The Big Bang Theory season 5

The fifth season of the American television sitcom The Big Bang Theory aired on CBS from September 22, 2011 to May 10, 2012. The season includes the 100th episode of the series.

At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, The Big Bang Theory was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but Modern Family on ABC won. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series and Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series.

Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for "The Werewolf Transformation", but lost out to Jon Cryer. Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", but lost out to Julie Bowen.

Overview
Penny regrets her sleeping with Raj and has become very good friends with Leonard, Leonard breaks up with Priya, Amy pushes Sheldon in their relationship eventually becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, Penny and the other women become a clique of their own, Howard prepares for his wedding and going into space to the International Space Station and Leonard asks Penny out as they begin "Leonard and Penny 2.0".

Main cast

 * Johnny Galecki as Dr. Leonard Hofstadter
 * Jim Parsons as Dr. Sheldon Cooper
 * Kaley Cuoco as Penny
 * Simon Helberg as Howard Wolowitz
 * Kunal Nayyar as Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali
 * Mayim Bialik as Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler
 * Melissa Rauch as Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski

Special guest cast

 * Brent Spiner as himself
 * Leonard Nimoy as Spock (voice)

Recurring cast

 * Christine Baranski as Dr. Beverly Hofstadter
 * Aarti Mann as Priya Koothrappali,
 * Brian George as Dr. V.M. Koothrappali
 * Alice Amter as Mrs. Koothrappali
 * Carol Ann Susi as Mrs. Wolowitz
 * Wil Wheaton as himself
 * Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom
 * Laurie Metcalf as Mary Cooper
 * John Ross Bowie as Dr. Barry Kripke
 * Mike Massimino as himself
 * Joshua Malina as President Siebert
 * Vernee Watson as Althea
 * Casey Sander as Mike Rostenkowski
 * Pasha Lychnikoff as Dimitri Rezinov
 * Stephen Hawking as himself

Guest cast

 * Katie Leclerc as Emily
 * Courtney Ford as Alice
 * Blake Berris as Kevin
 * Ashley Austin Morris as Laura
 * Josh Brener as Dale
 * Lance Barber as Jimmy Speckerman
 * Jonathan Schmock as Jonathan
 * Jim Turner as Reverend White
 * Becky O'Donohue as Siri
 * Lynn Phillip Seibel as Professor Rothman
 * Peter Onorati as Angelo
 * Chriselle Almeida as Lakshmi
 * Robert Clotworthy as Dave Roeger (voice)
 * Amy Tolsky as Joan

Production
Several high-profile celebrities appear in the season. In "The Transporter Malfunction", actor Leonard Nimoy appears as a voice actor, playing an action-figure Spock that Sheldon imagines talking to him. In the following episode, "The Hawking Excitation", cosmologist Stephen Hawking appears as a guest star. Astronaut Mike Massimino appears in "The Friendship Contraction" and "The Countdown Reflection".

Stephen Hawking went on to appear in the season 6 episode "The Extract Obliteration" and the season 7 episode "The Relationship Diremption". Mike Massimino later appeared in the season 6 episodes "The Decoupling Fluctuation" and "The Re-Entry Minimization".

The season finale depicts Howard Wolowitz traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Soyuz rocket. Thanks to technical consulting from astronaut Mike Massimino, who also plays himself on the show, the production crew was able to put together sets that realistically depicts the Soyuz capsule and the ISS. The Soyuz capsule was constructed based on photos from NASA, the Kansas Cosmosphere for dimensions, and scavenged parts from an aerospace junkyard in Los Angeles.

Critical reception
The fifth season received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of eight critics gave the season a positive review, with an average rating of 8.4/10.

Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club gave the season a B+ rating. He described Raj as the "weak link of the show" as he has not "[evolved] like the rest of the cast" and is "trapped in season one mode". Sava gave high ratings to episodes where Raj did not feature prominently, such as "The Pulled Groin Extrapolation" or "The Russian Rocket Reaction" and described "The Wiggly Finger Catalyst" (an episode focusing on Raj) as "one of the series' worst", giving it a D+ rating. Sava's favorite relationship on the series is between Amy and Penny.

Jenna Busch of IGN disliked the previous season but said that season 5 "is far more balanced"; Busch gave season 5 episodes ratings between 5.5 and 9, with an average rating of 8.0. She also noted that the show has "matured" by including other women in the main cast.

Tom Gliatto from People gave the season 3 out of 4 stars, stating that it is "bright and obvious as a cartoon, yet written with a clean, precise patter of jokes".

Awards
At the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, The Big Bang Theory was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but Modern Family on ABC won. The show was also nominated for Outstanding Technical Direction, Camerawork, Video Control for a Series and Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing For A Comedy Series.

Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for "The Werewolf Transformation", but lost out to Jon Cryer. Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah Fowler) was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for "The Shiny Trinket Maneuver", but lost out to Julie Bowen.

Distribution
The season premiered on CBS on September 22, 2011. It was released on DVD with an aspect ratio of 16:9 format on September 11, 2011, in Region 1, on September 2, 2012, in Region 2 and October 3, 2012, in Region 4. The episodes can also be purchased on Amazon Video or the iTunes store in the US.

Canadian broadcast
In Canada, The Big Bang Theory aired on CTV Television Network. The season premiere ("The Skank Reflex Analysis") garnered 3.72 million viewers and the finale was watched by 4.04 million households. Most episodes were the most watched programme in Canada that week. The highest rating in season 5 was 4.05 million, for "The Infestation Hypothesis", and the lowest rating was 3.17 million, for "The Stag Convergence".