Futurama

Futurama is an animated show that ran on the Fox network from 1999 to 2003 and ran on Comedy Central from 2010 to 2013, and again from 2023 onwards. Created by , also the creator of The Simpsons, the show parodies the gamut of the science fiction genre but holds a special affection for Star Trek. Star Trek sound effects have often been used in the show.
Aside from the regular Star Trek actors who appeared as themselves, who appeared below, two other Star Trek guest performers provided voices on Futurama, Sarah Silverman and Bumper Robinson. Frank Welker also provides the voice of the character Nibbler (both animal sounds and spoken dialgoue). Years after the cancellation of Futurama, recurring guest stars Phil LaMarr and Dawnn Lewis both provided voices on . Interestingly, on Futurama, LaMarr's Hermes Conrad was married to Lewis' LaBarbara Conrad, but on Star Trek: Lower Decks, Lewis' Captain Carol Freeman had divorced LaMarr's character. Additionally, Futurama voice talent Tress MacNeille also provided her voice to the .
David X. Cohen, the co-creator of Futurama, commented that his favorite Star Trek episode was : "I'll go for a slightly off-the-beaten track answer with a Deep Space Nine episode... 'Whispers', featuring Miles O'Brien, in a rather Futurama-esque storyline." 
Futurama writer Jeff Westbrook commented, "Ken Keeler and I once wrote a Deep Space Nine script we sent in that was entirely a joke script in which two stand up comedians come to Deep Space Nine with their insult comedy act and insult every alien in the audience and therefore start a global war on Bajor." 
== Episodes (1999 to 2003) ==
==="Space Pilot 3000"===
This episode parallels with the events of The Neutral Zone wherein three characters from the twentieth century are cryogenically frozen and reanimated in the future.
The opening spoofs the opening sequence from the original series, and Leonard Nimoy's head (in a jar) later makes an appearance, voiced by himself. The doors slide open in a manner very similar to Star Trek, as noted by Fry, and the ship uses sound effects identical to those in TOS as Fry attempts to fly it.
===A Flight to Remember===
The Titanic's bartender touches his hand to his left breast to initiate communication with ship's security.
==="Brannigan Begin Again"===
While trying to explain what DOOP (The ) is to Fry, the Professor states it is like the United Nations, which still leaves Fry confused. Hermes then explains that it is "like the Federation, from your Star Trek program", which Fry perfectly understands.
==="Why Must I be a Crustacean in Love?"===
After assaulting several people at a gymnasium, Zoidberg returns to his home planet to find a woman with whom to mate. During the mating season, the males will sometimes fight to the death for the opportunity to mate with a specific female. The episode parallels the TOS episode Amok Time, and Zoidberg's condition is similar to Vulcan Pon farr. During Zoidberg's fight with Fry, the organist plays the fight-scene music from TOS, which is the national anthem for Zoidberg's home planet.
==="The Lesser of Two Evils"===
Bender meets Flexo, another bending robot. Flexo looks just like Bender except that Flexo has a beard. When a valuable package is lost, Leela assumes that Flexo stole it because of "the beard and all."
===Raging Bender===
Hermes is assimilated by a brain slug. He exhibits many of the mental characteristics of being assimilated by the Borg including the drive to assimilate other beings. Fortunately, assimilation can be easily reversed by removing the brain slug from his head. Fry is assimilated, too; however, his slug dies because he cannot generate sufficient brain activity. The slugs could also be a reference to the brain parasites from Operation -- Annihilate!
==="A Clone of my Own"===
The only living former "Planet Express" crew-member appears at the Professor's birthday party. He looks like Christopher Pike from and and rolls up to the lectern in a robotic wheelchair. He tells one very funny joke: "beep."
==="Anthology of Interest I"===
This episode features the voice talents of Nichelle Nichols, appearing as herself, wearing a TOS/TAS-era .
