More fatherhood examples

Back to my search for a decent father example for nerds! I’m expanding my search beyond just sci-fi, I think I’ll incorporate fantasy a little bit. Just to give myself more options really…

Doctor Who. Ok, I never really thought this would yield much in the way of results. The Doctor? Well, he must be a father as he has a granddaughter (unless you subscribe to the Looms idea from Lungbarrow, which never really seemed right to me) but obviously we never see him parenting. We do see him abandon his granddaughter on an alien (to her) world that’s just been devastated by a Dalek occupation. Pretty harsh. Not many other fathers to choose from after that. Until Brian Williams! Ok, he’s pretty good! Changes lightbulbs, waters the plants and offers useful advice for items to keep on your person or add to the Christmas list. Brilliant! That’s two good dads I have found!

Feeling pretty inspired by a second success so soon, I return to my quest with renewed vigor. In fact, I’m a little overconfident now, cocky even.

So it’s a logical progression from Doctor Who, to look at Torchwood. Jack is a father while working for Torchwood, which has necessitated special provision for his daughter to have name changes and remain hidden. And at the end of Children of Earth… oh. But then there’s Rhys! Good old Rhys! He’s ok? Well, I can’t find anything obviously bad in his parenting, I’d have more issues with Gwen and the staggering amount of guns she keeps around the house.

Ok, well Torchwood was always going to be a long shot, with its adult themes and action packed episodes. What about finding something that features a lot more characters and a lot more detail? Something that really delves into the minutiae of the lives of the races within it’s world? Surely in something like that, we’d find more room to detail family life and fathering? Yes, I mean Lord of the Rings!

Why would I choose this mighty epic for my search? A mix of the  overconfidence I mentioned and the staggering amount of material available from Tolkien detailing his world and it’s inhabitants. So, characters who are fathers…

Elrond. Well, I guess he’s pretty ok. His main fathering role tends to be grimly disapproving of his daughters choice in men, then taking the man she loves and encouraging him to go off into a massive war. Over-protective maybe, but a sight better than Denethor, the guy who openly favours one son and tried to set the other on fire. Otherwise, there’s Bilbo’s fatherly relationship with Frodo, that culminates in him handing Frodo the most dangerous bit of jewellery you could get, along with the responsibility to take it to Mordor and chuck it in a volcano. While being pursued by that Gollum fellow he once robbed.

Actually, mentioning Denethor reminds me of John Noble, so Fringe. Walter! Yeah, um, that… that’s quite a mess right there. The guy replaces his dead son with an alternate reality duplicate, whom he nearly drowns by setting his portal up on an iced over lake!

My previous enthusiasm has been dampened somewhat. Actually it’s been brutally beaten out of me by a thuggish gang of disappointment. Wearily, I turn to the next item…

Harry Potter. Well… oh! Arthur Weasley! He’s ok! Lotsa kids, fun house, good choice of mother, government job, they all go to school, no turning evil! We have another! Brilliant!  And isn’t it odd, he’s played by the same actor who plays Brian Williams?! (Hey who’s playing Pa Kent in the new Superman movie? It’s not… no, it’s not.) It is only Arthur though, Remus didn’t want to have a child, Malfoy got his family indentured to Voldemort, Seamus’s dad couldn’t handle his wife being a witch, can’t think of any others...

I’m reaching now, but Lost in Space? Ok, well the dad there gets his family lost in space! The idiot!

Red Dwarf? Well, as seen in an episode of the recent new series, Lister does try to do his best for his son. But being as his son is himself, I think he’s done plenty of damage right there.

Ok, it’s a sad fact in TV and movies for these sorts of genres, extended sequences or stories of a dad just being a dad are not going to come up a lot. It’s always going to be more entertaining to have a space battle or a sword fight. Still, there’s some pretty bad fathers out there! And my search was mainly focussed on ‘the good guys’! Imagine if I did this with the villains?

Fatherhood in Sci-fi

Having been a father for nigh on 10 months now and discussing the impending fatherhood of a friend, I’ve come to the realisation that there are not many good dad’s in sci-fi.
You see, often when I’m faced with a new challenge in my life, I like to look to my idols in the science fiction world to see how they handle it. For instance, when cooking for myself was becoming in issue as I advanced through my teens, Captain Sisko of Deep Space Nine was a brilliant example. I always carry a screwdriver and make sure to leave my droids outside of bars. So naturally, when my wife was expecting, I turned to my normal array of science fiction TV and film for advice.

Oh dear…

So I began with Star Trek. There’s actually no fathers at all there, except for Kirk, who stayed away from his son until forced to meet him when Khan stole the Genesis device. Ok, no help there.

Ok, The Next Generation must be more help? Picard, no children, hates kids. Riker? Had an imaginary son and mainly tried to teach him the trombone. Worf? Oh, right, packs the kid off to his grandparents or if he can’t get away with that, pretty much leaves it to Troi. Data? Built his own daughter and has no emotions. Oh and had her working in a bar!

Let’s move on to DS9! Sisko! Brilliant! Sisko seems on the surface to be a good example. Until you factor in he’s dragged Jake to a backwater run down space station where the only schooling opportunity is a class of mixed ages run by a botanist?! No disrespect to botanists or their field, but he’s not getting a well-rounded education there. Plus it shuts down after a year! After being blown up! Still Sisko persists with keeping his son, now without any school, wandering around an increasingly dangerous space station as the area degenerates into a war zone. Finally, Sisko conceives a second child and promptly ups and leaves to be a prophet and live in a wormhole, abandoning both children. I guess there’s O’Brien, but… well his wife and kids are so annoying, I can’t. I just can’t!

Voyager has one father, Tuvok, who’s probably great, but we never get to see any actual parenting. And again, Enterprise has no active father. I think Phlox has children, but they’re not seen.

Forget Trek then, let’s move onto other areas…

How about Star Wars? Hm, actually, I don’t need to think too hard about this one do I? Me and my son would be happier not chopping limbs off…

It’s not going well so far is it? What about the Buffyverse? Well, Buffy’s dad left his family, her surrogate father, Giles, well I guess he’s pretty ok, but there was the time he drugged her so she lost her Slayer powers and locked her in a house with a vampire. And Angel? Well, he managed to lose his son in a hell dimension with his worst enemy.

Batman! Right, ok his Dad was shot and killed in front of him, causing severe emotional trauma. But Alfred was like his second father from then? And he’s… pretty much let Bruce’s trauma overwhelm him to the point he dresses like a bat and risks his life nightly fighting crime. Bruce’s own son is encouraged to follow the same path while fighting his upbringing as a cold blooded killer with a superiority complex. Not to mention Batman’s taken on three other kids and encouraged them all to wallow in their pain and grief to such an extent that they also feel the need to embark on a suicidal quest for justice while wearing silly costumes. I hate to say it, but Batman sucks! As a dad at least.

Superman? Sure, his biological father put his newborn child in an experimental rocket and blasted him into space, which I think is grounds for a referral to Social Services, but what about Jonathan Kent? He’s good right? Actually, he is! There’s pretty much no problem with Pa Kent! Except DC keep insisting on retconning Superman’s history to kill the poor guy off earlier and earlier.

Right, we have one good father! Surely, I can find more? Otherwise I’ll have to raise my child using my own judgement and common sense! My search continues…