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Omnidisciplinary Scientist
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"He's both an Astronomer and a Nuclear Physicist...Why can't scientists in fiction pick a damn field of study and just stick with it?"
"Do you know how many degrees I have?!"
Intercom: "There's a Doctor with them."
Scientist: "Of medicine?"
Intercom: "He says... of everything."
Related to the Mad Scientist, the Omnidisciplinary Scientist is a master of every branch of science, regardless of the branch in which he theoretically has a degree. A writer either Did Not Do The Research or maybe They Just Didnt Care. If someone is a scientist, and something about science needs to be known, the scientist will know it.
Films are particularly bad about this. It's understandable that a producer needs to reduce the number of named characters, so anything "scientific" is handled by the existing " science guy" character. However, it strains Willing Suspension Of Disbelief when the guy who was just working on the nuclear reactor turns around and is suddenly a xenobiologist, chemist, alien technology expert and computer programmer as well.
Any of The Professor, The Spock, the Mad Scientist, Mr Fixit and the Genius Bruiser may be an Omnidisciplinary Scientist. The Science Hero tends to be one in practice. The medical variant practices Open Heart Dentistry.
Compare to the Renaissance Man, also known as the Polymath, who is also very knowledgeable in multiple fields - but not necessarily all of them. Some of these fields may be arts such as painting, or literature.
Examples:
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- Dr. Black Jack may be an Omnispecies Omnidisciplinary Doctor: he can perform surgeries and autopsies and deliver babies. And transplant horse brains into humans. And stitch together a child using her parasite twin body parts and plastic. Did I mention he had performed surgery on a dog, a whale, a ghost, a computer, an alien, and himself?
- And he fights crime.
- Not only did he perform abdominal surgery on himself to remove a parasite, he did so in the middle of the Australian outback, all by himself, while simultaneously fighting off dingoes.
- This is a pretty common trope in stories by Osamu Tezuka. In his original Metropolis manga, Duke Red not only creates an army of robots, but also a machine that makes artificial sunspots & other weirdness, although he does have to turn to a specialist to get a proper Artificial Human. Most of the numerous scientist characters in Astro Boy are omnidisciplinary to some degree. Ochanomizu, whose main background is in robotics also comes up with inventions like a bomb that flash-freezes everything for miles around & even a device that can read minds (although considering he's the head of the Ministry of Science he may have had some help with these). Astro's creator Dr. Tenma is said to be an expert in both Artificial Intelligence & the Human brain, which handily explains why Astro has such a lifelike personality, as Dr. Tenma could draw on his knowlege of neurology to create a computer system that emulates the Human nervous system.
- One scenario in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 involves helping a young genius doctor who moves to a small island town, only to be swamped with all manner of requests for help from the citizens. It seems that in addition to being a physician, he can also treat male pattern baldness, give therapeutic massages to animals, and repair microwave ovens.
- Of course, that's the whole joke, because he's doing non-doctor things.
- Washuu in Tenchi Muyo. In most of the Alternate Continuities she, like The Doctor, is old enough that it's justified.
- Many of the "Meights" in The Five Star Stories, scientists who create either Humongous Mecha "Mortar Headds" or Artificial Human "Fatimas" & in rare cases both, are skilled in other fields as well. This is justified by the fact that they are, like the other super-people in FSS, descended from genetically engineered superhumans. While Headliners get Super Strength & Divers get Psychic Powers, Meights get super intelligence.
- Watari from Yami No Matsuei is a good example. Canon shows him as being unbelievably proficient with hacking and decryption, involved in maintaining the computer-based reality where the series' summoned gods live, and good enough at chemistry for potion-based Mad Science, and he's alluded to having had done other things. His PhD? In Mechanical Engineering.
Comic Books
- The mostly realistic Y The Last Man features dr Allison Mann: Surgeon, medical doctor (specializing in apparently the entire body), veterinarian, psychologist, bioengineer and mother of her own clone. (Miscarried, but still.)
- Hank "Ant-Man" Pym started out as an entomologist. His training studying insects also left him able to, among other things, create shrinking particles and artificially intelligent robots. Although perhaps his complete lack of relevant background in the latter field helps explain that particular example of AI Is A Crapshoot.
- One issue of Secret Invasion contained a hilarious but possibly inadvertent sight gag with a board listing the eight or so completely unconnected disciplines that Pym was giving lectures on his cutting edge research in.
