Nefarious

"Soon, all robots will bask in the liberty and equality of my benevolent, iron fisted rule! And, as for you filthy organic life forms... You can look forward to being disintegrated!"

- Nefarious to the Solana galaxy

Doctor Nefarious was a robotic mad scientist who hated organic life forms, despite formerly being one himself. He was also the archenemy of reknowned intergalactic 'superhero', Captain Qwark, until Ratchet and Clank proved to be far more competent and superior adversaries to the heroic fraud. Nefarious was the main antagonist in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, and survived his defeat. He made several cameos in further games, and returns as the main antagonist in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. He is Insomniac Games' most recurring Ratchet & Clank villain.

Early life


In high school, Nefarious attended the same 9th grade Biology class with Captain Qwark. He had been constantly bullied and humiliated at the hands of Qwark, who was twenty-six years old and three times Nefarious' size at the time. His treatment included Qwark giving him wedgies, pouring lab beaker liquids on his head, cleaning chalk boards with his pants (while Nefarious was still wearing them), and being called "that freak with the headgear". Later, when Nefarious attempted a career as a scientist, he was called insane. All this lively experience pushed Nefarious over the edge, and he set out to get revenge on all who had mocked him, especially Qwark. While the captain had risen to fame as a celebrity superhero, Nefarious himself became a mad scientist supervillain.

Dr. Nefarious started his campaign by creating the vicious Amoeboid creatures and launching an invasion on Blackwater City. After Captain Qwark defeated his "pets" and saved the burning city, Nefarious and his robotic servant, Lawrence, were forced to retreat in a rocket shuttle. Nefarious swore that he would have his venegeance, "if it takes a thousand years!", as his ship took off. Qwark managed to grab onto the rocket and held his breath tight. He clung to the ship for six days, and it arrived at the doctor's base on planet Magmos. Qwark used disguise to sneak into the base, unaware that Nefarious was watching him. The doctor commented that Qwark's poor disguise made him appear more stupid than he seemed. He decided to wait for the captain.

Fighting through the doctor's defences, Qwark confronted Nefarious on a narrow catwalk overlooking churning gears and machinery. Qwark seemed to have met Nefarious before, but he claimed they hadn't, trying to hide the truth from his nemesis. Qwark soon recognized the doctor as his old classmate in "Mr. Bozell's 9th grade Biology", and reminisced on the "good times" of when he bullied Nefarious, oblivious to how much his treatment had affected the doctor. Saying he should give Nefarious a wedgie "for old time's sake", Qwark accidentally knocked him off of the catwalk into the spinning gears below. As Qwark made his escape, confidant his rival was gone for good, a robotic hand made its way out of the rubble, and Nefarious was forever changed into an advanced robotic being. His transformation caused him to gain an intense hatred for all organic life forms (or "squishies" as he would call them) in the process.

Vengeance
"This isn't over, Qwark! I swear, I will return some day to destroy you, and bring Metropolis to it's knees!"

- Nefarious vows his revenge to Qwark

Some time later, Dr. Nefarious attacked Metropolis with a massive horde of Robotic Bugs that consumed various forms of matter. He commanded his creatures to bring him Qwark's head. However, Qwark once again defeated him, confronting his nemesis in close-quarters one-on-one combat. After their battle, Nefarious was greatly damaged and left as a disembodied head. Qwark threw Nefarious' head in a trash can as he screamed his revenge. But Nefarious captured Qwark after Nefarious' butler Lawrence saved him, and they imprisoned him in a secret facility. Qwark managed to escape to his hideout on the Thrann Asteroid, where he hid until Nefarious allegedly disappeared. In reality, he was being repaired by Lawrence and was given a new body. However, Lawrence mistakenly attached Nefarious' head backwards. The doctor angrily screamed at his butler, causing himself to freeze up and pick up signals from a soap opera, Lance and Janice. Lawrence said that he would need to repair the glitch, then chuckled to himself and said that it would be done "one of these days".

