Gadgetopia

Does anyone else watch Alias on Sunday nights? The season premiere was on last night, and I think it’s high time we pay tribute to the uber-geek that is Marshall Flinkmann.

Marshall is the tech guy for the CIA. Kind of like Q, but not as cool, if that’s possible. He’s played to perfection by Kevin Weisman as a bumbling goof that can build or hack about anything. Flinkmann’s “official” CIA profile lists “Ewok” as one of his known languages. (Stop laughing…or should I say that again in Klingon?)

Watching him try to recite a poem to Sydney last night actually made me fall off the couch from laughing so hard. “I’ve lost my keys,” he says, then stops and looks up “That — that’s a metaphor…” He starts again, but never makes it past that first line. As Sydney gets led away by someone, Marshall has lost his place and you can hear him off camera, “I’ve lost my keys…”

In fact, there’s really no tangent that Marshall can’t go off on. Ask him to discuss some device they found on a mission somewhere, and Marshall will dash off on an in-depth discusson about how it’s like a transcorder from some Star Trek episode, or how it reminds him about a documentary on monkeys he has at home.

I’d like to think that if Marshall were real, he’d read Gadgetopia. Whether that’s an endorsement of this site or an indictment, I’ll leave to you to decide.