- Subtle clue? At that point Hank wasn't...Hank. But then again, he rarely is.
- Actually, at that point, he was. The lecture with the gag was the lecture where he met the (first of several) Skrull agent who captured and replaced him.
- In the Ultimate Marvel universe, on the other hand, Hank Pym is a specialist in cybernetics, who claims to have created the Giant Man formula, when actually he "merely" reverse-engineered it based on his wife Janet's mutant DNA. In an argument between the two, Janet hangs a lampshade on this by saying that he's already a great cyberneticist and doesn't need to make people think he's an amazing geneticist as well. Later, after discussing his interrogation of several Spider-Man villains for their scientific secrets, Janet remarks "Oh, so you're a psychologist now?"
- Perhaps the ultimate Omnidisciplinary Scientist is Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four, who is openly acknowledged as a genius in every conceivable branch of science, including at least one he invented. However, there is plenty of Lampshade Hanging regarding this, and his multi-disciplinary skills are presented as a sign of his unique genius.
- This was also lampshaded in the mini-series Fantastic Four: True Story, where Reed said at one point; "This will require me to create an entirely new field of scientific study. Give me a couple of days.
- His arch-foe, Doctor Doom, is also an Omnidisciplinary Scientist... and a skilled sorcerer as well.
- In 1602 he invented the several disciplines of science. Okay, so he picked out different names, but the dude basically came up with our modern foundation of science by himself.
- In Marvel Apes it's established that Reed has a fellowship for achievement in multiple fields of study named after him.
- One issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four implies that Reed Richards' status as an Omnidisciplinary Scientist is at least partly due to the nature of his powers. Just as his body has become infinitely flexible and stretchable, his brain has as well, allowing him to adapt his mind to tackle any number of subjects.
- Peric in The Trigan Empire is the Omnidisciplinary Scientist par excellance. Initially an architect, he later builds a space rocket, invents a machine for turning men into intelligent water (!), discovers an elixir of youth, etc. etc.
- Reading the early Spider-Man comics it looks like Peter Parker is also an Omnidisciplinary Scientist. Able to build an electromagnetic device to stop the Vulture one week, and mixing up a chemical concoction to cure the Lizard the next. To be fair however, it seems that Stan Lee has given all of his "scientists" this trait to a certain degree. Later writers seem to try to narrow it down to a single field or two.
- Interestingly enough, Spider-Man usually goes the other way. Writers can often forget that Peter Parker is (or was) a fledgling super scientist and just cast him as an above-average intelligence photographer with a secret identity. Considering how many OTHER super-scientists there are in Marvel canon, it's not surprising that they let Parker go his own way.
- Canonly, one alternate future for a non-Spider-Man Peter Parker involves becoming a super-scientist to rival Reed Richards.
- In one issue of Exiles they were on a Skrull-Dominated planet that was conquered in the 19th century. When the Skrulls left, the top scientists who studied their technology were Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, and Peter Parker. Reed Richards was of course the top scientist but he was only just coming to grips with Radio.
- Oddly enough, Tony Stark mostly gained this after Stan Lee's writing stint. He was originally and is primarily an electronic and munitions engineer, an ambitious enough combo on its own. However, later writers have seen him brought in to consult on everything from spatial anomalies to medicine.
- At least Forge from the X-Men is a subversion. Being omnidisciplinary is his power, in a way. He can invent pretty much anything mechanical he puts his mind to. Of course, he also has to go and be a sorcerer. And there are no explanations of why he doesn't invent a machine that cures cancer.
- His mutant talent is along the lines of Mad Science. He can create tremendously complicated machinery that can do just about anything. He sometimes has to take it apart to figure out how it works. And, if I recall correctly, he therefore doesn't always realize when there will be side effects.
- In Gold Digger both titular character Gina Digger and her rival Penny Pincer qualify, able to construct power armor, teleporters, cloaking devices, making and using advanced medical equipment, chemistry, particle physics, AI programming, some forays into time travel, and are joint founders of a new field, 'Beta technology', based on manipulation of 'phantom mass' as well as allowing tapping into the ether stream where magic gets it's punch! To various degrees this multi-talentedness also applies to Erwin 'Peewee' Talon, Dr. Alfred Peachbody and other scientists in universe but we get to see it in Gina and Penny the most.