==="The Birdbot of Ice-Catraz"===
This episode has parallels to episode . In the Star Trek episode, Data loses his memory while attempting to retrieve a probe crashed on a remote planet. After wandering into a pre-industrial community, he integrates into it. When the Enterprise arrives to search for him, the crew discovers that he had been "killed" by a resident. After Data is reactivated, he returns to his normal self but retains no memory of his time among the native population. In the Futurama episode, Bender is severally damaged due to blunt force trauma to his cranial unit. When he reboots, he starts behaving like a penguin and integrates into a small community of other penguins. After Leela inadvertently shoots him in the head, he reboots again and returns to his normal self.
==="Roswell That Ends Well"===
The end of the episode, when Bender loses his head in the past, only to have it recovered in the next scene 1,000 years later, is a parody of the same thing happening to Data in . Both may also be a reference to Marvin, the Paranoid Android, who suffers a similar fate in Douglas Adams' novel The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Also note the table top in the diner: it has a Federation insignia that you can see when Fry flips it up, nearly castrating his grandfather, Enos. It is also notable that the method of time travel is visually similar to that in .
==="The Day the Earth Stood Stupid"===
There is a scene where Hermes Conrad notices a "systematic progression planet by planet" of destruction through the galaxy. This mirrors a scene in where James T. Kirk notices the same linear progression of mass insanity in their galaxy.
==="That's Lobstertainment!"===
During the Emmy Awards, one of the categories awarded included the "Best Product Placement." Of the three placement nominations, the first was entitled "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation," showing a still image of Spock holding a can of .
==="Bendin' in the Wind"===
Fisherman's Wharf has been renamed Fisherman's Worf.
==="Anthology of Interest II"===
Dr. Zoidberg scans the extremely fat Human Bender with a tricorder used in TOS, it beeps with the same sound as the communicators used by the crew in .
==="Where No Fan Has Gone Before"===
Futurama parodies of Star Trek are epitomized in the episode "", a title which parodies . 
The episode featured the voice talents of all of the original cast, with the exceptions of DeForest Kelley, who had passed away, and James Doohan, who refused to be a part of the show. Perhaps as a result of this, the of the episode became "We Got Everyone But Scotty." DeForest Kelley was portrayed as a character in the episode, but did not speak. Doohan did not appear as a character, as he had been replaced by "Welshie" for the Star Trek Musical, since Doohan could not yodel (this was simultaneously a gag based on the "fake Jan" who replaced an unwilling Eve Plumb on The Brady Bunch Variety Hour in 1977). The antagonist of the story was , a cloud creature that was animated using a similar effect as the Companion (see photo), and Trelane's parents from . The episode also featured a brief voice appearance by Jonathan Frakes.
In the DVD audio commentary, David A. Goodman, the writer of the episode, notes his pride in having included a large number of references to the original series, particularly those items which he claims "the people on the internet" had not found on their own. In particular he noted that in "Shatner's Log", a play on the legendary captain's log, the line "The impossible has happened" is the same line given in the opening log in the episode . It was partly through Goodman's work on this episode that he was approached for a position on Enterprise.
*After the regular Futurama introduction, the Planet Express Ship is shown flying across a backdrop of stars; this is similar to the opening sequence seen at the beginning of each original Star Trek episode. The music being played during this sequence is also similar to the music used for the Original Series opening. This classic Trek star backdrop is used throughout the episode.
* says, "Bring in the accused," a line taken from the end of .
*Fry enters the courtroom in a robotic wheelchair that emits beeps for communication identical to the one used by Christopher Pike from and .
*The Planet Express crew is charged with visiting the forbidden planet Omega III, for which the penalty is "twelve concurrent death sentences." Similarly, Talos IV, the planet to which Spock took Christopher Pike in the two-part episode "The Menagerie", is a forbidden planet in the Star Trek universe, punishable by death under General Order 7. 
*According to the video Nichelle Nichols plays, Star Trek evolved into a religion in the 23rd century; this may be a reference to the fact that the events of occurred in the 23rd century.
*A sign in front of the Church of Star Trek: "Ceiling of the Christine Chapel Closed for Renovation", refers to Dr. McCoy's assistant, played by Majel Barrett, in addition to being a reference to the .
*The Star Trek "priest" orates: "And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship, where they would be no tribble at all", referring to the events of . The crowd chants, "All power to the engines!"
