Doctor Blight

Doctor Blight
	;
Overview
Gender	Female
Race	Human
Status	Alive
Powers	Hate (temporarily, Mission to Save Earth Part I and Part II)
First Appearance	Deadly Ransom
Voices	Meg Ryan & Mary Kay Bergman

“	Doctor Blight again? Even mad scientists call her crazy!	”
– Gi, Two Futures Part I

Doctor Barbara "Babs" Blight, one of the Eco-villains, is a beautiful scientist, often found experimenting in various ways regarding how to take over the planet. Blight represents the dangers of out of control technology and unethical experimentation

Appearance

Dr. Blight is a middle-aged female scientist who usually wears spandex jumpsuits with a utility belt slung loosely around her hips, long dark gloves, high-cut boots.

She has shoulder-length blonde hair with a distinctive white streak of hair acting as a blackout curtain to cover the horrifically scarred, and eyeless left side of her face. Though the origin of the scar that also resulted in the loss of her eye was never revealed in the show, it was revealed by the Dr. Blight Collector Card that she had experimented on herself to make the perfect human, and therefore it is possible that the scars were a side-effect of her attempts.

Due to her hair being carefully combed in front of her face to hide her disfigurement, at first glance, Dr. Blight is a beautiful, white, blonde, slim blue-eyed woman, However, on occasions where her full face is shown, her scars were revealed to be of a darker-toned, rough, and scabby appearance, covered with numerous boils along with a long dark scar trail running down her scarred cheek, starting from just below her empty left eye socket. In later episodes that feature her in the future, her appearance was shown to have become saggy and crone-like.

Though it was never specifically revealed or confirmed, whatever caused Dr. Blight's scarring was likely to have inflicted excruciating pain on her as well, and perhaps contributed to her insanity.

Personality

Dr. Blight seems to have mixed feelings toward her facial scarring. In some episodes, such as The Energy Vampire and Losing Game, she has no problem showing the scar and seems almost proud of it. However, in other episodes, such as You Bet Your Planet and Frog Day Afternoon, she seems to be self-conscious and humiliated by it. These sorts of contrasting feelings seem to be common in other areas of Dr. Blight's life as well. Another example is her relationship with MAL. At times, she will be very fun and flirtatious acting toward MAL, while at other times she will become angry and violent when dealing with him. She also seems to display the same extreme range of emotions when dealing with the other Eco-villains or with Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Blight descends from Betty Blight, who appears in the episode Hog Tide. Blight also has a little sister, Bambi Blight, a beautiful Hollywood film star. She stars in the episode Hollywaste. It's evident that there is great tension between the sisters. Bambi Blight was the first person to reveal Dr. Blight's first name when she referred to her as "Babs" a shortened form of the name "Barbara". Blight will often flirt or flatter in order to get her way, though she's not afraid to stand up for herself if one of the other Eco-villains dares to upset her. She often supplies chemicals or machinery and technology to the other Eco-villains in exchange for cash or favours.

Sidekick

MAL: Blight is never seen without her main sidekick and computer husband, an electrical program named MAL. They often share banter or argue against one another when things go wrong.

Blight often speaks in a slow, sultry voice to her computer, indicating perhaps that he is the only "man" in her life. When she teamed up with Sly Sludge to falsify his records as well as those of the Planeteers, she admonished Sludge for calling MAL ugly, and also mentioned if she could find a human being with MAL's intelligence, she would marry him. However, there are also indications there could be a secret relationship with Looten Plunder.

MAL is voiced by David Rappaport in early episodes. In later seasons, he's voiced by Tim Curry.

Family

Blight's relationships with her family are complicated, to say the least.

She appeared to have an often tumultuous relationship with her younger sister, Bambi Blight, implied to be the result of a long sibling rivalry from their childhood. Unlike Blight who chose to dedicate her life to science, Bambi, having been gifted with natural beauty, eventually became famous as a model and actress. Something which Blight greatly resents due to her own damaged face.

In an alternate timeline, Blight would give birth to a girl, Betsi Blight. Betsi proved to be very different from her mother, unlike Blight who believed in science and using it to cause worldwide disasters, Betsi was a kind-hearted woman (much like her mother's old enemies, the Planeteers) who believed in nature and preserving life rather than destroying it.

These conflicting worldviews would eventually cause the two to have a falling out. The two would end up clashing several times on the field as a result. Blight and Betsi both continued to share a complicated relationship with neither side willing to back down or let the other win. By the end of the episode Blight begins to contemplate reforming for her daughter, suggesting that she does love her deep down.

Blight's most positive relationship appeared to be with her grandmother Betty Blight, who appeared to share her granddaughter's love for science and twisting it to suit her own purposes. Indeed, it's likely that Betty was probably the one who inspired Blight to go down the same path.

Animation Errors

Dr. Blight's scar is occasionally rendered inconsistently - most episodes will depict her with her left eye missing, however in some episodes she is shown with an eye intact such as in A Perfect World (after being electrocuted by the console after MAL sneezes on it), Little Crop of Horrors (when she turns around in the cockpit to scold Mal) and in Frog Day Afternoon (during a close-up of her scar in a hand mirror).

