Futurama: Space Pilot 3000 (1999)

By Calimlim, Noli R.

2013-11406

Futurama’s first episode, Space Pilot 3000, was first aired on March 28, 1999 which technically a time where advancement and improvement of technology was surely evident. This year was part of the decade when Dolly the sheep was cloned, Hubble Space Telescope was launched, World Wide Web and HTML were created, Microsoft’s Windows 95 and 98 were introduced to the market, the first SMS text message was sent and a lot more development. The way how science in 1990s revolutionizes astronomy, biology and other branches of it and the fast trend how technology advancement controls people’s life to be more efficient shows no doubt why would be the concept of “time-travelling” might enter a creator’s mind (during the mentioned period) and introduce it to public through fiction cartoon sitcom like Futurama.

This episode tackles time-travelling by letting a noise maker knocks back Philip Fry’s face, causing him to accidentally fall backwards into a cryogenics tube as he enthusiastically toast to another lousy millennium. The tube sets itself for a thousand years as Fry becomes frozen. While he is in deep slumber, New York City experienced drastic changes such as the invasion of destructive mysterious spaceships. The reconstruction of it into a primitive Medieval-era kingdom, only to be destroyed again by more floating armed ships. As soon Fry awakens, he sees that the city has become an extremely futuristic metropolis that leads him to deduce that he is in the future.

From a comedic point of view, this episode might take future and science as a perfect and ideal living. At first, we may only acknowledge the advance technologies shown such the floating vehicles, transport tubes, DNA Probulators, the existence of robots even the walk of an alien among people. But then, although indirectly implied, most life as shown in the future was doomed because of science. The presence of Suicide Booths implies that most people (or robot) were not satisfied with their living as programmed in their career chips, “You gotta do what you gotta do!” This dissatisfaction was also shown as Bender lines up next to Fry to use the said booth and as Leela removes her own chip and joins Fry on the run.

Basically, Science and Technology may progress exponentially but then changes should be direct proportional to as humans manage to be highly satisfied with it.

Works Cited

"1990s in Science and Technology." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

"Space Pilot 3000." Theinfosphere.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

Futurama S01E01 - Space Pilot 3000

2013 - 17819

Futurama starts with the main character, Fry, having a particularly bad New Year's Evening. He had to work, which isn't that bad, but it is for a pizza delivery guy. While Fry was on a delivery, he stumbled on his girlfriend hanging out with another man. He walked up to her to say hi but she broke off their relationship instead. He went on with his job, but when he reached his destination, his bike got stolen. And what's worse was the delivery was just a prank call. He spent the rest of the last night of year 1999 in a cryogenics lab where he accidentally entered a freezing chamber set to be on for another 1000 years.

Fry wakes up to the first day of the year 3000. The civilization he woke up to was quite similar to the Community in the 1993 novel by Lois Lowry, "The Giver". In Community, there are Elders who would look for a person's strengths and weaknesses to give him an appropriate job. The future in Futurama had the same concept. They analyzed Fry with some sort of contraption and deduced  that the profession Fry should have would be... delivery boy. Afraid of his destiny, he escapes and encounters different types of technology that were not yet available back in his time. Traveling tubes, suicide booths, robots, head preservation, light sabers, you name it, they were all there like in any other typical science fiction show.

The show tackles the topic of time travelling in a unique way, probably the most possible way. Cryogenics, the process of freezing cells to preserve them, is now possible in our present time. I believe that it won't be long until this method of time traveling can become true. But, this method of t is not the same as the other, more complex ones. For one, it is irreversible. Once you go to the future, you will not be able to go back to your original time line. Second, you can only go to the future, the past is unfortunately not on the route of this train. Third, it was time travelling only for you. Other people will go about their normal daily routines. It's just as if you slept for a very long time and woke up to another time.  

Futurama - Reaction Paper

Futurama is a science fictional cartoon series with the main character Philip Fry, who gets a second chance in life by inadvertently going inside a time machine and travels 1000 years into the future. Hoping for a better life, he finds himself being assigned to the same job, as a delivery boy and decides to run away from it. After being awakened from the cryogenic statis, Fry meets a one-eyed alien girl whose job is to reintegrate him to modern society.

