Are the Doctor and Sherlock Mary Sues?

I linked to an article making the case that the Doctor and Sherlock are Mary Sues on our Facebook page yesterday and the reaction was mixed, so I thought it be worth sharing here to guage opinion and perhaps discuss.

I can see where the author is coming from. Both characters are awesome, perhaps too awesome that they’re bordering on superheroes, and don’t have a lot of much-needed flaws. A clear sign of a “perfect” Mary Sue character perhaps?

But maybe that’s fine? They are the protagonists in their own stories. In a roleplay you can’t have every character being awesome, or everyone will get jealous.

It depends of course what we mean when we use the term Mary Sue (which gets so often mixed up in my mind with godmodding). We’ve posted a breakdown of what a Mary Sue character is here. And don’t forget there are many different types of Mary Sue (Marty Stu, Jerk Sue etc – There’s an article about these here).

So what do you think? Are the Doctor and Sherlock Mary Sues? Does it matter if they are? Comment below.