Evil Counterpart/Live-Action TV
Examples of Evil Counterparts in Live-Action TV include:
- In Doctor Who, the Master is a renegade Time Lord like the Doctor, who has chosen to use time travel for personal gain.
- During the Third Doctor's era they were even going to be revealed to be different aspects of the same person (the Master=Id and the Doctor=Ego) but this was canceled due to Delgado's death.
- Torchwood has Captain John Hart, Jack's evil counterpart and ex-lover. Whereas both are pansexual renegade Time Agents, Jack is a compassionate, paternal type who seeks to protect the human race, and John is an amoral, passionless killer.
- In The Sarah Jane Adventures story "The Lost Boy", "Nathan Goss" (actually a young Slitheen) is presented as an Evil Counterpart to Luke Smith; a super-genius child who doesn't fit in and isn't exactly human. But while Luke's nature led to an endearing desire to understand and an obsessive politeness, Nathan is an arrogant Jerkass.
- Quantum Leap had a recurring "Evil Leaper" in its later seasons.
- Sliders had a Story Arc about a race of evil Sliders.
- Before being canceled, Tru Calling introduced the character of Jack Harper (played by Jason Priestly), who had the same power to relive days as the title character, but whose intention was to ensure that the victims remained dead. In the season finale, it was revealed that Tru's father had taken up the same role when her mother had the Calling.
- The X-Files, Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley were evil counterparts to Mulder and Scully.
- Joan of Arcadia's second season finale introduced an Evil Counterpart to Joan, another person who received frequent divine visitations but had chosen to oppose God.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Because she was revived with CPR after her death at the hands of the Master, Buffy was able to encounter her successors as the "one and only" Slayer. Faith, the second such successor, eventually became the "bad Slayer", before seeking redemption.
- In fact, this was one of the few tropes Buffy chronically over-used... just about every cast member either has an evil version of themselves or counterpart: Buffy/Faith, Angel/Angelus (and the Buffy/Angel relation plays a foil to the Spike/Drusilla relationship throughout season 2), Willow/Dark Willow, Giles/Ethan Rayne (and, to a certain extent the Giles/Buffy relation mirrored in The Mayor/Faith), Anya/Anyanka, Riley/Adam, Warren/Jonathan and, for that matter, the general tension that exists between the pre- and post- vampire self (especially Spike). The only major subversion is Xander, who gets a double that is not evil (though, to be fair, his fears of turning into his father after his marriage are well in line with the trope.)
- Willow also had Vampire Willow. And currently has Amy Madison.
- Both Darla and Glory serve as Buffy's evil counterparts at different times, preying on the "beautiful blonde victim - not so much" thing Buffy has. Buffy, of course, kills the monsters. Glory and Darla are the monsters. It's especially noticeable in Darla's first scene, pretending to be a timid girl sneaking into the school with a far more aggressive boy - until she turns on him and kills him.
- Graem Bauer, the brother of the heroic Jack Bauer on 24, who apparently is the mastermind behind several of the terrorist plots Jack has foiled during the series' run. Would be an Evil Twin if not for the fact that the actors look nothing alike.
- Heroes: Sylar and Peter Petrelli can both absorb the powers of those they encounter - Peter just by being near them and Sylar by killing them, so it's not hard to see which one's the Evil Counterpart.
- Character-wise, Elle, like Claire, is the superpowered daughter of a Company agent; her maltreatment at the Company's hands left her a twisted sociopath, and Noah was determined to keep Claire a secret in order to spare her the same fate.
- Not only that, but apparently, before storylines were re-written due to the impending writer's strike, Elle was going to turn out to be, I believe, Claire's biological half-sister on the mother's (Meredith's) side.
- Then there's Danko who shows what Bennet could have become if he never had adopted Claire.
- Character-wise, Elle, like Claire, is the superpowered daughter of a Company agent; her maltreatment at the Company's hands left her a twisted sociopath, and Noah was determined to keep Claire a secret in order to spare her the same fate.
- In Star Trek: Voyager, Captain Rudolph Ransom (introduced in "Equinox") is this to Janeway. Like Janeway, Ransom is a Starfleet Captain whose crew has been marooned in an uncharted part of the galaxy, who is determined to protect his crew and somehow make it back to Earth. Unlike Janeway, Ransom is willing to use any method to do so, no matter how unethical or downright evil it is, and Prime Directive be damned. His most serious crime involves kidnapping and murdering "nucleogenic lifeforms" (extra dimensional aliens whose bodies emit large amounts of Antimatter) and using their corpses as fuel. Even worse, he does this after these - rather generous - aliens help them, giving them food and medicine. Janeway, for her part, becomes almost obsessed with bringing Ransom to justice. Indeed, in an article in Cinefantastique, contributor Brannon Braga describes Ransom as "an interesting kind of anti-Janeway character."
