A Space Oddity

CSI EPISODE
A Space Oddity
Season	9
Number	20
Writer	Naren Shankar, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle
Director	Michael Nankin
Original Airdate	April 16, 2009

A Space Oddity is the twentieth episode of the ninth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. The episode spoofs both the Star Trek franchise, and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica.

Synopsis

CSIs are called to investigate a murder at an Astro Quest convention. The victim is responsible for Astro Quest Redux, a "re-imagining" of the classic 1960s show that faces opposition from die-hard fans.

During the investigation, Astro Quest fans David Hodges and Wendy Simms have dream sequences based on their previously unexpressed mutual attraction and their memories of the original series.

Plot

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Trivia

• This episode spoofs Star Trek. Wallace Langham, Liz Vassey, Kate Vernon, Bradley Thompson, David Weddle, Naren Shankar and Ronald D. Moore all worked on assorted Trek spin-offs in one capacity or another. Also, many of the 'fantasy' sequences between Hodges and Simms are obvious spoofs of scenes from Star Trek. For example, the scene where Hodges and Simms are wearing "obedience collars" and Simms is running Hodges trough training exercises is clearly an homage to the episode Star Trek: The Gamesters of Trikelion, which has a scene that is nearly identical.
• At the beginning of the episode Hodges and Simms meet in a Whatificon. It's a parody of the original SciFicon or "sci-fi's conventions", dedicated exactly to the sci-fi movies and TV series like Star Trek, Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica, among others. In addition, in the Whatificon people went disguised of aliens from movies & TV series, a trademark of the real SciFicon.
• The alphabet used for the fictional Vellikon language displayed on Wendy's screen at the end of the episode is the same as the Aurabesh alphabet used in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
• Director Michael Nankin has also worked on Battlestar Galactica, as have the three writers, plus actors Kate Vernon, Rekha Sharma, Ronald D. Moore and Grace Park.
• The gun used in the "Astro Quest Redux" scene is a redressed FN P90 submachine gun, which was featured prominently in Stargate: Atlantis

Quotes

• Hodges (to Brass): "He's dead, Jim."

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• Hodges (to Wendy, in "Velikon"): "We were made for each other."

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• Wendy (to Hodges): "So if you're having some fantasies about me dressed up in a tin foil bikini dancing around in a casbah on a strange alien planet then... good."
• Hodges: "Good?"
• Wendy: "Yes, good. Because it means you're not as oblivious as everyone around here seems to think you are."

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• Ronald D. Moore: You Suck!

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• Greg Sanders (After watching the fanboys denounce "Astro Quest Redux"): So let me get this straight: some nerd takes a cheesy '60s sci-fi show and turns it into something a little more realistic - minus the spaceship, of course - and the other nerds get pissed off enough that they beat him up and kill him for it?
• Archie Johnson: People don't like it when you mess with their heroes

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• Nick Stokes (interviewing a bartender in alien makeup): Well, there's nothing worse than a bunch of drunk conventioners. Must be hard enough to sling drinks without making you play dress-up
• William (removes his alien headpiece to reveal extensive facial scarring): How do you like this makeupp? Got it on my second tour of Afghanistan. These Astro Questers, they believe in a future where human beings, they transcend their differents. I wouldn't mind living in a world like that
• Nick Stokes (chastened): Yeah, me either.

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• Jonathan Danson: My name is Jonathan Danson, and I'm here to set you free. Free from a vision of an antiseptic future filled with...with heroes and heroines who are always steadfast, and well-adjusted and altruistic. Like most of you, I grew up with "Astro Quest". Every Thursday night my dad would gather the family around our TV to watch the latest episode. I loved it! But the older I got, the more the mythology began to eat away at my soul. I couldn't measure up to the brave crew of that perfect ship. I wasn't handsome, courageous and strong, I was weak, pretty, self-destructive and I hated myself for it. But then, one night it hit me like a bolt of lightening. I looked around the bar at the other frightened, sad people and I said to myself "Do you see an Artemus Bishop here? Do you see one at work?" People, look around you! Do you see an Artemus Bishop anywhere? Of course not, because he's a fictional construct, a phantom who whispers "You are not enough!" Well, I am here to show you who we really are. Ladies and gentleman, I give you "Astro Quest Redux!"

Cast

Main Cast

• Laurence Fishburne as Raymond Langston
• Marg Helgenberger as Catherine Willows
• George Eads as Nick Stokes
• Eric Szmanda as Greg Sanders
• Robert David Hall as Dr. Al Robbins
• Wallace Langham as David Hodges
• Lauren Lee Smith as Riley Adams
• Paul Guilfoyle as Jim Brass

Guest Cast

• Archie Kao as Archie Johnson
• Liz Vassey as Wendy Simms
• Jon Wellner as Henry Andrews
• Sheeri Rappaport as Mandy Webster
• Ronald D. Moore as a convention attendee (himself)
• Grace Park as a convention attendee
• Rekha Sharma as a convention attendee
• Jaime Ray Newman as Melinda Carver
• Kate Vernon as Dr. Penelope Russell

Notes

• The title may be a reference to either the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey or David Bowie's song of the same name.

See Also

• List of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episodes
• CSI:Crime Scene Investigation Season 9
• Category:Images from A Space Oddity