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SolidSnake

Professor

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« #44 : 06-28-2012 18:31 »
« : 06-28-2012 18:53 »
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Anyone else find it hilarious when Nixon was wishing the squirrel would fall?
I sure did! That's why I uploaded it onto youtube! I'll PM you a link. But yeah, I also thought the Fry remarks were a little bit sucky. I think of it as a B-rated episode. Not Great, but pretty good. EDIT: This was my 100th post!! Yay for me, SolidSnake! 
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cyber_turnip

Urban Legend
  
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« #46 : 06-28-2012 19:43 »
« : 06-28-2012 19:44 »
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That ending was terrible. More than anything because the time code is a paradox correcting time code, so on top of it being a lazy way of re-setting to the status quo unneccesarily, it's also a gigantic continuity error and one that causes all sorts of other problems for the show's continuity and future episodes.
Anyway, overall it was alright. Probably my favourite episode of the season so far. It had a very shakey opening but once the time-travel stuff kicked in, it was great. It had some great jokes and few that fell horribly flat like in the last two.
As un-Futurama-y as it was, I adored the joke with the lion trying to trick zebras in Kenya.
But based on the three episodes we have so far, it seems like the writers have forgotten how to write a satisfying conclusion to a storyline. Which is a shame.
On the other hand, this is one of the episodes I was looking least forwards to and, in many ways, it exceeded my expectations.
I give it a 5/10 by Futurama's standards, which is an 8/10 by overall TV standards.
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Dorsal Axe

Bending Unit
  
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« #47 : 06-28-2012 20:12 »
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This episode defied my expectations. I was expecting it to be very contrived, but it wasn't. The Obama love got a pretty obnoxious, but it could have been worse. Kenya was unnecessary, but it did give us the giraffe and watchmen herd gags which I thought were hilarious. The actual politics didn't actually stray too far beyond what was necessary to establish the plot, and the odd joke, so that was good.
I enjoyed the opening sequence, which took me completely by surprise. I've always wanted them to merge the opening sequence with an episode, so I was pretty psyched to see them finally do that. The episode really picked up when they revealed the time code from BBS. It added some surprise to what is otherwise a predictable plot twist.
All in all, it holds up well to A Head In the Polls, which I was not expecting. I thought this was going to be this season's real stinker, but it was pretty enjoyable. 7/10
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Svip

Administrator
DOOP Secretary

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« #50 : 06-28-2012 20:22 »
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I thought the ending was an allusion to Back to the Future, where much the same thing is about to happen.
I personally thought it worked well for the episode to start out political, then turn science-fiction and then have Bender describe it as 'Politics 101', as if the science-fiction was merely politics as well. That amused me greatly, but I may be alone.
I assume the episode was initially inspired by A) it's 3012, we need to do another election episode like "A Head in the Polls" and B) let's use some of the famous ridiculousness of the 2008 election, particularly peoples' demand for Obama's birth certificate.
But what bothers me is that Senator Travers is intend on winning the election, to save the future and mankind. One would assume - knowing what he knew of time travel, which might not be a lot - that he would still be required to go pack in time to save the planet. But moreover, that he would be less preachy about his messages and just say what people want to hear to get him elected.
Or why not kill Nixon?
Regardless, the political bias seemed obvious, but - to the Mad Capper - despite the fact that there are actual reasons to be disliking Obama, filling the media and coverage with the birth certificate surely did nothing but dividing the political spectrum. And it silenced out actual concerns against Obama. Surely, you too can see that.
And furthermore, Nixon is not a Republican in the Futurama universe, he is an independent. In his mind, the Republican party (or whatever it has become) is way too moderate for hist tastes. And I don't recall the people asking for his 'Earth certificate' were portrayed as Nixon supporters.
I don't know how I feel about the ending. I wanted Nixon to remain president. Who didn't? And I knew the time travel had to be used as an excuse for it. But I did like Hermes' comment at the end, that they hadn't left the building at all.
But yeah, that's not how the paradox correcting time sphere works.
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totalnerd undercanada

DOOP Ubersecretary
 
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« #54 : 06-28-2012 20:48 »
« : 06-28-2012 21:02 by totalnerduk »
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Hated the Obamassociations (basically just more current/topical/pop culture fluff that didn't need to be there), but liked the episode overall.
My one major gripe is that the time code does not normally work that way.
I've resigned myself to continuity having become the butt-monkey to jokes though, and this episode was full of good ones. So it is with a heavy heart and a sense of loss at the passing of continuity into the recycling bin that I give this episode an 8/10.
I almost hate myself for enjoying it. I mean, continuity! They killed continuity! I loved continuity! But... it was hilarious. I'm so conflicted.
Edit: Hm. There actually is a way that this could work out. It's convoluted, but ties back to both BBS and TLPJF. We already know that changes made to the timeline happen, and have always happened. Even if they were different before they changed, they'll follow the Douglas Adams rules for time travel.
Which means that the paradox only occurs if the individual ends up not stepping back in time, preventing the formation of a stable loop or an open spiral. Which means we've not seen this before, and that it should now be considered canon for when the actions that an individual takes in the past prevents their journey through the time sphere.
This helps reconcile Bender's changes to the timeline in BBS and the events shown in Old New York previous to BBS that it affects or sets in motion, as well as providing clues to what we see in TLPJF. We know the robot uprising won't take place until at least some time after 3050 (TLPJF), and we know that human civilisation is doomed to be replaced by ape civilisation (and then increasingly unlikely civilisations will supplant that) sometime in the next ten thousand years.
We also know thanks to TLPJF that there will be a robot uprising at some point and that backwards time travel will be the subject of books found on Earth (so: potentially commonplace). We know that humans won't be wiped out, but that they will evolve.
I do have to wonder if perhaps the Nixon years that are about to occur will set any of that up. In which case, I will be forced to conclude that continuity wasn't so much killed as given a concussion.
But it's a stretch, and I know it. I'm not holding out much hope.
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totalnerd undercanada

DOOP Ubersecretary
 
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« #61 : 06-28-2012 23:11 »
« : 06-28-2012 23:18 by totalnerduk »
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Yet another theory (dunno if this is what tnuk's is about):
I've simplified my post here.I just can't wait to hear Cohen weasel an answer to this in the commentary.
They should pay me to come up with a unified set of Futuramaverse time-travel rules that make sense for every episode. I was trying to do that a while ago, but the framework only makes sense if the events of TLPJF take place inside a cyclical timeline. Over which, there is still some disagreement (partially thanks to Cohen et al. not really bothering to explain things properly in the commentary). I mean, it's what's portrayed. There's no doubt about that. But is it what the writers were attempting to convey? Outside of the Futurama staff specifically taking time off from producing the show to come up with an answer for us, I don't think we'll know. We know (thanks to commentaries, again) that it amuses them to put things in that screw with fans. The ship's inconsistent internal schematics are partly the way that they are in order to mess with the fan-made plans that were on ANSTATMAW. So if Cohen or anybody else makes any comment, I'm sure it won't put anything to rest so much as further muddy the waters.
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