- The 'Warship Voyager' which was part of an alien museum exhibit.
- Also done in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in which Captain Sisko sometimes faces his rival Eddington, who parallels him in life events (such as the death of their wives) but is a Maquis terrorist.
- Arguably, the Dominion (the only major enemy seen in Star Trek composed of more than one race) is an evil counterpart of the Federation.
- And the Female Shapeshifter (credited and referred to in the finale as such) is obviously an evil counterpart of Odo.
- The mirror universe: Replace the Federation with the Terran Empire, a regime so brutal that it made the Galactic Empire look like a liberal democracy. Ironically, the only evil counterpart who wasn't evil was, in fact, Spock.
- Dexter: Dexter is a serial killer, but he only kills other killers... But this does not apply to his brother Brian, who appears as the Ice Truck Killer in Season 1. Their lives are very similar -- both watched their mother get sawed to death, and both developed the same personality disorder that causes them to kill. Only Dexter follows his code, and Brian does not... Which eventually leads to Brian, who was trying to reunite and be a killer side by side with his brother, dying.
- Season 3 and 4 gives us more evil counterparts, both people with their own "inner demons". Miguel Prado uses (and abuses) his power to help get away with his murders, only without Dexter's code, killing whomever pisses him off. Trinity balances the life of a serial killer with being a family man, but unlike Dexter, he is an inhumanly abusive husband and father. Interestingly, in season 2 Dexter is portrayed as Doakes's evil counterpoint.
- Similarly, in season 2 Laila was set up as the evil counterpart to Rita, one encouraging Dexter to give in to his dark desires, the other (unknowingly) encouraging him to hide away his actions and be a dependable man. That the actors are brunette and blonde respectively was probably intentional.
- Christine Hill, Trinity's daughter showed signs of being an evil counterpart to Deb in season 4.
- Not exactly evil, but certainly the Sitcom Arch Nemesis counterparts of the Craggy Island priests in Father Ted are the Rugged Island priests: Father Dick Byrne (Ted's counterpart), Father Cyril MacDuff (Dougal's counterpart) and Father Jim Johnson (Jack's counterpart).
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Ted: (talking to Jack and Dougal while picking up the phone to call Dick) I actually feel sorry for him, you know. Marooned with those idiots, and the three of them have absolutely nothing in common. |
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- The Professionals. In "Mixed Doubles" Bodie and Doyle undergo special training with a brutal instructor in order to protect a foreign diplomat. At the same time we follow two men undergoing a similar program, who are planning his assassination. The two teams don't share a Not So Different moment (though they do help each other out during a pub brawl) but it's certainly implied.
- In Battlestar Galactica, the crew of the Pegasus serves as a collective counterpart to the crew of Galactica. While Galactica had a civilian fleet to look after, putting them constantly on the defensive, Pegasus took the offensive, trying to attack and kill the Cylons. Of course, it is eventually revealed that the Pegasus originally had civilians to protect, but cannibalized their ships and left them to die in order to pursue their war, because their commander was batshit insane. Word of God says that this was done to show why the writers thought that the martial law setup with Adama being in nominal charge of the fleet (It was like this in the original show) wouldn't work.
- Nate from Leverage has a counterpart in Sterling: both were intelligent, successful insurance agents working for IYS. Parker even refers to Sterling as "Evil Nate." It was the death of Nate's son that pushed him away from his company and led to him working with his team of thieves. This never happened to Sterling, who instead continues his misguided quest to capture the criminals rather than the ones who are actually doing something wrong.
- I Dream of Jeannie, Jeannie's sister, also named Jeannie, who had dark hair and green clothes. And while the blonde one wants to be Tony's slave, the Brunette wants to keep Tony as a pet. Her own master is said, by her, to be cruel because he only lets her out of her bottle occasionally, and then only for a moment so she can do something. However, all available evidence would suggest that she's too much trouble to be let out of her bottle for more than a minute. While Jeannie causes quite a bit of trouble, too, it's usually by accident (like Dennis the Menace) whereas the Brunette is more like Bart Simpson.
- Done surprisingly well with Clark Kent and Davis Bloome in Smallville, considerably better and more subtle than the Bizarro nonsense. Well, at least until the finale. Both have somewhat similar attitudes and are Kryptonian. Davis is Clark if he ever gave in to his rage and murderous impulses.
