Science Foils

A classic Five-Man Band only has one position for The Smart Guy who handles all its exposition and Applied Phlebotinum needs. This trope is about ensembles where this role is filled by not one, but two very different (but complementary) individuals, both in terms of personality and scientific disciplines. This allows them to cover a wide scientific background with slightly more plausibility than a classic Omnidisciplinary Scientist would, while also opening up new venues for amusingly nerdy squabbles within the team.

The Science Foils will often show signs of other tropes, such as Red Oni, Blue Oni, and frequently will be of opposite genders, to increase the contrast between them, especially if the female scientist gets the more humanities/life sciences inclined discipline (psychologist, biologist, biochemist) and the male scientist gets the "hard" sciences (math, physics). Very frequently overlaps with Those Two Guys, while a particularly inseparable scientist duo may even become The Dividual.

This trope does not apply to series where most of the main characters are some form of scientist or doctor or where The Smart Guy role rotates by roster and situation. The Science Foils function as the team's "Smart Guy" together, although one or the other may take the lead on a particular project or episode.

---

Examples:

Comic Books

• The Five Swell Guys, the superhero team in Promethea, have two different members in the role of The Smart Guy: Stan "the mechanic" (who can build amazing machines out of scrap) and Marv "the team genius" (whose abilities are never really made clear). This becomes a plot point when Stan reveals he resents Marv's status as the team's smartest member, and created Painted Doll to kill him.
• In the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, the role of The Smart Guy is usually divided between genius inventor Gyro Gearloose and master theoretician Ludwig Von Drake. This is in contrast with Disney animation from The '90s onward, which simplifies matters by making Ludwig an inventor and disposing of Gyro.
  • One notable Italian story is set entirely around the contrast between the two. Gyro and Ludwig get in an argument on whether theoretical knowledge is better than practical applications, with Gyro preferring application and Ludwig praising theory. They decide that the winner will be he who better survives a night in the desert, relying on his preferred type of knowledge. The story allows the reader to follow different paths, in the style of Gamebooks, depending on whether they agree with Gyro, Ludwig or none of the two. The perfect ending is the one where Gyro and Ludwig make peace and put their abilities together.

Fan Works

• Harp Flank And Sweets has Vinyl Scratch and Octavia act as the team scientists. One is more mechanical and the other is more of a programmer.

Films — Live-Action

• As soon as the Genius Bruiser Bruce Banner (a nuclear physicist) and the insufferably suave Gadgeteer Genius Tony Stark (a weapons engineer) meet in The Avengers, they strike up an Odd Friendship based on mutual geekery and work together for the rest of the film, even driving off together at the end.
• In Pacific Rim, Newt is an extremely experimental scientist who will put his own life and sanity on the line for the sake of his research, while Gottlieb is an analytical theoretician who takes pleasure in shooting down Newt's crackpot theories. Nevertheless, they turn out to have been perfectly Drift Compatible all along.

Literature

• The KZ Detective Team in Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note is formed by a group of loopsided students. Two of them particularly fit in this mold: Uesugi, the Stoic Spectacles mathematician, and Kozuka, the Boy Next Door biologist. In addition, Aya, the Nervous Wreck linguist and Nanaki, The Shut-In computer scientist, also adds to this trope.

Live-Action TV

• On Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Coulson commissions Fitz and Simmons (two initially non-action genius scientists so inseparable the cast calls them "Fitzsimmons") to act as the brains to the rest of his secret agent team's muscle. While they're initially extremely similar in terms of personality, both get a serious case of Break the Cutie after the events of first two seasons, and start to clash over various things such as the Inhuman issue (Simmons gets Fantastic Racism and deems them monsters, while Fitz thinks it's a pretty extreme reaction).
• While most of the cast of The Flash (2014) is some form of scientist (Barry is in forensics and Wells is a theoretical physicist), Caitlin and Cisco are the scientists specifically assigned to monitor help Barry with his powers. Caitlin is a straight-laced biologist while Cisco is a fun-loving engineer, so naturally they're constantly arguing. Despite this, they're very close.
• MythBusters and shows based on them seem to follow this mold, except that the two guys are the main focus of the show. They tend to have largely overlapping but distinct areas of expertise, with personalities that make them a bit of an Odd Couple (and which may be exaggerated to give the show a semblance of drama). If Word of God is to be believed, they actually like each other even less than they appear to while on-camera.
• Power Rangers:
  • Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: While Kendrix is an expert at research and analysis who is driven by logic, Damon is a mechanical engineer who is more emotionally open, especially about his fears.
  • Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: Tommy, Ethan and Hayley all cover different fields. Tommy is the group's expert in biological engineering and paleontology, Ethan is the computer expert and Hayley builds and maintains their equipment.
• Stargate-verse:
  • On Stargate SG-1, Daniel Jackson and Samantha Carter have this kind of relationship. Daniel is an expert in the soft sciences of linguistics, archaeology, and anthropology, while Sam is an expert in the 'hard' subjects of engineering and physics. They further play off each other in that Daniel is a civilian and Sam is a decorated Air Force careerist. (They subvert the 'hard science male, soft science female' trope, though.)
  • Dr. Rodney McKay of Stargate Atlantis tends to be placed in these kinds of relationships, acting as an Insufferable Genius Foil to the more humble scientists Samantha Carter (in his appearances in Stargate SG-1) or Radek Zelenka (as a regular character in Stargate Atlantis). McKay and Zelenka clash greatly because Zelenka is a Nice Guy who tries to exercise caution with his experiments and McKay is pretty much a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, with the "bunny ears" being an absurd amount of pompous Pride that makes him try to reactivate very risky Ancient experiments repeatedly throughout the series (and never seems to learn even when they literally explode on his face, and once even wiped out a solar system — McKay prefers to point out that it was only most of one).
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "11001001" an alien race called the Bynars are lifelong science duos.
• The X-Files downplays the science aspect (mainly with Mulder), but its central duo, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have degrees in psychology and physics (specializing in criminal profiling and forensics), respectively, but Scully's rationality frequently clashes with Mulder's flashes of intuition and belief in the paranormal.
• Chernobyl: Legasov and Khomyuk are both scientists and part of the show's Power Trio, with Khomyuk's idealism about speaking the truth contrasting with Legasov, who only gets there after a lot of Character Development.

