Top 10 Mad Scientists

Photo: Hanne Olsen

10. Professor Weeto

We know him, we love him, he's our favourite breakfast cereal mascot! His huge intelligent eyes would gaze at us lovingly as we ate sweet chocolate rings of chocolatey sweetness. Every box was a recyclable treasure chest, every weeto was a beautiful halo and, if lady luck was on your side, amongst those tantalizing toruses a tiny plastic dinosaur could be found. Those were the days, those were the days. – Mungo Tatton Brown

9. Professor Oak - Pokémon series

He's certainly not crazy, and his PhD from Celadon University serves to back up his credentials, but realistically, what kind of self-respecting scientist sends off ten-year olds into a world filled with dangerous creatures, their only protection being MORE dangerous creatures? Admittedly there are crazier Pokémon scientists (such as Bill, who accidentally turned himself into a Clefairy), but Oak's the one we all know and love! – Cieran Douglass

8. Dexter

You're a boy genius with completely oblivious parents, the most annoying older sister ever invented ("Ooh, what does THIS button do?""), and to top it all off, you're no taller than a Bunsen burner. So what do you do? Why, build the equivalent of CERN in your bedroom, of course! However, while Dexter was a dab hand at constructing giant robots at a moment's notice, he never quite got round to discovering the Higg's Boson, which might have been a bit more useful. – Catherine Munn

7. Doctor Eggman/Robotnik

You would think that someone with an IQ of 300 would have no problem obliterating all wildlife with minimal struggle, but apparently the exception is taking out super-fast hedgehogs with a 'tude... and his woodland friends. Dr. Eggman - or Robotnik if you're clinging to the 90s - can make the largest, most elaborate robots, turn entire planets into pollution-ridden theme parks, and has consistently incredible voice acting, but his inability to crush that darn hedgehog has given him a horrible complex. It's sad, really. – Nathan Blades

6. Doctor Octopus

Doctor Otto Octavius (alias Dr Octopus) was an intelligent man indeed. A cutting-edge nuclear physicist and university lecturer, he had a turbulent time during courtship with co-worker Mary Alice Anders; unable to secure approval from a protective mother. Developing highly advanced mechanical arms to aid delicate tasks, a radiation leak in the lab fused the apparatus to his body – an intelligent man yes, but clearly not enough to stop them taking sentience over his mind. Of course he went mad with power - leaving only our friendly neighbourhood Webhead between him and total destruction. – Jonathan Cridford

5. The Nutty Professor

No, not the gastric Eddie Murphy, but a bent and twisted decrepit Julius Kelp (a brilliant Jerry Lewis), who in desperation tries everything he can to ‘cure’ his social mediocrity. The transformation scene of rainbowed test tubes concludes with him swimming in the mixture swirling on the ground. He becomes a handsome, arrogant and obnoxious Buddy Love. The obsession of his real-self is the awkward implicit counter-message that seems highlights the ‘mad’ compulsions of this scientist. Not to mention the obsession with his student. – Conor Cathcart

4. Dr. Frank-n-Furter

This man is the decadent princess of all mad scientists. He is hell-bent on creating the perfect being for his own… pleasure and to make thing most outlandish, he is also an alien. No, sorry he is just a ‘Sweet Transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania’. This makes him deviant, foreign and utterly outrageous. Also, he is only man who can bring the slut out of Susan Sarandon. – Conor Cathcart

3. Dr Jekyll

Dr Jekyll credentials as a scientist are clear; the clues in his title of 'doctor', and that he makes mysterious potions for himself to drink. But his madness lies in his alter-ego Mr Hyde, the cruel, unfeeling, ugly side of the man's personality who takes over his identity whenever a certain potion is consumed. Dr Jekyll is in a way the archetypal Victorian man; though civil, polite and respectable on the surface, beneath bubbles a bursting lust and recklessness. – Stephen Puddicombe

2. Frankenstein

‘By the glimmer of the half-extinguished light, I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs.’ In this dark tragedy of reckless ambition, scientist Victor Frankenstein tampers with life and death. But, attempting to fashion a beautiful creature, he ends up siring a monster. Enduring countless cultural revivals, Frankenstein, one of the oldest mad scientists, remains a figure frightenedly caught up in his own nightmarish tale of destruction and horror. – Anne Mellar

1. Doc Emmett Brown

GREAT SCOTT! He only invented a TIME MACHINE! Everyone’s favourite Doc accidentally sent Marty thirty years back in time where his 1955 self must help Marty make his parents fall in love and return him to the 1980s. (I must apologise for the crudeness of this summary, it is not to scale). Flux capacitors, plutonium, frizzy hair and wide-eyed lunacy, the Doc is your archetypal Mad Scientist, therefore deservedly takes the number one spot. Heavy. – Lucie Vincer

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