Star Trek and Firefly fans must see this episode of Castle

Castle and Star Trek wouldn’t seem to have much in common

Castle is a comedy-drama that aired for eight seasons on ABC, and Star Trek is still going strong in various properties. So what could these two possibly have in common? Only one of the funniest episodes that incorporates as much sci-fi and Star Trek references as an episode of The Big Bang Theory. And more than a few Firefly Easter eggs are there as well.

Nathan Fillion (ABC’s The Rookie) starred as Richard Castle on the series with Stana Katic as Kate Beckett until it ended in 2016, but you don’t have to have been a fan of the series to enjoy the season five episode, “The Final Frontier” (Star Trek V, anyone?) as it’s a standalone episode. The weekly murder takes place at a sci-fi convention, where there are costumes and cosplay galore . Castle (the name Richard Castle goes by) is known to geek out at all things sci-fi, and this is no exception.

Star Trek is everywhere in this Castle episode

With a cameo (and a tongue-in-cheek reference) by Jonathan Frakes who also directed the episode, “The Final Frontier” has Captain Kirk and Captain Picard impersonations, Armin Shimerman as a guest star, Borg references, and the ultimate shout-out to Star Trek fans with William Shatner singing “Ideal Woman.”  On top of that, the episode takes place partially aboard a spaceship created for a fan experience which also includes laser pistols (Shimerman’s character actually built the pistol), a talking computer, and different species. The fan experience itself is reminiscent of the Deep Space Nine episode, “Valiant,” “where a Federation ship was manned entirely by cadets after a Dominion attack kills all the adult crew.

Firefly fans will enjoy the comparison to Nebula-9, the fictional television series that is the center of the episode. It only ran for twelve episodes and has a dedicated fanbase with a movie on the horizon. Firefly aired for fourteen episodes and still has a dedicated fanbase whose love for the show spawned a movie.

There are too many Easter eggs to point them all out, and it would detract from the fun of watching the episode. Overall, this episode, which you can stream on Hulu, is hilarious, geeky, and all around good fun for all Star Trek and Firefly fans.