- Handwaved in the instance of Gina. She apparently spent all her time getting degrees, at least until a certain 'incident' that caused her to go boy-crazy. Penny Pincer is also an old-fashioned heart surgeon. (Gina actually rattles OFF a few of her degrees in an early comic.)
- DC has Lex Luthor and Dr. Sivana.
- There's also Mr. Terrific, whose non-metahuman "power" is basically to be an expert in any field he applies himself to which has lead to him holding various completely unconnected doctorates (and still fight crime on the side).
- It's not just scientific fields. At one point he jumps into a jet fighter and starts flying, when questioned about how he did it without, say, crashing he claims he's a fast learner.
- Batman is occasionally portrayed as an Omnidisciplinary Scientist as well, impressively building the JLA Watchtower using Martian, Thanagarian, Human and New Genosian tech. It also shows in his detective work, although he does have a computer that appears to be incredibly advanced and considering the members of his Rogues Gallery it's vitally important that he be familiar with chemicals.
- The older sister from the Valiant series The Troublemakers is also another example coming by this trope with superpowers. She's just more skilled then anyone nearby. Her parents are smart enough to toss her in a lab with some brains to get work done...but not smart enough to keep her away from a crazed near-god.
- Subverted in The Secret Wars by Dr. Octopus. When the Molecule Man is badly injured and his girlfriend (forgot her name) pleads with Octavius to do something since he's a "Doctor", he replies, "I'm a nuclear physicist, not an MD!"
- However, Otto is also apparently a genius engineer and roboticist; he is credited as inventing and upgrading his robot arms. He just happened to invent the robot arms so he could better handle radioactive materials. But where or when he learned the skills to engineer his arms was never explained. And if you suggested that these accomplishments were the result of work-for-hire, he would probably pull your limbs off!
- The trope is played with in one Hulk mini-series; Bruce Banner is found after one of the Hulk's rampages through a town, and all but refusing to let them help him, offers his own help, saying he's a doctor. "Medicine?" He admits he's a physicist, but that he's also a willing pair of hands.
- Professor Desty Nova in Battle Angel Alita mastered every practical and theoretical science up to and including nanotechnology before inventing "karmatron dynamics". Which he also makes great progress in.
- A bit of Lampshade Hanging in Spider-Man 3: Dr. Connors tells Peter that he is a physics professor and not a biologist, but still will try to study the symbiote. He then provides all the necessary exposition about it. (In the comics, Mr. Fantastic took this role.)
- Which, it should be said, makes no sense. In the comic books, he's The Lizard. Does turning yourself into a reptile in an attempt to grow back your arm fall under the domain of physics now?
- In the movies, as yet, he isn't. So we don't know if the sequence of events making him The Lizard (if they even happen) is his fault. Doesn't excuse his foray into xenobiology, however.
- It's more that it's also a joke that he's a biologist in the comics, so the fans would expect him to either be one or an example of this, when, of course, he has only a basic idea of what he's talking about.
- Perhaps it's because he has only a basic idea of what he's talking about that film-Connors will mess up his dabbling in biology, and hence, turn himself into a reptile?
- Dr. Otto Octavius in Spider-Man 2 is also something of an example. He is, presumably, a nuclear physicist (he was working on thermonuclear fusion in the film), but also apparently has enough knowledge of robotics and neurology that he can, on a whim, assemble four robotic tentacles and hook them up to his own nervous system.
- ...they're not exactly 'on a whim', it doesn't seem unlikely that he had a robotics lab build them for him to use.
- There's a fun little independent Indiana Jones knockoff called Librarian: Quest for the Spear, with Kelly Hu as The Dragon, whose protagonist is a thirty-two year old not-a-virgin who lives with his mother and has a combined total of something like twenty-two degrees. If I'm lyin', I'm dyin'.
- Just about any scientist from a 1950s atomic horror movie. The Deadly Mantis in particular hangs a lampshade on this by suggesting that all paleontologists (like its protagonist) must be omnidisciplinary, because the field requires so much speculation from trace evidence.
- Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown from the Back to the Future trilogy built a time machine in his garage in 1985 and another steam-powered time machine by 1895. In the third movie, he explicitly says that he's "a student of all sciences".
- Granted 20th century education would appear as such to a 19th century perspective. It was his job as a SCIENTIST!
- Deliberately averted in Tremors; the seismologist grad-student is exasperated by people who think she can explain the sudden appearance of giant killer worms because she's a scientist.