*The crowd is dressed in the traditional uniforms of .
*Two people in this crowd have the appearance of the black-and-white aliens from .
*The Church's influence caused Germany to be briefly renamed "Nazi Planet Episode Land" (referring to the episode ). In reality, because of laws limiting Nazi imagery, that episode is rarely seen in Germany.
*"He's dead, Jim!", one of Leonard McCoy's famous lines, is repeated during a scene when Trekkie virgins are thrown into a volcano.
*This death is described as "the manner most befitting virgins." This may be a reference to the episode , in which the Metrons tell Kirk that he will settle the conflict between the Enterprise and the Gorn "in the way most suited to your limited mentalities."
*One of the Trekkies being executed is wearing a shirt that reads, "Beam Me Up, Scotty. There's no intelligent life here."
*All the tapes of Star Trek are fired out of a ship on a torpedo, and land on the forbidden planet Omega III, just as Spock's body was ejected onto the Genesis Planet at the end of . Similarly, the Genesis planet became a "galactic controversy" and a forbidden planet by the time of the events of .
*Fry talks to Leonard Nimoy, asking him if he remembered the episode where he "got high on spores and smacked Kirk around" ().
*When Nimoy's head leaves the shelf, Jonathan Frakes' head moves forward to exclaim, "Yes! Front row!" Frakes played William T. Riker, first officer in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
*Nimoy to Shatner: "Bill, you are, and always shall be... my friend," a reference to one of Spock's lines to Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
*The landscape of Omega III features the mountainous Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, where the episodes , , and most notably were filmed, are shown on several occasions throughout the episode. 
*Various sets from the series can be seen on Omega III, including (in order of appearance): (incomplete buildings), (Greek ruins), (TV backdrop of the ), (the three disembodied brains of the Providers), (the M5 computer), and (The Guardian of Forever). 
*The Star Trek actors' ship was pulled down to the planet surface, where they were given youthful bodies and everything was provided for them. This is similar to what happened to Zefram Cochrane in .
*Fry asks Walter Koenig to repeat something with his Russian accent, and then to say "nuclear wessels," a line from .
*Melllvar, the entity on Omega III, resembles the Companion from and the vampire cloud from in appearance and various other energy beings from The Original Series in its powers.
*Melllvar speaks lines reminiscent of the "God" that resided behind the Great Barrier from such as "It is I" and "You doubt me?" (paraphrased as "You doubt my power?").
*The entity zaps Scotty's replacement (named Welshy), who happens to be wearing a red shirt. This is a play on Apollo zapping Scotty in the episode . It is also similar to events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in which "God" zaps those who doubt his power. It also shows the recurring theme of Redshirt security guards being killed off.
*Melllvar gives Leonard Nimoy his body back by enveloping him, much in the same way that The Companion rejuvenated Zefram Cochrane in .
*Melllvar says he watched the episodes over and over, especially the five with the energy beings. These may include , , , , , , , , and/or . The vampire cloud from has been suggested, but it was a gaseous entity, and not strictly an energy being. Melllvar's incomplete memory for Star Trek trivia was part of the joke.
*Kirk's spoken word version of 's "" is a reference to , and of 's "" at the 5th Saturn Awards Ceremony.
*During Ambassador Sarek's Trivia Challenge (named for Spock's father Sarek, ambassador from Vulcan) one of the questions asks who Kirk left on Ceti Alpha V (as seen in the episode ). Shatner stands up and screams "KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!" as he did in .
*During the trivia contest, the prize money's unit of currency are Quatloos, the same currency used by the Providers in .
*One of Kirk's lines in Melllvar's script states that he loves his ship like a woman. This sentiment is taken from the first season episode .
*In one of Spock's lines in Melllvar's script, Leonard Nimoy reads, "Fascinating, captain, and logical, too," playing off the fact that Spock frequently uses the words "fascinating" and "logical."
*Bender works inside a Jefferies tube on the Planet Express ship with the same camera angle as was often used on Scotty.