Biobliterator threat
"Robotic citizens of the Solana galaxy...the hour of your liberation is at hand! Too long have we robots suffered under the bigotry, the stupidity, the squishiness, and foul stench of organic life forms! Soon, all robots will bask in the liberty and equality of my benevolent, iron-fisted rule! And, as for you filthy organic life forms... You can look forward to being disintegrated!"

- Nefarious' message to the Solana galaxy



At some point, Dr. Nefarious started an entire public campaign to rid the Solana galaxy of organic life forms. Nefarious formed an alliance with the Tyhrranoid race, who served the doctor as his personal army, gullible and oblivious to the fact that they were organic life forms. The heroic duo, Ratchet and Clank, saw a news report detailing an attack on planet Veldin, Ratchet's foster home, by Tyhrranoid soldiers. Dr. Nefarious was believed to be the attack's mastermind. Later, on the Starship Phoenix, that fact was confirmed when Captain Sasha Phyronix, Ratchet and Clank recieved a message from him on the ship's bridge, where he announced his plan to create an Age of Robots. Nefarious then launched an attack on the Capital City of Marcadia, which Ratchet and Clank managed to stop. Later on, Clank explored Nefarious' Office in his "impenetrable" secret base on Aquatos, and found out that he was a huge fan of the Secret Agent Clank series. Lawrence informed Nefarious of the break-in, which outraged the doctor, and caused him to crash again. After being smacked back to normal, he ordered Qwark's Q-Force, which Ratchet and Clank were a part of, annihilated.

Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence were then seen on planet Daxx on Supervillain Weekly, being interviewed about Nefarious' new top secret superweapon. Ratchet and Clank explored Daxx, though Nefarious had removed all data on the mysterious device. It was revealed, however, that robotic pop star, Courtney Gears, was in league with the doctor. While on Holostar Studios, Clank needed to film a Secret Agent Clank scenario, with Gears as a character. He asked her what Nefarious was planning, and she was able to capture Clank by knocking him out. She then contacted Nefarious, who was greatly annoyed by her calling him "snooky wookums" (showing that she was in love with the doctor), and told her to bring him 'Agent' Clank. Nefarious then tried to turn Clank over to his side, as he was a fanatic of the Secret Agent Clank series and believed them to be real, following his missions from the beginning. He even rejected Clank's assurance that the series was just an act, calling the statement "Lies! Squishy LIES!". His anger caused him to freeze and pick up soap opera signals again. Courtney had to smack him to get him back to normal. When Clank refused to join, Nefarious decided to replace Clank with Klunk, a doppelganger of Clank.

Klunk, posing as Clank, told Ratchet that Nefarious was aboard the Leviathan. Later on, Nefarious launched an attack on Blackwater City which was also stopped by Ratchet. At the Zeldrin Starport, Ratchet, Klunk and Qwark found Nefarious on his ship. Commenting that Qwark had gained weight and going into yet another crashing sequence, Nefarious activated a self-destruct for the ship and commanded Lawrence to teleport them away. Lawrence left himself, leaving Nefarious, who was not amused by the joke, and was then teleported out the next moment. They had to run to their ship before the spaceship blew up. However, Qwark seemed to not make it out. Back in Metropolis, Nefarious showed Clank Klunk's transmission of Ratchet's actions, meaning he could track the Lombax, and claiming that Ratchet would be killed with Clank having a "front row seat". Nefarious then revealed his superweapon, the Biobliterator, which could transform the whole city into robots. He demonstrated by turning his remaining Tyhrannoid soldiers into robots. At first, however, Nefarious accidentally turned on a video recording of his Galactic Idol audtion, angering him, as his butler had not set the switch properly.

