It's an exactly identical universe, so whether it's the same or different is a matter of philosophical debate. William James's verificationist motto states "A difference that makes no difference is no difference."
FUTURAMA: Rebirth
- Thread starter tharpdevenport
- Start date
MeanJoePhaser
Admiral
10 years has passed on the show's time, which got me thinking that 10 years ago, Fry would've wanted to stop himself from being frozen in the 20th century (he can't remember the Nibbalonians, IIRC). Now, it wouldn't even cross his mind. Bender should've stopped and had a back-up unit installed in his baby self, though.
If Bender had done that, then Universe C Bender would still be there, despite being crushed by the time machine.
If Bender had done that, then Universe C Bender would still be there, despite being crushed by the time machine.
And a few feet to the right!
I just realized this whole cyclical universe thing is kind of similar to "Battlestar Galactica" with its "all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again" spiel. I loved this episode. That final shot was such a great example of how this show can brilliantly combine poignancy with that humour of apathy towards the horrible. The growing absurdity of the futures was a delight too, and Fry and Leela's messages to each other were perfect in their simplicity. The world with the babes reminded me of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". This episode had hilarious and wonderfully organic pop culture reference gags out the wazoo.
Well, that IS where it comes out.
I liked that Hitler said, "Look at my moustache." 
This was very enjoyable-- I liked all of the weird futures. And the ending with Bender burying the bodies was hilarious. I don't know if it was Emmy material, but it was a lot of fun and had some nice, touching moments-- along with the creepiness of cougar Leela jumping Qbert's bones. 
And I think the Cavern on the Green is an excellent idea.
And I think the Cavern on the Green is an excellent idea.
Bender's Big Score established itself taking place in December 3007/January 3008. Beast with a Billion Backs takes place a month later. We are not given a date in Bender's Game, but Into the Wild Green Yonder claimed it was 3009.
Having the latest episode take place in 3010 doesn't seem that much of a stretch at all.
What gets me is that in 3010, Cubert is still apparently prepubescent. I could buy it as a side effect of the cloning process, except that in Bender's Game, Dwight Conrad was also prepubescent. He, at least, should be a teenager by now.
And I'm not happy that the future Cubert is still played by Kath Soucie. Logically, as a clone of the Professor, the adult Cubert should have Billy West's voice. Plus it's always annoyed me on The Simpsons when they did "future" episodes and had the adult Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, etc. still sound like little kids (or rather like the women who do their voices).
And I'm not happy that the future Cubert is still played by Kath Soucie. Logically, as a clone of the Professor, the adult Cubert should have Billy West's voice. Plus it's always annoyed me on The Simpsons when they did "future" episodes and had the adult Bart, Milhouse, Nelson, etc. still sound like little kids (or rather like the women who do their voices).
Meh. Trek's already done it. Twice.it's a throw away joke but basically all the characters are dead and now copies except for Fry, Prof, and Bender!
Voyager killed Harry (of course) and replaced him with a duplicate from a parallel Voyager. DS9 killed O'Brien (of course) and replaced him with an O'Brien from 5 minutes in the future.
And sometimes those references are precognitive, too. Futurama predicts Sharktopus - in 1999!
Coming this fall to SyFy: Manquito vs. Parasitic Puppy! Bender will referee.
I think I read somewhere that the concept of a "sharktopus" had been around as a meme for a few years and that the SyFy movie of that name was specifically inspired by it. Maybe Futurama was the originator?
Oh... OK, well that's good to know. I don't really care, I just hope the writers had a clue what was going on.
But "depicting [them] with the same [voices] is effective, efficient [auditory] shorthand"!
Also, I imagine they would've paid for the voice actors already.
In other news, I've finally gotten around to watching the Futurama movies, and am 3/4 of the way done. While Bender's Big Score absolutely lived up to the movies' crappy reputations by being boring, badly paced and completely forgettable*, I thought Beast with a Billion Backs and (albeit to a lesser degree) Wild Green Yonder were really awesome.
*I'm serious. I don't remember the plot to it at all and I watched it less than two weeks ago.
MST3K once skewered an 80s Jaws ripoff featuring a Sharktopus. Clearly the idea's been floating around for a while.
But "depicting [them] with the same [voices] is effective, efficient [auditory] shorthand"!
You don't need auditory shorthand since you can recognize their faces. And the point I made in the passage you're paraphrasing is the opposite of this. I was saying that shrinking Bender to child size was an effective shorthand way of conveying that he was an infant. In this case, you'd want to convey that the normally preadolescent male characters are now adults, so the best shorthand would be to give them the voices of male actors rather than female ones.
In "Lisa's Wedding," the adult Martin was played by Dan Castellaneta. Given that 99% of the adult male voices on The Simpsons are done by the same three men anyway, they wouldn't have needed to hire anyone new. Castellaneta plays Homer and Abe Simpson, so it would've been logical for him to play the adult Bart. And I can easily imagine Harry Shearer doing an adult Milhouse, Hank Azaria doing an adult Nelson, etc.
And of course, as I already said, in this case the logical actor to play Cubert as an adult is Billy West, since Cubert is a clone of the Professor and should have basically the same vocal apparatus.
Finally saw the episode. Nice to see that Futurama is still capable of making episodes that will rank among their best! 
I just finally got around to watching the last episode. I guess the first batch has dampened my enthusiasm to the point to where I can leave fresh Futurama to sit on a hard disk for almost a week...
Anyway... that was actually pretty good! Emmy shot? I dunno about that, but as an episode with no expectations from hunting down producer quotes, I enjoyed it.
Honestly who gives a fuck if the cartoon characters aren't aging properly? And that Simpsons uses the kids voices for future adult versions? Once again, who cares, it's a fucking cartoon! I realize Futurama pays a little more attention to continuity than most 'toons, but when it comes to suspension of disbelief with a show like Futurama, it just seems like cartoon kids not aging properly isn't even on the radar!
The looped universe made me think of this exchange from an older episode:
Anyway... that was actually pretty good! Emmy shot? I dunno about that, but as an episode with no expectations from hunting down producer quotes, I enjoyed it.
Honestly who gives a fuck if the cartoon characters aren't aging properly? And that Simpsons uses the kids voices for future adult versions? Once again, who cares, it's a fucking cartoon! I realize Futurama pays a little more attention to continuity than most 'toons, but when it comes to suspension of disbelief with a show like Futurama, it just seems like cartoon kids not aging properly isn't even on the radar!
The looped universe made me think of this exchange from an older episode:
I'd say Fry's ignorance screwed the guy, but I suppose sitting in a Cryotube won't get you through the big bang anyway!Fry said:
Similar threads
