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GEEK NEWS

... The Sandman author and graphic-novel god Neil Gaiman will write an episode of Doctor Who, his second, for the upcoming season. Gaiman's episode will run in the spring and—get this—feature the villainous tin cybogs known as the Cybermen. The Cybermen first debuted in 1966 and last appeared in the 2011 episode "Closing Time." [BBC America via press release]

BUSINESS TIME

... Approximately 66.8 million viewers tuned in to watch election coverage last night, down slightly (6 percent) from the 2008 election. Maybe some people saw Barack Obama versus white guy and figured it was a repeat? Early numbers suggest NBC won the ratings war, with an average of 12.56 million viewers in primetime. CNN took home the cable prize with a 4.9 rating in the adult demo, but Fox News claimed most overall viewers with 11.6 million. No spoilers! Don't tell me who won yet, I still have it on my DVR. I'm going to watch it as soon I get through all these Super Bowls that I have piled up. [TV By the Numbers]

... The third season of Downton Abbey will premiere in the United States on January 6. That should be plenty of time for you to perfect your scoff at those who don't watch it. [Vulture]

... Two projects from Black List writer Thompson Evans are in the works. Fox is developing Night Hunters, about two cops who pose as cab drivers, and NBC is working on Max General, about the goings-on in the trauma center of a hospital. Cops and doctors! Doctors and cops! We get it, TV! [Deadline Hollywood]

... Chelsea Handler is getting behind another female comic by producing a new show. Fortune Feimster, who writes and co-stars in Handler's Chelsea Lately, will star in the project Discounted, about two half-sisters who try to keep their family furniture business running. The way Handler is sheparding projects for her Chelsea Lately crew, the janitor will have an NBC sitcom in no time. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Sundance Channel has unveiled its development slate for next season, and it features some very serious dramas. Valentines is based on the Olaf Olafsson novel and follows the love lives of a high-powered New York attorney and his three stunning daughters. Behind the Sun is set in mid-'80s Malibu and is about a family that discovers the only child is allergic to the sun. The Descendants is not based on the movie of the same name, and instead focuses on a sheriff who teams up with neighboring Native Americans after tragedy strikes his family. T looks at the life of a transgender man and his emotional present and flashes back to his days as a college lesbian. And Death in the Modern Age is about a man who fakes his own death to start over after his current life goes to shambles. [Sundance via press release]

CASTING NEWS

... Actor Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) has taken the lead in the HBO project The Missionary. He'll play a young American who gets tangled in the Cold War while in Germany. This was the role that Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul was set to take before scheduling commitments intervened. [Deadline]

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What to watch on Tuesday, March 26...

8pm, CBS
NCIS
In “Squall,” the team investigates a killing aboard a Navy ship in the aftermath of a storm. Complicating matters: The suspect list includes an admiral who also happens to be McGee’s estranged father.

8pm, The CW
Here Comes Peter Cottontail
What fits The CW brand better than an animated rabbit voiced by Danny Kaye? How about animated rabbits voiced by Vincent Price and Casey Kasem! You’ll find all these goodies and more nestled in the colorful Easter basket that is this 1971 Rankin-Bass holiday special.

9pm, NBC
Go On
“Matchup Problems” finds Anne setting Ryan up with a recent widow—and then competing for her affections when said widow turns out to have designs on both of them. Geez, guest-star Courteney Cox, does fidelity between former sitcom spouses count for nothing anymore? These are dark times we live in. Dark, sexy times.

9pm, Fox
New Girl
The passing of a relative prompts a Miller family reunion in “Chicago,” and since Nick’s mom is Margo Martindale and his younger brother is Nick Kroll, the gang is sure to be glad they tagged along to share in the shenanigans. Jess will probably treat Mrs. Miller more gently than Keri Russell did a few weeks ago, anyway.

SEASON 4 FINALE, 9pm, Syfy
Face Off
The final three are whisked away to Vegas to design waterproof styles for the stage show Le Reve: The Dream. Then the season’s winner will be crowned, only to shock everyone with the reveal that he's Nicolas Cage posing as an ambitious professional makeup artist.

10pm, ABC
Body of Proof
Romance has its ups and its downs, as Kate experiences in “Fallen Angel.” Sometimes you meet a dashing man at a political event, partake in some invigorating flagrante delicto, and that’s that. Other times you discover that the guy is probably tied to a young girl’s murder, and you have to call on your cop friends (like Megan) to get to the bottom of things. C’est l’amour, mes amis.

10pm, TBS
Cougar Town
The cul-de-sac crew awakens to the unexpected joys of aging when an elderly couple buys Grayson’s house and joins their midst. Elsewhere in “This Old Town,” Travis searches for a Penny Can partner, and Bobby’s latest flop spurs him to rechristen his boat, possibly as the S.S. Shop Target for Great Savings on All Your Favorite Brands.

10pm, FX
Justified
Having eluded the Detroit mafia in Harlan, Raylan tries to get the Drew Thompson case back on track in “Peace of Mind.” Accomplishing that means spiriting Ellen May away from the clutches of Limehouse—before Boyd can get to her. (Also, too, it probably means shooting people.)

