From Jill Golick at Running with my Eyes Closed, an interview with Cal Coons:

• More Murdoch
  “What we did when we developed the show was to make Murdoch a man of the future, a polymath who is exploring the boundaries between science and policing. He is ahead of his time. In doing so, we thought how would people react to a man that was advanced beyond them. We worked very hard to craft Murdoch. We did a lot of homework and were influenced by great — and even not so great — sources.” Read more.