Ideas for a Futurama 2-Parter

[on:]

I've seen people mentioning Futurama doing a 2-parter or working better as a 2-parter lately, so I was wondering, what are everyone's thoughts on this?

And what are your ideas for a 2-parter? Make up your own, or suggest how an episode already in existence could of worked better as a 2-parter. (A lot of people think some of Season 6's episode endings were rushed because of the shorter run time.)

The closest Futurama has come to 2-parters:

Bender's Big Score leading into The Beast with a Billion Backs.
Into the Wild Green Yonder leading into Rebirth.

[Reply #1 on:]

Hmmmm.  I think a steampunk episode would make a great two parter.

[Reply #2 on:]

Hmmmm.  I think a steampunk episode would make a great two parter.

Signed.
Also, every Episode with some kind of "Epic" and/or background changing theme.
("The Why of Fry", "The Mutants are revolting")

[Reply #3 on:]

[edit by futurefreak: Sorry I meant to lock the thread instead of merge the two, so I have placed your original post here. Feel free to edit if you have any ideas you have for those 2 parters you mentioned!]

If this were ever two be done, what type of hour long, two part episode would you like to see (Epic story, mystery etc...) and what sort of story do you think could sustain this type of episode?

[Reply #4 on:]

The Robot Rapture (figure it out yourself), or The Professor gets Kidnapped.

[Reply #5 on:]

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[Reply #6 on:]

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^This

[Reply #7 on:]

Especially if they have some crazy cool explanation as to how they returned, being as they are in an alternate universe and stuff. I sense potential.

[Reply #8 on:]

YES! That sounds perfect! My idea: The Brainspawn hid an ancient egg in the center of the Earth that would soon hatch. Then they would start controlling humans as a host. Robots and Fry are immune, so they would have to fight it. Good or to much like BWABB

[Reply #9 on:]

Or, they discovered that the internet links all universes, and got in through there.

No wait, that's just dumb...

[Reply #10 on:]

The London two parter I've had for ages:

Part 1 = a Murder on the Orient Express parody, taking place in the decaying Transatlantic Tunnel between New New York and London.
Part 2= Adventures in 31st Century London, when the crew must save London's hookerbots from a robotic Jack the Ripper.

[Reply #11 on:]

No offense, SGFW, but I don't think that lives up to the title: Futurama.

[Reply #12 on:]

Yes, because robot prostitutes and high speed maglev train tunnels on the Atlantic Ocean floor are so old timey.  

[Reply #13 on:]

I just don't see it as a 2-parter. As a regular episode? Sounds pretty good. It's still a good idea though.  

[Reply #14 on:]

Thankyou, but it wouldn't really work as a singular episode, since they are mostly self contained storylines that lead into eachother.  Ten minutes each really isn't enough time to satisfy each storyline, and pacing is a really big problem with this season's run.  They could be differentiated, by Orient Express parody being moved to a trans-Pacific tunnel, but I like the idea of one story leading into another.  I also thought of making it a three parter, in that the crew end up changing history in the second that creates a steampunk future (the Jack the Ripper storyline could be moved into the finale, as it would suit the Neo Victorian future better.)  But the steampunk episode would work equally well in New New York as a two parter.  (the first ten minutes would show how the crew create the steampunk future, the middle twenty show the steampunk future, and the last ten minutes are the crew turning the timeline back to normal.) 

[Reply #15 on:]

I don't know what steampunk is...    (must be a British thing). On an unrelated topic: What do you guys think of us Americans (besides the fat jokes)

[Reply #16 on:]

Yes, because robot prostitutes and high speed maglev train tunnels on the Atlantic Ocean floor are so old timey. 

They're so last century.

I don't think that outright parody is where Futurama's strengths lie. Parodies tend to work bet in Futurama as cameo jokes in the background. They certainly can't carry an episode. The Titanic parody only worked because there was so much other material in there as well, and there was no attempt made to be faithful to the events on board the Titanic, or the film. If there were to be an episode set on a train speeding through a transatlantic tunnel in need of repair, it might be better if the train was going to crash (the driver is horribly murdered maybe?) and the episode is about stopping the train safely (Farnsworth's latest all-but-useless gewgaw?) so they can arrive in London without dying.

Then they've got to get back from London somehow. So (with Jack the Robot Ripper making a 30-second cameo perhaps) they end up needing the help of various British 19th-Century adventurer parody types to get back. They'll try a zeppelin, a pegasus-drawn stagecoach, and a steam-powered London Bus, but end up failing to get off the ground each time... until finally Leela reveals she's had the money to pay for a teleporter booth all along. They go home, and Bender reveals he's stolen the crown jewels.

