STATUS: SUPER VILLAIN, OCCUPATION: SCIENTIST William Lea examines the portrayal of scientists in fiction and its impact on public perception of science.
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rom Dr Evil to Dr No, Dr Octopus to Dr Doom, Frankenstein to Frank N. Furter, films, books, and TV have had their fair share of evil geniuses and mad scientists. It always seems that the third act of any blockbuster movie involves some sort of death ray or doomsday device, a killer robot, or cloned dinosaurs. We can all picture a mad man in his tower surrounded by sparks and machinery screaming “it’s alive!” or in a secret bunker holding the world hostage for “one-million-dollars!”. Jurassic park has no main human villain, but even here the message is that of scientists’ inability to control themselves and the chaos that they cause. So why is the media inundated with out-ofcontrol stark-raving-loony scientists? Are we
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really that evil? Do scientists simply make better villains? Or is this mere confirmation bias? A simple explanation for this is that it is just a lazy writing technique. Screenwriters and novelists haven’t got time to flesh out the reasonable motives of their characters. They need to quickly establish a villain that audiences will understand as a formidable threat. They need them to be obviously clever without actually providing detailed evidence, so a profession such as scientist or doctor seems like a simple solution. Whack a Dr in front of their names and instantly audiences will understand the character as being clever and maybe even a little hard-working too (wink). Thus, audiences understand the villain is no fool, creating a more challenging opponent to the heroes of the film or book. It’s also handy that people fear what
they don’t understand. Science can be complex. So, to create a threatening, alienating villain, the mad scientist is an easy option. Now, some may read this and think that I’m whining, or having a bit of an overreaction. “Yeah, scientists are not portrayed in the kindest of lights,” you might say, “but so what? No actual harm is being done”. But I’d have to politely disagree. For most people, when it comes to science, it is precisely these films, TV shows, and books that are their first encounter and exposure to ideas such as DNA sequencing, quantum computing, large particle colliders, and AI learning. When the public’s first exposure to such ideas is in an evil light, the result is this feedback loop:
