Badass Bookworm/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Badass Bookworms in Live-Action TV include:

Doctor Who

  • The Doctor. He started off as the feeble old scientist who had to have his younger and more physically-able companions do the legwork. When the plot required it, however, he became a master swordsman, or a blackbelt in Venusian Aikido, or even an expert in Good Old Fisticuffs. In fact, the Doctor is so much of a badass that he is feared by malevolent beings across the universe and throughout time. Most of his adventures were not exaggerated and his reputation as "the Oncoming Storm" is well-deserved.
    • "The Family of Blood" spotlit just this with the final voiceover.
    • "Forest of the Dead" the Doctor is facing a microscopic swarm which can strip people to bare bones in a matter of seconds. His response? He tells them to look him up (they're in a library the size of a planet at the time). They do and immediately back down.
    • Similarly, in "The Eleventh Hour", The Doctor takes the Atraxi to task for endangering Earth and ensures that they will never repeat this transgression by informing them of exactly who he is and of what he is capable.

The Doctor: Hello. I'm The Doctor. Basically... run.

  • Currently,[when?] River Song may qualify. She's evidently a professor, and later, or earlier, a doctor, but is...pretty scary for an academic.
    • In "The Big Bang" she pulls the aforementioned "Look me up" trick on a Dalek which assumed that as an associate of the Doctor she would show it mercy. It soon learned this assumption to be entirely incorrect.
  • Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. They have survived three run-ins with the Daleks.

Power Rangers

Star Trek

  • Mr. Spock, and pretty much the entire Vulcan species, from Star Trek. What could be more non-threatening than a science officer (geek) with no emotion or ego? Well, screw with his ship or his captain and you'll find out pretty quick he'll neck pinch you into submission. You may also find out that Vulcans are, on average, three times as strong as humans. And if you really provoke him he will shoot the damn dog. Just to prove the point. And God help you if you say anything bad about his mother. He says at one time that the Vulcans were once barbarians who nearly killed one another off before adopting the teachings of Surak; it is strongly implied that the Romulans are descendants of Vulcans who would not or could not embrace Surak's philosophy.
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation:
    • Commander Data, as an android, has the mental processing speed of a computer as well as super strength and resilience. "I presume your handprint will open this door even if it is no longer attached to your arm."
    • Captain Picard is a reclusive classical scholar most of the time and doing things like pulling off political Batman Gambits against a whole empire, assuming the role of a hardened criminal to infiltrate a gang of mercenaries, and single-handedly defeating a group of terrorists the rest of the time. And ever since the last few scenes of Season Three, he has had Borg strength, too. The movies eventually take things a bit too far in the physical combat direction, but there's a good reason why he and Data relate so well to each other. Picard fought and killed two Klingons sent to murder him. He's also taken down more Borg drones in single combat than pretty much any other character, and he's endured torture multiple times. Oh yeah, a knife to the heart and (years later) a phaser bolt to the same spot were not enough to kill him. That's badass.
  • Montgomery Scott. One of the best engineers of his day, and a fierce barroom brawler when he's pissed off.
  • And the women of Star Trek: T'Pol (standard Vulcan), Jadzia Dax (trained as a Klingon warrior), Kathryn Janeway (started out as a science officer and is the most trigger-happy captain except Kirk), B'Elanna Torres (half-Klingon genius engineer with issues) and Seven of Nine (Borg strength and intelligence in one pretty package).

