Dr. Mario is 9th in the tier ranking system, throws pills of who knows what at people, and has one of the few moves in the game that nearly rivals the shine's speed; Doc does not blow (Maybe his range does but not the Doc himself).
*I must really miss the Doc to keep on posting here...*
You forgot his evil gimping ability and fun aerial game. Doc is definitely a contender amongst the Top Tiers/High tiers, but in my experience does his best against Falco, Falcon, and even Ice Climbers (Fair/dsmash spam ftw), while having a much harder matchups vs. Fox, Marth and Sheik. Doc vs. Marth IMO is a soft counter and not nearly as terrible as phanna's matchup chart might lead you to believe, go fight a smart/gay Sheik player and than we'll talk about hard fights.
Wait... the few moves in the game that nearly rivals the shine's speed? You mean like the jab? Everyone's jab comes out in two frames... except the sword users and Bowser. But who cares about Bowser? A lot of sex kicks (maybe all of them, I can't be bothered to check) come out in three frames. Rest also comes out in one frame.
So I'm not sure why it's a big deal that stuff rivals the shine's speed.
The thing that bugs me most about Doc is that his recovery sucks. And the fact that his fair is really not that great as an approach and his nair decides to be a rebel and not act like anyone else's nair. His fsmash is also really disappointing when you're used to Marth's.
Caping shields is funny though.
I'm pretty sure he was referring to the 'Up B cancel' which comes out in 1 or 2 frames, although it's incredibly situational and in reality has very little use in actual combat seeing as how you can't really follow up from it.
Doc's recovery while easily gimped also happens to be a very annoying one to deal with when done properly. The tornado, cape and pills all assist Doc while recovering and allow him to stall and be offensive at the same time. Count the fact that Doc has Brawl's sweetspot range for his Up B, and you have a character that might mislead you in his recovering ability.
Seems your a Marth main, well of course you'll be discouraged by Doc's lack of range in comparison to MARTH. The Fair can be used as an approach as long as you space it and Lcancel perfectly to avoid a potential shield grab (Fair->dsmash against shields), and his Nair is AWESOME! It's so misleading, has good priority and is one of Doc's most useful approaches. Finally, instead of using Fsmash with Doc (cause Marth mains have bad habits when it comes to using Fsmash), try Dsmash instead. Longer reach, hits infront and behind you, and has tons of KO potential. Fsmash is more situational and should be used mostly to finish Uair combos and for tech chasing.
I'm done ranting now.