Big Bang Theory Recap: The Higgs-Boson Observation

Another week, another episode of Big Bang for all of us geek lovers!  In "The Higgs-Boson Observation," Sheldon got a cute new female assistant who looks to be unknowingly throwing off the couple dynamic in the group. Alex, hired to go through Sheldon's childhood notebooks looking for Nobel-Prize winning brilliance, dealt very well with Sheldon's crazy and hit it off with Leonard, too. Amy and Penny were not so thrilled with the new addition.

I wondered when the show was going to deal with the recent real-world scientific discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle, since Sheldon was working toward its discovery much of last season. Since scientist Peter Higgs asserted the existence of the particle back in the 1960s, Sheldon figured that his moment of brilliance could well be contained in the notes he took growing up. After mocking Penny a bit for her ignorance on the notes he made on algebra when he was 5, he decided to take Leonard's suggestion of hiring an assistant.  After the graduate student he was interviewing complimented his brilliance (and we all know how susceptible Sheldon is to flattery despite his declaration to the contrary), he hired her on the spot. Since her dad was a scientist, she was used to these weirdo geniuses and accepted all of Sheldon's odd rules and demands without complaint. As Leonard said, may God have mercy on her soul.

Hit the jump for the full recap!

Click to read more ...

Big Bang Theory Recap: The Decoupling Fluctuation

We open on this week's Big Bang Theory with Bernadette opening the last of her wedding presents, with Penny and Amy out as dutiful bridesmaids.  This prompts them to delve right into the heart of this week's episode – Penny's dissatisfaction with her relationship with Leonard.  When Bernadette and Amy ask if she can see herself marrying Leonard, Penny dodges the question at first, but they beat it out of her – she's bored.  She's not unhappy, but there's no spark (unlike Bernadette with her "sexy Buzz Lightyear" and Amy with her loins afire and her five-year plan to marry Sheldon). I'm glad they are addressing this, as I have also not been feeling excited by Penny and Leonard as a couple for some time.

Cut to the gang preparing to go to the movies, and Sheldon adjusting to Stuart as the 'new Howard'. When they are all there and seated, with the requisite Sheldon-approved snacks, Amy requests Sheldon's hand-holding services, followed by Sheldon whining that Penny isn't making Leonard hold hands. This prompts Amy to spill the beans to Sheldon about Penny's feelings, but makes him promise not to tell Leonard. We all know how well Sheldon keeps a secret!  We do learn more of what floats Sheldon's boat – while he's not a fan of hand-holding, he does love swordfish and the hammerhead shark. Yet he holds Amy's hand anyway – perhaps that five-year plan is on track after all!

Click to read more ...

Big Bang Theory Recap: The Date Night Variable

Our long national nightmare is over! The Big Bang Theory has returned with fresh new episodes, with the season 6 premiere this past Thursday. Oh, how I've missed my geeks and their ladies!  Let's get down to the good stuff:

Howard is still in space, still being referred to as Fruit Loops, and is still running interference between his mom and Bernadette. Apparently he hasn't told his mom that he and Bernadette are planning to move into their own place.  I don't understand why this is shocking, as it is what kids normally do even before they are married, but then again 1) we know that Howard has a…special relationship with his mom and 2) I'm not a Jewish mother (and very glad too).

We catch up with Amy and Penny as Penny helps Amy bleach her mustache for her and Sheldon's anniversary dinner. The relationship agreement states that he must ask about her day and engage in casual physical intimacy – crazy kids! Unbeknownst to her, Sheldon accidentally invites Raj to their dinner when poor Raj reiterates his lonely status, and this of course does not go over well. More on that in a minute.

