Dr. David Loren is many things: child prodigy, inventor, genius, slacker... mass murderer. When a military think tank's smartest scientist decides he can no longer stomach creating weapons of destruction, will he be able to think his way out of his dilemma or find himself subject to the machinations of smaller men?
Think Tank provides examples of
- Black and Nerdy: Manish Pavi, Loren's friend and fellow Doctor.
- Butt-Monkey: Manish, at times.
- Child Prodigy: Loren. Recruited by Darpa by the age of 14.
- Corrupt Politician: Senator Mitchell is a strange case, since he's corrupted by idea of American Supremacy above anything else.
- Foil: Loren and Pavi to each other.
- Gaslighting: Loren is an expert at this.
- Handsome Lech: Loren is a total perv.
- Happily Married: Manish, even though his friendship with David puts a strain on his marriage at times.
- Honey Trap: Mirra Sway for Loren. They do start dating properly later on.
- Insufferable Genius: Loren.
- Jerkass: Loren again.
- Karma Houdini: Loren, by necessity of him being protected by Darpa despite all the crap he pulls.
- Knight Templar: Col. Harrison, at first. General Clarkson and Senator Mitchell.
- Lensman Arms Race: Darpa constantly use Loren and Pavi to come up with ways to keep the United States ahead of other countries. With the latest arc "Creative Destruction" escalating to the United States sanctioning killing other Loren-level intellects across the globe to ensure United States supremacy.
- Morality Pet: While Loren was against designing weapons to kill people by the time the series started, he is still a giant asshole to everyone, with only Manish and Mirra serving as a way to keep him under control, serving also as a sort of Kid with the Leash for Loren.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Part of the premise of series is to speculate on current technology and projects and how they can be used by or against the United States.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Loren would come up with crazy and effective weapons for Darpa that the Military would then use, which eventually lead to try to become a pacifist and undermine Darpa efforts or at least work on non-lethal projects.
- He becomes a literal Person of Mass Destruction in one arc when he's infected with a virus that targets people with certain genetic codes, wiping a chinese research center.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Col. Harrison. Which is why General Clarkson kills him.
- Scientist vs. Soldier: Loren and other "scientist" characters run the whole gamut from being too blind about researching For Science! to see their tech is being used to kill to being horrified and performing sabotage to prevent this to trying to game the system. The "soldiers" remain gung-ho all the way, even killing one of their fellow "soldiers" when he's not a hard-core enough War Hawk for their tastes.
- Technical Pacifist: Despite never actively killing someone, David Loren is a mass murderer thanks to his creations and eventually actually tries to sabotage his own work and the work of others in Darpa.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Part of the premise for the series.