            It is evident that in the future, people were programmed to do specific tasks, which disallows them to make choices for themselves. It was seen how Fry, Turanga, and Bender try to change that by defying the law and escaping their fate on earth. While running away, he discovered other things that the future can offer. In a transportation tube fry met bender, apparently benders wants to die, but because fry has no intention of passing away yet. They survived the booth and leela removed her chip, she also confessed that she hates her job.

            It can be said that in the future our lives would be easier and much more comfortable but with a lot of things that could change your faith as showed on the pilot series of futurama. Relying purely on technology and computre assessments isn’t the way of human nature

Futurama: Pilot Episode Rxn Paper

               Futurama is a science fiction cartoon series with Philip Fry as the protagonist. He is a pizza delivery boy who is sick of his life. On New Year’s Eve, after delivering pizza in a cryogenic laboratory, while trying to understand why his life was so miserable, he accidentally got into a cryogenic tube that froze him for 1000 years.

                Waking up from a thousand year slumber, he was amazed to see how advanced the future is: flying mobiles, buildings with “creative” architectural designs and a woman with one-eye that would assess him, Leela. The computer-determining career assessment, it was shown that Fry’s job would be a delivery boy, again. When Leela was about to install the career chip in him, he refused to “do what you gotta do”. He clearly doesn’t want to be a delivery boy again because he doesn’t want to be a loser according to him. He promised that his second chance would not got to waste.

                While running away, he discovered other things that the future can offer: transportation tube and suicide booth. Fry met Bender inside the booth. Apparently, Bender wants to die, Fry wants to phone his great great great nephew. But because Fry has no intentions of dying, they both survived the booth. They became friends and shared how much their life sucks. Together they ran away from Leela and found themselves in a deserted underground place. This place turned out to be from Fry’s time.  Leela cornered Bender and depressed Fry. He told Leela that he will accept the delivery boy job. To his surprise, Leela removed her chip. She confessed that she, too, knows what it feels like to be lonely and that she hates her job.

                It can be inferred in the pilot episode that the future promises us advanced technology and a relatively easier life. But it does not assure us that it would give us a contented life. It basically showed the other side of the coin: that amidst all these higher grade automation, people doesn’t seem to find their happiness. Doing a job permanently based on computer assessment isn’t something to be thankful of.   

 Zhedrik Chua

2012-15340

Futurama Sitcom Reaction Paper

Corpuz, Raiza M.

Futurama is a science fiction cartoon about Philip Fry a New York City delivery boy who accidentally slipped into a cryogenic pod that froze him for a thousand years. Several invasions by extra-terrestrial beings with advanced machineries caused the rise of different civilizations in New York City. Finally Philip reawakens to a modern New Year’s Eve of 2999. Not at all uncomfortable that he is transported a millennia to the future, he considers his situation as a start of a new life. Apparently, he has nothing important left in his past and a new life is what he was really asking for.

Not long after being reawakened, he finds himself being assigned as a delivery boy again. Moreover, a chip is injected to everyone that seemingly attaches their occupation to their identity. Future may be depicted orderly and very advanced but it can also be seen as stifling. People’s skills are evaluated and immediately assigned to a field and they don’t have a say on that. There also exists a suicide booth which for me shows that the people living in that millennia already forgot to value their own lives. However beautiful and forward the new civilization is, the people are dissatisfied with it. Machines make their own choices for them and people are forced to compel to the system. This situation is not that different to our present situation although it is not as obvious today. We can see parents forcing their children to take this and that courses because it will help them earn more in the future thus, helping them survive. We can’t help but to cope to the norms of our society because taking a different route is very risky. Philip, Leela and Bender however chose to take that unguaranteed route and accompanied Professor Farnsworth in Planet Express Inc.

Futurama may be science fiction but it also shows how people can react to a change of civilization accurately. Science may advance exponentially, but it also needs to wait for the people cope with the change.

Futurama - Episode 1 - Space Pilot 3000

Futurama is a science fiction cartoon sitcom from the creators of The Simpsons. Futurama tells the story of a boy named Fry, who happens to be a pizza delivery boy around the year 2000s (The series begins at December 31^st of the year 1999).

The pilot episode shows us the life of Fry, working at a job he hates, getting dumped by his girlfriend, and getting his bike stolen. Basically, his life sucks, and he feels stuck and hopeless as the clock strikes to midnight, signifying the dawn of a new millennium.