Penny is still weirded out by Leonard's during-sex proposal, and during their own date night, he decides to press the issue.  What starts out as a fun football-and-beer date for Penny (with Leonard writing 'Go Sports' on his torso in imitation meathead fashion) turns into Leonard's whining about their relationship. When a kicked-out Raj shows up, Penny invites him in to stop Leonard in his tracks.  Raj tries to get Penny to admit that she loves Leonard when he mentions she still hasn't said 'I love you' but this plan backfires when she throws Raj out. Frankly, I'm pretty disappointed in that revelation.  It makes Penny looks like a bitch and it makes Leonard look like even more of a doormat than usual. I hope they take Leonard and Penny to new territory this season, because right now it's both dull and looking grim.  Penny just isn't that into their relationship, and it shows.  The chemistry is gone, homies!

Speaking of character growth, does Stuart's recent upgrade to Big Bang regular mean that he and Raj are going to be an item?  When Raj heads over to the comic book shop after being tossed from both dates, he and Stuart share a weird and awkward moment while enjoying the Latin beats on the radio and swaying (separately) to the music. Foreshadowing? I would appreciate that!  Although Stuart is not my favorite; I'd like Raj to meet someone badass and cool.  Still, free comic books! But any movement in Raj's love life is welcome. He and Stuart make plans for dinner and a movie the next night.  It's anyone's guess at this point!

At the 'romantic' anniversary dinner, Amy is disappointed with Sheldon's inability to be an actual person, as evidenced by him inviting Raj along. She stands up, ready to leave, and tells Sheldon that it's over between them unless he says something meaningful about them right then and there. Sheldon invites her to sit, and then delivers a touching speech about how he doesn't know how he feels, but when he looks in her eyes, "he sees the man he wants to be." I was totally thrilled with this, but of course Sheldon cribbed the whole thing from the first Spider-Man film – a speech from Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker to Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane. While I was a bit grumpy with him, I was still excited that when confronted by Amy, THIS was what Sheldon chose to pull out of his brain. It was sweet, and perhaps the best he can do with his limited emotional capacity right now.  As Amy said, "I'll take it."

Episode Rating: 8 out of 10 soft kitties.  I deducted for Leonard's stupidity, but honestly I really enjoyed this episode!

What did you think of this episode?  Did you like what you saw, or did you think it was more of the same?  Sound off in the comments! 

Check Out Jim Parsons on Broadway in "Harvey"!

That's right, geek lovers and Big Bang fans, the one and only Jim Parsons (aka Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper) is coming to Broadway this summer! Parsons stars in Harvey as Elwood P. Dowd, a lovable gent with a six-foot-tall rabbit as his imaginary friend.  A bit nutty?  Surely! I think Parsons will nail it!  Look at how wonderful the promo photo for the show is:

Don't you want to just pinch that adorable face? The role of Dowd was originally made famous by Jimmy Stewart, but with the capable and versatile Parsons stepping into the role, I know we can expect only good things.  Parsons made his Broadway debut last summer in the critically acclaimed and Tony-winning play The Normal Heart.  I personally saw the show, and Parsons was a pleasant breath of fresh air within a very serious and tragic play about the start of the AIDS epidemic in New York City, offering a bit of comic relief and Southern charm through his character, Tommy Boatwright. Harvey is sure to be a more lighthearted outing, and with two Emmy's and a Golden Globe under his belt for Sheldon, Parsons is up to the challenge.  I have my tickets already - do you? Buy them here, at the Roundabout Theatre's website!

Harvey will be playing in a limited engagement at Studio 54 at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City, running from June 14 to August 5. I'll be posting my review of the play at the end of June, so stay tuned!

Big Bang Theory Finale Recap - The Countdown Reflection

Well, my friends, it's that time again - time to bid a fond summer farewell to our favorite shows.  I'm definitely going to miss the Big Bang Theory every week, as I find it the smartest and best comedy out there right now.  These are my people!  And my people sure were hilarious and touching in "The Countdown Reflection," as Howard sat strapped into a Soyuz Rocket and reflected on the last few days before takeoff.  The gang was gathered at Sheldon and Leonard's apartment, preparing to watch Howard blast off on NASA TV. Raj and Bernadette were especially nervous - Raj had been stress eating and was wearing his fat pants. Howard, aka "Fruit Loops," was busy looking terrified as he took flack from his fellow astronauts (I like how they asked about "Mrs. Fruit Loops") and allowed his life to flash before his eyes. Thus, we jumped back a few days to see the events leading up to the launch.

