Photo: ABC Studios
Even if you’re not a regular viewer of the ABC show Castle, the fact that you’re reading GeekDad means you might want to tune into tonight’s episode anyway. They’ve planted sly in-jokes for Firefly / Serenity fans before as a nod to the fact that star Nathan Fillion will always be remembered by sci-fi fans as Captain Tightpants… er, Mal Reynolds. But tonight’s episode goes a step further: It takes place at a science fiction convention, and as if that weren’t enough, it’s directed by Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes and has appearances by a couple of other sci-fi TV show actors.
With Fillion and Frakes involved, you can be sure that the convention will look more like real-life than most dramatized ones do, because I’d guess that both men have been to more conventions than they can count. And Frakes assured the blog TV Line in an interview that there are plenty of references meant for fans, including guest appearances by Armin Shimerman, best known for playing Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Ed Quinn, best known for playing Nathan Stark on Eureka. Heck, the episode is even titled “The Final Frontier.”
Frakes also mentions a cameo of his own, not as himself or Riker, but as a rabid Rick Castle fan. And apparently Beckett has been keeping her fangirl past (for a fictional TV show called “Nebula-9”) secret from Castle, which should lead to some entertaining dialogue. Frakes promises the episode celebrates conventions, that there will be no Shatner “Get a life” debacles here.
Castle airs Monday nights on ABC at 10:00pm ET/PT (actually, tonight’s episode is scheduled to begin at 10:01pm).