*The starship fires down on Melllvar, as the Enterprise did on Apollo's temple in and Vaal in . As in the original series, the beams are shown leaving the ship in diverging directions, but somewhere in between they converge so that both strike the target at the same time, in the same spot. The music from this scene is a remix of the incidental music from .
*The consoles on the starship explode at critical moments, as happens throughout the series and movies.
*The Planet Express ship is pulled by a ray that resembles a giant green hand, much like the giant green hand that grabbed the Enterprise in .
* In one line, Nichols refers to kissing Shatner in as something "heroic" she had done. While this was meant to be comedic, this actually was mildly heroic, as well as dangerous, as it has a debated claim as the first kiss on American TV.
*Melllvar forces the Planet Express crew to battle the Star Trek cast to see who is better. This is very similar plot-wise to .
*Melllvar and Fry's list of episodes featuring armed combat to the death included 19 (), 46 (), 56 (), 66 () and 77 (). Interestingly, they do not mention episode 34, (), which features one of Star Treks most famous fights to the death.
*During their fight to the death, the Star Trek cast and the Planet Express crew are only to use "whatever they can find." Kirk and the Gorn were put in a similar situation in .
*The music during the fight scene resembles that first used during Kirk and Spock's fight in and reused later for many fight scenes in the series.
*Shatner rips his shirt, as he did in nearly every Kirk fight scene in the original series.
*When discussing their battle plan, Shatner remarks "Wasn't there an episode where I threw my shoe at the enemy?" To which Nimoy replies, "You mean Doohan?" This is a reference to rumors that there was friction between William Shatner and James Doohan. However, they had renewed their friendship when Shatner cared for the ailing Doohan, who was dying of and finally succumbed to it on . 
*Bender finds a Tommy gun similar to those seen in .
*Nichelle Nichols distracts Fry and Bender with her famous fan dance as seen in .
*The line "There's no right way to hit a woman" is from the episode . Shatner's subsequent attack on Leela ("the wrong way") parodies Kirk's often-used but pointlessly acrobatic combat style. During their fight, Leela lifts a large rock over her head to strike Shatner, as Kirk was menaced by Gary Mitchell in "Where No Man has Gone Before."
*Fry strikes Dr. McCoy with a two-fisted punch, used commonly in the series.
*Nimoy attempts to use the Vulcan nerve pinch (unsuccessfully) on Bender. (He should have realized that an attempt to use the nerve pinch on a robot would be futile; in the episode , Spock tries to use it on the android Alice without success.)
*At the climactic moment in the battle, when is holding the rock above Shatner's body, she pauses in the same position in which Spock pauses when he holds the piece of transporter equipment over Kirk during his fight with Kirk in .
*Shatner persuades Leela not to kill him by explaining to her that "this is exactly what Melllvar wants! We're just pawns in his diabolical game of checkers!" This is similar to the moment in when Kirk persuades the Klingon commander Kang to cease the hostilities because they are just pawns in a game being played out by an energy being who feeds off violence. His mixed metaphor is an allusion to the fact that Kirk frequently uses metaphors involving board and card games.
*Fry remarks that Melllvar is "just a child," the same as Spock said of V'Ger in , or Kirk said of Trelane in the episode . Melllvar being chastened by his energy-being mother is a parody of the climactic scene of the latter.
*When the battle ends, Shatner and Leela are shown making out, mocking Kirk's many relationships with women.
*When the combined Star Trek cast/Planet Express ship tries to lift off the planet surface, it is too heavy. This is a reference to the episode , in which the damaged shuttlecraft cannot bear the weight of its entire crew.
*The Planet Express Ship and the Trek actors' ship have to combine their power and components to escape the planet. This is similar to the situation in when the Enterprise and a Klingon cruiser are forced to use a similar strategy.
*A starship that resembles the Romulan Bird-of-Prey from combined with a Klingon battle cruiser decloaks (using visual effects similar to the decloaking effects on Star Trek) and fires on the Planet Express ship.
*George Takei quotes a self-destruct code, similar to but not exactly matching the Enterprise self-destruct sequence seen in the episode as well as in . The code causes Bender's . 