Significant Episodes

Deadly Ransom
The Littlest Planeteer
Polluting by Computer
Don't Drink the Water
Heat Wave
Dirty Politics
Mission to Save Earth I and II
An Inside Job
Fare Thee Whale'
The Unbearable Blightness of Being – Dr. Blight creates a mind switcher through which she gets hold of Gaia's powers to use them against the Planeteers and the Earth. Meanwhile, Gaia, with the help of MAL, who wasn't informed on Blight's plan, tries to undo the damage and get the Planeteers to trust her so she can reclaim her body.

Quotes

Deadly Ransom

Nukem: Dr. Blight, that computer of yours is a menace!
MAL: Why must we put up with this nuclear nitwit?
Blight: MAL, baby, you be polite! Dr. Nukem's here to help us be wicked.
MAL: It's sheer genius to get nuclear waste by pretending you already have it! No one cheats, lies and tricks better than you do, Doctor.
Blight: Oh, MAL, you say the sweetest things...!
Don't congratulate yourself yet, Planeteers. You're not safe, you've just prolonged your inevitable doom!
Captain Planet: What's going on? Where am I?
Blight: Welcome to my parlour, said the spider to the fly.

The Littlest Planeteer

MAL: Ready for my next evil assignment Doctor Blight.
Dr. Blight: You do bad so well MAL, no wonder you're my favourite computer. Go ahead, analyze the air.
MAL: Air quality good.
Dr. Blight: gags I hate clean air, it makes people so healthy. But we'll soon have a remedy for that, won't we? My little microchip?.
MAL: You're the doctor, Doctor laughs
Dr. Blight: Now to work, although I really think of it as playtime. Are you ready my little Smoglet?.
MAL: I thought I was your little darling.
Dr. Blight: Oh you will always be Number 1 with me MAL. But if my theory is right, this little smog blob is going to create more damage than anything we've ever done. All it needs is a tasty more so of carbon monoxide to complete our final test.
Dr. Blight: Here comes breakfast now. a bus drives past emitting fumes Doux a fuel a la school bus. Mmm! I love the smell of pollution!.

Heat Wave

You chip-head! She got away!
Mad at MAL after Linka's escape.
MAL: Doctor Blight, aren't you going to stick around and watch Hope Island go under?
Blight: No need, my micro-chipper friend. It's already on the rocks! Just think of the disasters when I melt the polar ice caps. Today, Hope Island - tomorrow, the world!
Quick, MAL! Tell me everything I need to know about surfing!
- Seeing a tidal wave coming towards her speedboat.
- MAL: Two words Doctor!! WIPEOUT!!

An Inside Job

Blight: How cute, micro planeteers!.

Greenhouse Planet

Blight: I took the liberty of refuelling your rocket. The mileage isn't great, but the pick-up's out of this world!
MAL: Doctor, your plant is leaking carbon dioxide into the air vents! It will put everyone in there to sleep.
Blight: What a gas, MAL! Did you ever have one of those days where everything was working out perfectly?

Little Crop of Horrors

MAL: Your experiment is going quite well, Doctor!
Blight: You can bet your sweet hard-drive it is! My smoke-oil formula from melaleuca trees will make mace-in-the-face seem like breath freshener!
Blight: Ah, there's nothing like nature run amok.
MAL: Correction, Doctor. Melaleuca trees are not natural to this region. They were brought here in a feeble attempt to turn wetlands into real estate. Now the highly-flammable melaleuca trees are taking over 40 acres of everglades a day, and -
Blight: Can the lecture, MAL! Just tell me - am I the greatest or what?
MAL: Don't uncork the bubbly just yet, Snow Blight. There's a scientist developing a new plant growth-enhancing ray. Soon, all will hail this doctor the most brilliant.
Blight: I've dealt with ancient wannabes in the past.
MAL: Newsflash! This doctor is no fossil! Georgina Carver. Vibrant. Beautiful. And young. Mmm, I'd like to network with her.
Blight: Can it, disk-head!
Blight: You know, I couldn't ask for a better-looking test site.
MAL: Really? It looks denuded, deforested and desertified to me.
Blight: Exactly! So when I realize Carver's - I mean, MY test plant, it'll solve the erosion problem around here. And the scientific journals will fall all over themselves to interview me! Now, to add the Blight touch...
MAL: I tapped into Carver's computer. The enhancer ray should be used for only - repeat, only - three seconds.
Blight: If seconds are good, minutes are better!
MAL: Doctor, dear, I suggest you review the existing data.
Blight: Are you wimping out on me, MAL?
She turns the laser towards MAL.
MAL: No, let 'er rip!
MAL: Do you realize we were seconds away from annihilation?
Blight: Thrilling, wasn't it?
Blight: MAL, change my little black book, would you? Change Captain Planet to Captain Planted! Seeing that the vine is too powerful for Captain Planet.