Thoughts on 1ACV04 - Love's Labours Lost in Space

[on:]

Once again, this is for the Random Order Test. My guess is that a lot of the old episodes don't have review threads because PEEL was not yet in existence when they aired...either that, or I'm just a dummy who doesn't know how to use a search engine.

[Reply #1 on:]

Just rewatched.

Classic lines:
"Unless I'm getting interference from a gay weather balloon."
"Sorry, I thought you had two eyes."
"Each pound of which weighs over ten thousand pounds."
"In the game of chess, you can never let your adversaries see your pieces."
"I might have liked Zapp Brannigan if he weren't a pompous dimwit who threw us in prison." "You really are too picky."
"Bender, I told you to fill the tank before we left." "Eh, I'll do it when we get back."

I haven't watched anything from Season 1 recently so it was fun to go back. It's interesting how some of the voices have changed (Leela, Bender, Kif). I don't really have a strong opinion about that, of course they're going to change over ten years.

I love Zapp's character so obviously the episode in which he was introduced will be considered highly in my eyes.

Sci-fi content in this one is obviously heavy and delicious. Also, it's a trio episode, wheee! Since this is only the fourth episode ever all of the characters are still being developed and I think the premise of this episode really helps that along.

I don't know what to rate it. Either an 8 or a 9. It seemed a bit slow at times (in the beginning).

[Reply #2 on:]

I re-watched this last night, classic ep and such a fantastic introduction to Zapp, and Kif for that matter. One thing I did notice is after having watched a few newer eps from other seasons recently going back to this one it did seem a bit slower in pace with less going on, but still the stuff that was going on was all essential with great characterisation and jokes throughout so I can’t really complain...

The whole clubbing scene at the start was great with all the un-datable men they line up for Leela, in fact the guy with the lizard tongue in the cold opening was a good way to begin this ep. I also like the fact that is referenced again in the ep after the credits. I enjoyed the whole glowrings joke, and Dr Zoidberg was great too...

Zapp was what made this ep, so many quotable lines. I love how he gets his Big Book Of War out, as well as his "pieces" to the horror of everyone including Leela. Zapp's anecdotes about the wave after wave of killbots was great, and his champagne line, Brannigans law, and his line about crawling back like a bird on its belly, all classic stuff! Kif's constant sighs made it all the more hilarious...

This was the first time we saw the Nimbus, an impressive ship with a great design. I always love seeing it in motion. Fry and Bender were good too. Fry's plan to escape through the pipe, then realising it's no good because it's full of steam. I like how they made the best of a bad situation turning their cell a steam room...

This was also the first formal introduction of Nibbler. Ok so we got a glimpse of him in Space Pilot 3000, but we only saw his shadow and most people would have missed that. I love the whole Vergon 6 capture the animals thing, the various mad designs for creatures like the Windy Shrimp, great stuff. I also love how when the planet caves in on itself and caplodes a few animals still survive on that tiny little fragment left over...

I can't really criticize this ep for anything much other than being a bit slower in pace. Sometimes the scenes felt like they needed to be a bit fuller, perhaps with some more music throughout rather than just silent background in a lot of the scenes. The voices were a little different for a few characters, but I guess they were still finding them at that stage. Leela sounded almost exactly the same though...

It's hard to say if this would be an 8 or a 9. At the time it originally aired then definitely a 9, perhaps even a 10, but now given the sheer quality of certain eps which have followed I feel that has to be taken into account and reflected in the score seeing as their impact and enjoyability is higher. I would say 8.5, but since I can't and I'd feel too bad giving this an 8, go on then, I'll give it...

9/10

[Reply #3 on:]

The first 10/10 episode as far as I'm concerned. Truly, this one is a masterpiece.

[Reply #4 on:]

I agree with Otis that it could have benefited from more music. I think a lot of early eps suffer from this. It is quite apparent to me in I, Roommate, but I noticed that here too.

[Reply #5 on:]

Somebody stole somebody's ring...and she got it back.

[Reply #6 on:]

The only thing that bothers me now is Nibbler. 

