%% Please make sure all examples are Alphabetised.
%%
[[quoteright:350:[[Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0508a_franklab_6891.png]]]]

->''His laboratory was equipped with the sophisticated tools of modern science: Jacob's Ladders, Van De Graaf generators, bulky pilot-lit cabinets, poorly-adjusted Bunsen burners, retorts bubbling with sinister chemicals, murky jars holding mutant monstrosities, strung wires with bad insulation.''
-->-- ''Fanfic/Plan7Of9FromOuterSpace''

The place where ''[[ForScience Science!]]'' happens. Usually pronounced "lah-BOHR-ah-tor-ee" in ominous, stentorian tones.

Every MadScientist has to have a lab. This is typically a refurbished [[LockedInTheDungeon dungeon]] of some sort, with aging stone walls; some are instead in higher locations, for better access to {{lightning|CanDoAnything}}, astronomical lookouts, and vantage points for {{Death Ray}}s. Particularly enterprising scientists may have multiple such labs in different points of their home base. Regardless of location, they also must contain most of the following lab equipment:

* An [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable operating table]]. Two if the MadScientist does {{brain transplant}}s. Optional, though, is the winch for raising the table up to the roof.
* A big honking [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_arc#Visual_entertainment Jacob's Ladder]] (the thing that looks like a rabbit-ear antenna with an electrical arc between the posts)
* A [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil Tesla coil]].
* A roof that opens to the sky, to let the lightning in and/or the DeathRay out.
* A 1960s-style mainframe computer with big dials and switches on the front. Add [[ComputerEqualsTapedrive spinning tape reels]] for extra credit.
* [[JarOfTheBizarre Bits of animals and people preserved in formaldehyde]]. Maybe even PeopleJars, depending on [[BodyHorror how scary the writer wants the lab to be]].
* A [[GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks whole bunch of glassware]], especially test tubes, beakers, [[TechnicolorScience flasks of colored liquid]], distilling columns, condensers, burettes, Bunsen burners, and that thing you get when you hook a bunch of them together.
* Optionally, depending on your flavor of MadScientist, you may find a wall generously populated with chains and manacles (just to make sure the experimental subjects stay handy and don't wander away).
* A big worn chalkboard or several, filled with complicated equations, indecipherable diagrams and abstruse symbols.
* Dusty piles of [[CowTools incomprehensible failed experiments]], which may or may not suddenly become a danger to anyone wandering around unsupervised.
* May be in the dungeon of the HauntedCastle, or on an isolated tropical island.
* Big levers or control panels ([[ExplosiveInstrumentation that may or may not explode]]).
* [[BigElectricSwitch Ginormous knife switches]] for completing dangerous electric circuits.
* An oscilloscope displaying a [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lissajous_figure_scope_1.jpg Lissajous]] pattern
* In older works, a caged KillerGorilla -- presumably as a test subject and/or [[TheIgor henchman]] -- was a popular addition

Never mind that real science does not generally call for all of these things at the same time -- or within the same discipline! -- the MadScientist [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist doesn't specialize]]. All the same, most of what he does will at least ''look'' like {{chemistry|CanDoAnything}}, since nothing shouts "science" to the casual viewer more than a guy in a lab coat fiddling with a beaker of [[TechnicolorScience colored liquid]].

Laboratory glassware frequently shows up in period settings that predate their invention. Erlenmeyer Flasks, glass retorts, Griffin/Berzelius beakers, separatory funnels, Leibig condensers, and even test tubes date back only as far as the late 18th century at best; some of these were clearly developed in the mid to late 19th century. Dedicated laboratory equipment did not truly exist prior to the early 1800s and even then would have been primitive bearing little resemblance to familiar modern glassware. Prior to that, much chemistry was done with whatever bowls and jars were already available. Other equipment (such as alembics) was made of metal.

Also never mind that modern chemistry has very little use for the big impressive glass-sculpture thing with with a lot of burettes, condensers, and funny coils of glass. (These actually were useful constructs at one time, but they're the chemistry equivalent of doing differential equations on an abacus. Also, even when they were used, a typical experimental setup would have consisted of three to six of the pieces put together; never dozens of pieces, all connected, as shown on the screen.) Most of these glassware setups appear to be inspired by random fuzzy pictures of the classic Miller-Urey experiment which can actually be simplified once you understand what is actually going on. But you need this stuff because otherwise, the audience won't realize that ''Science'' goes on here.

A significant portion of mad scientist laboratories are not low budget small scale DIY projects that take up no more than a spare table in a corner. Instead, these labs are very elaborate for someone who usually does not appear to have anyone funding them, let alone working for them. Often the equipment is huge, bulky, unwieldy, and difficult to transport and assemble for just one man, even with an assistant. It's worth remembering that many mad scientists are older men (or physically weak men) who would definitely not be able to manage such a feat on their own. While not a mad scientist, ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' fans will recognize a modern iteration of this dilemma whenever the question is posed of [[FridgeLogic how Bruce Wayne (maybe with Alfred's help) managed to build the Batcave, Batmobile and all his equipment by himself in secret]].

