Thoughts on 6ACV23 - All the Presidents' Heads - SPOILERS!

[Reply #240 on:]

It's a cool premise, perhaps. It didn't mandate time-travel, though. They could have used this information to fuel some other plot, probably. Or at least come up with a better time-travel method that didn't seem cheap compared to earlier time-travel episodes.

I actually think it would have made a lot more sense for them to have used the What-If machine to see what would have happened had they gone back in time. The ending could have been the crew standing around the monitor, disgusted at the Farnsworth/Queen sex scene playing out before their eyes (but hidden from ours).

[Reply #241 on:]

The What-If machine, yeah, brilliant! That would have worked much better. They would have gotten to use all of the excellent character designs they came up with for the episode (my personal favorite part of the whole thing, I love some of the costumes the crew was in) and we wouldn't have had those mediocre scenes at the Head Museum, which didn't do much for me at all.

[Reply #242 on:]

Maybe they'll do that in a future episode: "What if we had used the 'What If' machine, instead of going back in time to ..."

Or maybe "What if Leela had never written that stupid children's show?"

[Reply #243 on:]

*Bender sneaks in...*

"What if Futurama never existed?"

*the crew burst in*

"BENDER NO-"

*universe collapses, fourth wall explodes, screen cracks*

[Reply #244 on:]

What if ATPH didn't suck?...

[Reply #245 on:]

Well, it doesn't, look at the poll...

[Reply #246 on:]

I can't speak for everyone, but in hindsight I certainly overrated this ep. Plot flaws, contradictions, bad jokes, poor story, boring non-futuristic setting for a large part, not good...

Luckily there were far better episodes to come afterwards, which only goes to show this ep up for that bad mistake that it was...

[Reply #247 on:]

What a sad commentary on the state of Futurama.  Either the episodes have decent or brilliant premises, but terrible execution or they have terrible premises, which no amount of execution can fix.  This episode's premise sounds rather fun and awesome, but the episode is a big meh.  "Yo Leela Leela" on the other hand has a terrible premise, which - despite Eric Horsted's best attempts - cannot be fixed in its execution.

It seems like a 'filler episode', as in 'we have 26 episode slots to fill, let's use this one'.

[Reply #248 on:]

This one definitely felt like a filler episode, which is part of why the time travel felt cheap.

Either the episodes have decent or brilliant premises, but terrible execution or they have terrible premises, which no amount of execution can fix.

This is very true. Examples of the former include Neutopia (and perhaps to some extent Overclockwise, though I think that one was pretty well done), and I'd put Silence of the Clamps in with the latter.

There were some gems in 6B: Law and Oracle and Cold Warriors were pretty great, I love Fry and the Egg Man, many like Mobius Dick, potentially Overclockwise, and of course Reincarnation. But as far as the more filler-esque episodes go, it's pretty much always one of these two fatal flaws.

[Reply #249 on:]

*Bender sneaks in...*

"What if Futurama never existed?"

*the crew burst in*

"BENDER NO-"

*universe collapses, fourth wall explodes, screen cracks*

I'm not sure that would happen ... They did ask what would happen if Fry didn't get into the future thingy.

[Reply #250 on:]

Yes, but that didn't really break the fourth wall...

[Reply #251 on:]

This wasn't the greatest episode, but there were a couple gems that made it overall worthy to me.

-The head doctor calling Fry Lars
-The explanation of how the heads stay alive in a jar (pure science-malarky at its best)
-the Franklinator

[Reply #252 on:]

-The explanation of how the heads stay alive in a jar (pure science-malarky at its best)

At its worst. At its worst, laziest, and generally most obnoxious, in fact. Why couldn't there have been some kind of temporally harmonised induction ring in the bottom of the jars that harnessed natural chroniton (or anti-chroniton) flux to charge the heads with static time which earths itself through the person licking the head, displacing them temporarily through time and space to an era when the body from which the head was taken is still living?

That would have been a million miles better than crystalline opal somehow having properties which essentially translate to "magic". The Futurama writers spent god knows how long coming up with that, by tyhe way. The above is something freshly pulled from my ass.