LATE-NITE:
– Vanessa Hudgens, Jerry Trainor, and Emily Heller on Conan, 11pm, TBS
– Past interviews featuring Hayden Panettiere, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Vanessa Hudgens on Chelsea Lately, 11pm, E!
– Journalist and author Michael Moss on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 11pm, Comedy Central
– Cardiologist and author Eric Topol on The Colbert Report, 11:30pm, Comedy Central
– Keith Urban, Paula Deen, and Django Django on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 11:35pm, NBC
– Brian Williams, national grocery-bagging champion Andrew Borracchini, and Pegi Young & The Survivors on Late Show with David Letterman, 11:35pm, CBS
– Jeremy Piven on Jimmy Kimmel Live, 11:35pm, ABC
– Ice-T, Chris Hardwick, and Little Green Cars on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, 12:37am, NBC
– Sarah Chalke and author Lawrence Block on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, 12:37am, CBS

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Castle S05E06: "The Final Frontier"

I don't know that there are enough nerdy superlatives out there to describe last night's Castle. "The Final Frontier" was pure, unadulterated, in-jokey fan service for sci-fi dorks everywhere. It was 44 minutes of non-stop references, sight gags, nods, winks, and whatever else to whatever cheeseball sci-fi you may have loved growing up. It was also quite possibly the dumbest episode of Castle since last year's zombie fiasco. However, in this case, I mean "dumb" as a compliment.

This is the kind of silly, silly, SILLY stuff I like when I watch Castle. Sure, it's hokey as hell, but now that Stana Katic has finally morphed from gruff straightwoman to willing goofball, the series has effectively become a showcase not just for Nathan Fillion's comedic talents, but for a bonafide comedy duo. My favorite thing by far this season is that Beckett's uber-tragic back story has given way to some honest-to-god quirkiness and a surprisingly game attitude for whatever Castle might be into this week. So when "The Final Frontier" brought Castle and company to a sci-fi convention, Beckett wasn't just standing around, grimacing at all the nerdspeak and cosplay. In fact, we learned that Beckett has her own nerdy history she's been covering up all these years.

Her past nerdiness pertained to a barely-seen fake sci-fi show called Nebula 9, a campy, Farscape-esque space series featuring an adult captain and a crew of cadets gallivanting around the galaxy as the last remaining remnants of humanity. Beckett apparently loved this show in college. So much so, in fact, that she used to dress up as one of the show's sexier stars. You can imagine how Castle might react to such a discovery.

Nebula 9 had been off the air for years, but a small, dedicated fanbase still kept up the cause, even going to the trouble of hiring the show's former captain (Eureka's Ed Quinn, clearly having the time of his life) to do a "fan experience" event, where fans could dress up as the cadets and act out a scene with the actor portraying their hero. Unfortunately, the experience was ruined when the body of the event's organizer was found on the set, with a giant laser hole through her chest.

Yes. A laser. Somebody shot this poor woman with a genuine laser, a revelation that both Castle and Beckett responded to with appropriate levels of confusion. Since when are phasers real? They're not, of course, but in the world of Castle, no nerd fantasy, no matter how ludicrous, can ever be out of the realm of possibility. So as we learned, the real-life phaser came from a local Bronx electrician, played by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Armin Shimerman. It turned out the guy had made himself a little business creating real-world versions of sci-fi weaponry. Everything from Klingon bat'leths to lasers that could actually blow a coaster-shaped hole in someone's chest. The liberal inside me was outraged by the thought of this unlicensed weapons manufacturing, but the nerd in me thought it was kind of the coolest thing ever.

Shimerman was just one of a few major sci-fi influences on this particular episode. Most notably Jonathan Frakes, Commander Riker himself, directed it, and even made a near-unrecognizable cameo as Richard Castle's number one fan. And then there was Quinn, hamming it up as actor Gabriel Winters as Captain Whatshisname from Nebula 9. It takes a lot of ham to out-ham Nathan Fillion, but Quinn pretty much did it. He was equal parts Tim Allen in Galaxy Quest and Troy McClure as he smirked his way through smarmy line after smarmy line. That he never broke down into some fit of self-loathing realization made his character even better. By the end of the episode, he was still bragging about threesomes with cosplaying fan girls—even the ones who gave him the clap.

The only knock I have against "The Final Frontier" is that throughout most of it, I could barely remember what was going on with the mystery. The positive side of that is that I was too busy laughing to care. And the ending did wrap things up in a wonderfully stupid way that I certainly was not expecting. And no, I'm not just talking about Stana Katic as the sexy alien cannibal. Though that was pretty good, too.

– While Beckett's nerdy past was something of a revelation, I doubt anyone out there was surprised to learn Ryan is a fantasy geek. I bet his D&D; games are hilarious.

– "I played a lawyer in a well-regarded film that never came out. I think I know something about the law." —Ed Quinn, killing it.

– Jonathan Frakes has only directed one other episode of Castle, all the way back in 2009. It was called "Kill the Messenger" and I barely remember it. This one I don't think I'll have much trouble remembering.

– Finding out Alexis enjoys cosplaying at sci-fi conventions was funny, but Castle's reaction to her wearing an outfit that highlighted her womanly curves was just about perfect. Their "conversation" about it later was similarly priceless.

– It's terrifying to me that our nation's gun laws haven't caught up with the recent surge in black-market laser pistols being used in violent crime. I urge you on this Election Day to vote for the candidate who will help stem the tide of laser-related violence in our country.

– The Stana Katic grumpy disappointment face (see above) forever. FOREVER.

Castle "The Final Frontier" Photos

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