The archetypical movie Mad Scientist Laboratory probably came from the classic silent film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', though Universal's ''Film/Frankenstein1931'' added a fair amount. Both were probably strongly influenced by a real-life example that was a staple in popular media between 1900 and 1940; the various laboratories of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, which actually did feature gigantic incomprehensible machinery, scary robotic devices, Tesla coils, and lots of gaudy electric-arc effects.

All of the film, TV, and comic versions of the Mad Scientist's Lab derive originally from GothicHorror stories of the 18th and 19th centuries, the most famous of them being Creator/MaryShelley's novel ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' and Creator/HGWells' ''Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau''. The concept developed from older stories about the lairs of alchemists and sorcerers. The Enlightenment put paid to many kinds of mystical dabbling by dilettantes, tinkerers, and wealthy eccentrics, but these characters were replaced in the public imagination by gentleman scientists -- many of them self-taught, many very eccentric -- who built laboratories and observatories in their homes and made a number of important discoveries in the new disciplines of chemistry, physics, and biology.

The age of the gentleman scientist was ending by the 1850s, when the most famous of them, UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, published his Theory of Evolution. More and more, experimental research became associated with facilities provided by universities, foundations, museums, governments and industry. However, the romantic image of the mad scientist -- isolated from his fellows and [[TheyCalledMeMad angry with a world that would suppress his ideas]] -- has deep archetypal power. It's also [[EconomyCast dramatically compact]], needing only the scientist, an assistant, and a faithful servant or two as characters. The {{meme|ticMutation}}'s emotional energy and enactment efficiency has kept it alive into the 21st Century, and it's even routinely projected into future scenarios via television shows like ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963''.

This is edging toward becoming a DiscreditedTrope, at least in the classic beaker/Jacob's Ladder/operating table configuration. For the more modern variations, see HackerCave. For labs that were once this, but ended up being evacuated due to an experiment that went wrong, see AbandonedLaboratory. If someone's paying a visit and goes unnoticed, then it's UnguidedLabTour.

Compare and contrast the WizardWorkshop, this trope's fantasy and fairytale counterpart.
----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/DragonBallZ'': The MadScientist Dr. Gero has one where he works on his android project. Despite its destruction, the version of his [[UltimateLifeForm ultimate creation]] Cell from the future is unaffected thanks to the way in which Trunks' time machine operates.
* ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'': Jail Scaglietti has the operating table, but lacks most of the other stuff. He makes up for it by having rows and rows and rows of PeopleJars.
* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': BigBad Dr. Hell had his own laboratory installed in his SupervillainLair, but it was barely seen in the series. [[TheProfessor Dr. Kabuto's]] lab in the original manga also counts.
* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': Doctor Yatsubiyashi's clinic [[WrongSideOfTheTracks in the slums]] he set up for PlayingWithSyringes on the residents in exchange for free medical treatment looks like this, which is immediately {{lampshaded}} by Akira who complains to Sheryl, who doesn't do anything about it because the residents are TooDesperateToBePicky. Yatsubiyashi says it's inspired by designs used by {{Precursors}}. Sure enough, he ends up making a character into a TragicMonster in its facilities.
* ''Manga/SoulEater'': Professor Franken Stein has quite an interesting home/lab. Stitched patterns are found randomly throughout the house, both the inside and outside (and also on his clothes and even his person). He has an older looking computer and many chemistry related items such as a Bunsen burner, beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks, etc. (which, it should be noted, he occasionally uses as ''drinking glasses''). Arrows are painted on the floor pointing in different directions, usually away and toward doorways.
* ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'': Washuu has a giant laboratory that spans ''five planets'', set up in other-dimensional space and accessible through a door that is usually located under the stairs in Tenchi's house, but which can vanish or move as Washuu wills it.
* ''Manga/WildFangs'': Syon was [[BioAugmentation created]] and grew up in one of these, of the castle dungeon variety.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Tim leads the ComicBook/TeenTitans into a secret underground lab belonging to [[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Lex Luthor]] that's full of autonomous robots, half-finished experiments, and vials of manufactured cures and diseases in search of a cure for ComicBook/{{Superboy|1994}}, who was dying at the time.
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'':
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Paula's lab hidden beneath Holliday College is full of large strange electronics and knife switches tied into her [[{{Teleportation}} Space Converter]] alongside tables covered in glassware full of colorful liquids. There's also an operating table surrounded by the equipment needed to make a Purple Ray strong enough to heal the very recently deceased.
** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'': Dr. Lazarus's lab is more tidy version than normal filled with shelving, computers and tables with the centerpiece a strange round thing with giant cocoon like objects hanging from it and several spark gaps, calling to mind a Jacob's Ladder but actually being part of his machine with which he intends to resurrect his son.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': In this ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' Franchise/MonsterVerse fanfiction, the basement levels of the abandoned Monarch outpost where Alan Jonah's paramilitary took up residence are implied to be functioning as this. The rest of the outpost has effectively turned into an AbandonedLaboratory [[spoiler:with {{Artificial Zombie}}s roaming]] as of Chapter 7.
