Garage Band

They’ve stopped a nuclear meltdown, trounced Vegas goons and retaken stealth technology from Bosnia.

But the brainiacs of CBS's Scorpion — now headed for its second season — aren't your average TV heroes.

"There's bullets flying and a bunch of social misfits going, 'How did we get here? This isn't us!'" recounts Elyes Gabel, "But then you find out how they flourish."

Gabel plays eccentric computer genius Walter O'Brien, the leader of a band of brilliant outsiders who is loosely based on a real computer hacker of the same name.

Despite "being intellectually superior and feeling disconnected from the world," Gabel explains, he and his crew are thrust time and again into unfamiliar action — and human interaction — but manage to succeed through teamwork.

"Even though the show was inspired by [the real] Walter O'Brien, it's about the team, the team, the team," says Robert Patrick, which is why he, Gabel, Katharine McPhee, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jadyn Wong and Ari Stidham appear in almost every scene.

Even when a scene starts small, everyone enters by the end, creating what Gabel calls "this cohesive family atmosphere." But filming family-style can take "forever," McPhee reveals. During emmy's eight-hour set visit, for example, the crew got through about two scenes,

"When you're covering seven people in a four-page scene, it just takes a looong time," the actress observes, "It's relentless, but you learn to enjoy it." Gabel adds. "It gives you a chance to be constantly practicing your craft, bantering and sharing energy with people."

Those people have included such prominent guest stars as Corbin Bernsen, Mykelti Williamson, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Linda Hunt. To stay on schedule, the cast comes prepared and ready to move.

"Everybody's so snappy here," Stidham says, but that doesn't mean you won't catch cast members clowning, teasing or singing between scenes.

"Directors come in, and about four days into it they have this look of complete exhaustion," McPhee says. "They're genuinely exhausted by us, because we have so much energy. It's hard to contain us. We all have loud personalities.

"But also, in every episode someone's dying or the world is falling apart — we have to find a way to let off steam."

One unexpected way: dress up and chill out at a 1950s-style photo shoot. The retro garage at L.A.'s Studio 6625 inspired Team Scorpion's fashion mix of mid-century chic with a modern flair.

And, as seen on the show, there's no better setting for a bunch of problem solvers who always figure out what's happening under the hood.

London-born Elyes Gabel doesn't often break into song on set, preferring instead to trade silly accents with costars Stidham and Thomas. But as a composer, singer and guitarist, he definitely counts music as a passion.

"I'm a big fan of emotionally led, haunting scores." When he finds time to make his own music, he "tries to engineer," which means he has a handle on technology. Of course, in that skill he can't compare to his character, Walter.

"I'd like to think I'm some form of storyteller, so I'm more into the relative aspect of technology," Gabel says. "I don't do coding or binary numbers like real computer geeks."

To deliver his character's geek speak — as well as the grand metaphors Walter uses to simplify the science — Gabel falls back on his training: he spent three years speaking medical jargon on the British drama Casualty,

"This is as difficult, if not more," he says, but he wants to get the dialogue right. "I'm so in love with Walter — I enjoy playing a leader with certain vulnerabilities. I enjoy that challenge."

Gabel has great respect for the real Walter O'Brien, the brainiac (and executive producer) who inspired the series, but his job is to stay true to the character, not the man.

"You always have to be aware that you're creating a hybrid: the guy is a real person, but we're also trying to create cohesive drama. We're taking stimulus from his life.

We take a loose foundation and then add interesting stories and characterization."

After 30 years as a working actor — on dozens of series like The X-Files and True Blood and films like Terminator 2 — Robert Patrick finally has his dream job.

"It's like hitting the lottery," he raves of Scorpion.

"Great work, great actors, great writers, great network. I've always tried to work in Los Angeles on a series — I have a wife and two kids — and the great thing about a series is, it's like working for a factory: 70 hours a week, you go in, punch a clock and act all day."

And Patrick is as comfortable with his character, Homeland Security agent Cabe Gallo, as he is with those long hours on the set.

"It's a culmination of a lot of roles I've played before," he says, "except I'm handling a bunch of unique personalities: I can be as grumpy and cantankerous as I want but still have love for my boy Walter. He takes pride in what he can achieve and lets the government know he was right about these [Scorpion] guys. He's a badass with a heart of gold."

The show's success makes the experience all the sweeter. "Getting a show on the air, finding an audience, the odds are against it," he says. "When it happens, it's magic. You just want to ride that and take it as far as you can."

A martial arts expert and former college jock, Patrick didn't fall for acting until his mid-20s, but there's no going back now. "I'll be doing this until I croak," he promises. "They'll knock on my door and I'll be gone, or I'll die on my mark. I'm one of those guys."

No surprise, Jadyn Wong gets a kick out of playing Happy Quinn, a mechanical prodigy who's ready to jump right into the action, whatever that entails.

"I love getting the scripts where the writers give Happy new things to do," she says. "The other day, I was driving a crane — I got to learn how to drive a crane! Mind you, I had five minutes to learn, but now I can say, 'Oh, I know how to drive a crane.' And I know how to pop into a car, slam the pedal and go!"

