Official 'Money Plane,' 'Compulsion' Details

By Christian
March 6, 2005 - 1:43 PM

CBS will be airing new episodes of both CSI: Miami and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation this week.

First up on Monday at 10:00pm is CSI: Miami's "Money Plane." Below is CBS's official plot description for the episode:

Someone uses a laser light to blind a pilot and bring down a jet, which carries over one billion dollars in checks to be delivered to banks on the eastern seaboard. The crime scene evidence reveals a victim, a young fundraising socialite, who was inside the plane but killed prior to the crash. Now, although the team has little to work with since the victim's wealthy family is opposing an autopsy, Horatio must follow the money trail. Meanwhile, Calleigh works on a case with her ex-boyfriend, Det. Hagen, and their romantic history could cause problems for both of them.

"Money Plane" was directed by Miami regular Scott Lautanen, who this season also helmed episodes such as "Under the Influence" and "After the Fall." Writing duties were shared by Sunil Nayar and Steven Maeda, who previously worked together on the season two finale "Innocent."

The following guest actors will be making an appearance in "Money Plane:"

Matthew Butcher as Uniform
John Allen Nelson as Mike Rydell
Kenneth Colom as EMT #1
Holt McCallany as Det. John Hagen
Greg Evigan as Sean Walsh
Brian Poth as Tyler Jenson
Brian Stepanek as Andrew Stamler
Andrea Silvers as Caitlin Townsend
Taryn Manning as Heidi Dillon
Joan Severance as Sophie Townsend
Michael B. Silver as Peter Elliott
Corey Brill as Hamilton Solomon
Michael Landes as Nick Marshall
Boti Bliss as Valera

Of the above actors, Holt McCallany, Brian Poth, Michael B. Silver and Boti Bliss will all be reprising previous-established recurring roles. Of the other guest actors appearing on "Money Plane," only Michael Landes has previously appeared in one of the CSI shows before, when he played Trent Reed in last year's "Paper or Plastic" installment of the original CSI. Two other guest actors whose faces may be familiar to TV fans are John Allen Nelson, who was a regular on Baywatch for five years, and Greg Evigan, who had the lead role in the TekWar TV movies and in one season of Melrose Place.

On Wednesday, CSI: New York will be the only CSI not airing a new episode, but instead repeating "American Dreamers," in which a tourist discovers a skeleton on a Times Square double-decker tour bus, and the CSIs must investigate whether the remains were left there as a practical joke or if the person was murdered. After closely examining the remains, Dr. Hawkes discovers that the victim was likely a Caucasian male teenager who died from a blow to the head more than 10 years ago. Their search leads them to a bus station and a missing boy who disappeared in 1987. The team must then piece together the clues to find out how the boy really died and who was to blame.

A day later at 9:00pm, fans will be able to enjoy the new regular CSI episode "Compulsion." Take a look at what you can expect from this episode:

When a serial killer strikes again and murders a flight attendant, the CSIs dig up evidence from a prior killing in the hopes of using new technology to make a match. The fingerprint is linked to Jesse Acheson, who becomes the prime suspect in the case. Meanwhile, when a teen boy is found dead in his bedroom, the Las Vegas Police Department elicits a confession from his brother, but the evidence leads the CSIs in another direction.

This episode was directed by Duane Clark, who usually works on CSI: Miami, for which he this season shot "Lost Son," "Legal" and "Pirated." This is not his first episode of the original CSI, however - last year, he also helmed "Early Rollout." "Compulsion" was written by CSI co-executive producer Josh Berman and technical advisor Richard Catalani.

Below is the (rather massive) list of "Compulsion" guest stars:

David Berman as David Phillips
Louise Lombard as Sophia Curtis
Wallace Langham as Hodges
Aisha Tyler as Mia Dickerson
Marc Vann as Conrad Ecklie
Jason Segel as Neil Jansen
Jos� Z��iga as Detective Cavaliere
Joseph Patrick Kelly as Office Metcalf
Larry Sullivan as Office Akers
David Newsom as Hayden Michaels
Wil Wheaton as Walter (Homeless Man)
Tina Lifford as Judge Witherspoon
Stephen Baldwin as Jesse Acheson
Tamara Clatterbuck as Michelle Acheson
James Patrick Stuart as Adam Mathews
Cleo King as Lucy
Lee Tergesen as Robert Hawkins
Diane DiLascio as Yvonne Hawkins
Andy Gobienko as Matt Hawkins
Joseph C. Phillips as Graham Krell
Russell Sams as Front Desk Clerk
Erin Matthews as Martha Krell
Gillian Shure as Sue Stein
Victoria Reiniger as Judy Tremont

As is usual for CSI, "Compulsion" will be making use of many recurring characters: David Berman, Louise Lombard, Wallace Langham, Aisha Tyler, Marc Vann and Joseph Patrick Kelly all appear on an almost weekly basis on the series, and Jos� Z��iga, Larry Sullivan, James Patrick Stewart and Victoria Reiniger have also been seen several times before. But it appears the producers decided CSI's recurring actor roster wasn't yet big enough, as with this episode both Jason Segel's character of Neil Jansen and Tina Lifford's character of Judge Witherspoon, who both first appeared in "Mea Culpa," will be upgraded to recurring character status.

Of the other guest actors, only Tamara Clatterbuck has previously made an appearance on CSI, way back in the first season, when she played Sandra Hillman in "Fahrenheit 932." Two other guest actors may be known to viewers: movie star Stephen Baldwin, the brother of Alec Baldwin, and Wil Wheaton, who starred as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and recently wrote on his weblog about his experiences filming this episode (story).

The original press releases for CSI: Miami and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation can be found at the Futon Critic.

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