*Fry's speech to Melllvar regarding moving out of his mother's basement is a reference to William Shatner's appearance on a skit where he tells obsessive fans to "Get a life" and move out of their parents' basements. 
*Kirk's speech "I wonder, my friends, was he really such an evil energy gas?" mimics the musing orations that Kirk gives at the end of many episodes.
*The line, "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend," is from the episode , which, as Melllvar corrects Fry, was episode nine of the series. Fry thought it was episode ten, which is actually .
*The last line in the episode (spoken by Shatner) is, "Let's get the hell out of here." This same line was used by Kirk at the end of .
*The ending credits feature a song that musically evokes the Star Trek fanfare, and plays back images from the episode; the last image is in a parody of the famous "Balok puppet" from the episode , and whose image was the last seen in the ending credits for the entire second season of The Original Series.
* See: , for episode transcript.
==="Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch"===
 goes to visit on the Nimbus. Kif, frustrated with his long distance relationship with Amy, takes her to the "holo-shed", stating, "it can simulate anything you desire, and nothing can hurt you, except when it malfunctions and the holograms become real," to which Amy replies, "well, that probably won't happen this time." After showing her several possible homes they could move into together, the holo-shed malfunctions and creates real versions of Atilla the Hun, Jack the Ripper, Professor , "evil" Abraham Lincoln, and an evil pony named Spirit. When Kif and Amy report that "the holo-shed's on the fritz again, the characters turned real!" Zapp replied, "Damn. The last time that happened, I got slapped with three paternity suits."
The crew is later treated in the "Sickbay and Horta Burn Ward" by Dr. "Veins" McGee. A deleted scene includes a line by Veins where he exclaims: "Dammit Zapp, I'm a doctor, not a miracle worker!".
"Hang with Walter Koenig" is on Amy's to do calendar. His name was misspelled.
The final stage of Kif's pregnancy is called "the quickening" which is also the final stage of the Teplan blight.
==="The 30% Iron Chef"===
Bender rides the Wrath-of-Conrail train company. A reference to .
==="A Taste of Freedom"===
After desercrating Earth's flag, Zoidberg runs from an angry mob and runs pass several planet embassies, one of which is the Klingon embassy, though the design of the embassy looks more like a Barbie dollhouse.
==="Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles"===
At the beginning of this episode Professor Farnsworth uses the Planet Express ship's headlights/phasers and accidentally destroys Deep Space 9.
In the audio commentary, the production staff comment that this does not mean they disliked Deep Space Nine and add they thought it was one of the best Star Trek series, "especially when Worf got there".
Later in the episode, Leela reads the titles of stories from the book A Child's Garden of Space Stories. One of these stories is "Charlotte's Tholian Web", a reference to the classic TOS episode .
==="The Sting"===
Fry's funeral resembles Spock's funeral from and it also resembles Janeway's funeral from the VOY episode, . It even has the same pod shot in space.
==="Three Hundred Big Boys"===
Kiff is incarcerated at Commander Riker's Island.
== Films ==
===Bender's Big Score===
In the final battle at the end of the film Hermes' head is attached directly to the ship's main computer to fight in a similar way to Data's attachment in .
===The Beast with a Billion Backs===
Yivo "assimilates" Earth's non-robotic population by implanting tentacles into backs of their necks. While those unaffected by Yivo fear being assimilated; however, those under Yivo's control come to "love the tentacle." Just before Yivo succeeds in assimilating the last Human, Leela reveals that Yivo's tentacles are actually gentricles. The reveal so disgusts the Earthlings that Yivo agrees to withdraw into its dimension. However, the Earth agrees to go out on a date with Yivo.
Before and after their date with Yivo, the leaders of various interstellar governments discussed Yivo around a conference table. The table had a three-screen apparatus similar to the conference table aboard the original Enterprise.
