Time Travel

[on:]

It seems to me like there have just been too many time travel related episodes. Like Roswell That Ends Well and Benders Big Score and the latest one with the "One Way Time Machine." I'm also sure there are more that I'm not thinking of. Any thoughts?

 

[Reply #1 on:]

After "The Why of Fry" first aired, I remember thinking "that was great, but they shouldn't do time travel again."

After "Bender's Big Score," I remember thinking "that was great, but they shouldn't do time travel again."

After "The Late Philip J. Fry," I thought...well, you get the idea.

I've liked each excursion into time travel, but I always feel like "well, that was awesome, but one more time would really be pushing it."  And I still feel that way, but I also realize that I've been wrong before and that it really just comes down to having the right story.  So I wouldn't want them to do it again, but in the event they do, I'll gladly eat my words (and not be all that surprised to do so) if it's as good as previous uses.

[Reply #2 on:]

Yeah when they went back to the opening scene of Space Pilot 3000 I thought something like Wow, this place has been visited more often than a whorehouse! But just when I think they can't reveal something else new they do. I love it. I love how Bender was the one who destroyed Earth outside in the pilot hahaha. I think after BBS though there's nothing else you can do to that scene, time to move along.

I thoroughly enjoy the Time Travel ones. There was also Time Keeps on Slippin' if you count the time jumps as time travel. Jurassic Bark wasn't Time Travel but it went back and forth in time, like Luck of the Fryrish, which I both enjoyed very much.

Well now they've traveled backward and forward, I don't know what else they can do following The Late Philip J. Fry but he does have that machine still...I just liked how in Roswell That Ends Well it was a rare astronomical occurrence that made them time travel, but yeah I can see why some may feel it's overdone because it seems that episode opened a can of worms in reference to time traveling.

I don't think I'd mind if they did it again, but they'd have to be very careful to make it come from a completely different angle given the overwhelming popularity and success from The Late Philip J. Fry. There's pretty much nowhere to go but down once you set the bar that high.  

[Reply #3 on:]

I've always liked how Time Travel has occured through rare or difficult circumstances, so I'm hoping they provide some reason in the future for not simply getting in the Fowards Time Machine and taking her for a spin to the next identical universe. It'd be kinda lame if they just used the machine again.

[Reply #4 on:]

You can always tell when Ken Keeler writes a Futurama episode because some kind of time-travel, multi-dimentional, weirdness happens.

A little time travel is okay but all the movies were about shifting into another dimension and stuff.  I've had enough.  Why not return to delivering signs to hot planets with water people that say, "Don't Drink The Emperor" in alienese.

[Reply #5 on:]

I agree it is all getting a bit far fetched, I think they should just stick to delivering things to the moon for a whole season. All these distant planets are very well and good, but how can we relate to them? ...

[Reply #6 on:]

It's not that you can't have a good story about that stuff but it's become repetitive.  The movie where Bender went back in time to kill Fry was hard to watch.  It was neat to see how Seymour (Fry's dog) was "fast fossilized" but the whole story was too hard to follow.

[Reply #7 on:]

I enjoy Time Travel eps... On thing I want to see again though:

The Parabox. MAKE A COMIC ABOUT IT BONGO!

[Reply #8 on:]

1. Ken Keeler has written, what? 2 time-travel episodes of 'Futurama'? I mean, it's technically 5 seeing as one was one of the movies, but that doesn't count.

2. Personally, I love all of Ken Keeler's time-travel episodes and I would happily watch another (although I do feel that it's better if they leave time travel alone for a while).

3. If you found Bender's Big Score hard to follow, that's your fault. I didn't have any trouble with it at all and its complexity (not a huge amount of it) makes it have more rewatchability.

[Reply #9 on:]

I'd like an episode that has one of the characters trapped in a parallel universe, and has to hop through many different ones to get home.  Maybe it could be an episode that puts Leela in the driving seat, and has her trying to get back to Fry?  I mean its pretty obvious the Futurama universe takes place in a multiverse.

I had this idea on the bus coming home, but I think it sounds too much like TLPJF but with Leela as a main.  That doesn't have to be a bad thing though, it would be nice to have Leela being the one trying to do something for Fry, instead of it always being the other way round.

