Happy Father’s Day! Today we have a special guest post from Stephen Baxter, author of The Medusa Chronicles. See which father and son (and the occasional daughter) duos make his list.

In the screen, Springer’s face had dissolved, to be replaced by the
cold visage of Adam.
‘You.’
‘Hello, Dad.’
Somewhere along the line Adam had evidently learned sarcasm.
(The Medusa Chronicles, Chapter 32.)

A central element of The Medusa Chronicles is the relationship between reluctant cyborg Howard Falcon and Adam, the prototype of a new generation of artificial minds called ‘Machines.’ And it’s a kind of father-son relationship, not uncommon in SF, which reflects a technological age where you can design and manufacture your son, as opposed to conceiving him the old-fashioned way.

But it’s a relationship that’s generally troubled, in various old-fashioned ways. Fathers bring up their sons to be as powerful as possible, but when they get more powerful than Dad . . . Well, ask Tony Stark if Ultron remembers Father’s Day. Or indeed Frankenstein with his monster. Such awkwardness goes back to the roots of our culture; in Greek myth Zeus, king of the gods, overthrew his father Cronus. Of course father-son relationships can be productive. Superman had two dads, one of whom, Jor-El, gave him life, and the other, Jonathan Kent, gave him his values. But then in the 1978 movie for instance, even Supes defied his Pop.

And speaking of movies, I have to admit Adam’s line is a tribute to Johnny Depp’s gloriously delivered greeting to Keith Richards in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Father-son relationships don’t come much cooler than that.

Lenore Karidian and Anton ‘Kodos The Executioner’ Karidian from ‘Star Trek: The Original Series Episode Conscience of The King’

The family that slays together…well, you know what they say. After going into hiding following the Tarsus IV massacre, Kodos The Executioner (the man responsible for said massacre of half a space colony) and his only daughter go into hiding as players in a Shakespeare troupe –traveling from Space to Spaceship. But staying under the radar isn’t enough for Lenore. Desperate to erase any evidence of her father’s horrible past, she begins hunting the only remaining witnesses to her father’s crime — including Captain Kirk and (spoiler alert), in the fallout ends up killing her father with a shot meant for Kirk.

The Winchester Men from ‘Supernatural’

I’m sure if you looked up dysfunctional in the dictionary, there would be a picture of the very handsome (probably bloodied) Winchester men. Raised by a revenge-driven single father, Sam and Dean were raised “like warriors,” after their mother was killed by a demon. John Winchester cared only about hunting down the thing that killed his wife and the boys’ normal lives were replaced by learning how to hunt the things that go bump in the night. John was pretty ruthless with his sons — leaving his oldest to fend for himself in a boy’s home after he was caught stealing food when his father was out of town for a few days. Most well-known for kicking out his youngest for getting a full-ride to Stanford, John Winchester definitely wasn’t about to earn any “Father of the Year” awards.

Kylo Ren and Han Solo from ‘Star Wars The Force Awakens’

We’re still not so sure what happened to make Kylo “Ben” Ren so emo or mad at his dad but it was enough for him to literally go all dark side AND (spoiler alert) stab his father in the gut. That’s pretty messed up, don’t you think? We can only imagine what the Thanksgiving dinners were like before this occurred. And why he felt like he should have more loyalty to his dead maternal grandfather rather than his own father.

River and Rory ‘Pond’ Williams from ‘Doctor Who’

River/Melody, whoever you want to call her, never really knew Rory as a father. If anything, she just knew Rory as a best friend, growing up as Mels after being raised by scary creepy faced enemies of the Doctor called The Silence. By the time River really got to know her parents, she was always a timeline or two off, meeting up with them in various stages of their travels with the Doctor.

The Fishers in ‘Inception’

The whole reason that the mind heist in this movie worked was because of Fisher’s less than perfect relationship with his father. In fact, the team knew to manipulate this relationship to take advantage, literally delving down into the man’s mind and planting the idea that Fisher Sr. was not disappointed in him but rather proud. The whole success of the job –inception — hinged on how dysfunctional the relationship was. Not to mention that Cobb’s motivation was to get back to his kids in the first place after abandoning them when he fled the country on suspicion of his wife’s murder. Great, now I want to watch Inception again.

Ultron and Tony Stark from ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’

The cycle of dysfunctional relationships continue, even if your son is an AI. It makes a bit of sense that since Tony — billionaire, playboy, philanthropist — had such a flawed relationship with his dad, that anything he created–even anything that refers to him as “Father” might result in an equally flawed relationship with something that he creates, especially when you add in the fact that the AI becomes more sentient than Tony intended.

Loki and Odin, ‘The Gospel of Loki’ by Joanne M. Harris

It’s not every day you incur the wrath of a God, and that God is your father! After a night of drinking and insulting all the gods, Loki, hardly Dad of the year himself, provokes his old man, Odin, into the ultimate revenge: killing Loki’s sons just for the crime of sharing his blood.

Draco Malfoy and Lucius Malfoy from ‘Harry Potter’

Born into an old, wealthy, Pure Blood Wizarding family, Lucius believed having wealth and being a Pure Blood were the most important things in life. Naturally, he put these same ideas into Draco’s head, hoping his son would follow in his footsteps. Draco reluctantly joined the Death Eaters in an attempt to save his family and place them back in Voldemort’s favor. But in the end, the Malfoy’s defected from the Death Eaters and Draco seemed to change his thinking where muggles were concerned, much to his father’s disappointment.

Honorable Mentions

–The whole cast of Lost and their fathers
–Captain Kirk and Captain George Kirk (Original Series and Alternate Series)
–Loki and Odin from the Thor Movies
–Angel and Connor from Angel
–Skye “Daisy” and Calvin Zabo from Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Article by Stephen Baxter. Visit the author’s official website to learn more about The Medusa Chronicles!