"Futurama" Fear of a Bot Planet (1999)

Directors:

Peter Avanzino
Carlos Baeza

Writers:

Matt Groening (creator)
Matt Groening (developer) ...

TV Series:

"Futurama" (1999)

Original Air Date:

20 April 1999 (Season 1, Episode 5)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy | Drama | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Fry and Leela disguise themselves as robots to find Bender after he fails to return from a delivery to a robot planet...

Plot Keywords:

Xenophobia | Alien | Delivery Boy | Robot | Future

Cast

  (Episode Credited cast)

Billy West	...	Philip J. Fry / Prof. Hubert J. Farnsworth / Dr. Zoidberg / Robot Leaving Theatre #1 / Robot in Jury #3 / Robot Elder #1 (voice)
Katey Sagal	...	Turanga Leela (voice)
John Di Maggio	...	Bender / Robot Construction Worker / Robot Playing Human / Robot Foreman / Jimmy (voice) (as John DiMaggio)
Tress MacNeille	...	Wendy / Female Robot at Human Hunt / Robot in Jury #2 (voice)
Phil LaMarr	...	Hermes Conrad / Blern Commentator / Robot Doorman #1 / Rusty (voice)
Maurice LaMarche	...	Robot Doorman #2 / Radio Newsreader / Robot Elder #2 (voice)
David Herman	...	Snack Clerk / Resin Offering Robot / Robot General / Robot Coming Leaving Theatre #2 / Robot at Human Hunt / Robot Mayor / Robot Judge / Robot in Jury #1 / Robot Elder #3 (voice) (as Dave Herman)
Tom Kenny	...	Robot Passerby (voice)

Runtime:

Argentina:30 min

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Trivia:

The surname of the player whose score Leela updates while the crew is at the blurnsball game is "Costanza" - a reference to George Costanza, a character on the sitcom "Seinfeld" (1990), who was an employee of the present-day New York Yankees.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the judgment scene, when the judge freezes up, Fry yells: "Call technical support." In that frame, he is drawn with his manacle chain outside the bars, whereas in all other shots, it's on the inside with him.

Quotes:

Dr. Zoidberg: I'll have some squid log.
Hot Dog Vendor: Sorry, we don't serve that.
Dr. Zoidberg: Fine, then I'll have one of your young on a roll.
Hot Dog Vendor: We don't serve rolls.
Dr. Zoidberg: Fine, just give me something crawling with parasites.
[Cut to Zoidberg and the others eating hot dogs]
Fry: At least hot dogs haven't changed.

Movie Connections:

References Star Wars (1977)

Thoroughly enjoyable tale... of genocide

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Here's an episode I almost completely forgot about until I rediscovered it on DVD. It's fairly good, about a delivery to a planet inhabited only by robots, who despise humans and want to eliminate them. (A possible home planet for the terminator, perhaps?) Fry, Leela and Bender bring a package to the planet, but only Bender can actually leave the ship and make the delivery since the robot radicals would kill Fry and Leela on sight. But when they hear Bender has been arrested as a human sympathizer, Fry and Leela disguise themselves as robots and enter the robot city hoping to rescue Bender.

The episode touches on the basic conflict between man and robot- is the robot exploited, and if so, should we feel bad about it? It's not an issue today since robots aren't yet conscious but I've heard this dilemma could become a reality eventually. Bender is shown resenting how he is treated as a thing, and questions whether the anti-human robots can be properly called radicals just because they "want to kill humans." The humour in that is that it is obviously a radical position. This is actually a comedic episode about a very touchy issue- genocide. The robots having a crime against simply being human is a crime against mere existence, and under that law, all of those guilty are to be executed, and that's what we'd call genocide. The robot leaders also at one point admit that humans are harmless and they're just scapegoats for the planet's troubles. Again, this could be touchy because it reflects how Jews were made scapegoats in Nazi Germany. But Fear of a Bot Planet isn't offensive, I guess because it's not about real holocausts, and it actually succeeds in scoring a few laughs. For example, with the robots making an anti-human horror movie. This is also the episode where the Planet Express ship hits and destroys a tiny planet, a joke the makers of the show liked so much that they used it again in Parasites Lost and the volume 3 DVD menu. Thumbs up from me for this episode.