Back in Howard's room, he presented Bernadette with a necklace shaped like a star, which he was then going to take into space - so she could have a star from space!  Coolest present ever, Howard. I love you. You really are a changed man! This made Bernadette realize she wanted to be married to Howard before he blasted off for the ISS, and the two decided to head down to city hall and do the justice of the peace thing. They assembled the gang and told them of their plans, with Sheldon and Amy being the only ones to initially refuse - Amy because she wanted to walk down the aisle in her maid of honor dress, and Sheldon because he felt he'd be bored. Leonard gave Sheldon the death stare and told him it would be fun (unlike The Green Lantern movie, apparently there was no love lost there), and Bernadette promised Amy she could wear her dress - which she did, with her tiara!  I love her tiara just as much as she does!

Sadly, there was a line at city hall and the clerk cut them off, not believing Howard that he was going up in the rocket in two days' time. Raj came up with a pretty awesome solution - the Google Earth satellite was going to be flying over Pasadena, and their wedding could be photographed from space! Any of them could be ordained online and perform the ceremony. Howard and Bernadette loved this idea, and agreed to have the wedding on the roof of the guys' building.

Hit the jump for the full recap of Big Bang Theory's season finale!

Click to read more ...

Big Bang Theory Recap - The Launch Acceleration

Only one more Big Bang Theory episode this season, geek lovers!  I confess that I am not looking forward to the long summer between episodes of my favorite comedy. This week's ep, "The Launch Acceleration" gave me little bits of everything I love about the Big Bang, and got me excited for next week's finale while making me wish we had more time with the gang (these episodes feel so brief lately!).

When "The Launch Acceleration" opened, Howard was taking a phone call from NASA telling him that his launch had been scrubbed. As someone who has tried three times to see a shuttle launch and failed due to technical delays, I thought this was very realistic.  Howard make sad noises to the astronaut over the phone, but was secretly overjoyed at the prospect of not dying in space.  Shuttle missions are fraught with peril, and he was quite right to be worried. Plus, this gave him the perfect opportunity to still have astronaut bragging rights over the guys with no scary accelerated descents through the Earth's fiery atmosphere.

We were treated to the guys' tux rental shopping, where Sheldon (clad in full, red thermal underwear) lectured them on the sweaty germs present in tux rentals. Despite his silly getup underneath, Sheldon definitely did cut an impressive figure in his tux ("like the Flash 'bout to get married!"). Jim Parsons is an excellent wearer of clothing, too bad he is rarely out of his double-shirt ensemble. 

Amy Farrah Fowler certainly doesn't seem to mind Sheldon's fashion choices, as she sought to accelerate their relationship to the next level by associating herself with Sheldon's geekiest interests and favorite foods. She invited him over to her apartment for their once-monthly date, a dinner of Strawberry Quik and spaghetti with little hot dogs in it, with the Mario theme chirping merrily in the background. This delighted Sheldon, prompting him to declare – "we should do this more often!" Already points scored for Amy, as Sheldon is not one to suggest altering the parameters of his agreements.

The dinner, plus arranging for him to be a conductor for a day, was cause for Amy's occupation of his thoughts more and more often (character growth! I see it!), even while he was working and playing multidimensional Star Trek chess with Leonard.  Sheldon and Leonard had quite the sweet guy talk about their respective women.  Leonard had proposed to Penny during sex, their first time in the sack since their new relationship beta test. She was freaked out and yelled at him, but they were able to move past it – she gave him a kiss, told him no, and said they were still dating but she didn't want to discuss the proposal.  Leonard, you are a weirdo. I don't know what to do with you, and clearly neither does Penny.