The fact that he is actually an intelligent being means he actually knowingly doomed the animals of Vergon Six to extinction by devouring every single one because one looked like it was going to attack him.  Its something i could have accepted if he was a mindless killer, but he actually studied the animals, and knew the crew was trying to save them from extinction.   So yeah. 

Nibbler's a dick.

[Reply #7 on:]

He can't change his nature.  He has to consume prodigious quantities of food in order to digest it with his nuclear enzymes and transform it into dark matter.  And presumably it has to taste good, yes?

Eh, you gonna' eat that zebra, SpaceFish? 

[Reply #8 on:]

The endangered animals are always the most delicious.

This is one of my favorite season 1 episodes, and honestly, one of the better ones overall. There are so many excellent one-liners, especially Zapp pronouncing "champagne" and mistreating Kif.

[Reply #9 on:]

Nibbler's a dick.

Yeah, I agree with you there. I never liked Nibbler as a mindless, pooping- and eating-machine. As an intelligent being, okay, I can tolerate him. But the two personas just don't seem to reconcile with each other at all.

[Reply #10 on:]

Clearly the Nibblonians didn't care about the endangered animals otherwise they would have taken some with them when they fled Vergon 6 before the Planet Express crew go there, so it's not too much of a surprise that Nibbler would just eat them.

[Reply #11 on:]

He can't change his nature.  He has to consume prodigious quantities of food in order to digest it with his nuclear enzymes and transform it into dark matter.  And presumably it has to taste good, yes?

Eh, you gonna' eat that zebra, SpaceFish? 

No,

But the thing is Nibbler is an intelligent being so it makes his actions on the ship unforgivable.  i could buy him as a savage bloodthirsty eating machine, but after that one creature growled at him it wasn't self defense, he just felt like having a snack. 

Yet he still doomed a bunch of animals that weren't going to hurt him to extinction. 

And no I won't be eating that zebra, this dodo egg omlette with fillet of passenger pigeon is just too delicious.

[Reply #12 on:]

And no I won't be eating that zebra, this dodo egg omlette with fillet of passenger pigeon is just too delicious.

Yeah, that's one thing that I'm never going to forgive old-timey Americans. What cooler thing can there be than a huge swarm of birds, millions of which are concentrated on a small spot? But yet they were slaughtered (pretty brutally, too) for the one and only thing America proudly stands for: Stuffing oneself with cheap, low-quality meat. Speaking of which, why are there still any buffalos around? Come on, finish the job already!

USA! USA!

You should really be ashamed of yourselves. Damn, I'm hungry, I'm gonna go to McDonald's to fetch a burger. Remember: Shaaame!

[Reply #13 on:]

Dont worry boyo, cows won't be extinct for another few centuries according to Amy.

[Reply #14 on:]

And no I won't be eating that zebra, this dodo egg omlette with fillet of passenger pigeon is just too delicious.

You ever see the Dilbert strip where Dogbert is entertaining clients at a fancy restaurant and abusing his expense account?  "I'll have the endangered species kabob, grilled over moon rocks."

[Reply #15 on:]

And no I won't be eating that zebra, this dodo egg omlette with fillet of passenger pigeon is just too delicious.

You ever see the Dilbert strip where Dogbert is entertaining clients at a fancy restaurant and abusing his expense account?  "I'll have the endangered species kabob, grilled over moon rocks."

No but that sounds pretty good!
Oh man, I really could really do with a steak made from the tenderest meat of the Yangtze River dolphin.  Make it two actually, I heard those things mate for life, and we can't have any mournful widows swimming around. 

[Reply #16 on:]

I'll fire up the grill. Maybe we can throw in some white rhinos.

[Reply #17 on:]

This episode was Good. I liked the collapsing planet parts, but not the Nimbus parts a whole lot. Still, a solid 8/10 will be good enough to describe my thoughts of the episode. Let's just leave it at that.

[Reply #18 on:]

9.5/10

This episode was almost perfect in my opinion. Hell, it's probably in my top 5. Zapp had many great lines in this episode ("Cham-paggin?" "Kif, I have made it with a woman. Inform the men." "[You've come] crawling back to the Big Z like a bird on its belly."). I also liked the formal introduction of Nibbler. There's not much that could be done to this episode to make it better.