Aidan Waite

Ian "Aidan" McCollin is a fictional vampire and one of the principal characters featured in the North American television series Being Human. The series is based on a British programme of the same name, which premiered on the BBC in February, 2008. Known primarily as just "Aidan", he is played by actor Sam Witwer and was introduced in the series' pilot episode, "There Goes the Neighborhood (Part 1)", and has appeared in every subsequent episode to date. Aidan's counterpart in the original series is John Mitchell, played by Irish actor Aidan Turner.

Biography
Ian McCollin is an Irish-American born some time in the mid 1700s. He had a wife and child and served during the Revolutionary War. During the war, Ian encountered a soldier who also happened to be a vampire named James Bishop. Bishop turned Ian into a vampire and became his mentor. Abandoning everything he knew in his human life, Ian became Bishop's greatest protégé, an unrelenting, merciless killer. According to another of Bishop's charges, Marcus Damnian, Bishop and Ian "were like gods". At some point in his life, Ian assumed the alias Aidan and has been referring to himself by that name ever since.

By the 21st century, Aidan was living in Boston, Massachusetts and began working as a male nurse at Suffolk County Hospital. Tired of the sadistic life he had been leading, Aidan chose to abandon his darker impulses and shied away from drinking blood from living humans. Working at the hospital enabled him to sustain his cravings by stealing bags of plasma from the storage rooms.

At some point during his time at the hospital, Aidan met a young, neurotic orderly named Josh Radcliff. He helped Josh out of a sticky and violent situation and the two became friends. To Aidan's surprise, Josh was a creature of the night as well - a werewolf. Traditionally, vampires and werewolves were natural enemies of one another, but both men ignored tradition and felt that they could help one another in their ongoing struggle to maintain their humanity.

Aidan and Josh decided to buy a house together - a place where they could be themselves without having to worry about keeping their darkest secrets under wraps. They leased a townhouse from a man named Danny Burge. Danny was not only the landlord of the place, but he was also the former occupant. Aidan and Josh soon discovered that the house was haunted by the spirit of Danny's late fiancé, Sally Malik. Sally, unable to leave the house, became Aidan and Josh's new, reluctant roommate.

Although Aidan had embraced his humanity, he was still subject to vampiric bloodlust. Aidan's inability to control these bouts of hunger yielded drastic consequences when he attacked and killed a fellow nurse named Rebecca Sullin. Terrified over what he had done, he contacted Bishop to help straighten out the matter, but Bishop's solution was one that Aidan was unprepared for. He turned Rebecca into a vampire. Rebecca proved to be an unruly and unpredictable vampire, whose motivations and emotional state changed with each passing night. Inwardly, she resented Aidan for causing her death, but she was also secretly in love with him. The two would occasionally meet in secret to satisfy their carnal lusts. Bishop believed that Rebecca could be his instrument to reshape Aidan back into the "proper vampire" that he once was.

A short time later, Aidan met a young neighborhood boy named Bernie. Bernie had been tormented by a group of older bullies until Aidan intervened, scaring them away and warning them to leave Bernie alone. The boy, desperate for both a father figure and a brotherly figure, immediately took a liking to Aidan and Aidan liked the boy as well. Bernie's mother was extremely apprehensive about this budding friendship, but Aidan tried to allay her fears, citing that he was just being a good neighbor. One day, Aidan was babysitting Bernie at his house and tried to get him interested in The Three Stooges. He told him to go upstairs to his room and grab any DVD that he wanted. Unfortunately, Bernie grabbed an altogether different disc entirely. The one he took contained a personal video of Rebecca seducing and then murdering a man in a hotel room. When Bernie's mother learned of this, she flew into a rage and warned Aidan to never come near her son ever again.

Devastated, Aidan nonetheless obeyed the woman's wishes. Returning home from work one evening, he saw Bernie being tormented once again by bullies, but forced himself to walk on by. Trying to get away, Bernie stepped out onto the road and was struck by an oncoming car. Aidan rushed to his side, but there was little he could do. He brought Bernie to the hospital and attempted to reconcile with the boy's grieving mother. His injuries were too severe however and Bernie passed away. Aidan attended his funeral and tried to comfort his mother.

Rebecca learned what had happened and, in her own twisted way, wanted to help Aidan out. Disregarding all protocols about turning children into vampires, she disinterred Bernie's remains and made him into one of them. Aidan was horrified when he learned this, telling her that a vampire with a child's impulse control issues is a threat to everyone around. Rebecca believed that Aidan and she could raise Bernie as if he were their son. Aidan was lost over how to handle the situation.

The following day, Aidan discovered that the two older boys who had bullied Bernie were found in an alley with their throats ripped out. Aidan never questioned the nature of this incident, but he knew what he had to do. He took Bernie out into the middle of the forest under the pretense of hunting for deer. When the child wasn't looking, Aidan used a wooden stake and ended Bernie's existence.

Notes & Trivia

 * The character of Aidan McCollin was created by Jeremy Carver and his wife Anna Fricke, based on concepts originally developed by Toby Whithouse.


 * Aidan is named after Irish actor Aidan Turner, who played Aidan's counterpart John Mitchell in the BBC version of Being Human.


 * Consuming garlic forces Aidan to reveal his true vampire visage. The only thing that can reverse the effect is bathing in a tub filled with various herbs.