===Bender's Game===
File:Futurama - Bender's Game - Takei and Bakula.jpg|George Takei confronts Scott Bakula
File:Futurama - Bender's Game - Takei and Bakula's ships.jpg|Takei and Bakula's ships
In , George Takei's head and Scott Bakula's head participate in a demolition derby, both are flying one-man ships stylized after Star Trek inspired designs: Takei is flying a ship of the , while Bakula is flying a ship of . During the derby, Takei pulls his ship up alongside Bakula's ship and slams the latter ship into the wall, yelling, "way to kill the franchise, Bakula." Takei then slams into Bakula once more, causing the destruction of Bakula's ship, moments before his own ship is also destroyed in a fiery inferno. 
===Into the Wild Green Yonder===
File:Botany Bay (Futurama).jpg|The Planet Express ship flies by the Botany Bay at Mars Vegas
File:Bender the science officer.png|Bender looking into a scope
In the opening to , an explosion creates a disturbance similar to the Genesis wave which affects a planet.
The Planet Express ship flies by the Botany Bay hotel when the crew is arriving at Mars Vegas.
Later, while trying to save a leech, Leela mentions that "leeches may not be cuddly like pandas or tribbles"
The "Dark-Ones" very closely resemble the creatures from Ceti Alpha V which Khan Noonien Singh uses to control Pavel Chekov in .
While surveying the Milky Way Galaxy for life, Bender acts as the ship's Science Officer looking through a sensor much like the one on board the USS Enterprise.
== Episodes (2010 to 2013) ==
==="In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela"===
The V-Giny space probe is destroying obscene planets on its way to Earth. The probe is the fusion of the V-Chip and USAF Flying Destiny probes; "V-Giny" is a portmanteau of the two antecedent craft. See Nomad and V'Ger.
Janeway's Guide is a reference book that lists various spacecraft; V-Giny is not listed.
==="Proposition Infinity"===
A robot police officer uses the Vulcan nerve pinch on a convict and says, "Spock you out!"
George Takei's head moderates a debate over the legality of marriage. The debate over robosexual marriage parallels the real-world debate over in the United States that was inflamed when the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2004. Takei is openly gay and a gay rights supporter.
Two of the supporters of robosexual marriage are Cheron natives who are in a relationship despite their opposing skin colors.
==="Decision 3012"===
In alternative reality, President Richard Nixon's Head orders the construction of a fence along the Southern boarder of the Solar System to control . The ships constructing the fence have the same design as the Tholian ships in the classic TOS episode .
==="Zapp Dingbat"===
George Takei makes a cameo appearance.
==="31st Century Fox"===
Patrick Stewart provides the voice for the Master of the Hunt.
==Other Star Trek-related gags==
* In the DVD commentary to "", Zapp Brannigan was described as being "40% Kirk, 60% Shatner." The idea for Zapp's first officer, Kif Kroker, was "what if Spock hated his captain."
* "": In the episode, Crewman Kif is imprisoned on Commander Riker's Island (which was apparently a pun on the actual prison named ).
* "", a take-off of the Prime Directive, states that a starship crew cannot interfere in the affairs of alien worlds, as named after Captain Zapp Brannigan, who doesn't understand what it means, but merely enforces it.
* , Bender's "evil" twin, has a goatee like the mirror Spock.
* In "", one of the brand new cars is the "Plymouth V'Ger," a play on both the V'Ger probe and the Plymouth Voyager vans.
* In "", (itself, a play on ), Leela explains when the crew needs food that a nearby planet "is Class 'M', therefore there should at least be some "Rodden berries" there."
* "": In this episode, The Professor and Leela are playing three-dimensional Scrabble, a parody of the game of three-dimensional chess featured in the Star Trek series.
* "": In this episode, a doctor creates a fake second eye for Leela using "phaser-eye surgery."
* Co-creator David X. Cohen based Dr. Zoidberg's cluelessness about anatomy other than his own on thoughts about : "[W]hen Matt and I were first working on the premise of the series, we thought it would be useful to have a doctor on the crew. My idea for Dr. Zoidberg was based on something that always bugged me about the original 'Star Trek.' Namely: I always thought that if I were Mr. Spock, a Vulcan, I would not feel very comfortable having a doctor of another species operating on me. So the idea was that Dr. Zoidberg would be knowledgeable only about the bizarre anatomy of his own species." 
== External link ==
* 
Category:Star Trek parodies and pop culture references