| For the character from Fallout 2, see Brain. |
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“
You gaze upon one of America's greatest minds, preserved through the miracles of SCIENCE!
”— Professor Calvert, Fallout 3
Professor Calvert (also known as The Brain and The Transcendent One among the tribals) was one of the inhabitants of Point Lookout in 2277 and serves as the main antagonist of the Point Lookout add-on.
[edit] Background
Professor Calvert was a member of the prestigious and influential Calvert family before the Great War, and an accredited expert in the field of cognitive robotics. He survived the war by extracting his brain out of his body and preserving it in the St. Aubin Medical Facility using experimental robobrain technologies. This technology has allowed him to keep his consciousness as well as survive for over 200 years. The experimental procedure also gave him the ability to telepathically communicate with other people over long range. His ultimate goal is to use his powers to achieve "total psychic domination" over the Maryland area. Standing in the way of this goal is Desmond Lockheart, with whom Calvert has had a long-term rivalry since before the Great War (and who is apparently responsible for Calvert's lack of a living body).[1]
The battle of the two rivals continues as the professor becomes a "god" to a local tribal cult. Despite the cult's usefulness as living agents and tools, the professor is frequently frustrated by their misinterpretation of his orders as religious instruction. After the tribals fail to kill Desmond and destroy the psychic jamming device, he learns (by contacting the mind of the Lone Wanderer) that the jamming device is ready to be installed on the top of the Ferris wheel to completely block his powers. Calvert then asks the Lone Wanderer to destroy the device rather than install it.
Professor Calvert is physically a human brain in a jar. He has the ability to control robots within the St. Aubin Medical Facility, and can access the minds of other people from a great distance. Though his psychic powers are strong, they are limited to the area immediately around him because of Desmond Lockheart's jamming device. He also controls a local tribal cult through a holographic projector he entrusted to Jackson, the cult leader. Due to his ability to speak telepathically to various people, Jackson's cult believe Calvert to be a type of deity.
[edit] Interactions with the player character
[edit] Interactions overview
| General |
Services |
Quests |
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| Merchant: |
No |
| Repairman: |
No |
| Doctor: |
No |
| Rents bed/room: |
No |
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| Starts quests: |
No |
| Involved in quests: |
Yes |
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[edit] Quests
- Hearing Voices: The player speaks to Calvert in Jacksons' inner sanctum, he instructs the player to find a way to destroy Desmond's jamming device.
- Thought Control: Desmond gives the cogwave jammer to the player and instructs them to place it on the Wonder Wheel. Before the player can, Calvert telepathically orders the Lone Wanderer to throw the jammer in the trash compacter.
- A Meeting of the Minds: The choice arises whether to kill Calvert or Desmond.
| Apparel |
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Other item |
On death |
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- In some cases, even after killing Calvert, you will occasionally receive the popup "The Brain is unconscious". This is typically due to a hostile non-player character attacking an essential and normally inaccessible conversation stand-in located near the Wonder Wheel.
- In Fallout: New Vegas, when Mr. House is asked if he has been preserved by keeping his brain in jar (like a robobrain), he will say that this method of preservation would not allow him to maintain his thoughts or personality. However, Calvert maintains both of these attributes even though he has been kept alive in the same manner for hundreds of years (then again, considering Calvert's megalomaniac nature in Point Lookout, it's possible that the process rendered him insane, thus making House's statement at least partially true).
- This would be supported by the Fallout: New Vegas add-on Old World Blues, in which a group of scientists known as the Think Tank have preserved their brains in a similar way to Professor Calvert, and have suffered from the same type of insanity as indicated by Dr. Mobius, and the only reason they haven't wreaked havoc on the Mojave Wasteland is because they have been forced into a recursion loop, causing them to forget about the existence of the outside world. It is likely that all who chose to preserve their minds in such a way suffered similar insanity, likely due to a total disconnection from their human form.
[edit] Appearances
Professor Calvert appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- A living brain in a jar/vat is a common device in sci-fi movies, TV shows, games, and literature.
- The Transcendent One is the main antagonist in Black Isle's classic RPG Planescape: Torment designed by Chris Avellone and published by Interplay.
- A human version of Professor Calvert, identified as "The Brain", is located in a non-openable Pulowski Preservation shelter inside a building north of the Wonder Wheel near the Point Lookout pier. Visible on the compass as a friendly non-player character, he can be reached without cheating. He is not meant to be seen, though, and should not be considered evidence of a canonical pre-War appearance of Dr. Calvert.
- When encountering The Brain in the Underground Lab, if you turn off collisions, you can go into the tank and find a bobblehead that runs the talking scripts.
References
- ↑ Fallout 3 Official Game Guide Game of the Year Edition p.91: "Professor Calvert, once a brilliant government scientist, is now reduced to a power-mad brain in a jar. He retains his brilliance, but hundreds of years in isolation have left him a maddened, scheming figure, constructing elaborate plans to dominate the rest of the world. Now that he has a way of contact-ing people outside of his lab, he intends to follow through on his plans—especially if he can include revenge on Desmond, the agent responsible for his lack of a living body."