[Reply #253 on:]

-The explanation of how the heads stay alive in a jar (pure science-malarky at its best)

At its worst. At its worst, laziest, and generally most obnoxious, in fact. Why couldn't there have been some kind of temporally harmonised induction ring in the bottom of the jars that harnessed natural chroniton (or anti-chroniton) flux to charge the heads with static time which earths itself through the person licking the head, displacing them temporarily through time and space to an era when the body from which the head was taken is still living?

That would have been a million miles better than crystalline opal somehow having properties which essentially translate to "magic". The Futurama writers spent god knows how long coming up with that, by tyhe way. The above is something freshly pulled from my ass.

And yours is, frankly, less funny.  What they put in wasn't funny because it was clever or even remotely scientifically probable.  It was funny, to me, because it was basic a throwaway "we have no idea how it works, we just use this crystalline opal", which to me is similar to Torco's executive powder.  It doesn't make any sense but everyone just accepts that it has a dozen uses.

Is your suggestion more clever?  Sure.  Is it more Futurama-esque?  Arguably.  Would it make me laugh at the sheer absurdity of it?  Nope.  Hence "Science-Malarkey" aka science-bullshit.

[Reply #254 on:]

Sure, tnuk's is less funny, but the fact that it is both more clever and more Futurama-esque suggests that something like it should have been used in place of "it's magic". Torgo's is funny because it's its own thing. The idea of a powder made from executives that can do pretty much anything is original. The opal thing is a form of time-travel, which is not an original idea, and the Futurama writers had already proved that they were capable of devising inventive new methods and explanations for time-travel that were at least significantly backed by a logical or scientific explanation. As such, this subsequent time-travel method, which was neither inventive nor logical, fell flat.

[Reply #255 on:]

Sure, tnuk's is less funny, but the fact that it is both more clever and more Futurama-esque suggests that something like it should have been used in place of "it's magic". Torgo's is funny because it's its own thing. The idea of a powder made from executives that can do pretty much anything is original. The opal thing is a form of time-travel, which is not an original idea, and the Futurama writers had already proved that they were capable of devising inventive new methods and explanations for time-travel that were at least significantly backed by a logical or scientific explanation. As such, this subsequent time-travel method, which was neither inventive nor logical, fell flat.

I'll have to agree and disagree.  I recognize how poor their explanation was, but it does nothing to reduce that I found it amusing.  There wasn't a need to spend even more than a minute trying to explain how the time travel was going to happen, it was just a shtick to get it past that.  

I said this episode wasn't particular great, but the few things I did find funny weren't because I thought they were clever by any means.  I just found it humorous for what it was.

Edit>  Dammit, now that I've gone over in my head with Tnuk's explanation in the Professors voice, followed by him still just licking a head, has ruined my enjoyment of that scene.  Though improved it arguably.

Damn you.

[Reply #256 on:]

Torgo's Executive Powder is humorous because, banking on the movie's target audience, pretty much everyone hates FOX for the poor treatment the show got (I'd be surprised to see sympathizers out there). The use of opal is at best marginal, but then the actual licking of the jars to get to that person's time period is too...dumb downed for the audience, is best to put it. I understand its analgous to licking toads, but this is Futurama. The future. Not the 60s. Time machine - has roots in science fiction. Cool. Licking heads/jar water - has roots in stoner movies. Not cool.

I think I explained myself well. Others feel free to disagree with me if you'd like.

[Reply #257 on:]

Also all the hilarious uses of Torgo's Executive powder.

[Reply #258 on:]

The future. Not the 60s. Time machine - has roots in science fiction. Cool. Licking heads/jar water - has roots in stoner movies. Not cool.

Well...the first journey lead them to the 60s, so they made at least one reference to that time

[Reply #259 on:]

The time travel method was crap. Although, not as bad as Neutopia's gender-swapping.

[Reply #260 on:]

I beg to differ. The gender swapping was alright, not great, but it was certainly better than the terrible cheap time-travel method which contradicted previous things too...

[Reply #261 on:]

Better than Tommy Hilfijiger...

[Reply #262 on:]

The time travel method was crap.

