Leonard,
Sheldon,
Howard and
Raj are heading to
San Francisco to attend a conference, where
cosmologist George Smoot is giving a keynote address. On Sheldon's insistence, they travel on the
Coast Starlight train, finding that actress
Summer Glau (played by herself) is onboard. Raj and Howard argue over who should approach her first. With Raj
unable to talk to women except when under the influence of alcohol, he goes to buy some from the catering car. As Howard is trying to figure out the best opening line, Raj swoops in and starts talking with Summer (even using the same line Howard planned to use: "It's hot in here, it must be Summer"). Their conversation is going very well until Howard points out to Raj that he is drinking
non-alcoholic beer, its
placebo effect fails, and Raj quickly departs the scene. Howard tries to strike a conversation but ends up annoying her. Finally he asks to have his picture with her to which she agrees until his advances annoy her again and she breaks his phone. Afterwards Leonard musters the courage to approach Summer, but she gets off the train as he is introducing himself. During the train ride, Sheldon realizes that he has forgotten the flash drive containing the paper he wanted Smoot to read. Reluctantly, he resorts to asking
Penny to enter his bedroom and locate his flash drive so she can email him the paper. When Sheldon eventually presents the paper to Smoot (appearing as himself) and proposes joint research on the subject, Smoot rejects his idea, much to Sheldon's chagrin. ==Production==