* In [[https://www.deviantart.com/slifofinadragon/art/Having-Fun-while-you-can-Ch-8-Pt-2-949599376 chapter 8 part 2]] of [[https://www.deviantart.com/slifofinadragon SlifofinaDragon]]’s ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara'' [[ModernAUFic modern day fanfic]] ''Having Fun while you can'', we learn that [[UsefulNotes/AkechiMitsuhide Akechi]] [[MadDoctor Mitsuhide]] has one stationed right underneath the Basara Academy infirmary, and it's the same one from ''Gakuen Basara'' episode 9.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': Yzma's "secret lab", which contains dozens of transforming potions.[[note]]Unfortunately they are all the same color and not properly labeled.[[/note]] Yzma and Kronk enter it by a roller coaster ride accessed by pulling a lever on the wall, though Kronk occasionally pulls the wrong one.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'': Megamind, a science-based supervillain, has an impressively huge one, complete with Tesla coils and blinky dials.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'': Doc Brown's lab, originally the garage of his family estate, is crammed full of all types of scientific gear. He even has the old tape drives to (presumably) the 1950s/'60s style computer he would have used to invent time travel.
* ''Film/{{Blackenstein}}'': Despite all his talk of DNA and laser surgery, the Dr. Stein's laboratory set uses Kenneth Strickfaden's original sparking and zapping electrical equipment from ''Film/Frankenstein1931''.
* ''Film/ACureForWellness'': There's a locked tower on the spa grounds that the protagonist Lockhart eventually breaks into. He finds stairs leading down to a grotto containing an underground laboratory, which is replete in 19th century-style with beakers containing mutated fetuses, dissected eels, and scientific notebooks. [[spoiler:It turns out the anachronistic look is not a coincidence, as the doctor who runs the spa is a [[{{Immortality}} lot older than he appears]]]].
* ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'': The Chamber of Life, where the Skeksis drain innocent Podlings of their life essence. It's filled with {{Ridiculously Cute Critter}}s in cages, which skekTek the Scientist performs cruel experiments on.
* ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'': Dr. Durea has a secret laboratory hidden beneath the Creature Emporium -- the house of horrors he runs at the amusement park -- where he conducts all of his experiments in developing his blood serum. Much of the electrical lab equipment in the lab are props originally used in the 1931 ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' film. Ken Strickfaden, who had designed all the electrical gadgetry in that film, supplied the equipment.
* ''Film/DrJekyllAndMrHydeAyoy'': Jekyll has one, full of technicolor chemistry and stuff. Although the potato doesn't really do anything.
* ''Film/TheFly1986'' updates and {{downplay|edTrope}}s the "gentleman scientist" inspirations for this trope with Seth Brundle's lab. It's located on the top floor of an AbandonedWarehouse in a lonesome part of Toronto, and despite it also serving as his living quarters with a small kitchen, bedroom, etc. retains a stark appearance with its basic furnishings and lack of décor, since Seth is a {{Workaholic}} and has no social life. It has a skylight that factors into the climax ([[spoiler:allowing him to sneak into the central room by {{Wall Crawl}}ing and get the drop on Stathis]]), shelves full of binders of papers, etc. serving as background detail, and is ultimately centered upon the exotic-looking "telepods" and the imposing computer that controls them. Early on, Seth [[MrExposition actually provides some exposition]] to reporter (and later love interest) Veronica explaining that he had to commission the individual components for the telepods and "stick them together, but nobody knows what the project really is." His work is financed by a company (they met at a press event in the opening scene), "but they leave me alone because I'm not expensive, and they know that they'll end up owning it all, whatever it is."
* ''Film/FrankensteinsCastleOfFreaks'': Count Frankenstein's laboratory contains operating tables, GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, and an improbable number of Jacob's ladders.
* ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'': Sheila Frankenstein has one in her house that is part electrical lab and part intensive care unit.
%%* ''Film/{{Horrific}}'': In ''Terror Vision'', Jordan has converted his apartment into one for his experiments in accessing the 8th dimension.%%Converted into what?
* ''Film/IronMan'': Tony Stark has an updated version in the basement of his house: [[TheIgor robot assistants]], machine shop, [[InformedAbility electronics fabrication]], CADCAM system.
* ''Film/JamesBond'': The films have their resident good-guy MadScientist, Q; almost every film features a peek into his lab, which usually features several [[TheIgor assistants]] participating in such dubious experiments as testing a new {{bulletproof vest}} by putting one on and getting shot.
* ''Film/JesseJamesMeetsFrankensteinsDaughter'': Maria has one set up in the monastery. The lab was actually composed of props from Franchise/UniversalHorror movies, and would largely be reused in ''Film/YoungFrankenstein''.
