There are an endless series of jokes about the premise of ‘Gilligan’s Island’, but the most intriguing ones involve the mental prowess of Professor Roy Hinkley Jr., PH. D. If taken at face value, the sheer volume of his multi-disciplinary knowledge is incredibly impressive, even a little intimidating, marking him as among the smartest of the fictional geniuses. Sure, Reed Richards can create endless wonders within his fully appointed Baxter Building, but what might he be able to do with primitive stone tools and various jungle fauna? Brainiac 5’s multi-lab is a fountain of discovery, but would even the Coluan have a clue about creating a sophisticated irrigation system to feed his Legion pals? Indeed, all coconut-and-hole-in-the-boat jokes aside, The Professor’s creativity and resourcefulness in his desperate circumstances prove the breadth of his intellect to be the equal of any Wile E. Coyote or Lex Luthor, leading to today’s intellectual query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would point naysayers to S1E8, “Goodbye, Island”, during which the ship is damaged far beyond repair thanks to Gilligan’s miracle glue, asking: Which fictional genius do you consider to be the smartest of them all?
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(I feel like we’ve had this question before, though I can’t remember who I said then.)
So my answer today is the Gallifreyan Doctor. They have knowledge accumulated over centuries, sure, so lots of smarts that way. But what puts them above others is that they are still very open to learning and adapting new information in with what they already ‘know.’ These two things together make them very good at improvisational problem-solving.
It does feel familiar, doesn’t it? I couldn’t find it in the list, though it’s the kind of thing I ask a lot of the time.
Probably Reed for me. He was the first super genius I had proper exposure to. However, the best inventor is Gyro Gearloose.
MacGyver. His name even became a category of its own. “yup we really MacGyvered that into working”