Doctor Miguelito Loveless

Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless is a brilliant and insane dwarf who serves as the arch-enemy of agents James West and Artemus Gordon. A mad scientist whose intellect is hundreds of years ahead of his time, Dr. Loveless was involved in numerous plots that threatened the USA and even the whole world which were always foiled by West and Gordon, but he always managed to elude capture. His original goal was the conquest of California, which he claimed was his birthright as a Spanish nobleman, but as his encounters with West increased, he became more psychotic and vengeful, eventually seeking world domination and even the extinction of the human race for what he saw as a righteous cause.

He was known as a technological genius, creating scientific marvels that were not only centuries ahead of their time but could even pierce the boundaries of reality. Loveless initially had two constant companions, the gigantic Voltaire, and the beautiful songstress Antoinette.

Early Life
Loveless was presumably born some time in 1848 (although even this date is dubious) where he was unfortunately plagued with dwarfism, a condition which would define much of his outlook on life. Loveless was the son of a loving mother who adored singing, and who Loveless cherished dearly. Loveless also hinted that he was ostracized and tormented during his childhood, which helped to mold his hateful and misanthropic view on humanity.

Ancestry and Birthright
Loveless is the last survivor of a Spanish noble family who had owned a valuable land grant in California during the Spanish Colonial times which covered over half of California; this land grant was taken back by the Spanish Crown; before the Loveless family could retrieve it, California became a member of the United states. Loveless original intent then became to get the land grant back so he could create a "paradise" for disadvantaged persons as himself, by any means necessary. This would become his primary motivation for creating his own criminal empire.

At an unknown point, Loveless met Antoinette, a woman who would become his trusted confidant and lover. At a later point he sired two children with two different women; his children were Miguelito Loveless, Jr. and Carmelita Loveless, however they would not take part in their father's criminal affairs, although Loveless, Jr. was chosen to be his father's successor in the case of his passing and enthusiastically kept track of all of his father's achievements and exploits.

An Early Atomic Age
In order to reclaim California, Loveless created the first known formula for an atomic bomb which he hoped to use to threaten the United States into meeting his demands. He then began developing numerous technological and medical wonders to transform California into the first true utopia, even creating the first early electric-powered devices, radios, phones, planes and even penicillin in secrecy decades before the likes of the Wright Brothers, Edison, Bell, Fleming and others would even conceive them. However, it was around this time that Loveless discovered that another scientist by the name of Professor Nielsen had also created a formula for an atomic bomb. Infuriated by this, Loveless saw it as a blatant theft of his creation, and was angered even more so when Nielsen planned to offer his creation to the US Government, a fact which disgusted Loveless who saw this as a perversion of science and as more fuel for mindless warmongering, despite his own insidious intentions. Loveless then set out to assassinate Nielsen and destroy any evidence of his formula to ensure that he would not be challenged.

The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth
James West and Artemus Gordon were relatively standard secret service agents whose first few missions, while perhaps unusual and deadly, were relatively ordinary escapades, but this changed when the U.S. was threatened with an explosive that could destroy an entire city unless the creator of the explosive was paid to not use it. This turned out to be none other than the megalomaniacal dwarf, a genius centuries beyond his time, named Dr. Miguelito Quixote Loveless who was destined to become West’s arch adversary. After successfully assassinating Professor Nielsen, Dr. Loveless threatened to blow up the city of Los Angeles, which had a population of about five thousand people at that time unless his demands were met. West and Gordon were finally able to track him down. Loveless had placed the explosives in a bell tower set to go off. West defeated his gigantic bodyguard, the mute Voltaire, a man of superhuman strength, and then confronted Loveless, defusing the bomb just in time. This marked their first encounter and the only time Loveless was capture.

The Night that Terror Stalked the Town
It was almost as if this encounter with Loveless set off a chain reaction that would change James West's life forever, as thought Loveless merely entering his life set off a series of bizarre adventures against opponents almost as unusual as Loveless himself. This eventually led to the second encounter with Dr. Loveless used plastic surgery to create an exact duplicate of West to infiltrate the Secret Service, a plot that was foiled when West escaped and defeated his doppelganger. {The Theme of a villain using a "doppelganger" of Agents West and Gorden was again in the episode of "The Night of the Big Blast" 2/4}.

