I think part of it is simply that everyone knows firemen are there to fight fires and rescue people, whereas the Doctor rarely stays in one place long enough (or returns to the same place often enough) to build up a proper rep as a savior, and is hence frequently misidentified as a cause of the problem. (As with Torchwood, who have been working on rumor and evidently not consulting with UNIT about their experiences with their "civilian scientific advisor.") Also of course there's the thing about the Doctor's firefighting method tending to be less about dumping water on the flames and more about doing that thing where a small fire is created in the path of the oncoming firestorm to consume the fuel before the big one arrives -- which to the uninformed can look an awful lot like arson.
And I seem to remember a number of situations happening specifically because old enemies of the Doctor's (generally the Master, but once or twice the Rani) came for him, or tried to do something nasty to the Earth specifically because they knew the Doctor would be upset. (Come to think of it, the Xmas Invasion was pretty confusing as to why the Earth was being targeted -- it was hard to tell whether it was the Guinevere probe that first caught their attention, or the Doctor lying around coughing up energy that the pilot fish detected.) Which is of course part of why I think he bounces around so much -- it's not just that he bores easily and can't stand sticking around for rebuilding or for thanks (or blame), it's that he wants to remain a moving target.
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Date: 2007-06-07 03:31 pm (UTC)And I seem to remember a number of situations happening specifically because old enemies of the Doctor's (generally the Master, but once or twice the Rani) came for him, or tried to do something nasty to the Earth specifically because they knew the Doctor would be upset. (Come to think of it, the Xmas Invasion was pretty confusing as to why the Earth was being targeted -- it was hard to tell whether it was the Guinevere probe that first caught their attention, or the Doctor lying around coughing up energy that the pilot fish detected.) Which is of course part of why I think he bounces around so much -- it's not just that he bores easily and can't stand sticking around for rebuilding or for thanks (or blame), it's that he wants to remain a moving target.