Mad Scientist Laboratory: Difference between revisions

 

This is edging toward becoming a [[Discredited Trope]], at least in the classic beaker/Jacob's Ladder/operating table configuration.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* 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]].

* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': [[Big Bad]] Dr. Hell had his own laboratory installed in his [[Supervillain Lair]], but it was barely seen in the series. [[The Professor|Dr. Kabuto's]] lab in the original manga also counts.

 

== Film ==

* Merlin's cottage in Disney's ''[[The Sword in the Stone]]'' is one of these. In that film, he's a powerful wizard who uses magic to teach science to young Arthur.

* 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.

 

== Literature ==

* Deconstructed a little in [[Teresa Edgerton]]'s ''[[Celydonn|The Castle of the Silver Wheel]]'' by Gwenlliant's reaction to Lord Cado's wizard's laboratory. When Gwenlliant - who grew up at court and was taught by the resident alchemist / wizard - first sees Cado's laboratory, she is immediately uneasy, knowing that he must be a bad wizard - "either not very principled, or not very wise". No proper wizard would bother to keep so many showy magical experiments running at once; they would be set up one at a time for research purposes, and would not be shown off to visitors.

* 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]].

* ''[[Comrade Death]]'', a short story by Gerald Kersh, features Sarek's Under World, the underground nightmare where his company's increasingly horrible chemical weapons are developed.

 

* 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.

** In the [[Screwed by the Network|Screwed By The Studio]] [[The Movie|Motion Picture]], Dr F's lab gets a major overhaul. Complete with a fish tank packed with acid.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* [[Spirit of the Century]] has an interesting play on this with Der Blitzmann, a German [[Mad Scientist]] has a portable lab, in the form of his mechanical exoskeleton. Despite the nontraditional size and style, it does come complete with Tesla Coils. Weaponized Tesla Coils.

** Given some of the other NPCs, it's hard to not to imagine their secret lairs set up this way:

 

== Video Games ==

* The base editor in ''[[City of Villains]]'' has all requisite mad science lab items, with classic items ranging from operating tables to jacob's ladders of various sizes to organs in jars (ranging from preserved to rotted), and more modern items like microscopes, X-Ray machines, and LCD monitors.

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

* The whole Gouma-Den in the [[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army|Rai]][[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon|dou]] duology. Hosted by [[Large Ham|lovable]] [[Milking the Giant Cow|lunatic]] [[Mad Scientist|Dr]]. [[Shout-Out|Victor]]. Complete with virtually all of the accoutrements of the standard lab.

 

* ''[[Narbonic]]'' has these, of course, and lampshades the trope on occasion. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071109134215/http://www.webcomicsnation.com/users/narbonic/032803on_the.jpg example])

* Every Spark worth their salt in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' possesses one of these.

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

* Dottore's lab in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180801170850/https://commedia2x00.wordpress.com/ Commedia 2X00]'' is packed with this stuff—literally, in the storage basement, the boxes are labeled with things like "blinkenlights", "boss themes (casettes)", and "mecha-piranhas, x-mas decs". Being Dottore, it's also stocked with warp-pipes, wall-mounted chainsaws, an inexplicable fiery lake of lava (complete with Heli-Kraken...)

 

== Web Original ==

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

* [[Agamemnon Tiberius Vacuum]] has a very high-tech "pretty bad-ass" one in ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdvo86kPcnQ The Experimentasium]''.

 

== Western Animation ==