This encounter only seemed to further increase West's encounters with the unusual and bizarre, with West having defeated recurring threats from would-be Napoleons intent upon overthrowing the government in favor of their own rule. He also encountered such enemies as Dr. Arcularis, a master hypnotist hired to hypnotize him, through Pavlovian techniques, to perform an assassination. Through overwhelming will power, West resisted and captured the doctor.

The Night of the Whirring Death
Loveless returned once again, this time plotting to conquer California once more but via more "legitimate" methods, by becoming governor of California through rigging the election and murdering his opponents.

The Night of the Murderous Spring
West’s most memorable confrontation with Dr. Loveless soon took place. Loveless directly confronted West in a shootout and Loveless was killed. Artemus Gorden arrived and, when they investigated, West flew into a murderous rage during a discussion and killed Arte. Meanwhile, Artemus arrived in town and was told his friend had gone mad, shooting wildly at empty space and talking about someone named Loveless and bemoaning how he had killed his best friend. West found himself captured by Loveless and realized almost everything that had happened had been a hallucination brought about by a drug Loveless had slipped into his shaving cream. Dr. Loveless intended to use migrating birds, especially ducks and geese, to spread the drug into the world’s water supply as it was that powerful even when that diluted, killing off the entire human population except for himself and a select few. He had carefully designed the drug so it did not affect animals. But West and Gorden escaped with the help of one of Loveless’s henchwomen.

Although Loveless escaped again, there were significant explorations of the almost symbiosis of hero and villain that had developed.

The Night of the Raven
Loveless used a drug to shrink West from 6 feet to 6 inches-and not only "towered over" West but tried to have him killed with the help of his pet cat! Needless to say, West recovered to his normal self-although Dr. Loveless escaped again.

Death and Legacy
In 1880 Loveless eventually died of ulcers brought on from anger and frustration at having his plans consistently ruined by West and Gordon, so his son and daughter Doctor Miguelito Loveless, Jr. and Carmelita Loveless subsequently seek revenge on the agents. Coincidentally West and Gorden also retired from the Secret Service in 1880.

Appearances
Loveless was originally intended to only be a one time villain like most of West foes, however after his first appearance, Loveless proved to be a grand hit with viewers, resulting in him becoming the show's most recurring character after West and Gorden and served as their arch-enemy.


 * "The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth" - Episode #3
 * "The Night That Terror Stalked the Town" - Episode #10
 * "The Night of the Whirring Death" - Episode #20
 * "The Night of the Murderous Spring" - Episode #27
 * "The Night of the Raven" - Episode #31
 * "The Night of the Green Terror" - Episode #38
 * "The Night of the Surreal McCoy" - Episode #51
 * "The Night of the Bogus Bandits" - Episode #56
 * "The Night Dr. Loveless Died" - Episode #60
 * "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge" - Episode #92

Trivia

 * Loveless was played by Michael Dunn who passed away in 1973, resulting in him being unable to return to play the character in The Wild Wild West Revisted.
 * In Wild Wild West Revisited, Loveless' tombstone shows that he was only 32 at the time of his passing, yet both his children appear to be in their late 20s or mid 30s at most, making it impossible for him to have sired them unless they were victims of Loveless' own experiments.
 * Its more than likely that the date on the tombstone was simply an error on the film crew's part, as dates were often inconsistent even within the original show.
 * In the 1999 film adaptation of the series Wild Wild West, the main villain, Doctor Arliss Loveless, was only loosely based on Dr. Miguelito Loveless, having only the last name and mechanical know-how of the original. Arliss however did appear to be an amalgamation of many of the show's villains, not just Loveless, sharing traits with Noel Bartley Vautrain (Confederate history and physical disability), Gallito (obsession with spiders), Braine (his mechanized wheelchair) and many others.