Let's hear it for the nerds!

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Thu Aug 05, 2004 7:51 am

Yes, many good shows have good nerds. One of my favorites was Grumpy Bear from the Care Bears movie. I liked him because, while he was labled as "grumpy", he was really "non-people-person engineer" in that one. Remember him hunkered under the Rainbow Rescue Beam for half the movie? I think it was him jamming Tugs' lollipop into the undercarriage, thus restoring the beam to function, that made me realize that I was an engineer.

(As with my sexual orientation, it took a while to really come to -grips- with it, but that's another matter.)

So, who's your favorite nerd from literature, film or sequential art?

RandomScribe · Post by **RandomScribe** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 2:51 pm

*pokes the topic to see if it's still alive*

Oh, that's easy. Ed. From Cowboy Bebop. She's only the greatest character ever. ED! ^^

Although Jason from Bill Amend's "FoxTrot" is a close second (and is probably closer to the usual definition of "nerd," considering that he is the usual definition of "nerd"), and Gadget from Rescue Rangers gets some major nostalgia points. ^^

--RS, who still has yet to see the Cowboy Bebop movie *sighs*

Nyamaza · Post by **Nyamaza** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 9:46 pm

there are several that are right up there with one another. Ted from El Goonish Shive, Mikey from The Class Menagerie (may have been athletic, but was also a MAJOR bookworm and asocial), Dover from Suburban Jungle... and of course, our ever lovable Rick ( if you're body from the neck down is cybernetic AND you built it yourself, you're a geek, end of story)

As for tv/cinema... I KNOW I'm going to catch flak for this, but I always LIKED Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation. I know alot of people disliked him, but I looked at Wesley and say the smart, not-really fitting in or understood, constantly overstepping his bounds and onto authority's toes in the process. In other words, I saw myself, and far more of the ST:TNG viewing public then apparently are willign to admit it.

Maximuscoolman · Post by **Maximuscoolman** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 10:42 am

What the hell was I thinking? "I don't really have a favourite nerd" indeed!

Comic Book Guy from the simpsons!
Best nerd ever!

DetailBear · Post by **DetailBear** » Sat Aug 21, 2004 5:41 pm

Montgomery Scott.
UTLT's Sheldon.
McGyver
P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves.

Kesh · Post by **Kesh** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:09 pm

RandomScribe wrote:Oh, that's easy. Ed. From Cowboy Bebop. She's only the greatest character ever. ED! ^^

Ed rocks.

"I think I know, I don't think I know, I don't think I think I know, I don't think I think."

That said, Wheeljack from Transformers was kinda neat, though Perceptor was much more of a geek.

Tails from the various Sonic the Hedgehog shows is possibly the most adorable geek ever.

Fallwind · Post by **Fallwind** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:27 pm

i think one of my favorite geeks was Balana Torez from Voyager. I cant remember what season it was in, but there was an episode where she was kidnaped by some rouge holograms. She was talking with one of their engineers and she said something that summed up the way i feel about geeks: "We are the ones who build civilizations. oh sure, the leaders get their names in the books, but we both know that without us nothing would get done. They make promises, we make them reality"

(of course im paraphrasing, it was years since ive seent that episode)

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 8:33 pm

Wheeljack FRICKIN RULES.

Invents a way to rapidly produce large quantities of antimatter.

Can pilot an autobot using the keyboard/mouse combo. Better than an autobot does with his mainframe.

Knows networking better than anybody in The Matrix.

Brewtch to the newtch.

Lester Youngblood · Post by **Lester Youngblood** » Wed Aug 25, 2004 1:54 pm

Agent Cooper of Twin Peaks! He's kinda cute too...

Oh, I forgot: Hi, my name's Lester, I'm new to this forum *waves paw nervously*
I used to love Umlaut House and I'm going to miss it badly...

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 11:27 am

Goodness me, where ARE my manners?

Welcome aboard, Lester! I hope you enjoy the color finale (which should actually be- almost- worth the wait), and the comics to follow!

More geeks: Gadget Hackwrench, obviously. Deliciously incapable of social interraction and hot as heck to boot!

Maximuscoolman · Post by **Maximuscoolman** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:49 pm

Fallwind wrote:i think one of my favorite geeks was Balana Torez from Voyager.

How about... EVERYONE from voyager. Well almost everyone, it seems that Tom was the token non-geek.
I like Harry, always falling for the wrong girl, only an Ensign, he likes to do a lot more than would perhaps be expected of him, and continuing to do so without sign of a promotion in how many years?
Seven of Nine is a good character, even if some people do say she was there just for her body. Coming out of the Borg collective and establishing an identity as an individual, it's qutie symbolic really, and it leads to a lot of that "what it is to be human" stuff that Star Trek loves to give us.
Then there's Janeway herself, who is a nerd, before captaining Voyager, she was a science officer on some other ship, so aswell as offering the strength and determination as any other Star Trek captain, she also got to amaze us with her nerdiness every now and again too (which I think makes her the best Star Trek captain, but that's a whole other debate).
And last, but definately not least, The Doctor. Rising above what he was made for, what he was just expected to do. The Doctor from Voyager is probably my favourite TV character ever. Following Voyager as I was growing up, I definately learnt at least something from him, I learnt to not just accept what people tell you that you have to be. Hey, it may sound sad that my biggest role model was a fictional hologram, but that's life (just not as we know it).

