Howard's sexual fantasies go where very few have gone before...

"The Hot Troll Deviation"

Galactica doyenne Katee Sackhoff makes a welcome return appearance to Big Bang Theory this week in her increasingly regular role as Howard Wolowitz's primary sexual fantasy. It's hard for Howard to initially figure out why Star Trek's George Takei turns up as a third wheel just when our hero is ready for a spot of geek onanism with 'Starbuck'. Is Howard pitching for both teams? Or could it be that an earlier chance glimpse of his waitress ex-girlfriend - which sent him hurtling under the table in Penny's restaurant - has caused Lt. Sulu to pitch in as a voice of conscience? Our geek playboy-in-his-own-mind is clearly far from over the bagel-serving wench.

Soon Sackhoff and Takei develop a hilarious salt and pepper 'advisory routine' to help Howard accept his feelings and rekindle the floundered romance.

The two geek guests, pretty much playing themselves, provide some of the funniest (and just most fun) moments in BBT so far, with Takei proving a tremendous sport. After giving Howard advice about how to woo a woman, Sackhoff asks him "How would you know?"

Takei responds, a trifle defensively, "I read."

Great stuff. One might worry a little that Simon Helberg's delightfully sleazy Howard is developing some genuine social skills in the same season that this seems to be a theme for Sheldon, but the smart money is that he'll join the human race long before his lanky competitor.

Over in the other thread, things aren't quite so inspired, as Sheldon and Raj fight through a series of domestic disputes about the office space that they both now share, with the increasingly confident (but not with women) Raj buying a desk the size of a football field just to 'piss off' Sheldon. Has Sheldon forgotten that he's now Raj's boss? Or does the S4 theme of increasing humanity for Sheldon ("Sometimes I forget you're not a real boy", says Leonard to his flatmate at one point) preclude that he could play such a card?

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