Doctor Who: 10 Major Ways The Doctor Affected Human History
6. Inadvertently Inspiring The Great Fire Of Rome
While the Eleventh Doctor is easily the clumsiest of them all, the character has always been a bit of a bumbling idiot, even as far back as their first incarnation. This side of them is usually played for laughs, but the Doctor's accidents can also have dire consequences too.
Case in point: when the First Doctor inspired Emperor Nero to burn Rome to the ground.
In the 1965 serial The Romans, the Doctor and his companions land in ancient Rome, where the Doctor is confronted by Nero. During this conversation, the Doctor doesn't realise that his glasses are channeling the heat of the sun, aiming it at a map of Rome laid on the table.
It's like that scene in Toy Story where Sid uses a magnifying glass to burn Woody's forehead. Only much worse.
This heat actually sets fire to the map, and the sight of Rome going up in flames (on paper) gives Nero the idea to do it for real. And thus, the Great Fire of Rome soon came to pass.
This event was later referenced in The Fires of Pompeii, where the Tenth Doctor jokes that the Great Fire of Rome wasn't totally his fault. Actually mate... it kinda was.