TV Show Review

TV Review: THE BIG BANG THEORY: Season 8, Episode 19: The Skywalker Incursion [CBS]

Kaley Cuoco Melissa Rauch Mayim Bialik The Big Bang Theory The Skywalker Incursion

CBS The Big Bang Theory The Skywalker Incursion  TV Show Review. The Big Bang Theory, Season 8, Episode 19: The Skywalker Incursion  saw the series get back on track after it seemed to lose its balance over the sadness and death of actress Carol Ann Susi, who had played the off-screen voice of the mother of Howard Wolowitz (Simon Helberg). This outing gave the writers and thus the cast members the chance to do what they do best, hurl verbal zingers at each other while driving each other crazy.

Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons) are on their way to a scientific conference and decide to take a detour to visit the nearby Skywalker Ranch owned by George Lucas of Star Wars fame. This after Sheldon has displayed a new invention, a Public Restroom Kit complete with toilet paper, air freshener, a danger whistle, and a toilet stall checker to investigate possible weirdos in the stall next to you by using a tiny mirror on the end of a stick.

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This kookie moment matched with Parsons’ undeniably funny ability to retain a completely deadpan expression is what has made the series comedy gold.

The two star-struck Lucas fans manage to clear the ranch’s first security gate. Leonard comes clean and admits to the gate guard “We’re just fans,” while Sheldon as usual takes the more childlike and pompous route by declaring, “We want to meet George (Lucas) and become his friends and play with him.”

Honesty in this case is not the best policy and in his determination to gain entry and meet Lucas, Sheldon abandons the car. We hear his off-screen cries for help as a guard is giving him the taser (stun gun). The duo wind up in a guarded holding pen for trespassers and have full chance to vent their well-known paranoiac, competitive, geeky, odd-couple tendencies.

“For all the times you’ve found me irritating, you got to watch someone shoot me with a taser,” Sheldon huffily snaps at Leonard.

Meanwhile Howard, Penny (Kaley Cuoco), Raj (Kunal Nayyar), Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) and Amy (Mayim Bialik) gather to figure out what to do with stuff in Howard’s late mother’s house. Bernadette wants to sell Howard’s TARDIS, a blue-colored time machine that looks like a phone booth, made famous in the Sci-Fi TV series Dr. Who, but Howard wants to keep it

They decide to compete in a ping pong match to see who gets to keep the TARDIS. When Raj (representing Howard) starts beating Penny (representing Bernadette), Bernadette convinces Raj to throw the game so Howard will lose the TARDIS. After charges of collusion, they switch to have Amy versus Raj, and Bernadette convinces Amy to lose to have the TARDIS put in her house—-a supposed sexual attractant to Sheldon.

Amy and Raj only have overwhelming power serve ability and are unable to volley, achieving some laughs as they both freeze and duck with every serve of the opponent. The resulting stalemate tie puts the TARDIS at Amy’s front door, but the climax (pardon the pun) still doesn’t get Sheldon in her bed.

The episode combined some good gag writing with physical action (ping pong) that made for a better-than-average outcome.

Leave your thoughts on this review and this episode of The Big Bang Theory below in the comments section. For more The Big Bang Theory reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our The Big Bang Theory Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on TwitterTumblrGoogle+, or “like” us on Facebook for quick updates.

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John Sammon

John Sammon is a writer whose experience includes newspaper reporting, magazine writing, personality profiles, interviews, celebrity interviews (Clint Eastwood), historical pieces, investigative and crime. He was selected “Most Valuable Reporter” for California’s oldest continually operating newspaper, and covered the weekend crime beat for a daily newspaper in Nevada. If you beat your wife on Friday, he wrote about it and got you in deep trouble on Saturday. He covered the Nevada brothel beat and did stories on wild horses. The publication of his investigative pieces led to a dishonest political candidate withdrawing from a statewide elective campaign, while another politician unsuccessfully sued him because he didn’t like an article Mr. Sammon produced. His articles led to government reforms, including a school district performing its first-ever financial audit, and a Nevada State Law rolling back home heating oil prices for fixed-income seniors who depended on it. Mr. Sammon is also a humor writer of the website Sammonsays, a professional script writer, an actor and member of the Screen Actor’s Guild, a film narrator for the California State Parks system, a standup comedian, and the author of three novels and one nonfiction book. He worked in his spare time with sick and wounded animals at the SPCA. Mr. Sammon's latest book, "Sammon Says: Exposing American Empire," a compilation of over 100 political opinion columns written over several years and recounting America's involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, was released in October 2013 by Dictus Publishing of Germany. He is working on a new historical romance novel.
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