* ''Film/KissMeQuick'': Dr. Breedlove's laboratory has all of the standard mad scientist accoutrements, including GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, an arcing Jacob's ladder, and a talking skull.
* ''Film/LadyFrankenstein'': Baron Frankenstein maintains one under his castle. It is filled with GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks, arcane electrical equipment, strange clockwork, a walk in cold room for keeping corpses...
* ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind'': Dr. Lurience's home lab, where he appears to swapping minds between bodies using a Jacob's ladder. His new lab at the Haselwood Institute looks far more high-tech and antiseptic, even if it performs the same function.
* ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'': Dr. Rotwang's laboratory is perhaps the earliest example of the trope on film, and features all the necessary paraphernalia, along with large pentagrams to tie him to the classical magician/alchemist archetypes.
* ''Film/TheResurrected'', a 1991 film adaptation of ''Literature/TheCaseOfCharlesDexterWard'', recreates the scene where the hero has to navigate his way out of a subterranean laboratory/oubliette of failed BodyHorror experiments [[DarknessEqualsDeath after dropping his lamp]].
%%* ''Film/ReturnOfTheKillerTomatoes'': Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene's lab certainly qualifies, but he isn't mad, just a little angry.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': [[DrFakenstein Dr. Frank N. Furter's]] lab is full of {{Big Electric Switch}}es and octagonal monitors. The tank that [[FrankensteinsMonster Rocky]] is born in is the same one from ''Film/TheRevengeOfFrankenstein''.
* ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009'': The "ginger midget" Luke Reordan, who turns out to be on [[BigBad Lord Blackwood's]] payroll, has two laboratories that are visited after his body is found in Blackwood's coffin. The first one's in his apartment, and the second is in a slaughterhouse. The walls of both places are adorned with writings and drawings that speak of experiments to combine sorcery with science as well as Reordan's connection to Blackwood who presents himself as TheAntiChrist. Holmes finds from the first laboratory most of the clues [[ChekhovsArmoury that later turn out to be essential]] in proving that [[spoiler:Blackwood accomplished all his magical feats with science and trickery]]. The second laboratory was where Reordan created the [[spoiler:chemical weapon Blackwood attempts to gas his opponents in the British Parliament with]], and it's also where [[spoiler:[[TheBrute Dredger]] killed Reordan [[ShootTheBuilder after the latter had delivered everything Blackwood wanted]]]].
* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow'':
** The laboratory of Dr. Walter Jennings (with mutated fetus and tiny elephant), and the room in [[TheShangriLa Shangri-La]] (shown in a deleted scene) where Totenkopf conducted experiments on radiation victims from his uranium mine.
** Dr. Totenkopf requires a special mention here as his 'laboratory' is a whole factory complex, complete with a [[spoiler:rocket launch silo]].
* ''Film/VanHelsing'': Being a send-up of [[Franchise/UniversalHorror Universal's classic horror movies]], these naturally show up. The film opens in the laboratory of none other than Victor Frankenstein as he successfully brings his monster to life, and Dracula later appropriates the lab for his own purposes and then moves it to his own castle where he tries to complete the experiment. Another lab is shown earlier in the film where [[GadgeteerGenius Carl]] develops weapons for Van Helsing to use against Dracula.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/ComradeDeath'', a short story by Gerald Kersh, features Sarek's Under World, the underground nightmare where his company's increasingly horrible chemical weapons are developed.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfProfessorJackBaling'': The titular character has a rather mundane version of one of these in a shed in his backyard, but in the second episode he encounters some really sophisticated ones in the Prometheus Corporation's HQ, some of which even have Jacob's ladders and bubbling beakers.
* ''Literature/FrannyKStein'': Franny's room is her laboratory, where the little girl mad scientist frequently conducts her experiments using whatever chemicals and technology she needs.
* ''Literature/GauntsGhosts'': The Ghosts' main objective in ''Salvation Reach'' is to [[spoiler:raid a well-defended Chaos research facility and capture as much intelligence material as possible, which may be further used in advantage to the Crusade. The laboratory is described as grim halls filled with strange and disturbing devices. Although they cannot read them, even the mere touch of scrolls and dataslates stored there fills the Imperial Guardsmen with a feeling of dread]].
* ''Literature/HeartOfSteel'': Alistair Mechanus has a sprawling labyrinth of a lair inside a dormant volcano on Shark Reef Isle, mainly comprised of laboratory and research space.
* ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'': The eponymous MadScientist has a hidden laboratory, first in a dilapidated farm house and later in his cellar, for his experiments of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent dead body revival]] and other, [[BodyHorror more gruesome]], things. He also pursues a quasi-legitimate career in medicine and research at the Miskatonic University and could procure scientific apparatus -- without attracting unwanted attention -- by plain old theft.
%%* ''Literature/TheProbabilityBroach'', by L. Neil Smith: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by the protagonist when he enters the lab in the Colorado State University that (unknown to him) is actually a gate to an AlternateUniverse.%%How is this an example?