Ratchet soon found out that the robot on his back was Klunk and Clank had been captured by Nefarious. The doctor mocked Ratchet before leaving with Lawrence. Ratchet fought Giant Klunk on the Hover Train they were on and managed to defeat him and save Clank. Nefarious then launched another Tyhrranoid attack on Aridia, which was again stopped by Ratchet and Clank. On Koros, Clank used an ion cannon to destroy the Biobliterator while Nefarious was screaming furiously from a video screen. Then Nefarious decided to use his second Biobliterator, more powerful than the first, and fueled it on Mylon, but Ratchet and Clank were able to defeat the last of Nefarious' forces and bested the doctor in combat, despite his surprising powers. He called Lawrence to his aid, and ordered his butler to begin the "transformation". The second Biobliterator changed into a pilotable mechanoid. Laughing maniacally, Dr. Nefarious prepared to use his monstrosity to bring about the Age of Robots. However, he was fired upon by Captain Qwark, who arrived on the scene in a Q-Force ship. He had survived the Leviathan's destruction and decided to come out of hiding to help defeat his nemesis. Distraught at the revelation, Nefarious said "I don't believe it!", and Qwark said "Believe it, toaster head!"

Ratchet and Qwark defeated Nefarious in the air, and destroyed the Biobliterator mechanoid. The head of the machine landed on the ground of the battlefield, and Nefarious was greatly humiliated by being defeated at the hands of "squishies", believing he would never live it down. The cockpit's computer then announced that the self-destruct system would activate in sixty seconds. Nefarious bluntly told Lawrence to engage the teleporter. Lawrence asked him to specify a destination, and Nefarious just said "Who cares? Just get us out of here." The computer then said time was up, and Nefarious shouted "What!? That Wasn't even close to sixty seconds!!" The Biobliterator's head then exploded, and in a panic, Lawrence teleported them far away, to an asteroid in space.

Stranded
"Nefarious: What do you mean 'we can't teleport to a planet'?!" "Lawrence: I'm afraid we're well out of range, sir. Perhaps if you had bothered to specify a destination..." "Nefarious: When will we be in range!?" "Lawrence: Oh, I'm sure something will come along...in say five or ten thousand years." "Nefarious: Ahhh!! I don't believe this!!!... Now what?" "Lawrence: I don't suppose you can play drums?" "Nefarious: LAWWWRREEENNCCCEE!!!"

- Nefarious and Lawrence, stuck on an asteroid

Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence were stuck on the asteroid, unable to teleport to another planet as they were out of range. According to Lawrence, it would be five of ten thousand years before something came for them to teleport to. Lawrence sugggested they play rock music to pass the time, much to Nefarious' annoyance. Much later, after Ratchet and Clank competed in DreadZone and saved the contestants and fans from the evil Gleeman Vox, Nefarious and Lawrence came near the DreadZone Station, where they hoped to land. Before they could reach the station, it was destroyed by Vox's self-destruct. Nefarious asked what was going on, as he said they were coming within range of a space station. Lawrence said he had no idea it would all of a sudden explode, prompting Nefarious to angrily scream, freezing up and triggering the soap opera signal in his brain again. The two were still forced to aimlessly float through space. However, after a long time (though not as long as Lawrence calculated), the asteroid drifted to the Breegus System in the Polaris Galaxy. It picked up speed and turned into a ball a fire, crashing on the planet Zanifar.

Polaris
"AHHH! LAWREEEEENCE!!"

- Nefarious after tripping on a feather duster carelessly left on the floor by his butler.



While making the planet Zanifar believe he was of good intentions and had them worship him, Nefarious met with the mysterious Zoni. After Clank was taken by the Zoni, he was sent to the Breegus Nebula. The Zoni seemed to have a need to serve Clank, and when his logic appeared to be disfunctional, they called upon Nefarious' assistance. The Zoni informed Clank "The doctor will be able to repair you". Nefarious then appeared, slightly silhouetted in the doorway of the room where Clank was being held. He walked down the stairs into the room, being revealed in the light bit by bit, but then he slipped on a feather duster which, caused him to fall down the stairs. He then angrily called Lawrence. The signal was immediately lost and Ratchet set out to defeat Nefarious, vowing to rescue Clank.

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
"Ratchet: So, what is it this time, Nefarious?" "Nefarious: Part of me wants to let you live long enough to find out. The other part...really wants to kill you!"

