Tagged: Battlestar Galactica

The original CSI series has a habit of setting episodes in the worlds of various subcultures — they’ve had cases about furries, vampires and the BDSM scene. Surprisingly, it’s taken until the ninth season for them to get around to solving a crime at a science fiction convention.

Tune in tonight to CBS at 9 PM EST for the episode "A Space Oddity," where two of the lab rats, Hodges and Wendy, go to blow off steam at a convention for a fictional show called, "Astro Quest" (that bears a striking resemblance to a Certain Program about a 5-Year Mission) and find their work following them when a murder takes place.

This episode is going to be a field day for TV SF fans — behind the scenes, it’s a Star Trek/Battlestar Galactica reunion party (with quite a few other series represented).  If you’re a credits reader, you may recall that CSI executive producer Naren Shankar worked on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine (as well as other shows such as Farscape).  The CSI episode is written by David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, who wrote for DS9 and most recently, BSG. The episode will be directed by Michael Nankin, who has also worked extensively on BSG. Joshua Cox will play the star of the fictional  "Astro Quest" show (TV SF fans will remember he played the bridge officer on Babylon 5).

Keep your eyes open for cameos by BSG (and former Star Trek) producer Ronald D. Moore, as well as BSG stars Kate Vernon (Ellen Tigh) and Grace Park (Cylon "Skin Job" Model 8 — I’ll leave it to the reader to keep track of how many names she went by). There may be other cameo appearances too, so get that freeze-frame button ready.

Finally, in the category of "Hey, it’s That Guy!" Arne Starr will show up as an artist guest at the convention, which we understand will be quite a stretch for him.