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DR_SMITH
March 9, 2022
I have a deep aversion to
what I think of as a
"Dr. Smith character".
This is a part of my own "low
fiction critical aparatus"...
MAPPING_THE_LOWLANDS
"Dr. Smith" was a character from the
extremly dubious early 60s television
show "Lost in Space"-- an annoying, The remarkably drippy nicey-nice
greedy scheming character written into crew of the lost space ship
the story as a plot generating device. alluded to in the title keep
neglecting to kill him for no
Resorting to a "Dr. Smith" apparent reason, so the audience
character to keep things moving is subjected to the irritating
is, you might say a "syndrome" voice of this horrible actor
that recurs in various genres. throughout the series.
SYNDROME_SYNDROME The worst aspect of a really
bad show. Notably, the
"Puzzling Evidence" crew at
KPFA love Dr. Smith. I rest
my case.
(The robot was okay, though.)
A common feature of soap operas
(and early korean dramas) is a
woman who plays a false friend,
who repeatedly lies to the
female lead, and every time the I gather you're supposed to be
female lead falls for it to gnashing your teeth about how evil
satisfy the writer's needs for she is, and shouting "Oh no, don't
dramatic plot events. believe her!" at the screen.
Instead I typically start gnashing
my teeth at the stupidity of the
lead character and the writer that
expected me to sympathize with her.
And yes, I *know* that this kind
of false friend shows up often
enough in reality, but if they
fool you once, okay, twice
maybe, but that's the limit.
And "realism" can be a weak
excuse when you're talking
about writing engaging fiction.
Recently, I was reading about the
history of the "Commedia dell'arte"--
Beginning with the repository of all human knowledge:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commedia_dell%27arte
This was a form of popular theater in
Europe "between the 16th and 18th centuries".
"The characters of the commedia usually represent
fixed social types and stock characters ... "
One of these was "Scaramouche". the "little
skirmisher", a scheming clown character:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaramouche
SCARAMOUCHE
"The role combined characteristics of the Zanni
(servant) and the Capitano (masked henchman),
with some assortment of villainous traits."
"Scaramouche entertains the audience by his
'grimaces and affected language'. ... Coviello
(like Scaramouche) is 'sly, adroit, supple, and
conceited' ... [he] can be clever or stupid--
as the actor sees fit to portray him."
The roots of Dr. Smith syndrome run deep.
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