* ''Literature/SomethingMoreThanNight'': Played with. The MadScientist's secret basement laboratory is the site of genuine unethical mad science research, but because it was bankrolled by a movie mogul with an overdeveloped sense of drama and kitted out by his set construction department, a good proportion of the buzzing machines, bubbling tubes, unidentifiable specimens, etc. are just leftover props irrelevant to the actual task at hand. And the stone walls turn out, on closer inspection, to be textured plasterboard.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BreakingBad'': The meth lab on wheels. It's got the smoking flasks, mysterious colored goo, and pretty much anything else they can cover with RuleOfCool.
%%* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Academy.%%ZCE. Describe how this trope is used.
* ''Series/{{Forever|2014}}'':
** Henry's basement lab resembles one, and Jo even refers to it as such after searching it, describing it as containing "human organs" (Henry ''is'' a Medical Examiner) and "torture devices" ("Oh, those are for sex!"). It's entered through a trap door hidden under a rug, and there are GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks containing [[TechnicolorScience colored substances]] when they're not neatly put away in cabinets, as well as a large fish tank containing jellyfish [[note]]WordOfGod says they are Immortal Jellyfish, but in reality those are much too small to show up in the tank[[/note]]. It doesn't help that Henry pronounces the word "laboratory" with emphasis on the second syllable, which most Americans associate with movie mad scientists.
** In the pilot, the VillainOfTheWeek has created a lab in his garage, with GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks sporting [[TechnicolorScience bright purple]] residue from the aconite flowers he's creating poison with. Justifies as he's a chemist.
%%* ''Series/GameOfThrones''. The maester's laboratory in "[[Recap/GameOfThronesS4E10TheChildren The Children]]" is a MedievalEuropeanFantasy version once [[MadDoctor disgraced ex-maester Qyburn]] starts PlayingWithSyringes on a dying [[TheDreaded Ser Gregor Clegane]].%%How is it an example?
%%-->'''Queen Cersei:''' You can save him?\\
%%'''Qyburn:''' Difficult to say, your Grace. But if [[TestedOnHumans my past work is any guide]]... we stand a chance.\\
%%'''Cersei:''' Do everything you can. Come to me for anything you need.\\
%%'''Qyburn:''' Thank you, your Grace. You should know, the process may... [[CameBackWrong change him]]. Somewhat.\\
%%'''Cersei:''' Will it weaken him?\\
%%'''Qyburn:''' ''[[CameBackStrong Oh, no]]''.
* ''Series/TheMunsters'': Grandpa has a laboratory in the dungeon under the house where he performs experiments both scientific and mystical. For added fun, his [[TheIgor Igor]] is a bat.
* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': For seven seasons, the villains work in an ElaborateUndergroundBase; the audience occasionally glimpses chemistry equipment, chalkboards, computer consoles and mysterious air ducts. Things become tighter when the villains' [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replacements]] have to work out of a space-travel-equipped VW Microbus, but this lasts for only one season -- they return to a [[HauntedCastle more appropriate environment]] soon enough. In the [[ScrewedByTheNetwork Screwed By the Studio]] [[TheMovie Motion Picture]], Dr. F's lab gets a major overhaul, complete with a fish tank filled with acid.
* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Of both Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll.
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The interior of a Borg ship can come across like this.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': At the start of "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS5E15DarkFrontier Dark Frontier (Part 1)]]", the ship is lit by blue flashes and the sound of electrical arcs, with the occasional burst of steam, even ''before'' they enter combat with Voyager.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E3Brothers Brothers]]", we start at the requisite glass containers full of bubbling chemicals and a tube generating lightning-like effects before panning across to the more homely aspects of Dr. Soong's hideout.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. Played straight in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS04E05MonsterMovie Monster Movie]]", where the MonsterOfTheWeek is a fan of monster movies like ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'', and so has his own laboratory to electrocute Dean via BigElectricSwitch. More updated versions are seen in "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E10Asylum Asylum]]" and "[[Recap/SupernaturalS06E20TheManWhoWouldBeKing The Man Who Would Be King]]" -- the latter being the most disturbing of all [[spoiler:given that it involves AffablyEvil Crowley dissecting demons while discussing business with supposed good-guy Castiel]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Pinball]]
* ''Pinball/StrangeScience'': The entire playfield is decorated like a classic laboratory. Operators can also install a backbox topper resembling a Jacob's ladder with an electric arc between the poles.
%%* ''VideoGame/ThreeDUltraPinballCreepNight'': The "Tower" table takes place in one of these.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Roleplays]]
* ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'': XERRD -- an entire organization of {{Mad Scientist}}s -- has three notable Mad Scientist Laboratories where they perform experiments on dinosaurs: the Dino Island Laboratory, the LEGO Island Laboratory, and the Adventurers' Island XERRD Fortress.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'': A lab is very important to the protagonists. The problem is that lab space is expensive and obsessively making things that break when {{Muggles}} touch them is [[PerpetualPoverty bad for the bank balance]].