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Davis: (to Clark) I thought you would have understood me, brother. |
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- The Suicide Squad has been set up as the Type V Anti-Heroic counterparts to the Justice League. Both are Western Terrorists and metahumans led by a Badass Normal. Both are opposed to the Vigilante Registration Act and want to dismantle it. But Rick Flagg and the Squad go much farther than the League ever would.
- In Season 9 Major Zod is set up as an Evil Counterpart to Clark, possessing identical powers, and similar motives (the protection of those close to him) but wildly different methods. His genetic source material, General Zod is a counterpart to Jor-El, Clark's father. Invoked in the Season 10 episode, "Dominion", when the fused version of the Major and the General reference both this concept, and the Cain and Abel story.
- One could argue that Big Bad and Evil Matriarch Genevieve Teague was the Eviler Counterpart to former Big Bad and Archnemesis Dad Lionel Luthor in Season 4, when he began his Heel Face Turn. They're both Abusive Parents, with a lot of money and an obsession with alien life and the Stones of Power. Where they're different is in the why: Lionel abused Lex to try and make him stronger; Genevieve abused Jason in an attempt to control him and hurt his father. Additionally, Lionel turns around and tries to reconnect to Lex whom he clearly cares about, whereas Genevieve never does and uses her son until the end. And when it comes to the Stones of Power, Lionel is driven by curiosity and the desire for power, Genevieve by paranoia, and the need to defeat Isobel.
- In an episode of Burn Notice, Sam tells Michael that Victor is "You, only with rabies." In practice, Victor is Chaotic Evil to Mike's Chaotic Good, being held back by the leash of the people who burned Mike. Brennan, by contrast, is basically an amoral version of Michael. Chalk up another one for BN's list of tropes played with.
- Season 3 of Ashes to Ashes gives us Gene Hunt's Evil Counterpart, DCI Jim Keats, who is as by-the-book follow-the-rules as Gene is "throw the book out the window". Their feud gains a whole new level in the finale when it's revealed that everyone is dead, they're in Purgatory, Gene is the self-appointed representative of Good who helps dead coppers deal with their issues and "cross over", and Keats is a representative of the Devil himself.
- In Sherlock, the title character has Moriarty. Yeah, like you didn't see that coming. Although he also has an even more morally ambiguous counterpart in his brother, Mycroft. So much so that in the first episode, the viewer is led to believe Mycroft is Moriarty.
- Blaze and Violet to Lance and Cally of Dark Oracle. They take the twins' own characteristics to pathologically bad levels.
- Merlin from Merlin has been explicitly described as "the light" to Morgana and Mordred's darkness.
- Furthermore, Guinevere and Morgana are polar opposites despite beginning the show as friends. While Guinevere refuses to become like Uther by hating him after he has her father executed, Morgana eventually ends up just as bad as he is. Morgana's coronation (in darkness and shadow) was deliberately shot to contrast with Guinevere's (in which the great hall is filled with light).
- Supernatural had the Dispatcher who is a demon version of Bobby. They dress and talk similarly and perform the same job doing research and pretending to be an FBI agent whenever their colleagues need help maintaining their fake identities.
- Even Mad Men has Ted Chaough, Don Draper's smarmy counterpart at Cutler, Gleason and Chaough.
- Chuck has Emmett Milbarge who was a Manipulative Bastard while Chuck was a Guile Hero and Daniel Shaw who had an Intersect downloaded into him.
- Sarah has Heather Chandler who embraced crime because a normal life bored her and Shaw again because of his intense love for his late wife who was a RING agent.
- John Casey and Ty Bennett.
- Bryce and Jill.
- Steven Bartowski and Ted Roarke.
- In Person of Interest, Elias is Finch's counterpart. Both appear to be soft-spoken nebbishes, but they each built up tremendous power while working behind the scenes and hiding their true identities from the public.
- Xena: Warrior Princess had:
- Draco (if Xena failed as an atoner), Callisto (if Xena never reformed), Najara (if Xena reformed without Gabrielle to guide her) and Ilainus (loves her matron Athena as much as Xena hates her ex-patron Ares)
- Lao Ma and Alti were both Xena's mentors but Alti was only manipulating her and cursed Solan to never know his parents' love.
- Borias and Caesar. After Caesar betrayed her, Xena stopped believing in love and rejected Borias.
- Eve and Hope are the children of Xena and Gabrielle and both grow to become religious leaders. Both were abandoned by their mothers but Eve forgives Xena.
- Fringe plays this trope straight with Walternate, but subverts it with nearly all of the other alt!verse characters, most notably Bolivia.
- Deadwood has Jerk with a Heart of Jerk Cy Tolliver as an evil counterpart of Jerk With a Heart of Gold Al Swearengen. It's that kind of show.
- Back to Evil Counterpart