The series has not necessarily aged well, but The Big Bang Theory is still wildly popular. The sitcom wrapped up in 2019 with a well-received series finale that saw Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Amy (Mayim Bialik) receive their Nobel Prize and ended with everyone being sent off with a promising, happy future (although even the elevator got an arguably better ending than Kunal Nayyar’s Raj). But what if the series went off in a different direction with an earlier storyline, specifically Season 10’s “The Military Miniaturization”? That’s the episode where Leonard (Johnny Galecki), Howard (Simon Helberg), and Sheldon begin working with the Air Force on their gyroscope. If the series had used that narrative through to the finale, it’s possible their work would have led to them working with other government agencies, perhaps even situations that threaten the world as we know it. It’s a “what if” scenario that is actually played out, albeit in a more dramatic fashion, on another CBS series: Scorpion.
Four Nerds Save the World Weekly in ‘Scorpion’
Scorpion sees a team of eccentric geniuses working together to solve complex, high-technology global threats at the behest of the Department of Homeland Security. The series is loosely based on the exploits of its executive producer, computer expert and businessman Walter O’Brien, an Irishman who first drew the attention of the U.S. as a 13-year-old who hacked into NASA and was given an Extraordinary Abilities visa to work with Homeland Security in the States. As noted in the cited Irish Times, those exploits “can’t be talked about” and, as a result, can’t be substantiated (but still makes for pretty damn good TV).
Elyes Gabel plays the fictionalized O’Brien on Scorpion, a computer genius with an IQ of 197. The superteam of geniuses he gathers together consists of Harvard-trained psychiatrist Tobias (Eddie Kaye Thomas), mechanical engineer Happy Quinn (Jadyn Wong), “human calculator” Sylvester “Sly” Dodd (Ari Stidham), a mathematician and statistician. Their Homeland Security liaison is Agent Cabe Gallo (Robert Patrick), a former Marine and FBI agent who had first contacted the team to help with a problem that was impacting air traffic control before leaning on them for missions that the government has neither the personnel nor technical know-how to handle on their own. Rounding out the team is American Idol alum Katharine McPhee, who serves as the team’s office manager/mother figure and is helped, in turn, by the team in learning to understand her genius son, Ralph (Riley B. Smith).
The Parallels Between ‘Scorpion’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’ are Stronger Than You Think
Scorpion sees the team tackle situations in episodes that range from humorous, like going undercover on the set of a superhero movie, dressed in garish superhero costumes, to dismantle a nuclear missile in “Super Fun Guys,” to much more serious fare, like Season 1’s second episode “Single Point of Failure,” where the team is called on to help the governor’s daughter, a victim of biohacking with only 24 hours to live. That episode also reveals some deeply personal trials for two of its characters: Walter learns his sister’s multiple sclerosis is worsening, making their current case hit that much harder. Meanwhile, the case also forces Cabe to revisit the tragedy of losing his daughter. That balance of episodes, skewed between light and dark, is a winning formula that kept the series on for four seasons before being canceled.
It may not sound like Scorpion has all that much in common with The Big Bang Theory, but the parallels are much stronger than suggested above. The characters on each show, for instance, are eerily similar. Like Sheldon, Walter is incredibly book smart but lacks emotional intelligence, leading to being perceived as selfish, arrogant, and devoid of feelings. Sly is also much like Sheldon, an obsessive-compulsive with phobias (unknown if birds are one, but most likely). Psychiatrist Toby serves as a behaviorist, “reading” people like Amy and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) have been known to do, while Happy and Howard are both engineers… enough said. Paige is akin to Kaley Cuoco’s Penny, the friend who may not be an intellectual genius but has the social skills and emotional know-how to help “translate” the real world for her socially awkward teammates (another parallel: Paige enrolls in college and takes night classes to earn a degree). Plus, Walter and Paige have that same “will they/won’t they” dynamic shared by Leonard and Penny.
One final thought. In “True Colors,” the Scorpion team is forced to take (and pass) a psychological evaluation, or else they will be banned from all Homeland assignments. By passing the evaluation, the team, amusingly, can safely say they’re not crazy. They were tested.
