Is Harrison Blackwood cool or a weird dork?

Now we see a dork, but when it was first broadcast the character was supposed to be a free-spirited scientist. The character certainly does suffer from generally lousy dialog. Ironhorse has more interesting things to say. Heck, sometimes Debbie has more interesting things to say.

Harrison can be a bit unbelievable, but I do find his character to be entertaining. I think that is the point, for even those around him think of him as weird and , as you say, a dork. He's eccentric, but he knows his stuff.

At the time, a lot of writers were trying to copy the Doctor Who blueprint of the very smart but quirky, eccentric, and charismatic scientist hero type. To appeal to real life nerds and dorks, they wanted to move away from the scientist as a dorky sidekick, while a much cooler character got all the good lines. I'll admit, it was done a little transparently in WOTW season 1 and Harrison Blackwood came off as a Marty-Stu type character. He has a tragic past but as an adult, nothing indicates it. He is the smartest of the team and has boyish good looks. He is also hip and can connect with the youth; example: he likes to play lazer tag. He has a lot of talents beyond science; example; he got the team out of jail by hypnotizing a guard. He has a quirky sense of humor and rebels against the yuppie establishment, i,e; he wore his usual clothing (think Greenpeace) to a cocktail party. He gets to constantly rag on the military and other authority types. He is what every scientist wishes he/she could be in real life. Back then, I would have found this type of character appealing because, being a science geek myself, I was tired of the jock type characters getting all the good dialogue, action scenes, and getting the girl while his brainy sidekick was nothing but a hanger-on, gadget guy, or nerdy guy who had a unrequited crush on the girl. But I do admit, that the first season Harrison just seems a little cornball now.

I prefer the Harrison Blackwood of the second season. He seemed to drop his quirky ways and act more like a team leader. He no longer had Norton as the wisecracking buddy. Also, the stress of living on the edge definitely affected his behavior, making him take himself more seriously. There weren't any arguments between him and Kincaid like there were between him and Ironhorse.

Blackwood was a dork, looking back, but he was probably meant to be what some people are now calling "geek chic", whatever the hell that means.

Is Harrison Blackwood cool or a weird dork?