[Reply #10 on:]

One of the characters in the new series actually said at one point, "Didn't this used to be a delivery company?"

[Reply #11 on:]

That's the joke.

[Reply #12 on:]

*Insert Rainier Wolfcastle pic*

...

[Reply #13 on:]

Keeler's probably my favorite writer and I love the time travel stuff because it's always so well done. BBS was brilliant. If it's confusing, watch it again, stuff will get cleared up - that's the point.

I think there have actually been more non-Keeler time travel eps than Keeler ones...
(Roswell, Why of Fry, All the Presidents' Heads, TLPJF)

[Reply #14 on:]

Technically Bender's Big Score is 4 episodes, so Keeler's written 5.

[Reply #15 on:]

Technically BBS is one movie, so Keeler's written 1 episode and 1 movie.

[Reply #16 on:]

Okay, there have been more non-Keeler unrelated time travel plotlines than Keeler ones.

[Reply #17 on:]

Indeed so, and I don't see how those by Keeler are such big a deal.

[Reply #18 on:]

Yeah.  Besides the whole delivery company thing falls apart when you think about it.  If they are flying across galaxies to deliver one basket of cookies or one crate of popcorn, how can they really be making much of a profit?  I doubt dark matter or whale oil is that cheap (2 cents a gallon, and a gallon gets you across a million light years?)  And we never see them picking anything up on their return (they always do one delivery per trip it seems) I'm surprised the company didn't go bankrupt after 2 or 3 deliveries. 

Its just something on the show that we shouldn't think about.

[Reply #19 on:]

If you want anything delivered on earth by a privately owned delivery company you pay according to distance and weight I assume.
So if someone really wants just a basket of cookies or a crate of popcorn delivered over a large distance they'd pay for oil / dark matter and wages of the employees.

Sure, delivering it yourself might end up being cheaper, but it would also be way more time consuming.

[Reply #20 on:]

If they are flying across galaxies to deliver one basket of cookies or one crate of popcorn, how can they really be making much of a profit?

They made fun of that in the computer game, when the company (once again) went bankcrupt and Farnsworth said "Maybe we shouldn't have used a giant spaceship to deliver just one parcel at a time...besides, you never charged anyone".
So, when Leela nags in "Neutopia" about Fry's "Free delivery" campaign, there was basically no need to. As nothing had changed...

[Reply #21 on:]

I suppose that for large scale, cheap deliveries, people would rather use Mom's Friendly Delivery Company. For something with a small, personal, expensive touch, as well as a 50% chance of it actually arriving, you'd shell out the extra dough for Planet Express.

[Reply #22 on:]

Maybe PE has the monopoly for deliveries to very dangerous places and through very dangerous routes and Mom's Friendly Delivery Company specialized in the common routes.

[Reply #23 on:]

I guess you're right, but I'm wondering how expensive intergalactic delivery rates are.  After all, I can't order anything off the American Amazon (lot of stuff on there that's not in Europe), but the shipping charges are obscene, and that's not counting import tax, and the tax for paying import tax (yes.)  I ordered one thing on there, and the shipping  and tax was double that of the actual item.
I suppose intergalctic deliviry rates and fuel prices are very cheap, if sending dime store signs and cookie baskets are available to both kings and the common consumer.

[Reply #24 on:]

Here taxes are 19% for imported items + processing once the value of the item(s) reaches a certain price.
Shipping charges depend on where you import from and how big the company is. The bigger the company the more likely they are to ship regularly to your country thus making the shipping less since they can bring more at once.
I'd guess the same applies to inter-planetar-shipping. The further the distance, the more dangerous the rout/destination and the less the number of items the higher the costs.
Fuel cost is a factor of the distance.
Ship-insurance is a factor of the danger and distance.
Wage of the employees are a factor of time needed (distance) and danger of the rout.

[Reply #25 on:]

I'd like an episode that has one of the characters trapped in a parallel universe, and has to hop through many different ones to get home.

Or perhaps... Slide?

its pretty obvious the Futurama universe takes place in a multiverse.

With the exception of the Universes created by the parabox(es), there are only two naturally-occurring Universes within Futurama. The regular one, and the cowboy one.

it would be nice to have Leela being the one trying to do something for Fry, instead of it always being the other way round.

Yes. Yes it would.