- In Top Gun the Kelly McGillis character who serves as a civilian instructor to the pilots is described as an "astrophysicist". Guess those hot-shot Navy fighter pilots have a really pressing need to learn all about stellar evolution.
- If they didn't, they do now!
- In the mold of Doc Savage, Buckaroo Banzai is a neurosurgeon, particle physicist… And rock star, among other things.
- You forgot about samurai and cowboy.
- Doctor Morbius from Forbidden Planet is a philologist, but by the time the movie takes place, has constructed a sophisticated home to live in and built an impossibly complex robot, as well as able to analyze and use alien technology. Of course, he HAD been enhanced by an alien machine making him into a genius.
- Doctor Cockroach from Monsters Vs Aliens is an expert in all things mechanical, and knows enough about biology to turn himself into a stable roach-man.
- Also, his PhD is in DANCE!
- Subverted in the 1632 series. Any 20th century American with a high school education looks like one of these to a 17th century downtimer. But the real value is in technical knowledge and hands-on expertise.
- In John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor's Into The Looking Glass series, there is William "Bill" Weaver, a scientist with more degrees and doctorates than really make sense for someone his age, let alone getting in powered armor to fight Zerg-like aliens and becoming the chief astrogator for a submarine-turned-spaceship in the second book. The only thing that makes any of it believable is the fact that Travis S. Taylor actually has about as many doctorates and the character is clearly modeled after him.
- Doc Savage: He was a physician, surgeon, scientist, adventurer, inventor, explorer, researcher, and a musician. And even though his team is made up of experts in their fields, only occasionally is Doc himself not better than they are. He's a better chemist than Monk, a better mechanical engineer than Renny, a better electrical engineer than Long Tom, and a better geologist than Johnny. Ham is the only one he doesn't outdo on a regular basis, leaving anything requiring the practice of law in his hands.
- Judge Holden of Blood Meridian seems to have a pretty good education in paleontology, biology, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. He keeps all his notes on these various subjects in his ledger.
- To be fair, sociology and anthropology go hand in hand. As with paleontology and biology. So he could have double-majored in anthropology and biology and minored in philosophy.
- Leonard Da Quirm in Discworld has been kicked out of most of the scientific guilds in Ankh-Morpork for correcting the exam questions. He mostly follows the painting and engineering style of his counterpart Leonardo da Vinci, but has also invented guns, nuclear weapons, and dabbles in cryptography for Lord Vetinari.
- Now, now, the nuclear weapons did not get past the speculation phase. Not like the submarine, the moon rocket, or the espresso maker.
- The natural philosophers in Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle, most of whom existed and fulfilled this trope in Real Life (especially Robert Hooke, who was involved in a mind-bogglingly large number of disciplines). The implausibility of this being possible once science has sufficiently matured is brought up: late in his life, Daniel laments that with so many new fields emerging, it is becoming impossible for any new natural philosopher to be an Omnidisciplinary Scientist.
Live Action TV
- The Doctor from Doctor Who, especially when asked what he's a doctor of (Everything, by the way). This makes sense, as he's far older than humans.
- In Star Trek Mr. Spock and T'Pol, the Vulcans' Hat seems to be "Omnidisciplinary whatever I choose to study", and an extensive amount of Back Story is devoted to justifying this. Vulcan neurochemistry has what would be in humans super-high levels of various hormones that facilitate learning, recall, analysis, and reflexes. They also result in hair-trigger tempers; prior to the coming of Surak, they were even more violent than Klingons. His Message was that all problems were solvable through Awesomeness By Analysis, whereas Dont Think Feel would only lead to The End Of The World As We Know It. He wasn't all that popular until he gained a Foil, T'Pel, who basically executed the story of Fight Club Up To Eleven, freaking the entire planet out so badly that they've followed him ever since. The Foil then left Vulcan to found a Planet Of Hats that have been the Vulcans' Foil ever since - the Romulans.
- On Lost, Dr Jack Shephard is a spinal surgeon, but seems to be up to speed on thoracic surgery, optometry, general medicine, and is relatively confident about delivering babies.
- Some of the stuff he does (maybe not the optometry and such, but some of the more basic things like first aid and what to take for a headache) would probably be covered in Med School. And, well, it wouldn't do any good for morale to run around screaming 'I don't know how to deliver kids! Dear god help me!'.