Howard got a phone call that NASA wanted to put him on an earlier mission – one leaving next Friday!  He was due to marry Bernadette on Sunday, however, and she told him that she didn't want to stand in the way of his dreams. However, he did have to tell her father, who would be out of a lot of money if the wedding was postponed. We got to meet Mr. Rostenkowski for the first time, and he told Howard that the one thing that made him respect Howard was his astronaut gig. Howard decided to go ahead with the launch, despite his fears.

We wound up the episode with Leonard discovering Sheldon lying on the couch while Amy, clad in an Original Star Trek medical uniform, scanned him. She was positively gleeful as she told Leonard they were playing doctor – Star Trek style. Sheldon professed he was in hell, but then told Amy not to stop. Love it!!

Episode rating: 9 out of 10 soft kitties. Sheldon and Amy are brilliant; Howard is still hitting it out of the park, but Leonard baffles me.

Nerd Notes: I feel Sheldon's kinship with a tiny Lego Indiana Jones; Legos rule. Amy's Star Trek costume was super cute; where can I get one like that? What's next – dressing up at Leia? Wonder Woman? Pepper Potts?  The winning formula has been discovered! Also, I'm waiting for some Avengers jokes, since the movie just came out and you KNOW the boys would have been first in line at the midnight showing.

Any guesses where Penny's tattoo of the Cookie Monster is?  What an odd choice for a tattoo.

The finale, "The Countdown Reflection," approaches far too soon!

Big Bang Theory Recap - The Stag Convergence

All of those who were worried that Howard's potentially wild bachelor party would be the doom of his and Bernadette's relationship fretted for naught – Thursday's "The Stag Convergence" resulted in a stronger union than ever for the unlikely but adorable pint-sized pair. In fact, I shall be so bold as to say that Simon Helberg had his strongest moment yet on the BBT!  I welled up just like Penny did, and with similar disbelief. Great job, Simon!  And I love you, Howard, you pervy weirdo.

The gang's all here.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Thursday's outing started with Sheldon pontificating on his 'sparkling' inner monologue, where he was deciding which animal he would merge his human self with (a lichen, for the record, so as to be a 'triple threat' of algae, fungus, and human. Sure to be a hit with the ladies.). Raj gave a predictably girly answer (swan) and Leonard turned a good one into a gross one (horse) with a joke about genital girth, but I like Howard's best – a kangaroo, so he could be the first of his people to dunk a basketball! He was hitting them out of the park all night, what can I say.  When talk turned to his upcoming bachelor party, he stressed that he didn't want strippers. I did not necessarily think that Raj would honor this wish, since Howard normally is situated in the pro-stripper camp. But Raj has respect for the ladies, and the party was a classy affair of steak and scotch. "Jeepers, that's yucky!" Sheldon proclaimed of scotch, but he had some anyway – enough to get a little drunk. Of which I was proud! He wouldn't even do a shot in honor of James T. Kirk a few seasons ago, but he will now for Howard's bachelor party.  Character growth, yo.

Wil Wheaton is in attendance at the party, along with Stuart and Kripke. I'm not really sure why Kripke was invited – everyone hates his guts but I guess he's good for some gross-out laughs?  Captain Sweatpants was even there!  Damn.  As talked turned to some digs at Howard's expense (Sheldon's jab about not being able to find a woman until he found the right parts was pretty spot-on), Raj took it up another level with some 'Howard humping hooker stories' and the whole losing his virginity to his second cousin.  Which Wil Wheaton took video of, and put online, and Bernadette saw.  She berated both Howard and Raj when she had to pick their drunk asses up, and she still wasn't talking to him the next day.

Penny and Amy were over at Bernadette's trying to do some damage control to no avail – Bernadette merely became even more upset when she realized that Penny knew a bit about Howard's nasty past. We saw Howard trying to call her from the guys' apartment as Sheldon apparently went to throw up the bachelor party.  Sounds about right. Howard decided to go over to Bernadette's and apologize in person. What came out of his mouth was pure gold – he said that he was also disgusted by his formally pervy self, and that he was no longer that guy because being with Bernadette had made him a better man. Penny disbelieveingly swooned ("that is the sweetest thing I've ever heard! And it came out of you!"), and Bernadette and Howard hugged and made up. Amy was also relieved that she was still going to be a maid of honor!

