Last night, Castle followed in the footsteps of CSI and many other shows and gave us a murder at a science fiction convention. But this Galaxy Quest-inspired outing was much more of a love letter to fans than a spoof on fandom — and it included the above scene, where Nathan Fillion's Castle gets in the Captain's chair, and Beckett explains why she loved Nebula-9, a cheesy science fiction show that was cancelled after just 12 episodes.


We could be here all day listing all of the shout-outs and in-jokes in last night's episode, including Castle mentioning "that Joss Whedon show," and Armin Shimerman's "Han Shot First" T-shirt, and the detectives debating the merits of various series including Lord of the Rings and 2001. And then the William Shatner song at the end. Mostly, though, it was great as a story where Captain Tightpants learns to understand and tolerate other people's love for science fiction he considers campy or ridiculous. Kind of a sweet episode, actually.