Penny Dreadful (TV Series)

Night Work (2014)

Harry Treadaway: Dr. Victor Frankenstein

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Quotes 

• [Victor Frankenstein tells Sir Malcolm where he shall plant his flag in medical science] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : There is only one worthy goal for scientific exploration: piercing the tissue that separates life from death. Everything else, from the deep bottom of the sea to the top of the highest mountain on the farthest planet, is insignificant. Life and death, Sir Malcolm. The flicker that separates one from the other, fast as a bat's wing, more beautiful than any sonnet. That is my river. That is my mountain. There I will plant my flag.

  Sir Malcolm : You have the soul of a poet, sir.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : And the bank account to match.

• [Sir Malcolm asks Victor Frankenstein to join his group] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : I've only one other question: why me?

  Sir Malcolm : Because you were unafraid to pull back the skin and look beneath.

• [Victor Frankenstein tells Sir Malcolm that his idea of what science he knows is for only knowledge itself] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : I seek the truth.

  Sir Malcolm : Ah, you're a very young man. I've long since learned that truth is mutable.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Perhaps we view science differently.

  Sir Malcolm : Do we?

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : I would never chart a river or scale a peak to take its measure or plant a flag. There's no point. It's solipsistic self-aggrandizement. So too those scientists who study the planets seeking astronomical enlightenment for its own sake. The botanist studying the variegation of an Amazonian fern. The zoologist caught up in an endless fascination of an Adder's coils. And for what? Knowledge for itself alone? The elation of discovery? Plant your flag on the truth?

• [Victor Frankenstein gives his prognosis of the dead master vampire] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Well, it would appear you have an Egyptian man of no particular age, who, at some point in his indeterminate lifespan, decided to sharpen his teeth, cover himself in hieroglyphics and grow an exoskeleton. Or you have something else altogether.

• [last lines] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : [Victor shivers in the dark when he see's his undead monster walk up to him, reaching out to touch his face]  Can you hear?

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : [as the creature gasps before smiling]  My name... is Victor Frankenstein.

• Dr. Victor Frankenstein : There is only one worthy goal for scientific exploration. Piercing the tissue that separates life from death.

• [Ethan Chandler meets Victor Frankenstein for the first time] 

  Ethan Chandler : You're a man with a bloody knife like everybody else out there. So stop putting on airs.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : American?

  Ethan Chandler : You are clever.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Do you know anything about electrical currents? Your country is making such strides as we labor in the dark ages of coal and peat. Have you any experience with principles and applications of galvanism?

  Ethan Chandler : Oh, the usual.

• [Victor Frankenstein examines the dead body of the master vampire] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Lividity, null. Rigor mortis, null. Notable ocular hyperemia. Ocular reaction, null. Dental malformation, not naturally occurring due to the isotropy. Nature's rarely so neat, nature abhors symmetry. Trauma and penetration of the chest cavity through the manubrium seems the likely cause of death, but I expect you know that. Age of the subject is impossible to determine, the teeth seem barely used, which seems unlikely given the... muscular development. The dermis is unusual. Seems to lack the normal cutaneous exocrine pores. Hand me that.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : [Victor uses a scalpel to cut into the flesh]  Well, I know why the skin seems peculiar.

  Sir Malcolm : Why?

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : Forceps? Because it isn't skin. Not as we know it. It's more like a... tensile exoskeleton, along the lines of an insect or crustacean. He must've been a hearty devil.

  Ethan Chandler : You're not kidding.

• [Sir Malcolm invites Victor Frankenstein to join him on an adventure] 

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : What are you after?

  Sir Malcolm : I'm trying to rescue my daughter. To save her, I would murder the world. Join me, Doctor. With me you'll behold terrible wonders.

  Dr. Victor Frankenstein : And how much of the world will we have to murder?

  Sir Malcolm : Do you care?