- There's also the fact that Ben woke up during surgery because Jack wasn't a very good anesthesiologist. And his 'optometry' consisted of having Sawyer try on different pairs of glasses that were found among the wreckage until he found a pair that worked.
- On the other hand, Juliet was basically useless beyond her specialty (fertility) and some basic first aid. And Bernard the dentist is basically useless entirely, since most people have other things to worry about then the state of their teeth.
- Averted in Stargate Atlantis. Half of the main cast (during the current, final season) consists of scientists and medical experts with various specializations, and most of the other recurring guest characters are scientists as well. This would make sense, as it's a scientific expedition they've undertaken. That said, among the main characters Dr. Rodney McKay is the go-to guy for an inordinately wide variety of problems, as he has far exceeded his original field and is now Atlantis' omnidisciplinary expect on alien technology. Not surprisingly, as at the beginning of the series McKay was the only scientist in his team, while the other three main characters (Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon) were pilots and combat experts.
- In the Stargate universe, Dr. Samantha Carter filled this niche prior to Dr. McKay. Originally a theoretical physicist, in the Stargate SG-1 team she was pretty much a standard Omnidisciplinary Scientist for everything technological, basically anything that didn't fit Dr. Daniel Jackson's specialties (archaeology and linguistics). (After the end of the Stargate SG-1 series, Carter was transfered to Atlantis, to take over command from Dr. Elizabeth Weir.) One of the few female examples.
- Was humorously averted in Stargate SG-1 at times, though. One episode opens with the team encountering a woman in labor; all the guys look at Sam, who immediately yells, "What? I don't know what to do!"
- In Stargate Universe Dr. Rush is set up to be this. Admittedly most issues brought up so far deal with Ancient technology, which he is supposed to be an expert on, and the basics of other fields, he has a tendency to refuse all other help. Averted in the pilot however, when he needed an MIT dropout to solve a math problem that he'd being working on for 2 years.
- Professor Arturo in Sliders, despite supposedly being a cosmologist or sometimes a more general theoretical physicist, successfully creates penicillin in an early episode (in a world where medicine was much less advanced). Later, quite unbelievably, he was capable of performing a Caesarean section on another (male) character, despite having no experience with any form of surgery, let alone such an exotic circumstance as a male pregnancy. And then there was the time he revived a deactivated android... However, each of these cases was lampshaded with dialogue about how hard and/or different from maths he found it.
- On Eureka, Henry Deacon manages to be Omnidisciplinarian whenever the plot requires despite living in a town entirely populated by scientific geniuses and which should, in theory, be able to field an entire team of specialists on whatever virus/natural disaster/temporal anomaly is threatening the town this week. He's also the town's mechanic. Lampshaded whenever he changes the patch he wears on his uniform to reflect whatever job he happens to be doing, as when he pulled a patch reading "Coroner" out of his pocket just as he walked into a morgue.
- The sheriff's dependence on Henry may be partially justified: given how eccentric most of the people he's met in Eureka appear to be, he might prefer to work with a guy who seems relatively "normal", and isn't going to wander off to play fetch with his robot dog or whatever.
- Interestingly subverted in one episode in which a disease that makes people stupid runs through Eureka. When Carter rounds up the scientists who weren't infected and ask them to fix it, he quickly finds out that not every scientist is an expert in human immunology.
- The hero of Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett, had seven doctorates, including Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy, Medicine, Archaeology, Ancient Languages...and Music.
- Dr. Jacob Hood, biophysicist and special science advisor to the FBI, from Eleventh Hour. Being an Omnidisplianrian with an extra helping of awesomesauce is the entire role of his character.
- Fred in Angel is presented as a physics student, but by the fifth season she's doing autopsies, examining things under microscopes, and boiling up chemicals. This despite the fact that she never even finished her first physics degree. Like other examples here, she does at least have a team that she works with.
- An evil team. Well, at least in the fifth season.
- Reid on Criminal Minds has PhDs in chemistry, mathematics and engineering, B As in psychology and sociology, and he is working on a bachelor’s degree in philosophy.
- Walter Bishop of Fringe is a partial subversion. His expertise ranges from biology to teleportation technology but at least has the good grace to not build things that work perfectly on his first try. (the teleporter for example does something very nasty, but non-lethal, to you). His son is close enough to this that he can point out when Walter is ignoring the laws of physics and common sense.
