The Holographic Excitation

The Holographic Excitation is the fifth episode of the sixth season of the CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. The airing date of this episode is yet to be announced.

Plot
The episode starts with Howard presenting Stuart with his official NASA portrait autographed, though Sheldon mentioned that he also gave one to the dry cleaners and Walgreen's drug store. Leonard and Sheldon hypothesize that Howard will connect his trip into space with any subject and they succeed talking about dinner options and lemons. Howard meets their expectations. Stuart decides to organize a Halloween party at his comic book store so Raj decides to become the party planner.

Amy and Bernadette are attending ladies night at the Cheesecake Factory bar while Penny serves them. Amy claims that life doesn't get any better than this, to which Penny says to herself that she hopes it does gets better. Leonard texts Penny about going out costume shopping. Penny confides in the girls that she's going to the comic book store Halloween party even though the guys hanging around can be creepy. Amy and Bernadette then ask like their better halves? Bernadette also says that Leonard does things that he doesn’t like to make her happy and that maybe she should take more interest in his work. Penny say as that that is true but she doesn't understand what he does and their explanations about theoretical physics don’t help.

Later Amy and Sheldon are discussing their Halloween costume ideas and Sheldon surprises Amy that he agrees to go in a couple’s costumes because that is one of the great advantages of being in a relationship. (Note sex is not one of them) Amy wants to go as something like Romeo and Juliet, however Sheldon's ideas for great costumes are R2D2 and C3PO or Hewlett and Packard. Amy disagrees and doesn’t want to go as two robots from a movie she doesn’t even like.

Penny visits Leonard's Lab and he shows her some of his "high techy techy" equipment including a system that scans objects and generates rotating holograms. First there is a floating pencil, that changes into a rotating earth and then a rotating galazy. Leonard muses about some scientists who think that the whole universe is one large hologram. Penny remarks that she forgets how smart he really is, gets turned on, locks the door and they start to fool around on the lab table.

In the cafeteria Raj is discussing his Halloween themed party foods and Howard keeps talking about his time in space. Leonard wanders in with his hair messed up and a smile on his face. Asked about what is going on and he replies "nothing". Howard says that he knows where there is a lot of nothing is and the three of the guys say "space" simultaneously.

Howard and Bernadette had just crawled into bed and start getting romantic, but after six space metaphors, Bernadette stops to talk. She tells him that people are getting tired of hearing about it. Howard complains that he can't talk about the greatest adventure of his life and she suggests that he wait until they bring it up.

Penny is again visiting Leonard's lab as he demonstrates a floating iron ball levitated by a large magnetic force. Penny thinks its very neat until Leonard mentions that something he feels like Magneto from the X-men. Penny replies now it seems less neat, until Leonard mentions he's wearing the black underwear she bought him. "There ya, go," she replies starting to kiss him again. In the cafeteria, Raj is getting a Dr. Who TARDIS photo booth for the party which excites Sheldon, while Howard is being very quiet and noncommittal. He finds that Sheldon and Raj agree that he was talking too much about space. Leonard enters again all messed up and very happy.

Amy and Sheldon are still discussing their costumes. Sheldon suggests salt an pepper, but Amy has had a bad experience with both. she claims that there are three things that say that she doesn’t have a made-up boyfriend, couple costumes, hickies and sex tapes. She asks Sheldon to pick one and he doesn't know what a hickey is.

At Bernadette's apartment, they are both dressed up as Smurfs. Howard isn't that excited to go since all his friends think he is boring. Bernadette asks of he is feeling blue, laughing that that is like the funniest things she ever said. Hten she pushes him out the door since she spent three hours painting herself blue and doesn't want people to think she is a very short Avatar movie alien.

At the Halloween Party, Penny dresses as as a sexy cop and Leonard goes as Albert Einstein. Bernadette mistakes her for a slutty cop, however that costume only came with a skirt and two badges. Leonard says that later she was going to arrest him for travelling faster than the speed of light. Stuart as the Willy Wonka tries to pick up a girl claiming to have come up with all the party food and decorations much to Raj's disgust. Raj is India Jones, the orginial's Inadian love child. Amy and Sheldon show up as "Raggedy C3PO" and Raggedy Ann due to "a compromise". Howard gets upset about not being about to talk about has space adventures because otherwise he’s just plain old Howard Wolowitz. Bernadette reminds him that he is best guy she knows and the she married him "on purpose". Penny and Leonard stumble out to the TARDIS all disheveled and Penny explains that there is nothing to see, only sexy police business. Leonard ala Albert Einstein says that he was explaining to her the theory of relativity; twice.

At the end, Howard gets a YouTube clip from Raj showing Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, handing out Halloween candy to kids mentioning his trip to space to every kid. Howard tells Bernadette that he now gets it.

Trivia

 * Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon after Neil Armstrong makes his first guest appearance on the show in this episode.
 * Apparently, Raj knows of Buzz Aldrin by now, as he thought the only astronaut named "Buzz" was Buzz Lightyear in The Friendship Contraction.
 * Raj said in The Countdown Reflection (S5E24), "I keep telling you, if I wasn't an astrophysicist, I would have been a party planner." In this episode he really acts as a party planner.
 * Raj dons an Indiana Jones costume and refers to himself as "Indian Jones" for the Halloween party (or "Koothra-party") at the comic book store, reaffirming the gang's love for that franchise first displayed in The 21-Second Excitation.
 * Meanwhile, Sheldon fittingly turns himself into the droid C-3PO for the occassion. In The Vegas Renormalization, Raj inquired if Leonard kind of looked like a shiny Sheldon after the latter of the two claimed to be a Star Wars character for a guessing game and Sheldon remarked, "That’s preposterous. I do not resemble C3PO. Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered, I just don’t see it." (He has also been compared to a robot in The Fuzzy Boots Corollary and The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification.)
 * Penny expresses her wish to get to know about Leonard's work in The Gorilla Experiment (S3E10) when Bernadette went to visit Leonard's Lab; curiously, Penny doesn't visit the Lab until this episode.
 * Leonard explains the holographic principle of string theory to Penny, after showing her a series of holograms in his lab.
 * Penny revs up her relationship with Leonard by have sex with him in different places; his lab and the TARDIS booth at the Halloween party. She also is awed by what she sees in his lab and realizes again how smart he is.
 * Leonard and Penny's having sex in the TARDIS is a reference to one of the major storylines of Doctor Who. In that series, the Doctor's companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams shared their wedding night in the TARDIS, which resulted in the conception of their human/Time Lord offspring River Song. Penny's sexy policewoman costume is a further reference to Amy Pond, who wore a similar costume for her job as a kiss-o-gram girl, and later donned the same outfit during her honeymoon.
 * When Sheldon and Amy are deciding which couple to dress up as, one of the couples on Amy's list is "Blossom and Joey". This is a reference to the 1990s sitcom Blossom which starred Mayim Bialik as Blossom Russo and Joey Lawrence as her brother Joey. In The Bat Jar Conjecture, Raj suggests getting "the actress who played TV's Blossom" for their physics bowl team to replace Sheldon.

Reference

 * Taping report by Roxanne