%%* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Common on the GothicHorror plane of Innistrad. There's even a card called [[https://scryfall.com/card/uma/61/laboratory-maniac Laboratory Maniac]].%%ZCE. Describe how this trope is used.
%%* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': The Nazi base Festung Seig includes laboratories for their scientists.%%And?
* ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'': Der Blitzmann is a German MadScientist who 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.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The workshop of a Mek, an Orc with both an instinctive understanding of technology and the Orks' general insanity, becomes one of these in short order, quickly filling with discarded parts, flashy lights, bare cogs and wires, spinny bits, and arcing electricity. This is generally an InvokedTrope, as many or most of these don't serve any real purpose; the Meks literally just put them there for the look.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Toys]]
* ''Franchise/LEGO'':
** ''Toys/LEGOFriends'': Olivia's Inventor's Workshop, complete with colored beakers of liquid and helpful robot assistant. Might be a bit too pink to completely qualify, though.
** ''LEGO Studios'' and ''LEGO Monster Fighters'' play this trope more straightly, with each line's resident MadScientist having his own personal laboratory where he creates a CaptainErsatz of FrankensteinsMonster.
* The ''Toys/MightyMax'' toy line had a number of mad science-themed playsets, notably Dr. Gore's HauntedCastle in Skull Dungeon, which had a Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}} theme, and Professor Zygote's VolcanoLair in Dino Lab, located in a volcano, which had a distinct ''Film/JurassicPark'' theme to it.
* The Doctor Dreadful line of playsets allowed kids to basically have their own little mad scientist laboratories, complete with flasks, beakers, test tubes and other goodies, which they could use to make edible snacks.
* Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} produced the Thingmaker Chill-A-Tron Lab, which was like a cross between Doctor Dreadful and Creepy Crawlers; like Doctor Dreadful, it had a mad scientist theme to it, but, like Creepy Crawlers, you couldn't eat what you made. It worked using ice rather than heat.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'': Henry Stauf has one, rather well hidden in his mansion. It is infamously known for a now-impossible minigame of Infection inside a microscope there. On top of that, a rather {{squick}}y cutscene can be watched of a ghost patient who wakes up and finds that half of his head is missing, then reaches down and tries to put his brain back.
* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'': Cobb, a pig villager, tends to decorate his house along these lines. In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf'', he has walls lined with bookshelves, a large whiteboard, a set of metal shelves filled with flasks and bottles, a laboratory sink, a large computer bank of unclear purpose with a Florence flask filled with green fluid laid on it, and a "laboratory bench" consisting of a metal bed attached to a pair of defibrillators shaped to fit over a person's temples. In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingHappyHomeDesigner'', his required items are the shelves of bottles and the Florence flask from his ''New Leaf'' home, alongside a giant tube filled with green liquid and a vague bobbing shape. In ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingNewHorizons'', he goes for a more bookish theme, retaining the library walls but swapping out the high-tech furniture for piles of books, loose documents and crumpled papers, although he does retain a whiteboard covered in indecipherable writing.
* ''VideoGame/BadMojo'': Roger Samms converted half of his apartment into a small version of this as part of his research to kill cockroaches. His desk is cluttered with glassware and bug specimens, alongside a bulletin board covered in news clippings, biology schematics, scrawled notes, and [[RoomFullOfCrazy eyes clipped from pictures]]. To top it off, the player gets to see this up close thanks to [[LaserGuidedKarma Roger having been turned into a roach by a mysterious locket]].
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'': The first dungeon (known as "Chateau Irenicus" in the community) has "pickled" people in jars, rampant clones, a lightning generator, portals to other dimensions and other crazy contraptions, and a horde of duergar serving as [[TheIgor Igors]]. The only difference with a traditional mad science lab is that the owner is an EvilSorcerer and all the contraptions are powered by magic. Half the protagonist's canonical party from the first game ends up StrappedToAnOperatingTable, and not everyone walks away...
%%* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'': Butchery Loves Company, the ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}''-inspired starting level of the fourth episode, complete with all of the listed features.
* ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'': {{Dracula}} tends to maintain at least one in each game, complete with all the glass containers, arcing electrical devices, and operating tables typical of the trope. It's usually where FrankensteinsMonster and other artificial monsters are created and fought.
* ''[[VideoGame/CityOfHeroes City of Villains]]'': The base editor 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.
* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'':
** [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996 In the original game]], Dr. Neo Cortex has a sinister tower castle. To the top, his lab, which is shown in the intro cutscene, contains his [[MindControlDevice Cortex Vortex]], [[TheIgor N. Brio]]'s Evolvo-Ray, and countless cages where a lot of marsupials are fearfully waiting for their turn to come. The Lab level has shades of this too, with its electric ray traps and its {{Blob Monster}}s who come out of nowhere.
** ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'': N. Gin Labs is a big homage to labs and factory levels from the first two games, having one section where you turn around the Evolvo-Ray, radioactive barrels as a trap, and a big corridor where you can constantly boost.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'': A large number of them exist. Somewhat {{justified|Trope}} in that several factions are technocratic cabals who see "technology alone as a source of political power", and [[BlackAndGreyMorality some of them are on your side]]. Still, applies mainly to scientists serving the BigBad.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas: Old World Blues'': The Big MT (Big Empty) is a [[NoOSHACompliance non-OSHA compliant]] research facility run by MadScientist [[BrainInAJar brains in jars]]. Both this and the main game have chemistry sets where you can [[ItemCrafting craft drugs]].
* ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'': {{A|IIsACrapshoot}}M builds a mock-up of a Nazi death camp for the character Nimdok to explore. One part of it includes a bunker containing a laboratory that fits this trope per the World War II setting, with implements from a teletype, a morphing creature in a bell jar, and a {{Golem}} made from steel and clay. [[spoiler:It's also significant by the fact that Nimdok himself once performed experiments here alongside Dr. Mengele. Some of them included genetic manipulation and a [[WhoWantsToLiveForever youth serum]], which is how AM kept Nimdok and four other humans alive for 109 years, and [[BodyHorror warped one of them into a mutant]] [[ForTheEvulz just for fun]].]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Insanity|Uri}}'': There's one of these labs located in the basement of the Murai mansion, belonging to [[spoiler:Shigeki Murai, the MadScientist patriarch of the Murai family]], where he carries out his experiments [[spoiler:in an attempt to resurrect the dead]]. It's not too creepy or bizarre-looking... well, except for the over-sized cages and [[spoiler:the human corpses]].
* ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'': Dr. Hans Volter has one underneath his manor in Switzerland, where it's implied he performs [[NotUsingTheZWord Zed]]-related experiments. The Descent map shows that it extends over a kilometer below the surface, with at least 11 different floors.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterLab'': Mad Science Castle is, of course, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. You get no less than four laboratories, three that correspond with the three disciplines of mad science (mechanics, biology and alchemy) and a fourth where LightningCanDoAnything.
* ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' and ''VideoGame/RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'': The whole Gouma-Den. Hosted by [[LargeHam lovable]] [[MilkingTheGiantCow lunatic]] [[MadScientist Dr.]] [[ShoutOut Victor]]. Complete with virtually all of the accoutrements of the standard lab.
* ''VideoGame/TheRoomMobileGame'': The final area in ''The Room Two'' is a tower on an island belonging to Professor de Montfaucon, set up in his research to save his dying sister Lucy. His equipment ranges from bug specimens and [[LightningCanDoAnything stimulating a hand with electricity]], to [[SentientPhlebotinum the Null]] and a [[BeatStillMyHeart still-living heart]]. [[spoiler: Lucy died before he could complete his research.]]
* ''VideoGame/ShovelKnight'': The Explodatorium, domain of {{Plague|Doctor}} [[MadBomber Knight]], is a place chock full of oversized labwear, exploding rats, flamethrowers, barrels full of boiling chemicals and scientists all trying to further chemical warfare.
* In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', the aptly-names Beaker family have one in their house, complete with a cell in the basement to keep their test subject in
* ''VideoGame/StayTooned'': Dr. Pickles has a couple of places replete with items of this trope, some of which can be interacted with.
-->'''Dr. Pickles:''' Will you help me with mein experiment?
* ''VideoGame/TheUltimateHauntedHouse'': One of these can be found, in the house's basement, belonging to [[MadScientist Dr. Synthesis]]. You can use it to create a monster of your own, or even use parts found in the house to put together [[FrankensteinsMonster the Ultimate Monster]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Wolfchild}}'': The fourth world has Wolfchild entering the CHIMERA labs hidden beneath the hidden island temple. The area features PeopleJars, conveyor belts and large vats of presumably mutagenic substances used by CHIMERA to build their army.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The Forsaken apparently discovered this trope in the ''Wrath of the Lich King'' expansion, as their bases in Northrend tend to be full of traditional MadScientist equipment like Tesla coils, Jacob's ladders, and mechanical arms that move vials of [[TechnicolorScience glowing chemicals]] around.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''[[http://commedia2x00.wordpress.com Commedia 2X00]]'': Dottore's lab 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)...
* ''Webcomic/EvilPlan'': Doctor Kinesis has a multi-level lab, complete with minions and a vat of "acid".
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Sparks -- the setting's name for pathological mad scientist -- tend to feel an active compulsion to keep at least one handy laboratory stocked with assorted mechanical and/or surgical tools, chemical reagents, interesting specimens and past experiments in jars, and a metal bad with leather straps for holding uncooperative test subjects.
** Castle Heterodyne has quite a lot of them, so that every Spark in the family can perform their own experiments without getting in each other's way. And so they don't have to drag the bodies far when the urge strikes.
** In the novel ''Agatha H. and the Airship City'' (an expanded prose version of the first few comic volumes), Agatha asks Gil why he needs four labs aboard Castle Wulfenbach. He replies that his father has ''forty-three'' plus two ground-based facilities, so by comparison he's a model of efficiency. And that's not counting all the other labs on Castle Wulfenbach that the Baron set up for his employees, one of which is labeled "Lab Full of Exploding Things #5".
* ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' is all about {{Mad Scientist}}s. If you don't have the GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks around, you fail to grasp the principles behind mad science.
* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'': Riff rents out some tunnels to act as his secret underground lab. At least when Minion Master's not using it as his "Domicile of Evil".
* ''Webcomic/TalesOfGnosisCollege'': Professor Joseph Corwin houses his Apsinthion Device, a tank with a tentacle monster, and in impressive amount of weird glassware in a mad scientist's laboratory located in a derelict red-brick ''brewery'' that rather resembles an old-fashioned castle.
* ''Webcomic/ThogInfinitron'': The Opians, an alien race, have an interstellar spacecraft with an [[http://www.drunkduck.com/Thog_Infinitron/index.php?p=428274 onboard laboratory where they engineer ways to destroy Thog.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* ''WebVideo/AgamemnonTiberiusVacuum'' has a very high-tech "pretty bad-ass" one in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdvo86kPcnQ The Experimentasium.]]''
* ''WebVideo/DoctorHorriblesSingAlongBlog'': Dr. Horrible seems to have one of these in his kitchen.
* ''Music/DoctorSteel'' has one, seen on his website and in his videos, located on a mysterious secret island in the Pacific.
* ''WebVideo/KateModern: Precious Blood'': The Science Lab is a [[ElaborateUndergroundBase mazelike underground nuclear bunker]] in which the Order carried out gory "research".
%%* ''WebVideo/LG15TheResistance'': [=LifesBlood Labs=], and specifically Maggie's "magical place filled with wonders".
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': {{Parodied|Trope}} with [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1417-j SCP-1417-J]], a joke SCP who uses its psychic powers to play childish pranks on people unless surrounded by over-the-top HollywoodScience equipment.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
%%* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'': [[EvilGenius Tarantulas]] has several, while Megatron and Scorponok have labs too, to name just a few.%%How are they examples? Characters that "have labs" aren't enough to establish this trope as occurring.
* ''WesternAnimation/BikerMiceFromMars'': Dr. Karbunkle has a pretty spacious lab, which includes, among others things, his transporter.
* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'' is a little light on the flatware, but even so he occasionally carries around a beaker. More often, he can be seen endlessly turning a nut with a wrench, against a background of computer banks, et al.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Mostly {{averted|Trope}} with Professor Farnsworth's lab, which is usually surprisingly sparse, with only one piece of equipment at a time, although in one episode he's shown to have about a dozen different {{doomsday device}}s tucked away.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse1983'': Man-at-Arms has a big and impressive lab (good for those trademark Creator/{{Filmation}} long, slow pans), although it's not at all sinister-looking, since he's a nice guy.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyAndFriendsE15TheGreatRainbowCaper The Great Rainbow Caper]]", the gizmonks' base is essentially a giant laboratory filled with complicated machines in various states of completion, caged test subjects and exotic animals, and assorted trappings of mad science.
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E15FeelingPinkieKeen Feeling Pinkie Keen]]": Twilight Sparkle's basement is shown to be filled with complex sensory apparati, tubes and bottles of colorful bubbling liquid, racks of test tubes, bookshelves, and giant tubing and machines of unclear purpose, with many of the larger pieces having tree roots wound around them.
** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E20ItsAboutTime It's About Time]]": Twilight has a second laboratory slash observation room in her attic, this one featuring a number of large, complex telescopes alongside abstruse graphs and piles of loose documents.
* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': It's revealed in season 2 that Rick built one in the garage, causing Beth and Jerry to have a $6,000 electric bill. It appears in later episodes being used to work Rick's various projects of the day.
* ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'': Dr. Viper's laboratory, seen in "[[Recap/SWATKatsS1E2TheGiantBacteria The Giant Bacteria]]", is pretty impressive to behold, featuring retorts, racks of test tubes, flasks, beakers and even a microscope that for some reason has smoke pouring out of the eyepiece. Interestingly, production notes called for even ''more'' chemistry equipment to be seen, but for some reason the animators didn't get the message.
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'': {{Parodied|Trope}} in "[[Recap/TinyToonAdventuresS1E12HareRaisingNight Hare-Raising Night]]". There's a panning shot of what appears to be Dr. Gene Splicer's laboratory, with a bunch of spiraling glass tubing and oddly-shaped chemistry equipment (flasks, beakers, etc.) in the foreground... only for the pan to continue and reveal it's just a painting, titled "Dad's Place". Dr. Splicer's actual laboratory is a surprisingly mundane office building (the giant vat of "gene juice" aside).
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': The titular mice, being [[UpliftedAnimal uplifted lab mice]], naturally have Acme Labs as their home/base of operations. While the scientists there perform subpar experiments, Brain puts the equipment and resources to more ambitious use in his endeavors to take over the world.
* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': Jack Spicer has a slightly more detailed laboratory than Dexter, but again, much more often computer-y than chemistry-set based.
[[/folder]]
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