Futurama: Space Pilot 3000
The first
episode of Futurama is filled with just as much humor and wit as all the other
episodes of the comedy sci-fi series. The pilot sets the stage for the story of
Philip Fry, a pizza delivery boy whose life continuously goes downhill. After he
falls down a cryogenic chute, Philip is trapped in a sleeping spell that ends
on December 31, 2999. Leela, a one-eyed alien, struggles with inserting a
career chip into Philip’s system when he finds out that the career assigned to
him is still a delivery boy. He chances upon Bender, a robot who loathes his
job just as much. They go to the head museum where they are seized by the
peacekeepers. Philip and Bender escape to the ruins of New York City. Philip
realizes that his old home and loved ones are all gone. Moved by this, Leela
decides to quit her job as well. They search for Professor Farnsworth, Philip’s
great nephew. He offers them a chance to be part of the Planet Express space
crew.
Time travel
is a familiar concept that has been tackled by numerous movies and shows but
when you it in the context of an animated show full of slapstick humor? It
becomes more interesting. The medium through which Futurama allows time travel
is through cryogenics, a branch of science that concerns extremely low
temperatures. The process is easy to grasp. The human is simply frozen and put
into deep sleep before waking up in a whole new millennium. It’s painless,
quick and simple. It makes time travel seem extremely feasible but as of now,
technology has no means to make this happen.
Futurama
depicts the future as highly industrialized. There are tall, metal structures,
flying cars, holograms and preserved human heads. Everything seems custom made
for heightened efficiency and speed for human activities. With these advancements,
however, come upsetting inventions like the suicide machine and career chip.
The suicide machine shows that human life no longer has value. Economic boost and
capitalism are the top priorities. Humans are free to end their life at their
own will and with no sorrowful emotions involved. The career chip completely
eradicates free will. Although I would love to see how far the Earth has come
in the future, Futurama warns us of the heartless and greedy society that may
arise if we lose sight of the values that led to our progression in the first
place.
No comments:
Post a Comment