

In the annals of time and Science Fiction, no character is more used and recognized than the mad scientist. They have been evil, they have been good and they have (more often than not) been absolutely out of their freaking heads. Crazy as the day is long, these characters have been a constant source of entertainment, weird science and madcap inventions.

So when you hear "mad scientist" what do you think? Do you really think "mad?" Usually, you think of Dr. Frankenstein, the original mad scientist (as far as popular culture, literature & movies are concerned). Dr. Frankenstein is the king of the mad scientist genre, with the tortured but well-intentioned creation of his monster. Tortured because of the anguish he suffered in his devotion to the creation, and well intentioned because he really thought he was doing some good.

That's the conundrum facing many of the mad scientists today. While they generally have the best of intentions, the chaos they create as a result of those intentions is what ends up classifying them as "mad." From destroying whole universes, to creating paradoxes in time, to just being a general nuisance to the tri-state area - mad scientists end up getting a bad rap.

In this weeks' Great Geek Debate, we take a look at some of the most popular ones in geek culture - aside from the obvious Dr. Frankenstein - to determine if they are really mad, or just misunderstood.

Name: Dr. Emmett Brown

Disposition: Frantic, forgetful, brilliant but controversial.

Claim to Fame: Invented a time machine made from an DMC DeLorean.

Analysis: Dr. Brown was looked down upon by society as being a true outcast, a mad scientist trapped in suburban America. His years of experiment (and a bump on the head) resulted in the invention of the "Flux Capacitor." With this, and a converted DMC DeLorean tuned to run on nuclear power, he created time travel. However, the paradoxes created by time travel were a constant source of frustration for Dr. Brown, eventually leading him to destroy the time machine - but not before building another one.

Dr. Brown's intentions with the time machine were of the best kind, not evil at all, but even well laid plans can be messed up by terrorists looking for their nuclear materials and a teenager wearing a jacket that resembles a life vest. The best thing for Dr. Brown was getting trapped in the past, where his inventions were actually able to not only do some good, but be appreciated for doing so.

Madness Factor: Great Scott! Bananas, but not full coconuts.

Name: Dr. Herbert West

Disposition: Brilliant to the point of insanity, a narcissistic loner with a deep belief in his work.

Claim to Fame: Famed for re-animating the dead.

Analysis: Dr. West was the unfortunate victim of his own massive intelligence and ego. He is a true mad scientist, deeply involved in his personal beliefs about life and death in relation to humanity. This makes him just as dangerous as it does brilliant. While he was called upon on occasion to assist with actual medical emergencies, by that time his experiments on the dead had already met with gruesome and violent results.

Dr. West exhibits a strong arrogance about his intelligence and work which causes him to treat the living and the dead with a lack of general respect for their existence. This would prove time and time again to be his undoing, as he would over look the anger the living had towards him after he re-animated them from death. Especially if West was actually the killer. Dr. West is a dangerous individual and while he portrays a sense of egotistical confidence, he is not to be trusted or kept company with.

Madness Factor: Roasting marshmallows on the sun nuts.

Name: Dr. Horrible

Disposition: Shy, underachiever with a penchant for redheads and gangs run by horses.

Claim to Fame: Defeated Captain Hammer to earn his way into Bad Horse's Evil League of Evil.

Analysis: Dr. Horrible isn't really that all horrible. He's quite entertaining and his rudimentary weapons (a freeze ray, remote control for a vehicle) create a less than threatening persona. Long the whipping boy of his foil, Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible dreams of a day where he can rule with an iron fist and goggled face. Struggling constantly between kind of evil and true evil, it's not until a horrible accident finally pushes him into the arms of true evil.

Madness Factor: Wants to join a gang run by horse. Nuff said.

Name: Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz

Disposition: Bumbling, clumsy, intelligent but vacant.

Claim to Fame: Constantly attempts to take over the tri-state area using a myriad of "-inators."

Analysis: Dr. Doofenshmirtz is more of a "chaos causer." That is, his attempts at taking over the tri-state area are rarely well planned out and usually based on some minute irritation he has with the community at large, generally stemming from his childhood, in which he was often overlooked in favor of his "goody two-shoes brother." However, his adeptness at building destructive "-inators" one after the other should not be over-looked. Between his own inability to keep his competence up to finish a job and the constant interference of Perry the Platypus, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is a minor annoyance at best.

Madness Factor: Crazy like not being able to find everything on the grocery list in one store.

Name: Dr. Walter Bishop

Disposition: Disorganized, hints of dementia, lucidity comes and goes.

Claim to Fame: Opened a doorway to a parallel universe.

Analysis: Dr. Bishop previously lived for his work, then he worked for his son. He applied his great and vast intelligence to find a cure for his dying son. Eventually this led him to travel to another universe to kidnap his parallel son, who was also dying. Between this action and his earlier experimentation on children to give them what would be considered to be super powers, the guilt and morally deplorable acts of his past caught up with him mentally and he was committed.

Dr. Bishop has had the chances in his life to make things right, but has been too afraid of the consequences to do so. He has since applied his brilliant, though at times featherbrained, mind to solving cases for the F.B.I. that border on the fringe of reality. Dr. Bishop had the potential to be one of the greatest living scientists ever, but was undone by his own arrogance in thinking that what he was doing was of the best intentions. Arrogance, a trait of many mad scientists, can be very destructive.

Madness Factor: Angry and contemplative drunk with one leg mad.

Name: Professor Hubert Farnsworth

Disposition: Completely gone. Too old to be living, much less inventing. Confused, with sparks of misguided brilliance.

Claim to Fame: The smell-o-scope. Really.

Analysis: Roughly around 160 years old, Farnsworth is a genius scientist trapped in a decaying body. To this end, he's created numerous doomsday devices, the smell-o-scope of course and to combat the old age - a clone. There is no invention or problem too great for Farnsworth to solve, but remembering that he was tasked to solve the problem tends to get in the way. At one time creating an alternate universe in a box, which almost destroyed the universe, his fault is once again that of arrogance. Sadly, he does not recognize it as such, instead it's most likely gas or a stroke.

Madness Factor: Who got shot in the what now?

In the end, they are all mad. From Frankenstein to Farnsworth, they all exhibit great intelligence but quality traits that end up undoing their work or causing more harm than good. That's the mad part of being a mad scientist. Perhaps it's less the uncontrollable urge to control the universe, traverse time and space or invent objects of destruction, but more the madness caused by the frustration of failure. As we ask at the end of every Great Geek Debate, who are your favorites? Which ones were left out that bear mentioning? Leave it in the comments!

Image Credit: Glen Edelson. Used under C.C. license.

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