- The show behaves as if "fringe science" were a single category of scientific endeavor, overlapping physics, biology, biochemestry, and a dozen or so others (Sonoma State University may have once offered a degree in fringe science, but Harvard not so much). Walter Bishop is shown as an expert on teleporters one minute and performing autopsies the next. They even occasionally send patents to his clearly unhygienic lab to have him perform surgeries. Not that the character isn't a hoot. He also knows a lot about LSD.
- In reality more than a few fringe scientists do think like that. At least one of the cold fusion groups has a medical doctor as a consultant.
- Sanctuary: Dr Helen Magnus states in the first episode that she is "Any kind [of doctor] my patient need me to be." Of course, she has had plenty of time to learn.
- She seems to be any type of biological science, Will is brought in specifically to deal with the mental doctoring and Henry is the technical expert.
- Recently Nikola Tesla has being brought in for additional technological and immunological expertice (being a vampire might stimulate one's intrest in biology, after all).
- Gaius Baltar in the 2000s Battlestar Galactica is possibly a Deconstruction. He's a computer scientist who's too arrogant to admit that biochemistry (or whatever other science he's consulted on) is out of his area of expertise.
- And yet the voices in his head guide him to make a fully functional Cylon detector; too bad he's too scared to use it.
- Leonard and Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory (and their friends Howard and Raj) are theoretical physicists, but seem well versed in biology, genetics, robotics, and computer science to conduct experiments involving them as well. This is not including the various areas of science that they can discuss casually and in great depth.
- Somewhat justified as the one who is mostly an Omnidisciplinary Scientist is Sheldon. Justified because first of all he is kind of a (Hollywood version) of somebody who "suffers" from Aspergers. Also, he turns out to be wrong sometimes when its not about physics, for example when he is learning Chinese or in the discussion with the comic-book-store-guy. Or even when it comes to semiotics (a tie on a doorknob?). As far as the robot is concerned, the driving force behind the battle robot is Howard, who is an engineer, not a physicist (he is also the only one who does not have a PhD.)
- Note that Sheldon has absolutely no clue as to how to get a Nobel Peace Prize...
- Also note that in the show the main (male) characters are geeks. While not absolving them of stereotyping, their nerdy pursuits would allow them to have working knowledge of any geek-interest they would enjoy, as they would want to know how something from comicbooks or science fiction would be plausible; indeed, many cold opens are the guys debating the workings of superpowers, time travel, or science in general.
- And Howard is an engineer, not a physicist. It's brought up fairly often by other characters disparaging him because he only has a Masters.
- Dr. Spaceman (pronounced "Spatchemmen") in Thirty Rock performs work of all kinds; he's equally unskilled at all branches of science...
- Partially averted in Power Rangers Dino Thunder. Although Tommy is well established as being a doctor of paleontology, this expertise in dinosaurs still enables him to create dinosaur cyborgs ranging in size from motorcycle sized to kaiju size, to create magical bio-armor (powered by magical "dino gems"), etc. Basically, he can do anything if its either shaped like or named after a dinosaur. More broad than the average paleontologist, certainly, but he's technically staying within his field of study.
- Kinda justified by the fact that he spent his high school years using hyperadvanced alien technology to fight crime as an afterschool activity. He was bound to pick something up.
- He also had help, as it's outright stated that he couldn't have done it without Hayley.
- Speaking of Hayley, she outright plays this trope straight.
- Played realistically on NCIS when Ducky is shown studying for his forensic psychology exam, which he passed. And...that's it. To date, he hasn't gotten any more degrees, but that FP degree came in handy on several occasions.
- Professor Quatermass develops into one of these. In his first story he claims to be "just an engineer", but by his third encounter with aliens he's done quite a bit of brushing up on other fields.
- Scorpius of Farscape fame specializes in many different fields: originally a researcher in wormhole physics, he's also skilled enough in engineering, cybernetics and neuroscience to invent the Aurora chair and a neurochip containing a replica of his personality. And he's also Wicked Cultured.
- Chase on House MD apparently spent about 60 years as a resident. While his place on a diagnostic team does indicate he would have a wide knowledge base he has performed actual surgeries in virtually every conceivable surgical discipline.
- Averted somewhat by House himself- though he's a medical genius, he surrounds himself with a team of specialists to round out his knowledge pool. He apparently has a double specialty in Infectious Diseases and Nephrology (study of the kidneys - I think).
