DEF REC: Top Three Evil Twins - Dastardly TV Doppelgängers

 

This is Def Rec, a totally unserious blog about entertainment experiences you will definitely recommend. Movie minutia and television tidbits get ranked, rated, reviewed and skewed, and in the end, you’ll know which one to def rec.

I’m Jon McBrine—I’m an authority on entertainment and pop culture because I have access to the Internet.

(Originally published on Substack on 5/25/26)

Without a great villain, there is no great hero. In TV Land, the noble defender and the sinister fiend are oftentimes connected on a physiological level. Sometimes it’s a cybernetic or inter-dimensional link intertwining characters from opposite ends of their respective spectrums. Sometimes the only way to tell who is good and who is evil is by the presence of stylish facial hair.

Nefarious doppelgängers are a time-honored television tradition, and it’s a nice way to have a performer do double-duty. A cast member portraying two characters at once is an opportunity to showcase their broad range of gifts as a thespian. Or perhaps a leading man or lady gets the same amount pay for twice the work, thus saving the studio money by not hiring any more actors. Whatever the case, as viewers, we are treated to cleverly edited combat scenes where a person basically has to fight themself.

Seeing a different side of a beloved actor is always rewarding, especially if it’s a body-swap story, an amnesia angle, a possession gimmick, or some kind of time travel-related mixup. The best conflicts, though, keep it in the family - but evilness doesn’t end at blood. Be it circuitry or a parallel universe, dark reflections can pop up at the most inconvenient times. Or when it’s Sweeps Week.

For this Top Three list about the bad versions of good guys, I could have easily included all of the Star TrekMirror-verse’s twisted incarnations of the familiar faces of the final frontier. The villainous counterpart to Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is a classic example of how a goatee can change your whole soul - just ask Thomas Riker (Jonathan Frakes). Buffy the Vampire Slayer is no stranger to creepy copies as Willow’s (Alyson Hannigan) vampiric “Dark Willow” alternate dimension self reigned chaos down on Sunnydale. Superman has faced his odd opposite Bizarro in various forms across different TV and film interpretations. Supernatural had loads of multiversal fun, namely with the pampered private plane-riding doubles of hunter bros Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) from a parallel timeline. 

What separates a conniving clone or lethal long lost relative from a run of the mill replicant? More so than even the nastiest of deeds, style points can make a devious duplicate standout. Above all, though, it comes down to the tale being told. But mostly it’s who was the coolest, funniest, or most outrageous outing for an actor getting to play around on the wild side.

Honorable mentions: From the movies it’s Evil Ash (Bruce Campbell) from Army of Darkness (1992); the silver screen also blessed us with Evil Bill & Ted (Alex Winters & Keanu Reeves) from Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991); back to the small screen it’s the “Red K” Clark persona (Tom Welling) from Smallville (2001-2011) despite not being a physically different person (special shout out to the ’Ville’s version of Bizarro and their take on the alt-universe “Ultraman” Clark Luthor); Ursula Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) from Mad About You (1992-1999) to Friends (1994-2004), who may not have been all that malevolent but wasn’t always paying much attention to the needs of those around her; and Hugo (voiced by Nancy Cartwright) from The Simpsons (1989-Forever?) “Treehouse of Horror VII” from 1996 - the secret grotesque twin brother who is eventually revealed and shocks all of Springfield when it’s discovered that the evil one was always the Bart we thought we knew and loved (at least in this episode). After years of the animated attitudinal adolescent telling us to eat our shorts, maybe we shouldn’t have been so surprised.

I’ll break down the Top Three TV Evil Twins. And then I’ll reveal which is the number one pick I recommend.

If you agree with me or think I’m a psycho, let me know in the comments - or visit jonmcbrine.com to find all the ways to contact me and make some recommendations of your own.

Best TV Evil Twins

Alex Drake - Pretty Little Liars (2010-2017)

Pretty Little Liars started out as a novel series of the same name written by Sara Shepard and then leapt to the screen as an ABC Family/Freeform live action series that put at least one of the “a’s” in “drama.” The other “a” could be “absurd” based on the amount of soap opera-tier twists and turns in the town of Rosewood, PA.

