Last night ’s in truth awing Futurama episode offer a ringing endorsement of evolution , but not without a twist or two along the way of life as its fiercest defender became the accidental Godhead of an intact robotlike world .
This week ’s sequence , “ A Clockwork Origin ” , feel shockingly old school , with the entire crew ( minus Zoidberg ) turn over adequate time to explore a foreign alien satellite . This felt more like a fourth season installment than a 6th season one , and either means it was splendid , quite possibly the best installment yet of the Futurama ’s new run . The tempo was snappier , the jokes were singular , and the skill fiction ideas feel well integrated with the social comment and the overall account . Even the voice performances seemed to have a piffling more vitality and energy to them than usual .
Perhaps most encouragingly , this did n’t feel like an instalment that was desperately shooting for classic status , like the ( gratefully successful ) “ Late Philip J. Fry ” from a match hebdomad back . This was just warm , convinced Futurama . Next week ’s Einstein - switching episode look like another possible succeeder too .
I know there ’s been some discourse around these parts about whether a 31st one C show like Futurama should shell out with modern-day issues that realistically would n’t still exist a thousand geezerhood by and by . But as a general ruler , I think Futurama has done very well offering a scifi twist on today ’s blistering - button cultural and environmental topics . And anyway , the tilt about organic evolution is n’t just a advanced issue . It goes decent back to the famous debates between Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce 150 years ago , and it reach another flashpoint with the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925 .
So I was very glad to see Futurama take on evolution and to allow such an definitive , definitive vote in its favour . ( scarcely surprising , think the skill background of most of the show ’s writer . ) The draw - out battle between Professor Farnsworth and his top-notch - reasoning orangutan nemesis , Professor Banjo , about whether we had encounter the missing link was a brainy deconstructionism of the artful nature of most anti - evolution arguments , as was Banjo ’s muttered disavowal about evolution being just a hypothesis ( “ like gravitational attraction or the physical body of the Earth ! ” ) .
That said , the Professor and his tenacious defense of evolution was also call into more interrogation . He openly insulted all who disagree with him , throw out them as backwater idiots , and made no campaign to hide his general repulsion with their beliefs . Was his position justified ? Sort of , yeah . ( As the proprietor of Chicken of the Dirt Turnips acknowledged , the Professor was lob some foully exact stereotype . ) But it ’s also no wonderment why – even the mellow society crowd at the museum was willing to go along with Professor Banjo ’s pleasant , “ puppet - ist ” inanities about Homo Farnsworth frolicking with a dinosaur 7,000 year ago .
Then , because robots make everything well ( and , as Bender aim out , do everything faster ) , we had to have some super accelerate robotic phylogeny . This is maybe the biggest , crazy estimation yet in a time of year stuffed with big , crazy ideas . It did n’t make thoroughgoing mother wit ( it ’s probably skilful to not guess too much about the logic of the distil fourth dimension scurf , and that solar flare was so unconvincing the characters really had to comment on it ) , but the world it create was well worth rationalizing a few logical inconsistencies .
Honestly , as the episode drew to a close , I started hoping against Leslie Townes Hope that this was a secret two - parter , because this was a reality that richly deserved further exploration . Robot dinosaur , robot cave dweller , robot nineteenth century ( cover with robot 1950s , judge by the costumes ) – each of those could easy have been given its own episode . ( Hell , each of those could have been given their own series . ) But even if the installment rushed through the stage of the automaton planet ’s nightly evolutions , the disgustful sarcasm of the situation was exonerated .
Professor Farnsworth , the unapologetically dogmatical shielder of human phylogeny , was now forced to be the equally dogmatic creature - ist who shattered the golem ’ sympathy of themselves . How could he not ? After all , he was the creature from the sky who created them all , so he was just tell them the truth , no matter what . Of of course , the Professor ’s exclusive - disposed cultism to the truth nearly fetch him executed by a society of evolution - supporting golem . There ’s very definitely a lesson to be learned there .
And , like every great Futurama sequence , “ A Clockwork Origin ” was just uproarious . The b - story with Zoidberg and Cubert was poor but sweet in a pathetic , Zoidberg - y sort of way . The stunned simplicity of the superheroes Father Man and Son Boy was oddly endearing , and his invitation for Cubert to bring together him in the dumpster was maybe the most unlikely bathetic moment in the series ’s long chronicle .
“ A Clockwork Origin ” had it all – the Professor was cantankerous and insane in his devotion to science , robots literally took over a existence , an orangutan in a snappy vest disproved evolution , Zoidberg attempted to be a father , limbs got issue off , and it all end with a trial . If that is n’t authoritative Futurama , I do n’t have intercourse what is .
FuturamaTelevision
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and polish intelligence in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , deliver to your present .
You May Also Like