Other works

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    • Giles: Normally, he exemplifies the stereotypes you'd expect from a British librarian. He has a very soft spot for his books, but when the situation calls for it, he's willing to kick a little ass and show why he used to go by the nickname "Ripper." He once pulled a crossbow bolt out of his own back and stabbed a vampire with it and also makes a one-man assault on the factory after Angelus kills Jenny Calendar.
    • Willow is something of a geek, but sure can be dangerous. She took down Glory for a time, and she almost ended the world.
  • Angel:
    • Fred probably qualifies. Although it isn't shown often, her engineering capabilities have at least once resulted in an insanely awesome guillotining machine.
    • Wesley also fits this trope once he was Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. While he was on Buffy and in early Angel he was for lack of a better word, a by-the-book, private-education pansy (although to be fair, it was Watcher education, so he was basically learning how to be Badass). After being tricked into stealing Connor and being ostracised by the rest of Angel Investigations? He pretty much became the epitome of good old Buffyverse badassery.
  • A very dark variation of this can be found in the title character of Dexter. Dexter is a forensic blood spatter analyst and often called a "lab nerd" by the more macho police officers. Despite this, he can kill just about anyone. He's also a surprisingly beefy specimen under that shirt, which is more obvious while wearing his form-fitting murder clothes. He's bested Doakes, an ex-Special Forces member and ultra-badass cop, twice in hand-to-hand combat, despite being shot in the leg right before round two. He also killed The Skinner, who was the leader of a Nicaraguan interrogation unit, with his bare hands. He did so one-handed, because he crushed his own hand to escape his bindings. Most recently, he has taken down one of the most skilled cops in Miami, herself a murderer, in close combat.
  • Gil Grissom from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation repeatedly emphasizes that he's a scientist, not a cop. It just so happens he's also an excellent shot with a handgun, on the few occasions it's come up.
  • Stargate Verse
    • Daniel Jackson from Stargate SG-1. This, however, was the end result of long, patient Character Development: just compare the innocent cutie from Stargate and "Children of the Gods" to the action man in seasons 9-10, and every relative degree of badassery in between in the other seasons.
    • An even truer example is Colonel Samantha Carter. Jack O'Neill said that her brain was a natural resource. That doesn't stop her from kickin' serious ass, alien or otherwise.
    • Rodney McKay from Stargate Atlantis also tends to fill this trope on a rare occasion or three per season. A very rare occasion, admittedly. Such as the time he was digging a rock out of his boot and was attacked by a Wraith. Rather than put his unbooted foot on the dirty ground, he emptied his magazine into the Wraith while hopping on one foot, killing it.
  • Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap. A holder of multiple doctorates, speaks multiple languages, and happens to be a black belt in several disciplines.
  • Almost the entire cast of Criminal Minds is this. There's Hotch, former coin collector and self-confessed nerd, whose specialty is Awesomeness By Analysis and sniper-standard crack shooting; Rossi the author, interrogation specialist and video-game player; Prentiss and Morgan, who both love Vonnegut; Reid with his three Ph Ds, extreme amount of general (and pop-cultural) knowledge, who is also a damn' good shot when needed and can keep his head under any circumstances including slipping efficient little coded messages about his whereabouts into videos that a killer who has abducted him is sending to his fellow agents, WHILE being actively tortured and hopped up on Dilaudid to boot, without even using his hands; and JJ, soccer player, butterfly collector and communications specialist who can take down a psycho killer through a plate-glass door in a perfect headshot. And Garcia, who's just... the Oracle of Quantico and goddess of all things quirky and nerdy, and a vicious hacker when she needs to be. Gideon the birdwatcher once baited a man about to shoot him in the head until he turned into a weeping, stammering mess. Only Elle, Todd and Seaver don't fit the trope, and Todd and Seaver really wasn't really around for long enough to even show potential.
  • Similar to Dr. Reid above, in Numb3rs, Dr. Charles Eppes gets talked into learning the combat skills of an FBI agent. As expected for a bookish sort like Charlie, he is terrible in most of the trials, especially in his pursuit driving lessons where he scares his instructor by his bad driving. This seems to include when Charlie tested for firearm proficiency when he seems to be shooting too slowly compared to the others. However, when Charlie's shooting target is brought back for examination, it has a big hole where most of the bullets hit dead center. Charlie explains how he got the highest shooting score by saying he followed the advice of the famous gunfighter, Wyatt Earp, "Speed is fine, but accuracy is final."
  • Noah "HRG" Bennet in Heroes. At the start of season two, his boss at Copy Kingdom berates him and sneers at him for failing to respect the art of photocopying papers. A short session with Mr. Horn-Rimmed Glasses in the backroom, though, ends with two broken fingers and a never-to-be-repressed terror of his new employee. He doesn't have any powers, and still manages to match everyone else by knowing how they work. And then, in a two-part episode, everyone loses their powers. And Sylar makes him mad
    • Sylar. One of the first things that the audience learns about him before he was revealed was that his apartment was covered top to bottom with books. When he's trapped inside an empty dreamworld in his own mind, any visible space shown on screen was covered with images of books and clocks. When Peter gets stuck inside Sylar's head, Sylar heckles him with a comic book and in return, he humors Sylar with a copy of The Pillars of the Earth.
  • Firefly
    • River Tam is an unmatched genius of all sorts, but is unfortunately a complete mental wreck, on top of being a tiny, unimposing teenage girl. When confronted with danger, her typical response is of the crying, fetal-curling variety until she unlocks the ingrained Super Soldier training that came with her insanity. Legendary ass-kicking ensues.
    • Her brother Simon is a well-mannered and highly educated medic who detests violence and looks a complete sissy. That is, until someone threatens his dear sister.
    • Also Shepherd Book. Who, for a priest, is very good at shooting kneecaps.

Jubal Early: That ain't no shepherd.

