They Called Me Mad at the University! Quiz

Answer: Dr. Victor Frankenstein

"Learn from me, if not by my precepts, at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge, and how much happier that man is who believes his native town to be his world..." (Frankenstein, 1818)

Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' in 1818, creating one of the first in a long series of fictional mad scientists who go too far in their quests for enlightenment. Today, however, the popular idea of Frankenstein and his monster has been far more shaped by the 1931 Universal movie. The crazy laboratory and the lightening bolts (not in the book), the hunchbacked Igor (not in the book) Colin Clive screaming 'IT'S ALIVE!" (not in the book) and especially Boris Karloff as an inarticulate monster with a bolt through his neck (absolutely not in the book) are what we think of when we see Dr. Frankenstein and his monster in all the movies, on TV, in comic books, and every Halloween. Distinguished descendants include Tim Curry as Dr. Frank 'n Furter ('Rocky Horror Picture Show') and Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein/Frahnkensteen ('Young Frankenstein') Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein ('The Curse of Frankenstein') and Dr. Finkelstein ('The Nightmare Before Christmas').

The Edison Studios produced a "liberally adapted" version of 'Frankenstein' in 1910. You can find it online and it's worth a look.

Dr. Coppelius tries to humanize his clockwork doll in the ballet 'Coppelia', Dr. Nefario plots with Gru in 'Minions' and Faust/Dr. Faustus is the man in the old German legend who sells his soul to the Devil in return for knowledge.

Answer: Metropolis

'Metropolis' is considered the first great sci-fi movie, one of the most expensive silent films ever made and one of the most influential. It tells of a futuristic city where a cohort of rulers govern a downtrodden underclass. Rotwang, an inventor bent on revenge, creates a 'machine-woman', an android-woman to replace his lost love and, to stir up the masses. He does this in what would become the iconic mad scientist cellar-lab full of mysterious electrical and chemical apparatuses. As expected, things don't turn out well. There is reason to believe that Rotwang's 'look', especially his wild hair, was based on Albert Einstein. Over the years Rotwang has appeared sporadically in comic books, and in the graphic novel 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier'(2007)

Fun fact: 'Star Wars' C-3PO was modeled on the android in 'Metropolis'

Interestingly, in the 1886 novel 'The Future Eve' by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Thomas Edison also creates a 'perfect woman' android. This is the first modern use of the word 'android' in print.

Answer: Bela Lugosi

"Heresy? Do they still burn men for heresy? Then burn me monsieur, light the fire! Do you think your little candle will outshine the flame of truth?"

It seems that if Bela Lugosi was in a movie, blood would turn up sooner or later. His 'Dracula' appeared in 1931. In 'Murders in the Rue Morgue', however, he plays Dr. Mirakle, a mad scientist who is interested in evolution. The movie bears almost no resemblance to the story by Poe and has a lot more to do with the Scopes Monkey Trial than criminal detection. Dr. Mirakle hosts a carney show, exhibiting his giant ape, Eric, and touting Darwin. His evil plan is to create a mate for Eric by injecting Eric's blood into a woman. Things do not work out exactly as planned and Eric gets him in the end. The film was hacked at over the years by censors, who removed any reference to evolution, but most of this was later restored. This was the beginning of a long series of evil scientist roles for Lugosi, notably 'The Corpse Vanishes' and 'The Devil Bat' (both 1940).

Answer: Dr. No

"All the greatest men are maniacs. They are possessed by a mania which drives them forward towards their goal. The great scientists, the artists, the philosophers, the religious leaders - all maniacs." ('Dr. No', 1958)

In the 1958 novel novel, Ian Fleming describes Dr. No as a "giant venomous worm wrapped in grey tin-foil" but in the movie Joseph Wiseman plays him as a rather dapper version of the classic mad scientist. The dishevelled lab coat is now a tailored white suit and his American accent has been replaced by a vaguely British one. Please note that in the movies, evil mad scientists rarely sound like they come from the USA. Dr. No is bent on creating global mayhem and although he is working with the Russians in the book, in the movie he is a member of SPECTRE, a collection of like-minded megalomaniacs. His lair is an underground fortress from which he intends to sabotage an American rocket and cause global chaos. His control centre is very much the norm - lots of whirring reel-to-reel tapes, minions in hazmat suits, flashing lights and that annoying oooOOOOoooOOOOoo sound.

Answer: The Island of Dr. Moreau

"There is still something in everything I do that defeats me, makes me dissatisfied, challenges me to further effort. Sometimes I rise above my level, sometimes I fall below it, but always I fall short of the things I dream." (Dr. Moreau, 1896)

Dr. Moreau, like many a mad scientist, learns that if you mess with the work of the Almighty, things get out of control fast. He appears in the 1896 novel by H. G. Wells which the author himself described as "youthful blasphemy". Dr. Moreau is a British physiologist who was run out of England for his frightening experiments on animals. He's established himself on an island in the Pacific and has been creating human-like creatures from the animals on the island. Edward Prendick, a castaway who is trapped on the island, witnesses the creatures devolve to their original animal state. Moreau is killed by one of his creations.

'The Island of Dr. Moreau' has been the inspiration for countless movies, television shows, graphic novels, radio plays, video games and for the punk rock band Devo. Marlon Brando won a well-deserved Golden Raspberry for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dr. Moreau in the 1996 film.