Tabletop Games

• Pandemic has two scientist specializations: the actual Scientist and the Researcher. The Scientist's role is to spend player cards to find cures faster, while the Researcher's is to hoard cards and pass them out to other players as necessary. The two of them make a perfect team despite vastly different functions.
• Warhammer 40,000: Ork Killa Kans require the "expertise" of both a mek and a dok: the mek builds it, and the dok hooks up the grot that pilots the Kan.
• Sentinels of the Multiverse's main scientist is Tachyon, whose approach to it is very restrained and controlled; her intern, Unity, complains that she is "uptight about science and hates explosions in the lab". Following their Enemy Mine, she ends up contrasted sharply with Baron Blade, who is legitimately brilliant, but also utterly lacks Tachyon's patience, sense of restraint and belief in research ethics. This is most obvious in the background for Sky-Scraper's Extremist variant; when Tachyon refuses to ramp up Sky-Scraper's powers, saying that only a madman would do such a thing due to the considerable risk to Sky-Scraper's health, Blade immediately pops around the corner and goes, "A madman, you say..." They even have shared mechanical space on the tabletop, with both Tachyon's hero deck and Blade's hero deck as Luminary relying on getting cards into the trash to power up their biggest moves; additionally, Tachyon's Super-Science variant combos really nastily with Blade's hero deck, letting you fill Blade's trash swiftly.

Video Games

• Assassin's Creed has Shaun Hastings (operations, historian and codebreaker) and Rebecca Crane (gadgetry and general computer expert), a pair of specialists who bicker constantly. Notably they invert the usual Mother Nature, Father Science relationship, with most of Shaun's areas of expertise being "softer" than Rebecca's.
• The Lutece twins in BioShock Infinite are both brilliant quantum physicists, but Rosalinde is driven and creative in her research, while Robert is more cautious and mindful of the implications of their work.
• In XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dr. Vahlen is an analytical scientist who believes that science is good and that all the ethical conundrums will sort themselves out eventually. Dr. Shen, meanwhile, is the constructive one (more like The Engineer, really, despite his doctorate) who nevertheless sermons caution and points out the dangers of carrying out scientific research without considering future implications.
• In Dishonored, the Loyalists' resident science guy and inventor Piero Joplin is repeatedly contrasted by the Lord Regent's Royal Physician Anton Sokolov. Where Sokolov is an unkempt, bearded brute of a man who nonetheless rose all the way to the top of Dunwall academia, Piero is a clean-shaven and well-groomed unappreciated genius. Furthermore, the Outsider takes distinct interest in Piero, directly inspiring many of his inventions through visions, while dismissively ignoring Sokolov's repeated attempts to contact him. Late in the game, the two find themselves in a Rivals Team Up situation, however, and discover their skills to be highly complementary.
• Downplayed by Hanneman and Manuela in Fire Emblem: Three Houses: while both are tenured professors at the Military Academy of Garrech Mach, only Hanneman conducts active research (even holding the respectful moniker "Father of Crestology" for his work), while Manuela is a former songstress now in charge of the academy's infirmary. Still, they do specialize in different types of magic (he, in Black Magic and Reason; she, in White Magic and Faith) and have the Like an Old Married Couple act down pat.

Western Animation

• In Voltron: Legendary Defender, Hunk and Pidge are frequently shown complementing one another's knowledge and expertise of science and technology: Hunk is an engineer with an extensive knowledge of hardware and physics, while Pidge is proficient in computer hacking and other software technologies.
• Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys: Dr. Splitz is a more theory-oriented Mr. Exposition; Splitzy is a skilled technician that can put the other's ideas in practice. Bonus points for being a single ape with a split personality. Their synergy is evident in "Splitzy's Choice", where the two personalities acquire separate bodies and find out they can't function without each other.
• Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go: Otto is the team's mechanics expert and is something of a ditz. Gibson covers other scientific fields such as physics and chemistry. While Gibson has questioned Otto's intelligence, he does respect Otto's mechanical skills, even admitting that he is Gibson's superior in that area.

---