO3wIXYCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CE4Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false later converted] when all first professional law degrees in the US were automatically changed to JDs. (However, her school wasn't ABA approved so she couldn't sit for the bar exam.) Though in an inversion, she most likely was hoping to be mistaken for "not that kind of doctor", because despite her public legal battles earlier in her life, her articles by this point tended to delve into history, and obviously a Ph.D., especially if it was assumed to be in some kind of study of history as would be assumed for a doctor writing papers on history without mentioning otherwise, would add far more credibility to her many less -than -mainstream views (and because, as previously mentioned, no lawyer without a M.D. or Ph.D. refers to themselves as a doctor in the first place, so gaining legal credibility wouldn't make sense unless she hoped to be mistaken for a Doctor of Juridical Science, who do refer to themselves as "doctor").

* First Lady Jill Biden has been criticized for using the title [http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-dr-jill-biden2-2009feb02,0,548459.story because she's not that kind of doctor]; her degree is in Education.

* Theodor Geisel, AKA "[[Dr. Seuss]]", was ''technically'' a doctor, his degree being a a D.Phil. in English Literature from Oxford; the "Dr." part of his signature was merely a pen name.

* In one of dialects of my{{who}} language 'physicist' meant physician. Nucleus shares the word with kernel. So when female presented herself as nuclear physicist... (given—it was in time when nuclear physics what esoteric area of physics and 'no one' heard of it).

* [[Dr. Dre]] did not attend any university. He does have an honorary degree in Street Knowledge, though.

* Derek Smart, the man behind ''[[Battlecruiser 3000AD]]'' and ''Universal Combat'', claims to possess a doctorate and frequently titles himself as Ph.D, but his thesis is not listed anywhere, and he has not divulged basic details about his doctorate, such as which college he attended or who was his supervisor. There's understandable suspicion that he's lying.