The Simpsons
was always going to be a tough act to follow, but creator Matt Groening
managed it a second time with Futurama and the first
episode brilliantly sets the tone and the game-plan for the basic story.
There are thirteen episodes on this DVD boxset, which, according to
Epguides.com,
is actually all nine from season one, plus the first four from season two,
despite the "Season One" tag on this boxset. Four of the best are listed
below:
Space Pilot 3000: Here we are introduced to Fry, an unhappy
pizza delivery boy, even more so because it's New Year's Eve, 1999 and he's
the only one who has to work. Also, his girlfriend's cheating on him and his
bike's been stolen. A crank call delivery leads to him falling into a cryogenic
chamber and waking up 1000 years later... in the future!
He's tracked down by Leela, who's job it is to assign jobs by the use of
career chips, but Fry isn't interested because she wants to make him a delivery
boy in the future too. While atttempting to make a phone call, the booth is
not what he expects - it's a Suicide Booth - and that's where he meets Bender
the robot, a robot who bends metal for a living, hence the name.
Fry does learn, however, that he's related to Professor Hubert Farnsworth,
an inventor and owner of a large spacecraft, looking for a new crew to deliver
interplanetary cargo to. Surprisingly, Fry is keen to take up the position
and Leela and Bender join him alongside the other misfits who work there,
a Chinese girl called Amy, a lobster, Doctor Zoidberg and Hermes Conrad.
Love's Labours Lost in Space:
Due to a freak intentional accident of hollowing out the planet of Vegron 6,
all the planet's animals will be endangered, which requires the crew to attempt
a rescue of "Noah's Ark" proportions, saving two of every animal.
They just about manage it, except for rescuing a cute small character that
Leela calls Nibbler, who promptly eats all of them. The episode also introduces
self-proclaimed ladies man Zapp Brannigan, who imprisons Fry and Bender in jail
but Leela in his "Lovenasium".
Note that Billy West does Zapp's voice, but it was originally to be done by
Phil Hartman, who had just before been shot dead by his wife. Phil
Hartman also voiced several Simpsons characters including lawyer Lionel Hutz.
Looking forward to the future - the easy way.
A Flight To Remember: A parody of the
Titanic movie
in which the crew go on a space cruise vacation. Fry becomes the centre of
attention when Leela tells Zapp that Fry's her boyfriend, while Amy tells
her parents exactly the same thing.
Meanwhile, just like the romance in the film, Bender falls in love with a
rich female and the ship's destiny is doomed. Unlike the film, the female is a
robot and the ship's doomed because it falls into a black hole!
Fry and the Slurm Factory: Slurm is the most addictive drink in the
year 3000 and Fry can't get enough, but - paying homage to Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory - Fry gets a golden cap in one of the cans so he
can get a free tour of the place.
Once there, Fry, Leela and Bender fall into the Slurm river whilst on the tour
and after being sucked into a drain and coming out the other end, they find
that Slurm is actually produced out the backside of a giant queen slug. Should
they tell the world, though?
All 13 episodes are as follows :
Space Pilot 3000
Episode Two: The Series Has Landed
I, Roomate
Love's Labours Lost in Space
Fear of a Bot Planet
A Fishfull of Dollars
My Three Suns
A Big Piece of Garbage
Hell is Other Robots
A Flight to Remember
Mars University
When Aliens Attack
Fry and the Slurm Factory
All the episodes feature the same quick-witted approach to the Simpsons and
scores of one-liners that you'd rarely find in other TV series, all of which
hit home perfectly. What's also of primary importance is that every episode
is presented uncut, unlike when they get shown on Sky or Channel 4, where
selected ones are censored depending on the timeslot used.
The NHS in the 31st Century.
The programme has always been made and presented in 4:3 fullscreen and looks
perfectly crisp, clear and colourful. Not a single artifact or blemish on view.
The programme was filmed in Dolby Surround and is presented here as such.
It's a shame, though, that we haven't been treated to a Dolby Digital remix
as we were delivered with the Simpsons Season One boxset. The stereo separation
isn't used to any massive degree but it benefits the scenes in which it's used.
The extras can be simply summed up but they are welcome. All episodes come
complete with an Audio commentary and there are also Deleted scenes
for selected episodes. A trailer for Season 1 is also included.
Disc one also adds some extras specific to the first show, Space Pilot 3000.
As well as an interactive gallery of stills and concept art plus the script
and storyboards, the "Animatics" section shows the entire episode in rough
sketch form. A shame we couldn't have seen the same treatment done for the whole
series as that would've been quite something.
Each episode has five chapters subtitles
come in 4 flavours: English for the hearing-impaired, French, Italian and Dutch.
The menus are all static and some contain looped pieces of music.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
