Doctor Who's time-traveling hero carries the wisdom of many centuries, but Jodie Whittaker's Time Lord just made exactly the same error as Jon Pertwee and David Tennant. Each regeneration of The Doctor comes with their own quirks and qualities, but certain core characteristics have remained unchanged throughout the years, the most important of these being mercy. No matter the situation, The Doctor will never (well, almost never) turn immediately toward violence, giving even her most despicable enemies the opportunity to retreat, surrender, or change their ways.
Doctor Who: Flux's "War of the Sontarans" is a fine example, with the Thirteenth Doctor standing between a Sontaran invasion of Earth's Crimean War and a stubborn British military general refusing to back down from an unwinnable fight. Had she been so inclined, Whittaker's Doctor probably could've cooked up some way of decimating the Sontaran camp, but slaughter isn't her style. Instead, Thirteen enlists Mary Seacole to deprive the Sontarans of their fuel supply, forcing the invaders into a "tactical retreat" and once again saving Earth from alien occupation.
As The Doctor celebrates another peaceful end, however, General Logan reveals his plan for petty revenge. The Sontaran fleet departs Crimea with their probic vents still quaking, but Logan ignites a hidden stash of explosives, slaughtering the already-defeated Doctor Who villains. Naturally, The Doctor is disgusted by Logan's cowardly, unnecessary attack, but this isn't the first time her faith in human mercy has proved misplaced. In "Doctor Who & The Silurians," Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor negotiated a fragile peace between humanity and the Silurians, who were emerging from beneath Earth's surface ready to claim the planet for themselves. Pertwee's Doctor drove away happy at another day's work, only for the Brigadier to commit genocide by blowing up the entire Silurian settlement behind them. Decades later, the Tenth Doctor's first assignment was to repel a Sycorax invasion by defeating their leader in a sword fight. Despite winning, Earth embarrassed itself again when British PM, Harriet Jones, ordered a laser strike on the departing Sycorax ship.
Having already watched the same scenario play out twice before, Jodie Whittaker's Doctor perhaps should've been prepared for General Logan to betray her. Though The Doctor endeavors to see the good in human nature, her pacifist mindset hasn't always been shared by military types or politicians. Remembering what happened with the Silurians and Sycorax, Thirteen maybe could've kept a closer eye on Logan's hands, making sure he didn't scupper her peaceful resolution with a surprise slaughter. Instead, The Doctor once again trusted Earth's higher-ups to be as merciful as she and, once again, that assumption backfired in an explosive hail of flying brown Sontaran chunks.
Though The Doctor might've known General Logan wouldn't accept a bloodless conclusion, "War of the Sontarans" does deliver a subtle commentary on humanity's unchanging violence. From General Logan in the 19th century, to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the 20th, and then Harriet Jones in the 21st, Earth is still plagued by a petty hatred of the unknown, where some would rather stab a defeated enemy in the back than let them walk away beaten. The Doctor continues to help Earth because she honestly believes humanity is capable of being better, but with exactly the same incident playing out across three different Doctor Who centuries with three different Doctors, she might be waiting a while.
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