The last little bit of the episode concerned Leonard and Penny – earlier in the episode, Penny stated she wasn't worried about Leonard getting up to any shenanigans at the party because hey, it's Leonard. And he's wimpy. Trying to prove her wrong, he came down to the laundry, whipped off his robe (wearing only boxers) and declared that they were going to have sex on the washing machine. Which they didn't (although Johnny Galecki has clearly been hitting the gym, way to go). Which made me a little sad.  Leonard is clearly trying to be a little adventurous, Penny! But he was kind of annoying the rest of the episode, so maybe she's not thrilled with him.  Everything does seem like it needs to be about him, doesn't it? Even his speech at the bachelor party – and he did this when he introduced Sheldon at that awards dinner, too.  Come on, Leonard! If Sheldon can change, so can you.

Parting thought: I've said it before, but the Raj-is-girly act is so stale. It's really old, guys.  The internet hates it too, I'm not the only one.

Episode rating: 6 out of 10 soft kitties, plus one nerdy belt buckle for Howard!

Only two new Big Bang episodes left this season…I'm gonna miss my nerds over the summer!

Big Bang Theory Recap - The Hawking Excitation

Thursday's superb Big Bang Theory outing, The Hawking Excitation, stands out as one of the best this season. I appreciated a wee break from all the group drama to focus on the nerdier aspects of the show and give Sheldon and Howard the chance for some rare one-on-one time. The only plot (no subplot this week) was Hawking-themed all the way: the great man himself was visiting the university to lecture, and had enlisted engineer Howard to maintain his wheelchair equipment while at CalTech. Howard knew Hawking was one of Sheldon's great heroes, and planned on introducing the two until Sheldon's typical condescension irritated Howard to the point of rethinking this offer.

Cue Sheldon actually begging, something we never see (Raj laid out the only three times Sheldon ever has begged – not to cancel Firefly, TO cancel Babylon 5, and for his life to end during a bout of food poisoning – all points on which I can agree merit begging). Howard decides to take this rare opportunity to get Sheldon back for all his nasty non-PhD remarks and jabs at Howard's inferior intelligence. He tells Sheldon he'll present Sheldon's most recent findings on the Higgs-Boson particle to Hawking if he first completes a few tasks of Howard's choosing (saying they will be worse than the twelve labors of Hercules!). Sheldon wants Hawking to read his paper so much that he agrees. Sheldon does like to criticize poor Howard, and if I were him, I probably would make Sheldon do a few things for me too!  Although the pee-proofing of the belt buckle was just nasty. I think the free world could have done without that visual.

The next bit of humiliation was making Sheldon appear at work in a French maid's costume. Now THAT was both hilarious and disturbing!  I never need to see that much Sheldon-thigh, and I find Jim Parsons quite adorable. With his clothing ON, clearly. I'm sure the many people at CalTech that Sheldon has insulted over the years got a good chuckle at that. The guys were loving it – all of their putting up with Sheldon's schedule and demands from everything to restaurants and movie theaters to his germ and other phobias restricting their activities might now be worth it!

We saw Penny for a few minutes in the laundry room, where Sheldon was doing Howard's laundry. Penny let out a truly violent noise upon discovering that the leopard-print panties she held up were Howard's. Another visual we could do without!  She pointed out that Sheldon gets a twinkle in his eye when he corrects people, and not everyone appreciates it. I liked his response – it's an involuntary twinkle! These two are so cute together.