Answer: The Fly

What we're looking for specifically here is the 1986 David Cronenberg remake of the 50's-60's 'Fly' film trilogy. Here Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a scientist who could be classified as 'accidentally' mad. He's not bent on revenge or world domination, but he is an eccentric obsessed with his invention, a teleporter. After a couple of false starts, he gets drunk and decides to teleport himself. His DNA is mixed with that of a fly and things go downhill fast. The iconic line 'Be afraid, be very afraid" was spoken by Geena Davis, who played Brundle's love interest. Mel Brooks is credited with actually creating the line.

'The Fly' ranks among the few well-received films about a mad scientist. It was nominated for many awards, including an Oscar win for best makeup and is 93% fresh on the Tomatometer. Many critics saw it as a metaphor for AIDS, but Cronenberg differed. His take on Goldblum's gradual degeneration was "... something about The Fly story that was much more universal: aging and death-something all of us have to deal with."

Answer: The Nutty Professor

Jerry Lewis co-wrote, directed and starred in 1963's 'The Nutty Professor' and co-produced the 1996 remake. Both stories involve a scientist who isn't evil at all, but this doesn't mean his plans work out. He's a goofball brainiac who, crushed by years of being on the social sidelines, thinks he'll never get the girl the way he is.

In Robert Louis Stevenson's novella, Dr. Jekyll develops a serum that will bring out his 'second nature'. Dr. Klump creates a serum that will transform him into a suave ladykiller.

In both cases, things don't turn out as planned. The message here is that you're better off as you are. The subtext is that smart men are unattractive and attractive men are sleazy cads. Rumor has it that Jerry Lewis created 'Buddy Love', the professor's handsome but unsavory transformation, as a slam at his erstwhile comedy partner, Dean Martin.

Answer: The Tyrell Corporation

"Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. More human than human is our motto." (Dr. Eldon Tyrell)

By the last quarter of the 20th century, the fictional 'mad scientist' was replaced by something that brings out the villager with the pitchfork in 21st century audiences - large corporations. In the cult classic 'Blade Runner' (1982), Bioengineer Walter Tyrell, CEO of the Tyrell Corporation, has made a fortune creating a race of humanoid slaves, called Nexus-series 'replicants'. They're faster and stronger than humans, but they tend to go AWOL and cause havoc. Deckard, the blade runner, is sent out to 'retire' them. He's reluctant, however, to kill things so lifelike it requires a detailed test to distinguish them from real humans. He ends up marrying one and in the director's cut (1992), it is implied that he is a replicant himself.

Walter Tyrell is a lot like a 20th-century Dr. Frankenstein, creating 'life' for personal gain with no thought to the consequences. Equally irresponsible businesses include the Soylent Corporation ('Soylent Green', 1973), The Umbrella Organization (The 'Resident Evil' series, 2002-21), and InGen (The 'Jurassic Park' series, 1993-2022, from the 1990 novel by Michael Crichton)

Answer: Dr. Emmet Brown

Dr. Emmet 'Doc' Brown is the nutty but loveable scientist in the incredibly popular 'Back to the Future' trilogy (1985 -1990) who turns a DeLorean into a time machine. Played by the great Christopher Lloyd, Brown is a parody of the 'mad' film scientist, equipped with the standard the lab coat, mysterious lab, wild hair, googly eyes, lightning bolts, and his dog, Einstein.

He's created a time machine from a DeLorean and almost cancels Marty McFly out of existence. One of the most popular movie characters of all time, Doc has appeared in graphic novels, video games, an animated series, a Lego set and he has a cameo in Universal Studio's ' Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure'.

In 2015, Doc and Marty McFly crashed 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'.

Answer: They were real, eminent scientists

Vladimir Petrovich Demikhov (1916-1998) is the scientist credited with pioneering organ transplant surgery. In the late 1940s he began experimenting on animals, working on liver and heart/lung transplants with increasing success. Dr. Christiaan Barnard was inspired by Demikhov's work to perform the first human heart transplant in 1967. Demikhov also had an obsession with transplanting one dog's head onto another dog. He performed this operation 24 times in the 1950s, and in his most successful attempt, the dog(s) lived 29 days. It is still not understood why these grotesque experiments, recorded on film and video, would obsess an otherwise ground-breaking scientist.

At the turn of the 20th century, biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (1870-1932) succeeded in perfecting artificial insemination in animals, and became the hero of horse breeders everywhere. In 1926 Stalin agreed to finance his trip to Africa in order to conduct experiments on inseminating humans with orangutan sperm and vice versa. It has been suggested that the Soviets were interested in creating an invincible army of ape-men. Dr. Moreau would have been fascinated but things didn't work out for Ivanov. In 2004, an unfinished comic opera by Shostakovich called 'Orango' was unearthed, inspired by Ivanov's experiments.

Sir Francis Crick, Nobel prize winner and avowed atheist, co-authored a paper in 1973 titled 'Directed Panspermia'. In it he and Leslie Orgel hypothesised that life on Earth began as "the deliberate activity of an extraterrestrial society." In the 1960s Carl Sagan also proposed this theory and after researching it for this quiz, I'd have to say that of the three real 'mad' scientists, 'panspermia' sounds the least looney.