Mad Scientist Laboratory: Difference between revisions

The archetypical movie [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]] probably came from the classic silent film ''Metropolis'', though the Universal remake of ''Frankenstein'' added a fair amount. Both were probably strongly influenced by a real-life example that was a staple in popular media between 1900 and 1940; the various laboratories of [[Nikola Tesla]], which actually did feature gigantic incomprehensible machinery, scary robotic devices, Tesla coils, and lots of gaudy electric-arc effects.

 

 

The age of the gentleman scientist was ending by the 1850's, when the most famous of them, [[Charles Darwin]], published his Theory of Evolution. More and more, experimental research became associated with facilities provided by universities, foundations, museums, governments and industry. However, the romantic image of the mad scientist -- isolated from his fellows and angry with a world that would suppress his ideas -- has deep archetypal power. It's also [[Economy Cast|dramatically compact]], needing only the scientist, an assistant, and a faithful servant or two as characters. The [[Me Me]]'s emotional energy and enactment efficiency has kept it alive into the 21st Century, and it's even routinely projected into future scenarios via television shows like ''[[Star Trek]]'' and ''[[The Outer Limits]]''.

 

* Jail Scaglietti of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' has the operating table, but lacks most of the other stuff. He makes up for it by having rows and rows and rows of [[People Jars]].

* Professor Franken Stein from ''[[Soul Eater]]'' has quite an interesting home/lab. Stitched patterns are found randomly throughout the house, both the inside and outside (and also on his clothes and even his person). He has an older looking computer and many chemistry related items such as a Bunsen burner, beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, etc. Arrows are painted on the floor pointing in different directions, usually away and toward doorways.

** He no doubt has an operating table somewhere in his lab, since he has an affinity for dissecting things. Anything.

 

== Film ==

 

* The [[James Bond]] films had their resident good-guy [[Mad Scientist]], Q; almost every film features a peek into his lab, which usually features several [[The Igor|assistants]] participating in such dubious experiments as testing a new bulletproof vest by putting one on and getting shot.

* Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene's lab in ''[[Return of the Killer Tomatoes]]'' certainly qualifies, but he isn't mad, just a little angry.

* No surprise that ''[[Discworld]]'' can't have a scene in a magic-user's residence without poking fun at the Mad ''Wizard's'' Laboratory variant of this trope. Most common are jokes about how they all order identical decor out of a kit: pre-dribbled candles, dusty skulls (with optional raven on top), mysterious alchemical glass apparati (usually filled with green-dyed water and soap), and the sorcerer's equivalent of the Jacob's ladder, i.e. [[Apothecary Alligator|a stuffed alligator hanging from the ceiling]].

** We actually meet a dealer in such accoutrements in the Tiffany Aching series of ''[[Discworld]]'' stories, as well as a catalog marketing the witch's version: packaged cobwebs (with optional rubber spiders), icky bubbly goo for cauldrons, big ominous mirrors with a selection of frames, enough dopey Wicca-wannabee amulets to strangle a giraffe, etc. Boffo!

* The titular character of [[The Chronicles of Professor Jack Baling]] has a rather mundane version of one of these in a shed in his backyard, but in the second episode he encounters some really sophisticated ones in the Prometheus Corporation’s HQ, some of which even have Jacob’s ladders and bubbling beakers.

 

 

* For seven seasons, the villains on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' worked in an [[Elaborate Underground Base]] - the audience occasionally glimpsed chemistry equipment, chalkboards, computer consoles and mysterious air ducts. Things became tighter when the villains' [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute|replacements]] had to work out of a space-travel-equipped VW Microbus, but that was for only one season - they returned to a [[Haunted Castle|more appropriate environment]] soon enough.

* ''[[Firefly]]'': The Academy.

* ''[[Breaking Bad]]'': the meth lab on wheels. It's got the smoking flasks, mysterious coloured goo, and pretty much anything else they can [[Rule of Cool|cover]] with [[But It Really Happened!]].

* This is the whole ''point'' of the sandbox game ''Evil Genius''.

* The Forsaken in [[World of Warcraft]] apparently discovered this trope in the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion, as their bases in Northrend tend to be full of traditional [[Mad Scientist]] equipment like tesla coils, jacob's ladders and mechanical arms that move vials of [[Technicolor Science|glowing chemicals]] around.

 

== Webcomics ==

** In the novel ("Agatha H. and the Airship City", an expanded prose version of the first few comic volumes) Agatha asks Gil why he needs four labs aboard Castle Wulfenbach. He replies that his father has ''forty-three'' plus two ground-based facilities, so by comparison he's a model of efficiency.

* The Opians, an alien race in ''[[Thog Infinitron]]'', have an interstellar spacecraft with an [http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/index.php?p=428274 onboard laboratory where they engineer ways to destroy Thog.]

* Professor Joseph Corwin in ''[[Tales Of Gnosis College]]'' houses his Apsinthion Device, a tank with a tentacle monster, and in impressive amount of weird glassware in a mad scientist's laboratory located in a derelict red-brick ''brewery'' that rather resembles an old-fashioned castle.

* [[Evil Plan the Webcomic]] Doctor Kinesis has a multi-level lab, complete with minions and a vat of "acid."

== Web Original ==

* The Science Lab in ''[[Kate Modern]]: Precious Blood'' is a [[Elaborate Underground Base|mazelike underground nuclear bunker]] in which the Order carried out gory "research".

* ''[[Doctor Steel]]'' has one, seen on his website and in his videos, located on a mysterious secret island in the Pacific.

* As prevalent as mad scientists are in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]], these are all over the place.

 

== Western Animation ==

* In ''[[Transformers]]: Beast Wars'', Tarantulas has SEVERAL, and Megatron and Scorponok have labs too, to name just a few.

* Averted in ''[[Futurama]]'' where Professor Farnsworth's lab is usually suprisingly sparse, with only one piece of equipment at a time.

** Although in one episode he's shown to have about a dozen different [[Doomsday Device|doomsday devices]] tucked away.

 

{{reflist}}