This is true. However, after hearing DXC talk in the commentary about how they envisioned this episode as an alternate-history sort of thing, I can see why they focused less on the how of the time travel and more on the historical details of the periods to which the crew travels. Their research in that respect was rather impressive, I think.

I mean, I still hate that time travel has become sort of commonplace on this show. And it still bugs me how rushed this particular episode's third act is, and how bloated its first act is--but I quite enjoy everything that goes on in act two, and think this is one of the better episodes of 6B.

[Reply #263 on:]

ATPH seems so non-canon.

[Reply #264 on:]

I quite enjoy everything that goes on in act two, and think this is one of the better episodes of 6B.

Act two is good, but the rest of the episode is a let-down in all respects bar the British NNY scenery. It's in with the better half of the season, certainly. But it's far below the standards of Reincarnation (and episodes like RTEW, TWOF, TLPJF and even parts of BBS).

[Reply #265 on:]

Oh, I agree that this episode is the weakest of the time-travel ones--and by a wide margin. Mostly I enjoy having an episode that I can understand, with my scant knowledge of American history; DXC mentions in the commentary that the show tries to cater to every kind of nerd, and this episode is definitely more about appeasing history buffs than impressing sticklers for scientific accuracy.

And the writers at least tried to do something different with the time travel in this episode--not in terms of the method of time travel, but in terms of its purpose. Regardless of how many times the writers have broken their own no-time-travel-ever rule, they have at least made sure that each instance of traveling through time has different antecedents and different consequences.

[Reply #266 on:]

The British NNY scenery was one of the few saving graces. Maybe I should try watching it with the sound off, might be more enjoyable then...

ATPH seems so non-canon.

I wish it was, but even then it would still be a shitty episode. At least a few of the continuity problems could be let off though...

[Reply #267 on:]

I have never actually heard anyone in the UK refer to someone else as "Ducky".  Ever.

Well besides me, but only to refer to one person in particular, whose nickname is last name is Duck.  Oh and there's a drag queen comedy night in Soho called "Duckie" but that's about it.

[Reply #268 on:]

I have never actually heard anyone in the UK refer to someone else as "Ducky".  Ever.

There's this random new polish kid at my school who looks and talks like a duck.
We call him Duck Boy..

[Reply #269 on:]

That's different.  In most parts of London for example, people usually refer to each other as "Sod off".

[Reply #270 on:]

And that's if you get a polite person...

[Reply #271 on:]

That's different.  In most parts of London for example, people usually refer to each other as "Sod off".

Most kids in my school and area find the British to be, well, gay (Because of your guys use of words and accent). I personally find it to just be unwanted prejudice, as I know you guys are not. Some weird language/words compared to our words? A little. But it doesn't mean that you guys aren't humans. 

[Reply #272 on:]

The UK could twat all of the US.

End of story.

[Reply #273 on:]

I hate how Americans think they created the English language and when we keep the original spellings/names for words they think we are wrong/stupid (Or in your friends case, homosexual)

[Reply #274 on:]

We're not all like that, just the douchebags. But I know you guys are cool. Also, I'm glad to see how we have a big foreign fan-base that I was not aware of.

[Reply #275 on:]

Well globviously... Futurama is universally loved!

[Reply #276 on:]

Here in the state Danny, it's not as appreciated. I have some friends who are fans though.

[Reply #277 on:]

I beg to differ. The gender swapping was alright, not great, but it was certainly better than the terrible cheap time-travel method which contradicted previous things too...

Certainly not better. They at least attempted to explain the time travel here (and yes, they did a really crap job of it), but they didn't even bother explaining the gender-swapping. We're supposed to see it as "magic." 

Anyway... I don't know what I was thinking giving this episode an 8/10 initially. It's just painfully average.

Final score is 6/10. Aside from Neutopia and Yo Leela Leela, it's the worst of 6B in my opinion.

[Reply #278 on:]

Anyone notice that when Fry, Leela, Bender and the Professor return from the 20s, Bender still has that guy inside of him? I'm guessing he escaped from Bender's chest cavity in 3010 or the 1700s... Either way, he's not in the 20s...

[Reply #279 on:]

I get the feeling that Bender was applying his degree in 'Robo-American Studies' in this episode.