[Reply #26 on:]

Regardless of if they existed prior to Parabox and just hadn't been discovered, or if the Professor actually created those alternate universes, the world of Futurama is still a 'multiverse' -at least from that episode onwards.

[Reply #27 on:]

You're a multiverse.

[Reply #28 on:]

BBS is the only time-travel story Keeler wrote, and he co-wrote it.

I also find it sort of odd that the same post would complain about the show getting repetitive and then ask for it to repeat ideas/motifs from season one.

The show is probably getting repetitive in certain ways - all shows do over time - but I'll be damned if I start complaining about a sci-fi show getting too sci-fi-ish. Although they should lay off the time-travel for a little while at least.

[Reply #29 on:]

No. You can never have too much time-travel.
Consider: the show's primary protagonist is an extratemporal anachronism who created himself by impregnating his own grandmother, through time-travel that couldn't have been accomplished if he hadn't been shoved into stasis, which he did himself, through time travel. So the whole backbone of the show IS time-travel. Without it the main character wouldn't even exist.
I'd like to see them check out a more 'contemporary' future setting, like the 2100's.

[Reply #30 on:]

BBS is the only time-travel story Keeler wrote, and he co-wrote it.

You're forgetting Time Keeps on Slipping. It's not traditional time-travel, but it's time-travel all the same.

[Reply #31 on:]

You're a multiverse.

Yo mama's such a multiverse, she has three parallel universes where the Lusitania DIDN'T sink and America ended up taking much longer to join WW1 and one where it ended up not joining at all.

Yeah.  I went there.

[Reply #32 on:]

Am I the only one who wants to see them travel back to a date between 2011 to 3011 (Instead of the typical 'wreak a past historical event' episode)?

[Reply #33 on:]

RANDOMISER: 2564

Okay, let's see them go to that year.

[Reply #34 on:]

Am I the only one who wants to see them travel back to a date between 2011 to 3011 (Instead of the typical 'wreak a past historical event' episode)?

This is a fair point, an episode set in say 2617 would be quite an interesting adventure to behold! ...

[Reply #35 on:]

Am I the only one who wants to see them travel back to a date between 2011 to 3011 (Instead of the typical 'wreak a past historical event' episode)?

This is a fair point, an episode set in say 2617 would be quite an interesting adventure to behold! ...

Hmm, I never really thought about that. But considering there are so many years in between I don't know why they've never done it.
Well, that's not true. Bender went back to Sweden in BBS.

[Reply #36 on:]

I would definitely like to see that and it has a lot of potential. We don't hear nearly enough about those thousand years Fry missed out on.

[Reply #37 on:]

I would definitely like to see that and it has a lot of potential. We don't hear nearly enough about those thousand years Fry missed out on.

Especially because they mentioned society was destroyed and rebuilt a bunch of times within those thousand years. I want to see how they got to where they are now.

[Reply #38 on:]

I would definitely like to see that and it has a lot of potential. We don't hear nearly enough about those thousand years Fry missed out on.

You see a lot of it in the very first episode, Space Pilot 3000 when he is frozen. Earth seems to de-evolve at least twice (castles been destroyed by UFOs twice). And another episode mentions carrots enslaving the Earth.

[Reply #39 on:]

I would definitely like to see that and it has a lot of potential. We don't hear nearly enough about those thousand years Fry missed out on.

You see a lot of it in the very first episode, Space Pilot 3000 when he is frozen. Earth seems to de-evolve at least twice (castles been destroyed by UFOs twice). And another episode mentions carrots enslaving the Earth.

And cyborgs, according to the girl from the 21st century. 

Oh and according to a deleted scene, the first destruction of NYC was what led to some miners being trapped underground, and gradually mutating.  Amy's paternal ancestors bought up half of Mars after a bit of good old terraforming and founding of Mars U.  Anything else?

I would like to see one or two episodes dealing with the intervening millenium.  One thing I would love to see is an episode that shows the ancestors of Hermes, Amy, Leela (before they became mutants), the Professor and other prominent characters like Zapp and Mom.  Even if its just brief, like we see a horrible, shrieking rich asian couple that somehow have a rather sweet and friendly daughter, or someone with purple hair who mentions she and her husband are going on a guided tour of the sewers, or a jamaican man/woman who is obsesed with accounting.   That kind of thing.