The show revolves around five high school BFFs who are routinely harassed by the anonymous “A,” an enigmatic entity who knows the girl squad a little too well. The young ladies’ alpha Alison (Sasha Pieterse) vanishes and the group undergoes numerous challenges throughout the seasons. The besties encounter issues ranging from problematic relationship age gaps, a spell of a ghostly spinoff that wasn’t long for this world, and, of course, murder.

Troian Bellisario portrayed designer trench coat aficionado Spencer Hastings, who, like the rest of the ensemble of characters, endured the unseen A’s numerous threats over the years. After so many extortion attempts and terrifying texts, Spencer thought she just might finally live a peaceful life with her doctor beau Wren (Julian Morris). Welp, turns out Spencer has an identical British twin sister who has been plotting against her under the guise of “A.D.”

Alex Drake discovers her stateside sibling’s existence and is totes jellz of Spencer’s seemingly idyllic life. Alex decides the best way to connect with her sis is to—what else?—steal her twin’s identity. Alex frequently poses as Spencer to fool those closest to her and even goes through the trouble of arranging to be shot in the shoulder to match Spencer’s signature scar. And what’s a little imprisonment between family?

As if Alex‘s devious determination to take over Spencer’s life wasn’t insane enough, the other resident psychopath of the series, Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) gets a French dude (James Claude Bristow) to aid her in kidnapping Alex and Mary Drake (Andrea Parker) and detains them in a creepy underground bunker designed to resemble a giant dollhouse. 

Unbeknownst for much of the saga, Mary is the secret identical twin of Jessica DiLaurentis, the mother of Alison, the original girl who disappeared at the start of the show. Mary is the biological mother of Spencer Hastings, Alex Drake, and Charlotte DiLaurentis (Vanessa Ray). Charlotte was born Charles DiLaurentis and would later be known as CeCe, but fans would recognize her as the first “Big A” antagonist who stalked Spencer et al.

Jessica had an under wraps affair with Peter Hastings, Spencer’s dad. The result of their tryst was the birth of Jason DiLaurentis (first played by Parker Bagley then by Drew Van Acker), Alison’s older brother.

Luckily, there will not be a test on this.

Of all the twinning and sinning going on, why choose Alex as a Top Evil Twin? It falls on Troian Bellisario’s accent. It is a perfectly generic form of Cockney, innit? Roit, and’ oi! Guvna, I reckon for a pint for a quid I’ll have a craic of Harry Potter, I will! Okay, I got a little Irish on the way out, but Alex definitely speaks like what an American raised on TV would think Brits talk like. No shade on Bellisario here as Alex was introduced extremely late in the series, so I don’t know how much time there would have been to prepare. This last-minute entrance from across the pond is the other factor that tips the scale in Alex’s favor. Just when you thought PLLcouldn’t top itself, it busts out the secret twin villain story. Perf!

Reason to Rec: With a few spinoffs such as the aforementioned ghostly Ravenswood(2013-2014), the legacy sequel series Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists(2019), and the prequel show Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (2022-2024), there’s a fair share of canon for any teen drama lore hound. For fans of crazy family conflicts that will leave your head spinning, this is the series for you.

Recommended viewing: Pretty Little Liars, “Til Death Do Us PArt” - season 7, episode 20 (2017)

Garthe Knight - Knight Rider (1982-1986)

Party on, Garthe - the epitome of evil brotherness, David Hasselhoff’s performance on Knight Rider as heroic Michael and devilish Garthe Knight is simply iconic. 

Full disclosure: I’m only familiar with the general legend of how the Hoff’s portrayal as his character’s villainous double sported the immortal facial hair and trademark sneer. There was no way I was going to ignore such a landmark bad guy, but for this list, I needed to do some research. After reading up and the history of the Knight family, I can genuinely tell you that it is beyond cray cray.

Richard Basehart not only provided the show’s famous opening voiceover narration, but he also played Wilton Knight, the self-made billionaire and father to Garthe. Wilson’s bio-son, Garthe, grew up to be a wealthy international criminal serving a life sentence in a brutal African prison. The G-Man gets out of incarceration thanks to a bribery scheme orchestrated by his mother, Elizabeth (Barbara Rush). Once freed, Garthe learns of his “brother,” Michael. And this is where it gets nuts.

