Castle is one of my favorite shows currently on the air, but it rarely fits onto a science fiction blog as it is a reasonably traditional detective show, albeit with a well known science fiction actor as the titular character. This week in, Time will Tell, it goes into great science fiction territory with two guest stars from science fiction shows that I have enjoyed and a plot that can easily be watched as science fiction.

The show begins as it normally does with Castle and Becket being called to a crime scene. The scene itself is a bit odd, but nothing beyond what you would expect to see on the show. The woman who was killed has been tortured and her throat slit. What is a bit odd is that there seems to be very little connection between the murderer and the woman.

Even stranger is that when the bring the main suspect in he claims to be a time traveler from the future. He is also Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez) from Chuck. They quickly discover that he could not have killed the woman because he was on a psychiatric hold while the crime was being committed. Then a few minutes later he disappears from the cells.

Continuing the case they discover that the man was actually looking for the victims brother, a theoretical physicist played by Tuvoc (Tim Russ). Who is also killed shortly after but the murderer seems to be looking for someone else.

Eventually they discover who he was looking for and Morgan claims that he is the inventor of an energy shield that helps with the energy wars. Of course everyone still believes that he is insane, but it’s clearly becoming a bit harder to ignore him. And they agree that they have to save the man’s life either way.

In the end the show leaves the question of whether Morgan the time traveler is insane or actually telling the truth largely open, but it drops a couple of fun clues at the end suggesting that it really could have happened.

The real point of this show isn’t the time travel of course. It’s them catching a murderer, but unlike so many shows this one knows how to have fun as well as tell a good story. It lets Nathan Fillion have fun throwing out absurd possibilities simply because they entertain him and suggests the absurd might even be true. This is also a great stand alone episode that any science fiction fan, who doesn’t hate a bit of detective work too much, could sit down and enjoy by itself.

This type of episode, along with the many Firefly nods is a large part of the reason that I watch Castle every week and while I fully understand there are plenty of people who simply don’t care for its genre of TV if you’ve ever considered watching Castle Time will Tell, which is the 5th episode of the 6th season is a fun epsode to try out.