One of the best moments of the night came from Bernadette, who scolded Howard for torturing Sheldon. She gave a pretty perfect description of why Sheldon is often mean and condescending – the part of his brain that should know better is being given a wedgie by the rest of his brain! In the middle of this chat, Mrs. Wolowitz interrupted to remind Bernadette that she was taking her dress shopping for the wedding. After a quick minute, Bernadette yelled back that Sheldon was taking her shopping instead – a great bit of understated humor in Melissa Rauch's delivery and a perfect horrifying task for Sheldon. "And that is the last thing you do to him!" Way to go, Bernadette! This is why we love you.

Sheldon's last task, after having to stuff Mrs. Wolowitz into a dress, was to give Howard an actual compliment about his job.  Here, we got the rare glimpse of regular old Howard, without his often-gross swagger and inappropriate commentary. The Howard who, like everyone else, just wants to be loved and appreciated. Simon Helberg put just the right amount of emotion into it, and Sheldon pointed out that he never said Howard was bad at his job – "of course you are good at your job…it's just that what you do isn't worth doing." A backhanded compliment if ever there was one! Leonard advised Howard to take it, since that is way more than he's ever gotten from Sheldon. I thought one more comment about how, without engineers, Sheldon's idol could not get around at all, much less to lecture at CalTech, would have well-placed, but Howard let it go.  He then showed that he really is a nice guy by saying he'd already given Sheldon's paper to Hawking three days ago, and that Hawking wants to meet him. Sheldon flits off to his room and then shrieks for joy.  Aww. Way to go, Howard.

The final scene finds a nervous Sheldon standing in front of Stephen Hawking, clutching his paper. Hawking throws a little fellow-genius-hubris back at Sheldon ("It's an honor to meet you, Professor Hawking." "I know." Hahaha) and then says his paper is well done and that Sheldon is obviously brilliant ("I know."), but too bad his theory is wrong – Sheldon (the great Sheldon Cooper!) made an arithmetic error. Sheldon is at first indignant and then checks his math. He is indeed wrong, and he gave an incorrect paper to Stephen Hawking!  Sheldon promptly faints. Hawking gets the last line of the evening – "Oh great, another fainter." before the screen cuts to black. Poor Sheldon! I'm sure he's going to be beating himself up (and the guys are going to be teasing him) about this for a good long while. Ah, the pride before the fall!  It's nice for Sheldon to be reminded that he's only human, after all.

My thoughts: no complaints from this geek girl! A great episode that surpassed the hype and then some. I loved that we went back to Core Four (good name for it? Still debating) for an episode, with their ladies just popping in to be hilarious and add a bit of flair. I guess Raj's scene a few weeks ago did have merit – I also missed seeing the guys' dynamic without relationship drama.

Nerd notes: Sheldon's pretty prominent in his field, no? I'd think he'd have more chances to meet Hawking while he's a guest at CalTech than just through Howard's wheelchair maintenance. But let's not invalidate the plot, when it was so fantastic.

Episode rating: 10 out of 10 soft kitties!  Tied with the Halloween episode for best of the season.

No new episodes of the Big Bang for at least two weeks, kids.  I'm pretty sad about it, but I'll be bringing you a few BBT features to tide us all over. The last few episodes of the season will be upon us soon - wedding-themed finale? Howard blasting off into space? Any new developments for Leonard and Penny?  Can't wait to see what's next!

Big Bang Theory Recap - The Transporter Malfunction

Thursday's Big Bang Theory outing was full of Star Trek love, just the way I like it!  As a repayment for always eating their food, Penny gives Sheldon and Leonard matching mint-in-box Star Trek: The Original Series transporter toys. Hilarity ensues, as it usually does, when Tiny Spock – Sheldon's Spock action figure – comes to Sheldon in a dream and speaks to him, telling him to open and play with the toy.  Leonard Nimoy managed to appear on BBT without actually appearing in the flesh, but his action figure, in its various poses, managed to convey his presence all the same.

