TBBT 6x05: The Holographic Excitation

Now that he's back, Wolowitz is taking every opportunity to interject the fact that he went to space into conversations. He connects it to every topic of discussion, regardless of how far he has to reach and how tenuous that connection is. The gang gets sick of it, and when Howard brings up space as they're about to get it on, Bernadette finally tells him that he's annoying everyone.

Bad news is always easier to take when it's delivered by a busty blonde girl.

Elsewhere, Amy and Bernadette tell Penny that it might be a good idea to take an interest in Leonard's work, so she goes to visit him in the lab. At first, she doesn't understand anything, but he shows off some neat magic science stuff and she's reminded that she's dating a genius. Apparently, she finds that super hot now, because it leads to sexytimes in the lab... on more than one occasion.

The levitating ball is a metaphor.

In an episode-encompassing plot, Stuart is having his annual Halloween party, and Raj offers to plan it for him. Amy and Sheldon try to find a couple's costume they can agree on, but have a lot of difficulty since they don't actually like many of the same things. In the end, Amy offers him a choice of matching costumes, giving her a hickey, or making a sex tape. He agrees to compromise, and they go to the party as Raggedy Ann and Raggedy C-3PO.

I would've liked to see the Dharma & Greg costume.

At the party, Bernadette consoles Howard by telling him that even though he can't tell everyone he went to space, he's still a pretty great guy, Raj's preparations are so good that Stuart almost has the confidence to hit on a girl, Amy proves to everyone that her boyfriend is real, and Penny and Leonard have sex in a TARDIS photo booth.

The Doctor would not approve.

What I Liked
-Sheldon shakes Leonard's outstretched fist rather than bumping it. They can do more than just fart jokes on this show.
-Penny does a good "Lovely assistant" bit while she's visiting Leonard's lab. I wish I had a lovely assistant to tell me why my pencils are sharp.
-Two weeks ago, Howard was an astronaut, and now he's a Smurf. Oh, how the mighty are fallen.
-Bernadette's voice after Howard impersonates her. Melissa Rauch should do more voices on the show. Her "I don't sound like that" voice and her version of Howard's mother are both very good.
-Buzz Aldrin tells all the trick-or-treaters that come to his house that he's been to space. I want to believe he does this in real life, I really do.

Candy is twice as delicious in space. It's science!

What I Hated
-They made Penny into kind of an annoying bitch at the start of the episode. She's not the smartest character, but thinking that her job as Leonard's girlfriend is to let him do things to make her happy seems a little too stereotypical blonde airhead-esque.
-Howard was building a sex robot. Because that's a thing that nerds do. They go a little far sometimes, but lately it's been rare for them descend into ridiculous stereotypes.
-Amy drinks from her tea cup about two seconds after Sheldon pours the water in. Now, I'm not a tea drinker, but I think it's fairly safe to say that the stuff in that cup hadn't had time to become tea.
-Captain Sweatpants wasn't at the party. Now, more than ever, the world needs Captain Sweatpants!

Final Thoughts
I didn't list it in the previous section because it seems kind of petty, but Leonard's magic hologram thing kinda bugged me. True, it wouldn't have looked as cool, but they could've shown off an actual 3D holographic laser interference thing instead of something that won't be practical for 30 years.

Also, I think technically it's engineering and not experimental physics.

Despite the fact that I only got twenty laughs out of this episode, and thus didn't find it as funny as some of the earlier episodes this season, I still appreciated the fact that they managed to work in all their credited characters, and they wrapped everything up in a plot mechanism that gave a little cohesion to all the disparate plot threads. Jamming eight characters into twenty minutes isn't easy, but they managed to make it work, and that deserves some recognition.