- Ratchet and Nefarious



Nefarious kept Clank imprisoned in the Great Clock, and went to see his 'archnemesis' as he was asleep. The Zoni wanted Nefarious to fix Clank's memory, and Lawrence told Nefarious that they had been inquiring about their progress. Nefarious angrilly said "How much longer must we pretend to be friends with those twits?" The Zoni then entered the room, and reminded Nefarious that he must fix Clank. He tried arranging Clank's memories to enter his brain's system. He was locked out, as he had been other times he had tried, frustrating him greatly. He revealed he intended to search Clank's system for the key to Orvus Chamber. The Zoni tried to stop him, as only Clank was allowed to see the chamber. His insistence to no avail, Nefarious betrayed them, and used the Hypersonic brainwave scrambler, which created sonic waves, to force the Zoni out of the room. As Nefarious laughed maniacally, the room blacked out. The waves caused a black-out in the Great Clock, as Lawrence had forgotten to mention the equipment was especially susceptible to sonic weaponry. The back-up generators restored power seconds later. However, the black-out gave Clank enough time to awaken from his slumber and escape. Nefarious angrilly ordered Lawrence to stop him as he fled. Clank was recaptured, but somehow escaped thanks to help from Sigmund. Meanwhile, Nefarious soon recruited assistance from other feared villains across the galaxies, hoping they would finish off the rescue bound Lombax. One of which was Flint Vorselon, who was the first to fall at Ratchet's hands.

As Ratchet and Qwark worked harder and were closing in on locating Clank, aided soon by Alister Azimuth, Nefarious called in three Valkyrie mercenaries to take on Ratchet. All the while, Nefarious watched Clank's movements inside the Great Clock, waiting for his chance to access the Orvus Chamber. In the end, all three ended up defeated and Ratchet finally reunited with Clank after the final battle against the lead Valkyrie at their citadel. They chased after Nefarious to his space station, successfully destroying his fleet in an attempt to stop him from reaching the clock. However, Nefarious found them and revealed that he was going to use the clock to rewind time so that the present was a place where "the heroes always LOSE" and soon sent Ratchet and Clank flying away to another planet on board a meteor.

When Nefarious was just about to take off for the clock, Ratchet and Clank make a surprise return and one final battle between Nefarious and Ratchet occurs. The battle is extremely fierce, but Ratchet finally defeats Nefarious aboard his flying ship. While the damage to the ship caused it to head on a collision course with Nefarious' station, it seems that Ratchet's fight with him damaged him to quite some degree. After falling on his head, Nefarious seemed to lose all consciousness and soon passed out on the ground after performing very strange behavior and would not wake up. It's suspected he was ultimately killed when his ship collided into the station. During the credits, the reporters from Dreadlocked reported that authorities could not find any remains of Nefarious in the rubble of his station yet, possibly hinting a return, if the series continues.

Abilities
"When I'm finished killing you, I think I'll rewind time, so I can do it again...and again...AND AGAIN!"

- Nefarious' line before facing Ratchet in Crack in Time



After being turned into a robot, Dr. Nefarious acquired a vast array of powers that greatly contributed to his fighting skills. His hands were made into sharp metal claws for close-quarters combat. He could also fly with a pair of antenae-like wings, which he could retract and unfold at will, or with booster jets in his feet. Nefarious' superpower-resembling abilities when battling Qwark in Metropolis included dark blasts of energy that he could rain down in a continuous stream to hit targetted areas, raise up from the ground in a pattern of damaging walls, and move toward a target in a ball-shaped vortex.

In his fight with Ratchet, he showed many more abilities, such as projecting holograms of himself that would charge directly at Ratchet, trying to slash him with a claw. He could also lob energy balls into the air that created shockwaves when hitting the ground. When flying, he could project a blue dome shield, fire a constant energy beam that followed Ratchet, and fire a barrage of missiles that would target all over the ground. At the final stage of the fight, Nefarious could project several holograms of himself all over the battlefield at a time. He could also project the following beam and rocket bunches and then leave them in place while going back on the ground, or continue to initiate either of these attacks in a row.