Having a black belt in karate gives Wong an edge in coordination, but her job also requires serious guts. Luckily, she's got those, too. "If I decide to do something, like jump on a motorcycle or go skin diving, I'm in. That adrenaline kicks in!

“But I probably wouldn't steal someone's motor¬bike, apologize and just ride off [as her character has done]. It's the law-breaking [that stops me], I don't have a Cabe to protect me!"

For the record, Wong is also pretty handy, but unlike Happy, she's no MacGyver — not that she would have grasped that '80s reference a year ago.

"Happy uses her imagination and whatever's available [to solve problems], so people kept mentioning him to me," she says of the character Richard Dean Anderson made famous in the ABC series.

After watching the show on YouTube, she agrees that MacGyver was pretty cool, but not as cool as kickass mechanical engineer Happy. "For females, the statistics are lower in that field. She's representing something that society is starting to encourage, so it's great. And it puts the focus on her brain, as opposed to other things."

Katharine McPhee rocked Fox's American Idol, then braved Broadway in NBC's Smash, but she calls her role as former waitress-single mom Paige Dineen on Scorpion "the hardest job I've ever had. There's no down time."

Not that she minds. "The rehearsals feel like they're going to take forever, but then when you start shooting — even if you have only two lines — it's engaging and fun to be a part of. Every time!"

The L.A. native did have some trouble readjusting to car culture, post Smash. "I didn't realize what a luxury it was to shoot in New York — because people don't drive, they have Teamsters pick you up everywhere," she explains.

"L.A. is a huge city, and we shoot at least four days on location for every episode. And you're always going to a new location. I realized early in the season that I just have to know where I'm going and be prepared."

Her character wasn't prepared for the awkward affection expressed by Walter.

"It's a vulnerable place for Paige," she says. "He's so focused on her kid [Ralph, a nine-year-old genius, played by Riley B. Smith]. But you see that Ralph is a way for him to express his feelings about her. He may not be aware of that, but she starts to realize it. Those are the windows that are opening up. The showrunners are doing such a lovely job — but she shouldn't like him too much if she doesn't know that he likes her! If I were in a situation like that, I'd be like, 'Nah, I can't put myself out there.'"

Meanwhile, McPhee is eager to put Paige further out there — into more action scenes. "She's got the chops," says Stidham, who reveals he voted for her on American Idol when he was 13. "She takes you by surprise."

As Toby Curtis, the behaviorist who doesn't always know how to behave, Eddie Kaye Thomas gets to do it all: action, drama, comedy, mind games and even romance (with Jadyn Wong's Happy).

"It's a range of emotions," he says. "I feel like a kid playing pretend, which is what I've always wanted as an actor — 'Oh, my God, let's stop a war! Let's kick some ass!'"

In fact, after the pilot wrapped, he was sure the gig was just too good to be true. "Because I thought it had a shot — because I saw this cool stuff happening — I thought, 'I must be wrong.' I'm always wrong about this stuff!"

He credits the strength of Scorpion's characters for the show's success.

"It's not about the geniuses or their special skills. It's about human beings who are having a hard time on planet Earth — and they get to save the world."

So what's the best thing about being on Scorpion?

"All of it," says Thomas, who's had some great gigs, including American Pie and its sequels and three Harold & Kumar films.

"And I mean that. I like walking around knowing I'm on the show and a part of this group. My favorite part of the day here is saying, 'Goodnight, see you tomorrow.' I've been part of things where you show up for a day or two. I'm here all the time. Literally. When we're not here, we're getting ready to be here. This job is life-consuming."

It's not, however, work, as far as Thomas is concerned. "The work, as an actor, is trying to get the job: pilot season, auditioning, sitting around waiting.... The job is the fun part!"

"People spend so much time trying to figure out how not to stress out about the little things. Me, I get paid to stress out!" boasts Ari Stidham, whose Scorpion alter ego — statistics guru Sylvester Dodd — is also a neat freak and a germophobe. Though Stidham doesn't share these characteristics, he has no trouble tapping into Sylvester's inner neuroses.

'"Is it hard to be that neurotic?' is probably something every ex-girlfriend has asked me," he quips. "I have the emotional core and high anxiety that Sylvester has, but art is the thing I get stressed about. And life. I'm young. I'm 22, so I'm still lost in a lot of aspects."

Stidham actually seems to have a strong sense of identity: actor, musician (aka Dr. Television), writer.

"The aspiration is to be a director, but it's all part of the growth since I was little and said, 'I want to make stuff!'" Now that's he's making stuff every week for CBS, he can get a bit excitable. "I love doing anything that reminds me that I'm on a TV show!"

The actor is actually enjoying his second regular series role: he appeared on ABC Family's Huge a few years back, and he's pretty sure he's keeping up with his more experienced Scorpion costars.

"You have to believe you're on a level playing field with everybody, even if they might not — I mean, I have no idea what they think of me; they seem to like me and I really like them..., You know what? There's the Sylvester in me coming through! The self-doubt and anxiety... What were we talking about...?"

Photographs by Dave Shore