-Maximus "Never steer the topic to Star Trek again" Coolman

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 12:52 pm

Tom Paris is NOT a non-geek. The guy built a 20th-century hotrod in the holodeck, for chrissake! That's the 24th-century equivelant of being in the rennaissance fair crowd!

DetailBear · Post by **DetailBear** » Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:25 pm

Lester Youngblood wrote:Oh, I forgot: Hi, my name's Lester, I'm new to this forum *waves paw nervously*
I used to love Umlaut House and I'm going to miss it badly...

Welcome to the forum, Lester! As the official welcomer, I have two things for you.

First, the absolutely fantastic Virtual Volair Plushie.

Second, a big HUG!

Welcome to the forum!

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 10:11 am

I sometimes get the feeling that the casting guys at Voyager just got incredibly lucky. The actress (I don't have the actors names memorized) playing Seven is incredibly talented as an actress and, amazingly enough, has a damn good singing voice. I am particularly fond of her Umbridged voice, which she uses a lot soince she's an ex-borg who hasn't been human since she was eight. "Remove your hand or I will remove your ARM," is a favorite of mine, as is "That was a platonic gesture. Don't expect me to pose for you."

Plus, her, ah, interpretation of the Doctor in the holoship episode was sheer genius. With the Doctor in command of Seven, the actress has to act as the Doctor acting as Seven acting as a collaborator. The things she had to do! "Nothing unladylike, I can assure you," indeed.

Come to think of it, that resulted in one of the best Umbridged Seven moments of all time: "You became SEXUALLY AROUSED in my body." Carried off beautifully, we get this layer-cake of emotions, including umbridge, embarrassment, and even vague nausea.

Maximuscoolman · Post by **Maximuscoolman** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:24 am

allan_ecker wrote:Tom Paris is NOT a non-geek. The guy built a 20th-century hotrod in the holodeck, for chrissake! That's the 24th-century equivelant of being in the rennaissance fair crowd!

I was thinking about his fascination with the 20th century today because there was an episode on where he'd programmed a cinema in the holodeck. I guess you're right. In which case, he's like a bad-boy geek, which makes him another amazing geek.

One character I'd forgotten (!) about when I was writing before was Chakote (I really have no idea how to spell that). To be honest, I don't think he has much of a character, I can't think of a great Voyager moment involving him that's for sure.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:42 am

Ain't it the truth!

Clerks: The Animated Series had a character named Lando, a token black character who was supposed to give sagely advice. (This is how they referred to him in show.) In practice, his character was zero-dimensional, and the writing was carefully set up to make fun of the fact that they'd utterly failed to carry off the mentor character without it looking utterly condescending and stupid.

It's a shame Voyager didn't follow their lead with Chakote, who was equally zero-dimensional and used only for the occasional Native American Proverb, at least one of which I'm fairly certain was ripped from Grims Fairy Tales rather than any Native American tradition. (Also, it's quite unclear from which tribe the Maki Native American Sepratists came.)

I mean, they could be using Coyote stories for those, and they didn't? The hell? Basically, he was a prop, a cardboard cutout, and sometimes he'd have these vaguely entertaining interractions with Janeway, but as the only non-nerd in the bunch, he failed utterly to be inspiring.

Maybe that's what the writers REALLY intended all along.

Why in the name of all that's putrid they thought it made sense to spontaneously pair him with Seven at the last moment is utterly beyond me.

Speaking of Star Trek nerds: BARCLAY!!! He even TWITCHES he's so abnormal! BARCLAY! The only Star Trek character ever to write Star Trek self-insertion fanfiction! BARCLAY! Paranoid hypochondriac OCD patient with serious reality issues! YAAAAAAY!!!

I've recently forgiven Riker for not being a nerd, largely because Jonathan Frakes makes my undies melt every time he appears as Xanatos on Gargoyles.

Ah, Lexington. Nerd and a half, and a bag of chips. Dr. Savarius, also from gargoyles, played by TIM CURRY. Brewtch.

Speaking of gargoyles, I want you all to buy a copy of the DVD when it comes out this year. The faster that first batch gets sold out and turns into a 100$ eBay item, the quicker we get more Gargoyles.

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 8:46 pm

I will have to say that by far Kerr Avon from Blake's 7 has got to be my favorite engineer character.

If you have not seen Blake's 7 and do not live in the UK find yourselves an all region DVD player and pick up the first season on DVD from the UK (easy to order from the web). If you do live in the UK make sure you have a DVD player and pick up the first season set (from the web or your local high street).

Highly worthwhile.

Despite the Dr. Who era sfx the show has an amazingly intelligent plot, great characters and one of the best collections of one liners I can think of.

Fallwind · Post by **Fallwind** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 10:35 am

thought of another one... Harper from Andromada. he has a data port in his neck, always fails to score with anyone, called insane in nearly every episode for doing something that could get everyone blown up.

Allan_ecker · Post by **Allan_ecker** » Sun Sep 05, 2004 10:56 pm

Wait-- Harper just reminded me of the best pervert nerd of all!

CHODA BOY!!

(See "Orgazmo", the oddball comedy about a Mormon who becomes a porn star and a superhero.)

Fallwind · Post by **Fallwind** » Mon Sep 06, 2004 12:51 pm

how about the entire cast of CSI (origonal, not miami)

Comic Genesis Forums

Let's hear it for the nerds!

Let's hear it for the nerds!

Techy techie