Calvert (brain)

Professor Calvert (also known as The Brain and The Transcendent One among the Point Lookout tribals) is an inhabitant of Point Lookout in 2277 and serves as the main antagonist of the Point Lookout add-on.

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 from his body and preserving it in the St. Aubin Medical Facility using robobrain technology. Along with preserving his brain and consciousness, the advancements made in cognitive robotics and cognitive broadcast technology gave him the ability to telepathically communicate with other people over long range. Despite the retention of his brilliance, centuries of isolation left him a scheming, power-maddened brain in a jar. 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).

He later became deified by a local tribal cult and has attempted to use them to get an upper hand on Lockheart. Despite the cult's usefulness as living agents and tools, the professor was frequently frustrated and disappointing by their misinterpretation of his orders as religious instruction and inability to carry out what Calvert believed to be the simplest of tasks. While Calvert aims to achieve complete psychic domination over his home state of Maryland, the tribals are more keen on helping Calvert "spread [his] knowledge across the astral plane for all those wise enough to accept it." Calvert put up with the tribals for years, but once the Lone Wanderer came upon the feud, Calvert wasted no time in recruiting them to do what the "simpering spiritualist and his tribe of idiots" could not.

As Calvert would come to expect of them, the tribals failed to kill Lockheart and destroy his jamming device. However, by penetrating the mind of the Lone Wanderer, Calvert learned that Lockheart was prepared to install a brainwave jammer atop the Ferris wheel (which would completely block Calverts' psychic powers). Naturally, Calvert was quick to ask the Lone Wanderer to destroy the device rather than install it. In time, Lockheart and Calvert met "face to jar" and a centuries old feud came to a close.

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.

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 Entertainment.
 * 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.

Appearances
Professor Calvert appears only in the Fallout 3 add-on Point Lookout.