All throughout the fight, it seemed some attacks exhausted the doctor, as after launching holograms or shockwave balls, Nefarious would leave an opening for an attack by stumbling backwards and holding his head briefly. His following beam and rocket bunch attacks also seemed to take quite a bit of power, as when performing them, Nefarious let out a loud, vicious shout. The doctor also had skills with guns, as during the fight, he wielded two pistols that fired beams Ratchet needed to jump over. Also, in A Crack in Time, he was seen holding a pistol, and his toy came with one also. .

Overload
"You really should have that looked at..."

- Lawrence on Nefarious' glitch

Dr. Nefarious often had the strange habit of overloading in times of extreme stress or excitement, which would cause him to freeze, and simultaneously pick up radio signals about a soap opera via his head. Each time this happened, he was whacked on the head by an underling, particularly Lawrence, to send him back to normal. According to Lawrence, whacking Dr. Nefarious was always the best part of his day. At one point, he evilly laughed so hard, he not only froze, but caused damage to his outer facial casing, creating a crack at his right eye that stretched up the side of his green cranial dome. This gave Nefarious what looked like a scar. His continuous laughter also repeated in varrying pitches.

Galactic Idol
According to the IRIS Supercomputer, Dr. Nefarious entered Galactic Idol with a song titled Crushin' on Squishies. He was eliminated on the first round and the single sold one copy which was used to torture prisoners on Ebaro. However, before the battle with Giant Klunk on Metropolis, Nefarious accidentally activated a hologram recording of his original entry, which was a song called You Are My Robot Lover.

Trivia

 * Armin Shimerman, the voice of Nefarious, played a character named Quark in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and voiced Andrew Ryan In Bioshock.
 * Nefarious referred to organic life forms as "squishies", a habit passed onto Klunk, who apparently shared his prejudice of organisms.
 * As depicted in images, Nefarious was originally supposed to have a cape before his wings were added.
 * In Tools of Destruction when in the arena of planet Mukow, Captain Qwark could be heard over the loud speaker saying: "Will a 'Dr. Nefarious' please report to the concession stand; we recovered your wallet."
 * Nefarious appeared in the Dreamtime level as a memoir in Size Matters.
 * He appeared on some of the monitors in the IRIS supercomputer.
 * Klunk created a copy of Dr. Nefarious, the Robo-Nefarious suit, which he piloted during the final boos fight of Secret Agent Clank. This doppelganger had abilities based off of the real doctor's powers. Klunk said that ordering Nefarious around from time to time was "therapeutic" and "fun", suggesting Klunk had a certain dislike for his creator.
 * Since Qwark appeared in the young Nefarious' 9th grade Biology class, it suggested that Qwark was older than Nefarious (Nefarious claimed that Qwark was twenty-six at the time).
 * His name was similar of Dr. Nefarious Tropy, a character from Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot: Warped, who had the power to control time, hence Nefarious being in A Crack in Time.
 * Because of the Ratchet & Clank series' trend of rarely having recurring villains, Nefarious is the only one to have appeared with at least one speaking part in three games, soon to be four upon the release of A Crack in Time, and has also had at least a cameo in every game since his introduction, making him the most recurring villain. This has made fans consider him the main antagonist of the entire series, a belief backed up by his longtime rivalry with Qwark and desire to rule Solana.
 * Nefarious' armor plating seemed to change at certain points. Mainly, it was red, but it sometimes appeared to be orange or a dark yellow.
 * Nefarious' favorite color is green.
 * Nefarious is an unlockable skin for Ratchet both in Up Your Arsenal(multiplayer only) and A Crack in Time.

Appearances

 * Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
 * Ratchet: Deadlocked
 * Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (cameo)
 * Secret Agent Clank (mentioned only)
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (cameo)
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
 * Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

YouTube videos

 * Dr. Nefarious Introduction.
 * Dr. Nefarious Boss Battle.
 * Nefarious' fate.
 * Nefarious' cameo.
 * Nefarious returns.