Doctor Who: 10 Times The Doctor Gave Zero F*cks About His Companions

Because the Doctor looks like a human, sounds like a human, and always hangs around with humans, we often forget that the character is just as much of an alien as the Slitheen, the Judoon, or even the Daleks are. Minus the gooey squid monster.

This is a character from another planet, a character who was raised in a radically different culture, a character who has lived for a mind-boggling amount of years. And so, even though the Doctor likes to mingle with us lowly humans, there are many, many occasions where the character's "alien-ness" fully shines through: eating fish custard without puking, performing acts of scientific genius, and also, treating his companions like they're nothing but dirt beneath his fingernails.

Whether he's intending to be a dick or whether he does it by accident, there are times when the Doctor doesn't seem all that bothered about his companions during the modern series, which can damage them emotionally, turn them against him, and sometimes, even put their lives in danger.

The Doctor's people skills definitely need some polishing, and because his companions are around him all the time, they know this better than most.

The Doctor often treats his "secondary" companions a bit poorly - see the Eleventh Doctor constantly bickering with Rory, or the Ninth Doctor leaving Captain Jack on Satellite Five - and Mickey was no exception.

Because the Doctor blatantly favoured Rose, Mickey was left feeling like a bit of an idiot, a bit useless, and a bit of an afterthought, on more than one occasion.

This began all the way back in their first episode together, in which the Doctor pulls off plastic Mickey's head, completely ignoring the fact that the real Mickey might be dead - "I didn't think of that" is his response when Rose brings this up. Then, at the end of the same episode, he bluntly states that Mickey is "not invited" for a trip in the TARDIS.

The Ninth Doctor even started calling Mickey "Mickey the idiot" on a regular basis, and their relationship hardly improved when Eccleston regenerated into Tennant.

Not only did the Tenth Doctor and Rose develop a strong romantic bond - which drove Mickey to tap out halfway through Series 2 - but the Doctor actually enjoyed it when Mickey did stupid stuff: just look at the smug expression on the Doctor's face when Mickey embarrasses himself at the start of Rise Of The Cybermen.

The Doctor eventually grew to respect Mickey, but without question, he simply wasn't bothered about him in those early days.