  • Hit man Brother Mouzone from The Wire. Inspires fear and respect in the entire Baltimore drug organization, with good reason, despite his small stature, bow tie and glasses, devotion to Harper's magazine, and frequent use of big words and carefully crafted sentences.
  • Farscape
    • By the end of the series, one of the only people even half as scary as Aeryn Sun is her lover, former Smart Guy and now Badass Bookworm John Crichton. He started out pretty helpless, but trained by her and with his level of sanity consistently gently curving down into a plummet, he became the kind of guy who would threaten to suicide bomb with a nuke.
    • Another good example would be Scorpius. Originally introduced as an Omnidisciplinary Scientist and Torture Technician, subsequent episodes revealed that he was strong enough to throw Captain Crais across his office like a rag doll and wear armor that shrugged off pulse pistol shots. Doubly impressive considering the number of health problems Scorpius suffers from.
  • MacGyver. Don't let his mullet and laid-back Minnesota drawl fool you: underneath that feathered-blond hairdo and behind all his folksy wisecracks lurks one of the most agile minds of any TV hero, capable of turning almost any collection of mundane objects into something amazing. He was so good at this that his name has become a real-life verb. On top of that, if it comes down to a brawl, he can kick guns out of hands with the best of them, and he's an accomplished mountain climber and ice hockey player.
  • Quinn Mallory in Sliders fits this trope perfectly.
  • Derek Raine of Poltergeist: The Legacy is rather badass also, despite being a 50+ year old bookworm.
  • Sam Winchester from Supernatural. While of course a badass demon hunter (it's pretty much a family trait), he's also brilliant at research, and had his girlfriend not been murdered, he was well on the way to becoming a lawyer.
    • Don't forget Bobby Singer. His home is full of stacks of ancient books that he uses for research (mostly to find things Sam can't find on the internet). And this little scene in Are You There, God? It's Me... Dean Winchester

Bobby: Solid iron. Completely coated in salt. One hundred percent ghost-proof.
Sam: You built a panic room?
Bobby: I had a weekend off.

    • What about Castiel? Admittedly, the audience (and Dean and Bobby) know from the very start that he's pretty damn badass, but to anyone who doesn't know who (and what) he is, he's an innocuous guy in a trench coat with a lot of esoteric knowledge and poor social skills.

Dean: He's tough, for a little nerdy dude with wings.