- Everyone on House's staff is one, considering they run every test themselves, instead of asking technicians to perform whichever tests are needed. Not only have they done every type of surgery, in between they operate an MRI scanner and do all kinds of microbial cultures. Sheesh.
- The X Files. Dr Dana Scully sometimes comments on psychological issues despite the fact that it's Mulder who has the degree in this area.
- Natalie on Forever Knight, although she's the medical examiner, is represented as doing a variety of science stuff (although not much is shown onscreen) in attempting to understand vampire Nick Knight's condition and "cure" him.
- The Professor on Gilligans Island, by virtue of his name.
- Charlie Epps from NUMB3ERS is a mathematics prodigy. Besides being an Omnidisciplinary Mathematician (he seems to know everything about every algorithm ever made) he also seems to be an expert on chemistry, sociology, computer programing and physics. The only reason that he needs such a wide variety of skills is that the team of FBI agents he works with are all idiots.
Tabletop Games
- GURPS had an explicit skill for this, called, appropriately enough, Science! The exclamation point was key. Later editions of the game generalized this beyond science to other skills; someone who had the equivalent skill for guns would get to use most of the Guns And Gunplay Tropes, for instance.
- Please notice that (in the 3rd Revised Edition) all these exclamation-mark skills were meant only for highly cinematic play, to simulate mad geniuses and gadgeteers, not realistic scientists.
- The 4th Edition retains Science! but only as a cinematic skill in order to simulate this specific trope. The ridiculously expansive skill list allows for a more realistic scientists (broken down to the level of era and subspecialties).
- Exalted. If you have Lore, you can do Science.
- Probably justified in the case of older Exalts, who are hundreds or even thousands of years old and have thus had a lot of time to study.
- The Mage: The Ascension gameline from the old [[The World Of Darkness World of Darkness was rife with this, as skills on the character sheet came in broad categories such as "technology", "medicine", "science", "computers" and "academics", specilization optional. The reality-bending technomages on the side of the Nine Traditions could easily slip into this trope, especially the Sons of Ether who embodied the Mad Scientist and/or Mad Doctor trope to a T. Strangely, all the awakened super-scientists, engineers, spacepilots, pharmacologists, cybersurgeons and geneticists of the Technocracy were far more specialized and usually stuck to their field of expertise, despite the fact that the Technocracy was All About Science.
- Genius The Transgression has the same broad categories as all new World of Darkness games, but Geniuses also have the explicit ability to apply their skills to related yet bizarrely inappropriate circumstances. If they learn to drive a car they can use those skills to guide a spaceship through re-entry.
Video Games
- Guildenstern in the Onimusha games initially seems to be only a demon biologist or geneticist, but later installments have him dipping into chemistry, electronic warfare, physics, engineering, and so on.
- Caulder/Stolos in Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is described by Dr. Morris as having been "kicked out of the medical academy", but is knowledgeable about a great deal of things unrelated to medicine.
- Lash from the two prior games is a lesser version — she mostly showcases her mechanical knowledge but is proficient in several other fields as well.
- The Engineer from Team Fortress 2 claims to have eleven PhDs, despite specializing in building automated weapons and support devices in-game.
- Dude, the guy can build TELEPORTERS. 11 degrees would help with that.
- By pounding them with a wrench.
- Actually he doesn't build them that way, that merely speeds them up and helps them upgrade to a faster-charging version. Technicly, the teleporters/turrets/dispensers (which can heal people just by them being NEAR the building) are already in pre-constructed packages which the Engineer sets down and presses a button, after which they deploy themselves without any further help. The "whack it with a wrench" thing is merely a gameplay mechanic, it doesn't do anything to deteriorate the fact that he is a Badass Bookworm.
- Kohaku from Tsukihime was trained in medicine at an early age, although nobody uses the word "doctor." Due to the effects of a Reality Warper affected by how the cast perceives her devious personality; this has also given her the ability to build robots (and limited witchcraft).
- Dr. Catherine E. Halsey of the Haloverse was the mind behind the Spartan-II project, the MJOLNIR armour and was also apparently an expert in Artificial Intelligences as she developed the means for AIs to be uploaded to the MJOLNIR suits, as well as overseeing the creation of the AIs who were to be bonded to the suits (most notably Cortana, who was created using a clone of Halsey's brain). According to Expanded Universe material, she also figured out how Avery Johnson was able to resist infection by the Flood.