In addition, any transatlantic tunnel is unlikely to sit on the ocean floor. It's more likely to have a small positive bouyancy and be tethered in the middle of the sea by cables.

Robot prostitutes are also a somewhat overplayed joke by now. I think that the major problem with the idea you've described is that it's too reliant on established ideas. Futurama works best when being somewhat original, and poking at established ideas only in passing.

Alternative steampunk futures and rehashes of Jack the Ripper would definitely be far too derivative. It would not only be cheap, it would feel cheap. Be more creative. Don't limit your fanfic-in-progress or whatever it is to stuff that's already been imagined and re-imagined. Build it around new ideas, and make background jokes based on a million of the ideas that have gone before it, and it could turn out to be much more like Futurama.

[Reply #17 on:]

What if "accidentally" finds out a major scientific discovery. Him and the professor work together to become Nobel prize nominees. But a mysterious robot tries to stop them from winning it and has a gang hunt them down. Then the mysterious disappearance of the noble prize winners are missing. Leading into part 2.

[Reply #18 on:]

No, I know about the tunnel not being on the ocean floor, (trust me, I watched the extreme engineering episode like five times, I wish that tunnel was real that badly) but I just say ocean floor to be snappy.  Plus Futurama has shown plenty of breaks from science to tell a good joke, so having the tunnel actually be on the ocean floor wouldn't mind too much, though I think the tethered to the ocean floor thing would look better cinematically.  (Having the tunnel be see through would provide excellent oppertunities for visual gags and treats, like the domes of ruined underwater cities that look suspiciously like Rapture, the remains of what looks like the Titanic but is actually the Queen Mary 2, kraken skeletons ect.    Also it would be an extremely loose parody of Orient Express, having the basic elements: train, murder ect but would mostly tell its own story.    It would be more of a parody of murder mysteries, hitchcock and film noir in general rather then just Agatha Christie and MotOE.

My other ideas for the episode:
Since the tunnel has been rendered obsolete a considerably long time ago, its now trying to reinvent itself as a luxury trip along the ocean floor, similar to cruise liners replacing ocean liners when planes became the common transatlantic journey.  The problem is, the funds are being scraped very thin and is more 10 20 from Victoria to Bromley South then Orient Express.  In fact the funds don't even cover basic maintanance and safety on the tunnel, (which is further fuelled by embezzlement and corruption in the tunnel's owners) so... the crew do end up having to saving themselves from certain doom inbetween figuring out the murder mystery (which takes a back seat.)

I quite like the robot prostitutes, and actually have wanted to see more of them in Futurama.   I think they would work better in the steampunk episode, mainly because I quite like the idea of drawing the steam robots.  I have a few drawings knocking around of the Crushinator being built like an early steam locomotive (such as the Rocket, the Novelty, the Sans Pareil or Puffing Biilly.)    As for being derivative, they're no more derivative then any of the other ideas we've seen in Futurama (which are often fairly basic ideas and archetypes when you boil them down, from parodies of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to time machines that can only go forward, to alien invasions to selling your soul to the devil to mechanical evolution to brain swapping devices, character becomes a cyborg, characters arrive in an Amazonian utopia of sexually aggressive female aliens out of a pulpy sci fi novel.)  Most stories in Futurama are cliche'd and derivative.  It's how they're told what sets them apart from every other brain swap or alien invasion story or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory parody.

[Reply #19 on:]

TNUK: Parodies have been all over this show, not just subtle. What the FUCK are you talking about?

[Reply #20 on:]

Well what he means is that parodies that don't exclusively tie themselves to one subject work better then ones that do (for example, Titanic parodies plenty of things as well as Titanic 1997, disaster movies, other movies about the Titanic such as A Night to Remember, the Poisidon Adventure as well as the historical event itself.  I enjoyed Where no Fan has Gone Before, but its not one of my favorites mainly because I'm not a Trekkie.)

What I am hoping to do with the London episode is because I really, really want to parody the contributions the UK has made to Sci Fi in general, such as the John Wydnam novels (Croydon is taken over by hive minded chavlings with blonde hair and monotone voices, Kew Gardens is a Triffid sanctuary) Dr Who (all the suicide booths look like Tardises), Blake's 7 (the Queen of England is Servalan in apperance and personality), HG Wells (the british army's tanks look like Tripods, and Eloi can be fed to Morlocks in petting zoos).  That's just off the top of my head.  And plus I really want to make as many goofy sci fi puns on tube stations.  So far I've got Elephant and Deathstar and Oxford Circuit.

