Futurama / Red Dwarf article

[on:]

Hi...I've been lurking here for some time, but haven't contributed anything.  Although this is interesting...an episode-by-episode rundown of parallels between Futurama and the british sitcom, Red Dwarf.
 http://www.ganymede-titan.info/news/2004/august/24-2342.html

What do you all think?

[Reply #1 on:]

We've discussed the similarities between Futurama and Red Dwarf before, but that is a really nice episode by episode rundown.

Oh, and welcome to PEEL, Simpls.   

[Reply #2 on:]

Pretty convincing. The similarities between the two shows have been brought up on numerous ocasions.

Some comments: 

 

We first learn about the Simulants, ruthless mechanical killers who despise all humans and will stop at nothing to exterminate them. In I, Roommate Bender has recurring dreams about his own desire to "kill all humans." In Anthology of Interest I he even makes some pretty commendable progress at it; I'm sure the contents of Barbara Belini's pod would be very proud.

Plus killbots in LLLiS and the robots on Chapek 9 in "Fear Of A Bot Planet"

 

Sorry, but I need to give away the endings to both episodes in order to point out the difference. In Red Dwarf it turns out that the events of the episode were actually just a group-hallucination brought on by the ink from the Despair Squid, and they return from this hallucination to find themselves just where they were when the episode began: exploring an ocean moon in Starbug. In Futurama's Obsoletely Fabulous, Bender also awakens at the end to find out that the events of the episode were a hallucination, brought about by the upgrade he was receiving at the factory when the episode began.

Plus Leela's dream in "The Sting".

Welcome to PEEL. Enjoy it here.

If you've lurked here before, you know I'm the one who collects the admission fees, right?

[Reply #3 on:]

Interesting.
Although some of the quotes might seem to be a simple coinsidence, it is still an entertaining read.

[Reply #4 on:]

Oops.  I looked around to see if there was another thread on this subject, but I didn't see one...I guess I didn't look hard enough.

Anyway, it looks like the two threads compliment each other really well, as this one, and that one, both have parallels missing from the other.

Would it be wrong of me to compile all of these additional parallels I hadn't noticed into my original document?

Also, Teral, thanks for the help!  If I had seen The Sting I definitely would have added that...but until the season IV dvd came out yesterday, I hadn't seen it.  So far I'm really, really enjoying series IV.  I think the show was really starting to hit its stride...such a shame it's gone for good.

[Reply #5 on:]

Bender's reboot in the Bird-bot of Al-catrz is a reference to Robo-cop, not Red Dwarf.

[Reply #6 on:]

Though some of those are legitimate (like good parasites, "past nasification", and planet/garbage pool) most of the "similarities" are just standard sci-fi ideas that are bound to come up during the run of a sci-fi show, such as parallel universes, shapeshifters, robot religion and belief, time travel/skips, technology failing, etc. But it was interesting. Nice work.

[Reply #7 on:]

Yes, a lot are just standard SF ideas, especially standard SF ideas twisted for comedic purposes.

But there are a few errors.  Fry isn't really revived "much later than anticipated" because he doesn't anticipate being frozen at all.  Then there's the bit about Leela being called by her "last" name.  And Zoidberg is an alien, not an evolved Earth lobster!

[Reply #8 on:]

Plus, the GOOD BOOK 3.0 is stored on a standard 3.5 inch floppy, not an iomega zipdisk.

One of Zapp's lines from AWITM should read "spongy and bruised", not "weak and bruised".

Some of the compariosns are a bit of a stretch, but other than that it seems to be fairly well worked out. Although, I question the sanity of the person who sat down and did it.

[Reply #9 on:]

It's strange I should see this thread today because I was listening to the audio commentary of 'A Big Piece of Garbage' and the crew were explaining how, when the second ball of garbage was going to be fired at the first, they had toyed with the idea of the use of the 'worlds best pool player' to aim the shot and bounce the garbage away like a trick shot (they ended up settling for the 'Fry misses the launch button' gag). Lister played pool with planets in Red Dwarf's 'White Hole' episode.

Hmmm... That was interesting... no, wait, the other one... tedious.

[Reply #10 on:]

Tnuk is unbanned?  :blink:

[Reply #11 on:]

 

Originally posted by totalnerduk:
 Although, I question the sanity of the person who sat down and did it.

He signed up at PEEL, what more proof do you need?

 

Originally posted by Simpls:
Would it be wrong of me to compile all of these additional parallels I hadn't noticed into my original document?

I don't see how. I'd say go nuts.

[Reply #12 on:]

 

Originally posted by Dr. Morberg:
Though some of those are legitimate (like good parasites, "past nasification", and planet/garbage pool) most of the "similarities" are just standard sci-fi ideas that are bound to come up during the run of a sci-fi show, such as parallel universes, shapeshifters, robot religion and belief, time travel/skips, technology failing, etc.

I'd have to agree with that.  I was able to think of Star Trek: TNG parallels to a number of the ideas in your article.  But it's still an interesting piece of work.

[Reply #13 on:]

Also comparing WIMBACIL with that deleted episode is little incorrect since both of them are  evidently coming from ST´s "Amok Time".

[Reply #14 on:]

Sounds interesting.....

[Reply #15 on:]

   

In Raging Bender we see that All My Circuits: The Movie was directed by Directing Unit 4, written by Writing Unit 5 and Writing Unit 12...

Also Joe Eszterhas! (True, it doesn't really apply to the point you're making, but he was one of the listed writers and should be credited.)

   

Both Kochanski (in this episode) and Bender (in Obsoletely Fabulous) have doubts about the reality of their situation because their escape is too easy. Both of them happen to be correct.

That doesn't quite work, becuase while Kochanski questions "reality" during the simulation, Bender questions it only after the events were revealed to be a fantasy brought on by the upgrade.

You may (or may not) also want to add that the video game the crew plays in A Bicyclops Built For Two is similar in concept to Total Immersion Video Games from Better Than Life (in both, you are virtualy put in the action instead of controling a digital figure).

In Polymorph, we lern Kryten's crotch socket can be used to perform a variety of household functions.  In Bender Should Not Be Allowed On Television, we see that Bender's crotchplate has a built in electrical outlet (and possibly a camera, depending on how you interpret the "Camera 3" joke in When Aliens Attack).

[Reply #16 on:]

 

Originally posted by boingo2000:

In Polymorph, we lern Kryten's crotch socket can be used to perform a variety of household functions. 

Vacuum cleaning, and whipping upm a Spanish Omelette, if I remember correctly.