- In Girl Genius, several of the more powerful Sparks show this. Gil, for example, has built flying machines, extremely powerful electric generators, a combat-capable robot to practice fencing with, and built his own servant (plus repaired two others). There are a few more that are hinted to have this trope, but haven't exhibited their full range of talents (his father, Klaus, so far has mostly been shown working on biological sciences, though he seems to understand other fields quite well).
- To be fair, it is implied in the Girl Genius Wiki that most Sparks do stick to one or two fields - they're just 'Reed Richards on speed' in that field. Gil and Agatha's primary fields, for example, seem to be mechanical - while Word Of God says that Klaus's specialities are biological stuff and reverse-engineering things built by other Sparks. So this could be seen as a type of Lampshading.
- At least one recent character is a mad social scientist, who gets annoyed that the engineering ones steal all the funding. And to be more specific, Agatha seems to excel in making clanks and ray guns, although being a Heterodyne she has a LOT of natural talent in nearly any field.
- From the Doctor McNinja FAQ (link
 ):
Q: What kind of doctor is he anyway? That's a PhD on his wall. The sign in front of his office says he's a physician. In the one comic he's doing dental work on a patient, and then says he's a podiatrist!
A: Ninjas are mysterious in their ways. Way mysterious.
- One scene shows The Doctor with a wall of diplomas
- Kevyn, "resident Mad Scientist" of Schlock Mercenary delivers a tirade about how ridiculous this archetype is. However, between his sheer smarts (he doesn't have any actual degrees, as he's so smart he gets bored after learning entire three-to-six-year disciplines in a few months and leaves) and his hobbies, he still fits the role.
- This trope is later subverted again in the same comic, when the crew encounter an unknown life-form, and the captain asks both Kevyn and the ship's doctor for their "professional opinion." Neither one helps.
- More recently, Tagon's Toughs has acquired a specialist on A.I. and robotics, who calls Kevyn "an arrogant generalist" on first meeting him. They eventually reach a balance, as Kevyn has more practical experience than the average scientist, and helps the newbie wrap her brain around concepts like "the value of field testing."
- Molly in The Inexplicable Adventures Of Bob seems to approach all branches of knowledge holistically, and possesses an incalculably vast grasp of astrophysics, engineering, biology, literature, drama, philosophy, comic book trivia, cartoons, nursery rhymes... and yet still comes across as a bit of a ditz with very little common sense.
- Riff from Sluggy Freelance doesn't have any degree that we know of, but he's somehow able to create giant robots, psychotropic drugs, dimensional portals, and twinkie-based weapons of ultimate destruction. Basically, if there's a branch of science that can cause mass destruction, Riff's a master of it.
- The strip also has Doctor Schlock, who has figured out how to clone aliens, travel through time, control nanobot swarms, and make inflatable versions of just about anything.
Western Animation
Truth In Television
- Can, rarely, be an example of Truth In Television—if you go far enough back in history. This is the origin of the phrase Renaissance Man; during the Renaissance, most fields of science were sufficiently new and undeveloped that someone with above-average intelligence could be an expert in more than one or two. By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's time, science had sufficiently diversified that this was no longer possible except in emerging fields; Goethe (an extreme case of genius) is thus sometimes called "the last man to know everything".
- Athanasius Kircher is another historical example, with Bunny Ears Lawyer tendencies as well. Not only did he study geology, ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs("decoding" occult meanings that probably weren't there), and microbiology(in his time a new science), he designed a "cat piano" played by making the cats squeal in pain.
- Almost any poll saying "N scientists believe position A on controversial issue B" will neglect to mention that not all (or even in some cases most) of those N work in a field relevant to B.
- The guy who Van Wilder was based on might count; in college for near (over?) a decade and some half dozen degrees that need(ed) only a few more credits to finish.
- PhD stands for "Doctor of Philosophy", referring to Natural Philosophy. In other words PhD means "Doctor of SCIENCE.
Close Truth In Television
Radio
- The show "Ask Dr. Science" was about a man with a Master's Degree... in Science. His ideas were crazy.
- Ask Dr. Science - He's on that dar interweb thingy now.
- Some of us would like to point out that you actually can get a degree called "Master of Science" in the US, UK and Germany.
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