  • Walter White, from Breaking Bad. A high school chemistry teacher turned drug dealer, with a side order of explosives expert.
  • Michael Westen of Burn Notice. In addition to being rated on near "any weapon that fires a bullet or has an edge," he frequently gets out of situations by engineering some weird gizmo out of duct tape, paper clips, and a cell phone....that can blow a car full of snipers sky high. He also demonstrates, at the least, a rudimentary knowledge of finance, psychology, and chemistry. Comes with being a former CIA agent.
  • Barney from the |Mission Impossible TV show usually has a role designing gadgets or working complex machinery, but he is also often used for hand-to-hand combat. In one episode, he was revealed to have been a sixth fleet boxing champion, and while impersonating another boxer, wins several times against other skilled boxers without outside assistance.
  • Lennier from Babylon 5 is a highly intelligent, studious and soft-spoken aide, but he's also well trained in martial arts. He's highly skilled in combat and far stronger than he appears.
  • Cynthia from Malcolm in the Middle. While being both an adolescent girl and a huge nerd, her education extends to complete knowledge of Krav Maga, which she uses to disable Reese quite effortlessly on a couple of occasions.
  • Both of the main characters from The X-Files. Mulder is brainy enough to have graduated from Oxford, but his day job frequently involves outrunning men on horseback and fighting mutants. Scully tops off her undergrad physics major and medical degree with Improbable Aiming Skills, as well as doing more than half her share of the rescuing.
  • Clayton Webb from JAG.
  • Temperance Brennan from Bones. World-class forensic anthropologist with improbable martial arts skills and a love of large-caliber weapons. She once took down a perp who had just shot Booth with a shot to the throat on the fly.
  • Fringe‍'‍s Peter Bishop is supposed to be a con man, going through life on charm and a genius-level IQ. But it seems he hasn't neglected the physical side of his education: he's pretty good with a gun and has been known to demonstrate some serious ass-kicking when required.
  • Though he's had to take several levels over the years, Primeval‍'‍s Connor Temple is definitely this by the end of series 3. Especially if one makes the mistake of threatening Abby.
    • Going by early photos, Badass Cretaceous Connor is going to play a big role in series 4. About damn time.[please verify]
    • Arguably Jess in Series 4 could be considered this, to some extent. Though not a typical 'bookworm', she's certainly the geeky team member now (aside from Connor), but even though she's just nineteen she has zero problems facing the creatures and anomalies themselves, and is described several times as being probably the best team coordinator the ARC could possibly have. Not to mention she manages to defuse a bomb (admittedly under Becker's guidance) and shows she knows how to handle a weapon, in her own CMOA.
  • The Sarah Connor Chronicles: While watching her beat up everyone, it's sometimes hard to remember that Cameron is incredibly intelligent. This is only natural, though, as she never sleeps, can read very quickly, and spends a lot of nights at the local university library just studying. Apparently, she gets bored easily.
    • Early in the first season, she mentions that she spent one night simply reading a dictionary from one end to the other. Also, in the episode "Self Made Man", she turns to full-on detective mode and tracks down a terminator no one even realized existed and had been hidden for the better part of a century.
  • Tosh, Owen and Jack from Torchwood.
  • Smallville‍'‍s Brainiac. He's a skinny guy who masquerades as a History Prof. He's also a Robotic Psychopath out to wipe out the human race and can go mano-a-mano with Superman.
  • Djaq and Tuck from Robin Hood. Though both only get their hands on one book each during the show's run, they are clearly well educated and have a love of reading, and are debatably the most Badass characters on the show.
  • The Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man" has Mr. Wordsworth the condemned Meaningful Name librarian in a totalitarian state, who faces off with a state official to prove who has more courage.
  • Alias's Jack Bristow. He's introduced in the pilot as Sydney's no-nonsense father whose Deadpan Snarker could cut glass, and "sells airplane parts". You'd barely trust this guy with your checkbook, much less international espionage. Fast forward to Sydney about to die in a parking garage, and Jack screeches up in his car, sticks his head and his Glock out the window, plays chicken with the assassins, and hightails himself and his daughter out of there. Oh yes, did he mention he's a Double Agent? Jack proves to be an icy-calm stoic game-theorist whose Chessmaster abilities in tandem with his physical abilities just make him even more dangerous.
  • How I Met Your Mother has Marshal Eriksen. He's a lawyer and a damn good one. He also has the ability to analyze and learn any type of board game or card game in quick order and then proceed to win at it. He's also 6'4" and can knock out an even bigger bar bouncer in a heartbeat, although he'd prefer not to.
  • Gabrielle from Xena: Warrior Princess is a bard by profession, always writing stories. As the series progresses, Gabrielle goes from innocent non-combatant to a highly skilled fighter in her own right who earns the Fan Nickname "The Battling Bard of Potidaea."
  • The Season 2 villain on Veronica Mars, Cassidy Casablancas, is characterized as being very intelligent, and his murders are neatly calculated, requiring no physical contact with the victims. This is in direct contrast to Season 1's Big Bad, Aaron Echolls, whose killing was an unplanned crime of passion that resulted from him being unstable and brutally violent.
  • Abby from NCIS. She may be a lab tech but she can disable even hit-men in a melee.
    • McGee is a little bit of this as well.
  • Sanctuary: Helen Magnus is most often seen utilizing her abilities as an Omnidisciplinary Scientist to solve problems and save the day, but her coworkers in the Sanctuary are always quick to point out that she can handle herself in a fight and she has shown the ability to do so many times. Her ability to kick Adam Worth's ass despite his ability to teleport is a good example. Not to mention Monsoon, which is basically just an excuse to show off Helen evading the bad guys and saving the innocent bystanders through a combination of wit, stealth, and hitting people in the face. The following exchange sums it up quite well:

Charlotte: What are you, a spy, an agent or something?
Magnus: A doctor.
Charlotte: Of asskicking!

  • Highlander.
    • Joe Dawson, from. Don't let the fact he's a double amputee fool you. He'll still kick your ass.
    • Methos. Granted some of his bookworm-ness is his cover as a Watcher, but he still fits pretty much.
  • Aunt Marie from Grimm: a retired librarian and terminal cancer patient, she's also one of the last living descendants of Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm and her Airstream trailer has an arsenal, armory, pharmacopoeia, and archive giving one the knowledge and tools to deal with vampires, werewolves, ogres, witches, trolls, jaegerbaern, and all other manner of nasties. She bequeaths it to her nephew, but unfortunately dies before she can teach him how to use it all.
    • Monroe arguably fits here as well. He's a multi-lingual clockmaker, chef, and musician who can literally dis-arm someone without meaning to.
  • Scorpion is a whole team of badass bookworms but Walter is closest to the badass classic having fair looks and about average strength while the rest of the team look kinda quirky. He is the least pleasant in personality but he tries in that regard. And he has a gorgeous girl in love with him as well as saving the world every week.[context?]
  • 'Warehouse 13: Myka, Claudia and H.G. and Artie are all examples of this. The series is exceptional in that more of the heroes fall under Badass Bookworm than non-Bookworm Badasses.
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