[Reply #21 on:]

TNUK: Parodies have been all over this show, not just subtle. What the FUCK are you talking about?

I never said they hadn't. I said they're not the strength of the show and they don't tend to carry episodes well. Learn to fucking read, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

I enjoyed Where no Fan has Gone Before, but its not one of my favorites mainly because I'm not a Trekkie.

One of the rare examples where the parody elements of the show were absolutely critical to the plot and it still worked. Although I suppose it really wasn't that great if you're not a Star Trek fan.

[Reply #22 on:]

Play nice, you little pottymouths. Next one to say the naughty f word gets their mouth washed out with domestos.

I suppose, but I really didn't like that episode that much.  To say the other dirty F word in this forum, I like the Family Guy Star Wars trilogy, but again I don't really like Star Wars so of course I'm not going to enjoy it as much as a fan. The episode works I will admit, just not as much to non fans like myself.  I loathe the 1997 Titanic film with a passion, but there are enough things in Flight to Remember for me to enjoy (though that's not the best example, since I was fascinated with the Titanic when I was little and had like ten to twenty books on it)

[Reply #23 on:]

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YESYESYESYES!!!!!

[Reply #24 on:]

Has there been a Robot Chicken Futurama?  Robot Chicken Star Wars had me nearly passing out with laughter.

Two-parter for Futurama?   I'd like to see one, but no good concepts come to mind.

[Reply #25 on:]

Especially if they have some crazy cool explanation as to how they returned, being as they are in an alternate universe and stuff. I sense potential.

Yep, I alway thought that -with all the knowledge in the universe- the Brainspawn would sooner or later figure a way out how to return.

[Reply #26 on:]

I think Futurama could make a great mystery episode as they already hide hidden 'clues' and secret messages in twenty minutes episodes. Maybe a character is found dead under Planet Express and Fry and Bender search for clues (Clique I know...)

[Reply #27 on:]

Blame It On The Brain by Coldangel.

There's your freaking 'Brainspawn' plot, right there.

[Reply #28 on:]

Especially if they have some crazy cool explanation as to how they returned, being as they are in an alternate universe and stuff. I sense potential.

Yep, I alway thought that -with all the knowledge in the universe- the Brainspawn would sooner or later figure a way out how to return.

I agree. I am sure they will return at some point.

[Reply #29 on:]

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Please write a fan fiction of this.

[Reply #30 on:]

Right here. A link to a downloadable version is on the last page.

[Reply #31 on:]

That's what I call quick writing

[Reply #32 on:]

I just finished reading this...

Show spoiler

EPIC! I'm getting that rush after you see an awesomely epic movie! This was a great script!

Edit:

Right here. A link to a downloadable version is on the last page.

[Reply #33 on:]

I don't understand what you're talking about SGB..

[Reply #34 on:]

Maybe one where they encounter pirates.  

In part one they can meet the pirates and try to fight them off and lose at first.  The pirates steal something they were going to deliver.  In part two, they can try to track down the pirate planet and get back whatever it was they were delivering.

[Reply #35 on:]

That's more or less the plot of Godfellas, stretched out into two episodes.

[Reply #36 on:]

Taking the suggested pirate theme on the more generic level: "Setback in the first episode, improvement and solution in the second":
"All the President's heads" could have covered that theme.
It was fun (and well paced) to watch the character mess up. Yet, the "dependent USA" was just a set-up for me. I wanted to see the characters solve this problem, and not just tell us about it.

[Reply #37 on:]

"All the Presidents' Heads" could have made a pretty good two-parter, actually. It's a "big enough" story in scope to justify it, and they clearly had a bit too much material to cram into one 22-minute running time.

[Reply #38 on:]

Indeed. It felt a bit as if a whole story dealt with Marty McFlys journey to the past, until the moment Doc Brown revealed he must get his parents back together. Then Marty would walk out of the pic, returning seconds later and announcing "Okay, done. Everything is fine again". End credits roll.

[Reply #39 on:]

"All the Presidents' Heads" could have made a pretty good two-parter, actually. It's a "big enough" story in scope to justify it, and they clearly had a bit too much material to cram into one 22-minute running time.

I agree. My biggest problem with the episode was the way they ended it; more time would've made it so much better.