CSI Files
Captain
<p><b>Synopsis:</b><p>David Hodges is shocked to run into Wendy Simms at a Whatifit convention dedicated to the sixties television show <i>Astro Quest</i>. Before the two can delve too deeply into their shared love for the show, there's a commotion on the convention floor: a man has been found dead on the mock up bridge of the starship from the show. Hodges confirms he's dead and calls Brass, gravely stating, "He's dead, Jim." When the CSI team arrives, Nick learns the dead man is thirty-six-year old California resident Jonathan Danson. David Phillips determines that the man died between midnight and 3 am. Jonathan's producing partner, Melinda Carver, tells Brass that he spent the last five years working on a pilot for a new <i>Astro Quest</i>, which had just been picked up. Melinda financed it--and retains the rights now that Jonathan is dead. Langston observes that the broken skin on Jonathan's face is split rather than cut, suggesting a sharp impact. At the lab, Archie plays video footage of Danson debuting his new show, <i>Astro Quest Redux</i> and witnesses the crowd react angrily to it, displeased by his darker, edgier version of their beloved show. Back at the scene, Nick and Riley examine the bridge and find semen stains on the command chair. Riley discovers Danson's laptop as well as a DVD player with a DVD in it made by outraged fans who find Danson "guilty of high treason" and execute him in video effigy.<p>Hodges broaches the subject of what would happen to two lab workers in a romantic relationship with Catherine and she tells him that one would have to switch shifts. Greg speaks with Penelope Russell, a media professor who was studying Danson's relaunch of the classic series. Russell tells Greg that Danson was a provocateur, the science fiction equivalent of Martin Luther. In the morgue, Dr. Robbins confirms that a blow to the head did Danson in, while Langston theorizes that the murder weapon was likely angular. Robbins shows Langston the odd substances he found in Danson's stomach: a mixture of worms and alcohol. Nick speaks with the bartender from the convention bar who served Danson the bizarre space age drink. He tells Nick that Danson hit on an <i>Astro</i> girl and got attacked by her two friends, whom the bartender identifies as two angry fans from the video of the <i>Astro Quest Redux</i> unveiling. While Hodges examines a metal collar found at the scene, Mandy recovers prints from the DVD that match Steuben Lorenz and Lionel Rose. Brass goes to Rose's address and the door is answered by Lionel's mother, who shows the detective to a space age room where the two super fans are roleplaying. When they're brought in for questioning, Lionel and Steuben insist the video was a joke. Neither knows where the girl, Risa Varness, they fought Jonathan over is. In the lab, Wendy matches the DNA in the chair to Danson and an unknown female. She invites Hodges over to watch several episodes of <i>Astro Quest</i>, throwing the smitten lab tech off.<p>Nick tracks Risa down thinking Danson may have forced himself on her, but she tells him they had consensual sex--and that she liked his show. Riley finds photos on Danson's laptop of him hooking up with various women--including Melinda Carver. Brass questions Melinda, who doesn't seem bothered that Danson had other lovers. She tells the detective that they were in an open relationship. Suspecting Danson had installed a video camera on the bridge mock up, Riley and Langston go to look for it. They're stymied until Hodges calls with a revelation: Danson was killed by a retractable viewer, likely hidden in the helm. Sure enough, they discover it by pushing the "targeting scanner" button. Langston finds blood on it--and a bloody print. The print proves a match to Penelope Russell, the media professor. She tells Brass that Danson was in her Media Semiotics class--and that he stole her ideas for <i>Astro Quest Redux</i>. When she confronted him, they got into a physical fight and she threw him into the console--releasing the retractable viewer, which struck and killed him. Nick, Riley and Ray head to the break room to watch <i>Astro Quest</i>, but both Wendy and Hodges decline to join them, instead watching each other forlornly from their respective labs. <p><b>Analysis:</b><p>A delectable geek fest chock full of winks and nods at science fiction shows--and their zealous fans--"A Space Oddity" is pure fun from start to finish. It's the brainchild of three writers with science fiction backgrounds: <font color=yellow>Naren Shankar</font> worked for <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i> while writing team <font color=yellow>Bradley Thompson</font> and <font color=yellow>David Weddle</font> came to <i>CSI</i> from the brilliant, dark <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>. Science fiction fans are like no others: passionate to a fault, they know what they love--and won't hesitate to vehemently criticize anything they think violates their sacred cows. No one knows this more than <font color=yellow>Ron Moore</font>, the man who re-imagined the 70s <i>Battlestar Galactica</i> into a dark, gritty show about humanity's fight for survival--and who makes a brief cameo in this episode as the first person to stand up and call out a passionate, <i>"You suck!"</i> to Jonathan Danson after the latter has screened a scene from his pilot. Like <i>Battlestar</i>, Danson's <i>Astro Quest Redux</i> is a dark re-imagining of a campy old sci-fi show that, cheesy as it was, had a devoted following.<p><HR ALIGN="CENTER" SIZE="1" WIDTH="45%" COLOR="#007BB5"><p>To read the full reviews, please click <A HREF="http://www.csifiles.com/reviews/csi/a_space_oddity.shtml">here</A>.<center></center>