Of course, Sheldon opens his toy because Spock commanded it be so, and he promptly broke it's swirly transporter function with his enthusiasm. Horrified at what he had done (as were many of us Trek collectors…ahhh!), he switched his toy with Leonard's, hoping that since Leonard would never open it, he would never know.  His conscience gets the better of him in another dream, with Tiny Spock telling him to do the right thing. Sheldon tosses Tiny Spock away in the dream (where his bed is amusingly perched in a replica of a cheesy Original Series planet set, complete with foam rocks) and is besieged by a Gorn for his trouble – "No! Help me, Tiny Spock!"

Aside from his pesky Vulcan conscience, Sheldon didn't count on another thing: the Penny factor. She convinces Leonard to open the toy and enjoy it, and he finds it quite broken.  Sheldon, unable to actually lie convincingly, finally comes out with the truth after many fibs. He gives Leonard his unbroken toy back, aww personal growth!  Forced by Spock, but still. I find it very endearing and adorable that Sheldon can't lie. It will prevent him from one day becoming a supervillain.

While I enjoyed the Sheldon/Spock primary story, Raj's subplot involving a date set up by his parents was really unfortunate. First, his parents thought he was coming out to them because he "enjoys women and their haircare products." They are still beating this is-he-or-isn't-he-gay? dead horse with a stick? Really??? REALLY? From the most-watched comedy on TV, it's starting to get insulting to men everywhere. This crap is just not cool or funny anymore, Bill Prady. When Raj's very cute Indian girl, Lakshmi, turned out to be a lesbian looking for a sham marriage to get her parents off her back, I found that an interesting turn of events, but it was promptly ruined when Raj actually started to consider it! How insulting to Raj's character.  He's really a nice guy, and they need to give him something else to do besides poke fun at his metrosexuality (or even if he is gay, quit mocking it) and his inability to talk to women. Figure out some way around the talking to girls problem! I'm sure these four geniuses could devise a way to solve it!  And to make matters worse, after Howard and Bernadette gifted poor lonely Raj with a tiny puppy (dawwww it was so cute!), Bernadette rolled her eyes and said "metrosexual my ass" after Raj went off to see if the puppy fit in his man bag. Geez.

My thoughts: Not really sure what the writers are attempting to accomplish with Raj. Maybe they are trying to say that Raj is a gay straight man and his friends need to deal with it, or maybe they are saying he's still deep in the closet of denial. Either way, the way they are going about it is insulting. No like! Love Sheldon as usual, and love Leonard Nimoy even more for lending his time to the TV character who adores him most!!

Nerd notes: If Sheldon is so worked up about mint-in-box condition, why was Tiny Spock out of his box?  It's definitely the older 70's action figure, since he fits in the transporter. Perhaps Sheldon has a Spock in-box, and this is his Spock that he can play with, and send him on fun away missions!  Perhaps yours truly has employed this system for her Captain Janeway action figures…

Episode Rating: only 6 out of 10 soft kitties, which it pains me to do for our Leonard Nimoy appearance. I was going to give it 5, but there was a cute puppy at the end!

Next week's episode with feature the amazing Stephen Hawking…can't wait! I expect great things befitting a great man!

Big Bang Theory: A Very Special Guest Star

This news is incredible by any standard: renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking will guest star on the Big Bang Theory!  I can't imagine a more amazing person appearing on the series!  It is actually kind of insane that the show has this much notoriety and pull. One of the greatest living minds of our time will be coming to visit Dr. Sheldon Cooper! Yahoo has the story here and Mayim Bialik (with a Ph.D. herself) tweeted that she "cried when she met him".  There have been reports of his declining health in recent months, and I'm very happy he's traveling and making an appearance on my favorite show! This is history-making, folks.

Talk about validating Sheldon's work - I'm sure he'll never stop talking about this one. Not to mention that Hawking guest starrred on Star Trek: The Next Generation - Sheldon is going to explode with joy!

Hawking's episode airs April 5. After Nimoy's appearance on March 29 and now this, I'm fairly certain that Bill Prady and Chuck Lorre could die happy. They have no limits - Big Bang just can't be stopped!