Fry gets his second chance at life when he accidentally falls in a cryogenic machine, freezing him for 1000 years, and later reviving him at the year 2999. Here we are shown a view of the future (from the imagination of the writers).

Earth is repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt after numerous alien invasions (This happens while Fry is in cryogenic sleep). The future in 2999, however, shows that the earth sustaining different kinds of life: The aliens now walk among us. Advance technologies are shown, such as transport tubes, DNA “Probulators” and suicide booths. Robots are also existent, and in fact, one of the main characters of the series is a robot (Bender).

After being awaken from cryogenic stasis, Fry meets Leela, a “beautiful” alien Cyclopes, whose job is to reintegrate him to “modern society”. One thing to note though, it seems that the even though the future shows us a world of complex technologies, there some aspects of human life that remain the same (at least in the pilot episode). Language has not evolved, as well as mannerisms and interactions. There are drastic changes however, such as Fry’s main conflict in the episode: being branded with a chip that will permanently assign a career to a person. In Fry’s case, he was doomed to become a delivery boy. In the future, a career is assigned to a person, and the person has no say, and has no chance of changing careers. The future for our future people, are set to stone.

Leela is charged to implant the mentioned career chip to Fry, who of course, refuses to go back to a job he hates so much. A chase ensues, where Fry got away, and Leela ends up in cryogenic sleep – for 5 minutes (Thanks to Fry).

The thing that hits me the most about this episode, is that albeit all the wonders that the future has in store for the main characters: Fry, Leela, Bender, there still seems to be a level of frustration, sadness and anger existent. It’s as if these new conveniences have done nothing to increase human happiness in general.

The “happiness” was achieved, when they managed to get out of the “system”. Leela, deciding not to implant to chip in Fry, and removing her own chip, decides to quit her career. Together, they join Fry’s only relative in the future, Professor Farnsworth, and they head off to space. Farnsworth gives them new career chips, and new jobs, and Fry, ironically, ends up being the delivery boy that he wants, but this time, he accepts it with glee. (Maybe it’s not the job, but Fry’s control over his life that is keeping him from a satisfying life.)

I have been a fan of the Simpsons, and to be frank, I expected Futurama to be something similar. Turns out, it was far from it. Futurama is a fish-out-of-water story, with a protagonist set in a world he can barely comprehend, and yet survives. Science and technology can take us far beyond the reach of our own imagination, but the human spirit, though it may evolve, will always be.

STS Reaction Paper on Futurama

Kristine Faith D. Valle

           

            Futurama is a science fictional cartoon series with the main character Philip Fry, who inadvertently goes inside a time machine and travels 1000 years into the future. Hoping for a better life, he finds himself being assigned to the same job, as a delivery boy and decides to run away from it. In this episode, various perspectives related to life are presented. With a mix of humor, Futurama, as reflected in this episode actually provided important insights about the relevance of making your own decisions and living a full life.

            It is evident that in the future, people were programmed to do specific tasks, which disallows them to make choices for themselves. It was seen how Philip, Turanga, and Bender try to change that by defying the law and escaping their fate on earth. They were dissatisfied with their present condition because they did not feel as if they were doing the things that they wanted to do but hence, they were only given tasks which they did not even choose, for the sake of fulfilling a job. They found it very pointless and therefore, decided to escape that despite the consequences of exile. The future, played in the context of Futurama, was presented to be a pessimistic environment wherein people were provided with easy means to take away their life and were not given choices to decide what they truly desire. The mere existence of a suicide booth showed that society valued their lives less in that context as they can easily take away their lives with just a cheap amount of one coin. The depiction of the future in this series presented a paradox. Generally, 1000 years from now, people would always imagine a better society. While society was scientifically and technologically advanced and it was in “order”, happiness of people were sacrificed and thus, the ideal or a “better society” was not achieved.  This reflects another truth regarding science and technology. While developments and innovations in this field provide good to humanity, there are consequences that must be faced in exchange of these benefits.

            Futurama definitely brought me humor while at the same time, presenting relevant truths that are important reflections of our society at present. I’ve only watched one episode, but seeing that already encouraged me to watch more episodes from the series.