Rick And Morty: 5 Reasons Rick Sanchez Is A Dark Reflection Of The Doctor

At first glance, the story of a grey-haired eccentric inventor and his teenaged sidekick makes Rick and Morty look like a Back to the Future parody. A few episodes into the multiverse misadventures, moral ambiguity, and wacky science makes it feel like the Brian and Stewie episodes of Family Guy.

But after two and a half seasons, Rick is starting to act more and more like the Doctor.

Strip away the crude humor from one and the British charm from the other, and what you are left with is a godlike figure who travels around looking for excitement and along the way. He saves lives, makes the hard choices nobody else wants to, and messes with the lives of his companions.

Rick and Morty has no clear reference to The Doctor. This suggests that any parallels between everyone's favourite murderous, space travelling, amoral super-scientist and Rick Sanchez are a complete coincidence.

One character is a benevolent, professor type and the other genius, misanthrope yet they both turned out to be arrogant, absent-minded scientists, just out for a good time despite their HUGE body counts.

The Doctor

From the moment The Doctor first ran off with his TARDIS (or the TARDIS ran off with her Doctor depending on who you ask), he has used this unimaginably complicated and powerful piece of technology with intentional irresponsibility.

Whether it's taking his granddaughter Susan to an Earth school or Clara for a murder mystery on the Orient Express... in space, The Doctor uses the TARDIS to do what he wants, when he wants.

Rick Sanchez

Soon after inventing the portal gun Rick left his young family behind to explore the universe.

Now he has returned home and is so disconnected from normality that wacky adventures are his only life skill. Grandson failing his school work? Poison him with a seed that gives temporary intelligence. Son-in-law not dealing well with his divorce? Alien theme park. Vehicle battery died on your way home from getting ice-cream? Journey into a micro dimension to fix it.

Common Traits

Both Rick and the Doctor stubbornly avoid having a goal. While each may focus on one goal or adversary for a while, it won't be long before they are back to their natural state of aimless wandering. It also helps to distract the hero from the things they are running from: The Doctor from Gallifrey; Rick from his family. Also, having the characters stop off at a tourist attraction or wild party can help make them seem more puckish and cheeky, rather than the dangerous and omnipotent demigods they really are.