Wilton, being the super weird guy he is, rescued a dying undercover cop named Michael Long. Eccentric is a polite way of describing ol’ Wilt, because his next move was… odd. He organized it so the injured Michael would receive a face transplant, and modeled that new countenance exactly after his estranged ex-con son. If you can’t rely on your progeny to be someone you can be proud of, you manufacture one!

Already a not-so-nice person, Garthe took Michael Knight’s existence personally. He also took his villainy to the next level by even having a sort-of shadow-version of Michael’s classic 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand). Voiced by William Daniels, this souped-up sentient car used its advanced technology to defend the innocent. Garthe’s counterpart car, KARR (Knight Automated Roving Robot), voiced by Peter Cullen and Peter Frees in two separate episodes, was actually constructed prior to KITT. The automobile rivalry didn’t end there - Garthe would also go big with an armored semi-truck called Goliath. Self-aware vehicles, big hair, facial reconstructive surgery - this series has something for everyone.

Reason to Rec: 80s TV fanatics will be driven to go down the raging road of revenge with Garthe Knight. One could argue that Garthe and Michael aren’t really twins, at least, not by genetics. Semantics aside, if you want to see why so many people associate evil twins with mustaches, then ride shotgun with Knight Rider.

Recommended viewing: Knight Rider, “Goliath: Part 1” season 2, episode 1 (1983)

Lore - Star Trek: The Next Generation(1987-1994)

Androids have feelings, too! If you program them that way, that is. Brent Spiner’s beloved robotic character Data from Star Trek: The Next Generationcontinues to intrigue Trekkies to this day and his positronic portrayal has graced numerous TV series and movies. The accomplished actor has also had plenty of opportunities to showcase his prismatic performing abilities. Of all the various iterations of Data’s “family” members, the most notable and notorious black sheep is the emotionally charged Lore.

In the sleepy burg known as the Omicron Theta colony, proud parents Dr. Noonien Soong (Brent Spiner) and his wife Juliana (Fionnghuala Flanagan) created several Android prototypes. They named an early, less sophisticated model “B-4,” who I guess they knew wasn’t ever going to be final product. I suppose they also had it in mind that this simple-minded “older brother” would not be talked about until the 2002 movie Star Trek: Nemesis. After B-4, Lore was built and programmed to experience humanlike emotions. Lore’s go-to attitude was that of a data-driven drama queen. Quickly evolving into a binary-speaking bad boy, Lore deduced that he was superior to his flesh bag contemporaries. After a threat of permanently placing him in shutdown mode, Lore thought of the only thing his advanced artificial intellect could produce: he contacted a weird spacefaring crystalline entity to pretty much eat the squishy mortals.

Years later, the U.S.S. Enterprise-Dwould find Lore’s disassembled body, reconstruct him, and bring on the robo-brother reunion. Lore took no time in taking advantage of his emotionless cyber-sibling’s goodie-two-shoes persona. Lore masqueraded as Data to cause some mirth and ultimately try to serve the starship crew as the latest meal for that bizarre crystal alien life form thing. Lore had a thing for intergalactic minerals.

Much later, Lore would resurface as a cult-like leader of newly individualized Borg. The cyborgs were longtime enemies of Data and his Starfleet friends, and now this radicalized sect of Borg were under the influence of Lore. Needless to say, Lore has issues. His problems are rooted in brotherly jealousy and parental abandonment hangups. Lore just needed a hug. I’m pretty sure he’d use his super-android strength to crush whoever was foolish enough to bring it in for a loving embrace, though.

Lore was made to have feelings and they got hurt, big time. He was eventually deactivated for being somewhat of an untrustworthy psychotron. Despite Lore’s drastic differences in mannerisms and personality traits, he shared Data’s programming of aging and gaining weight. Hey, I might be an android, too, come to think of it.

Reason to Rec: Lore stories were always fun because it was a chance for Spiner to thoroughly chew the futuristic scenery. The two droids together provided perfect good/bad twin energy, even though they weren’t made of traditional flesh and bone.

Recommended viewing: Star Trek: The Next Generation, “Datalore” season 1, episode 12 (1988)

Def Rec: Of the three characters I’ve listed, the Evil Twin episodes I definitely recommend above all else are the stories of Lore’s lore. Picking a smooth-skinned android over mustachioed and/or bearded evildoers may be controversial, but Lore proved that a dark double’s dastardly deeds are more than skin deep. 

Def Rec Podcast coming soon!