Villains on Television

I have always been a big fan of villains. My parents gave me a marionette of Captain Hook, when I was way too young to appreciate the beauty of the clothing and flaws in the character. Now that I am older and wiser, I find that quite often the villains get the best lines, and have the best clothes. I remember watching the Scarlet Pimpiernel with Anthony Andrews and thinking that the villain, Chauvelin (played to my surprise, by Ian McKlellan) during the sword fight was infinitely better dressed and wittier, than the hero. I have been known to laugh out loud at the delicious dialect that comes from the mouth of the bad guys.

Some villains are scary human characters, some are scary special effects and some are a combination of the two. It is hard to decide exactly what it is that makes a really good villain. Is it a villain that I like, or one that scares me? Is the character understandably bad, or just bad for badness' sake? Perhaps a really good, bad guy is someone that I will tune in to see over and over again. Occasionally I have been known to watch a series because I like the bad guy. The problem with most tv villains is that they appear in one episode and are vanquished by the hero. So for that kind of villain to stand out they have to be exceptional.

Only one villain ever gave me a nightmare, so I guess if I am listing villains it has to come first. In the original version of "The Prisoner," Rover scared me. Yes I know now that Rover is just a weather balloon, and plot wise is controlled by Number 2, but when I watched it in the '60s, I thought Rover was a living, thinking being and I woke out of a sound sleep because I thought Rover was going to smother me. No other villain has ever scared me enough to wake me up. I think the idea of a watcher that can see, control and kill you is really frightening. After Rover, other villains seem tame.

Joss Whedon created two very frightening villains in his sci-fi series "Firefly." the first one is a case of the exceptional villain that appears in only one episode. In "Objects in Space," Richard Brooks played twisted bounty hunter, Jubal Early. He was persistent, he kept coming and believed that nothing he ever did was wrong. He was scary the same way that a hungry crocodile would be scary. When he caught up to the intrepid heroes, he came very close to taking River and Simon prisoner. His deep seated insanity was vividly portrayed. I would never want to meet anyone like him

Another "Firefly" character that was evil from the get-go, was Adlai Niske. Niske was a Mengele/Nazi like person, who enjoyed seeing people suffer. In the first episode Niske asks the crew to steal medicine from a train, which they do, but then return it to the people who needed it. Although they gave Niske his money back, he did not forgive or forget them. Later he takes his revenge in "War Stories," when he captures and tortures two of the crew. With a lot of thrilling heroics, the crew rescues them. The story explores the darker side of mankind. Whedon has a talent for writing evil in a convincing way. Many of his villains aren't so much evil, as good people who got twisted, by the pressures of their life, but the two that I found the most frightening were those whose brains were seriously twisted. "Firefly is still available on DVD. There are a large number of fans who still get together and still watch the show. For more information on the fan favorite visit browncoats.com.

My favorite actor who often plays a villain is always Mark Sheppard. He plays bad guys with style and wit. I can be skimming through the shows on the t.v. and suddenly there he is. He played an evil doctor in 2005/06 episodes of "Medium." I wouldn't have watched except for him. He was twisted and scary. I was very pleased when he showed up on "Burn Notice" the "Bad Breaks" episode, even though I thought the character was a little weak. He could have been saved for a more evil and on-going roll. He was excellent in several episodes of the first season of "Leverage." Mark has developed a kind of following. If he is in it we want to watch it. It gives us a chance to explore other shows that we don't usually watch. Right now he is in "Supernatural" and "Warehouse13." I keep waiting for him to show up on everything I watch. Sometimes he gets to dress really well, and sometimes not so much, but his bad guys are among the best. Check out the list of shows he has been on at IMDB.com you will be amazed by the sheer number. He is a working actor.

"Battlestar Gallactica"(2004) had lots of bad guys. Cylons were scary on lots of levels. The Toasters were frightening with their long fingers and jerky gate, but the skin jobs were a reason to watch. Some of them knew they were cylons and some, didn't. The #2 model, Cavil, was perhaps the worst of them. Played by Dean Stockwell, with occasional charm, he snaked his way through all kinds of situations leaving havoc in his wake. But "Galactica" gives you lots of bad guys to appreciate. Sometimes the humans were the bad guys too. I never much cared for Dr. Baltar or Saul Tigh. You can make up your own mind about who is the bad guy and who is the good, since many of the good were flawed. To learn more visit syfy.com/battlestar.

Among my favorite villains were two characters on season 2 of "24." Both are women. Some of my friends and I watched mainly to see the machinations of Sherry Palmer. She was exceptional. I also watched over and over again, after vowing not to watch, just to see what would happen with Nina. Both women were extremely treacherous and amazing.

I mustn't leave out Sylar on "Heroes". He is evil and twisted and we keep finding out new reasons why he is so bad. He remains a villain even though others like Noah Bennet have shifted from being a bad guy to being one of the heroes. He is an interesting character. I have finally broken my addiction to the show and am free. The show just keeps on twisting and bad guys end up being good guys.

When asked about how he managed to play Jayne Cobb in an episode of "Firefly" where he did something that was a danger to the crew, Adam Baldwin said something along the liens of, you have to remember that everyone is the hero in their own mind. Perhaps that is something we all should remember in our daily lives when folks do something that is unkind to us. The bad guys believe they are the good guys.