The Final Frontier
Season 5, Episode 6
Air date	November 5, 2012
Written by	Kate Sargeant
Directed by	Jonathan Frakes
Episode guide
Previous "Probable Cause" Next "Swan Song"
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The Final Frontier is the sixth episode of the fifth season of Castle.

Summary

When a body is found at a sci-fi convention, Castle and Beckett are warped into the heart of fandom—a world of egotistic celebrities, diehard costumed fans and enough drama for two galaxies.

Recap

Promo

Cast

Main Cast

• Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle
• Stana Katic as Detective Kate Beckett
• Jon Huertas as Detective Javier Esposito
• Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan
• Tamala Jones as Dr. Lanie Parish (credit only)
• Penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates (credit only)
• Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle
• Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers (credit only)

Guest Cast

• Ed Quinn as Gabriel Winters
• Christina Moore as Stephanie Frye
• Armin Shimerman as Benjamin Donnelly
• Arye Gross as Sidney Perlmutter
• Erin Way as Audrey O'Neill
• John Bobek as Davis Hawthorne
• Chris L. McKenna as Simon Westport
• Juan Monsalvez as Commander Walsh
• Melinda Cohen as Lt. Chloe Preston
• P.J. Ochlan as Lt. Shane
• Jeff Galfer as Henry Barnett
• Anna Bowen as Officer Tate
• John Gloria as Bartender
• Kari Ann Klinkenborg as Pretty Woman
• Brian Treitler as Friend
• Channing Nichols as Teenage Girl
• Unknown as Annabell Collins

Quotes

Beckett: Cap your pen, Castle. There's been a murder, here.

Castle: Here at SuperNovaCon?!

Beckett: Hmm-mmm.

Castle: Shiny.

Beckett: I thought you would be a fan.

Castle: I'm a fan of good sci-fi. Star Trek. Battlestar. That Joss Whedon show. But "Nebula 9"? No, no. It's all phony melodrama and lifeless acting.

Beckett: So, I was a Nebula-9 fan. Big deal.

Castle: Oh, you were beyond a fan. You dressed up in costume. You.

Beckett: Okay, yes. I was a sci-fi loving, costume wearing geek. And you know what? Not ashamed of it or of Nebula-9. Despite what you think, it was an awesome show.

Castle: Hmm. I’ll tell you what. I’ll forgive you your terrible taste if you ... try on that Nebula-9 costume for me.

Beckett: In your dreams.

Castle: Look at my life. My dreams come true.

Castle: Annabelle said she was betrayed by someone she trusted. Maybe that was Captain Max. Oh, my God! Alexis?

Alexis: Dad? What are you doing here?

Castle: What are you doing here dressed like that?

Alexis: We're Havacura. It's a tribe of female assassins who –

Castle: Don't wear clothes?

Alexis: You're overacting. And you're embarrassing me.

Castle: Oh, I'm embarrassing you? I'm the one who's dressed.

Alexis: Dad!

Beckett: Castle, come on. Let's go.

Castle: Are you kidding me? Do you see what's she's wearing?

Beckett: Yeah, it's not that bad.

Castle: Not that bad? How am I gonna unsee that?

Castle: Some guys have no business commanding a spaceship.

Beckett: Just goes to show you sometimes people aren’t what they appear to be.

Castle: For Alexis’ sake, you’re right, given what she was wearing.

Beckett: Castle, she is a full-grown woman.

Castle: Who, as we speak, is being ogled by thousands of sweaty, lecherous fan boys. It’s just so...wrong.

Beckett: Can I just point out the fact that the costume she was wearing is not so different from the one you are asking me to wear?

Castle: Don’t say that! That...it's confusing and disturbing.

Castle: Sexy dreams? You know, it’s never too late to live out your fantasy.

Beckett: You do realize that this is still a crime scene?

Castle: Oh, right. Ew.

Featured Music

• "Ideal Woman" - William Shatner
• "So Sexy" - Radio Free America
• "Tesla Girls" - Orchestral Manoeuvres in The Dark

Trivia

See Sci Fi References in The Final Frontier for a full listing of science fiction references.

• Director Jonathan Frakes has a small cameo as Castle's number one fan. After Castle signs his copy of "Storm Season" Frakes exclaims "Thanks, I'm your number one fan!" to which Castle replies "...how far they fall."
• Chris McKenna played Joey Buchanan in One Life to Live, the same character that Nathan Fillion played when he was on that show. McKenna played the role from 1990 to 1993 before Nathan took over the role in 1993.
• In "Tick, Tick, Tick…", Castle suggested that Beckett (and suggested Nikki Heat alter ego Kate Beckinsale) could go by the nickname "K-Becks". In "Food to Die For", her high school friend Madison called her "Becks". In this episode, a friend reveals that her nickname at Stanford was indeed K-Becks.
• Esposito recognized the Kreever alien and reviewed its habits for Ryan, suggesting that he, too, is a closeted Nebula 9 fan.
• Winters was held at gunpoint while the killer admitted to her crime, then struck and disabled her... only to reveal that the gun was on stun all along. This is essentially a reprise of Castle apprehending the killer in "Flowers for Your Grave".
• Stana Katic voiced "the Oracle", the ship's computer on Nebula-9.^[1]
• Someone in a Lone Vengeance costume is seen when Castle is talking to Alexis. Later in the episode, an another Lone Vengeance costume can be seen when Detectives Ryan and Esposito are at the convention center bar.
• The show Castle has A LOT of things in common with the 80's show Remington Steele staring Stephanie Zimbalist and Pierce Brosnan. In that show the main character Laura Holt (played by Zimablist) is a strong self-confident woman working in a male oriented environment (a detective agency) and Pierce Brosnan plays the handsome, charming vagabond who cons his way in to her life and helps her solve cases with street smarts and an array of movie-references. The two flirt and shares the occasional kiss but doesn't get in to a proper relationship until season 5. Pierce Brosnan's character also searches for the real identity of the father he has never known. Even the show intro from seasons 1-3 in Castle where Richard Castle in a voiceover explain the shows premise is reminiscent of that of Laura Holt's voiceover in the intro of the first seasons of Remington Steele - more to the point - they also have a case in a comicon and Laura also turns out to be a "fangirl" of a fictional hero, to the point of getting in costume imitating her hero, very much like Beckett in this episode.
• When Castle is told that the murder has to do Nebula-9, he dismisses it as not a quality sci-fi series, then names off a few, including saying 'That Joss Whedon Show', referring to Firefly.
• This marks the third time Richard Castle made a reference to Firefly; the second time being from the episode Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind, when he mentions his speaking of fluent Chinese. The first time was in the episode Vampire Weekend when he dressed in his Captain Malcolm Reynolds outfit.
• Castle sounds excited at the prospect that the murder could've been committed by a Cylon skinjob, particularly if it was Number Six. Nathan Fillion has dated Tricia Helfer, the actress who played Six in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
• Early on in the investigation, as Beckett and Castle are walking through the convention, a priest who resembles Caleb, the character Nathan Fillion played on Buffy, walks by them.

TV Show References

References