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1ACV04: Love's Labors Lost In Space
First UK airing: Sky One, 8:00pm, 12-10-99
"I don't care how many eyes a
man has... as long as it's less than five."
Last time it was Bender; now, Leela gets to open up
a little more. Of the main characters, she's the one who has
the most potential to develop, as she's got the whole mystery
of her background to discover, as well as being one of the few
regulars who shows any degree of competence, or even intelligence.
Sorry to drag The Simpsons up again, but Leela combines the roles
of Marge and Lisa -- she takes care of the others (sometimes
against her own better judgement, as we see in 1ACV07) while
also having to act as the brains of the outfit.
The thing about Leela is that she's the straight woman
to Fry and Bender. Leela rarely gets the good lines or does the
funny stuff -- instead, she has to endure all the idiocy going
on around her and accept the indignities life dishes out. (A
small but perfectly-formed example that springs to mind is in
1ACV06, where the Professor splatters her with egg; she just
glares at him while silently wiping herself off, which I think
sums up her attitude perfectly.) In this episode alone, as well
as the humiliations handed out to her on the dating scene (hell,
even Fry manages to score), she not only finds that the man of
her dreams is in fact a cowardly, boorish idiot, but then --
after realising she despises him -- ends up having 'pity sex'
with him. "Aaaaaaaighhhh!" indeed. Leela's comedy value
comes from the way she responds to comedic situations,
since the mere fact that she's honest, dependable and dedicated
largely rules her out from actually instigating them. In some
ways, she's like Polly from Fawlty Towers -- the others rely
on her to bail them out of the (usually self-created) fixes they
get into.
It's interesting to make parallels between Leela and
Kif. Kif is a less-developed version of Leela -- his function
is to groan at Zapp's stupidity, just as Leela does for Fry and
Bender, but unlike Leela that's (so far) all there is to him.
In just four episodes it's been established that there's a lot
more depth to Leela, and despite her tough-as-nails exterior,
underneath it's clear she's quite the sentimental type.
Speaking of Zapp, at first I couldn't help but think
of Troy McClure -- mainly because of the voice, even though it
wasn't Phil Hartman providing it (b'uh). However, as the episode
went on, Zapp managed to develop a persona of his own. A weak,
pathetic, bullying persona, admittedly, but a persona nevertheless.
It's just a pity that his subsequent appearances haven't (yet)
taken him any further. By the way, if you're wondering how somebody
that stupid could possibly be in a position of command, take
a look around. See those politicians, bureaucrats and bosses?
Now you know.
With Star Trek (original flavour) being the obvious
target of the jokes for much of the episode, there was a danger
of it covering all-too-familiar ground. Everyone and his dog
has done a Star Trek spoof at one time or another, and generally
they're not that funny. For a start, the 'captain's journal'
jokes were old, old, old -- I was half-expecting a spot of 'captain's
log' toilet humour. The other Zapp stuff did work better, though,
especially his 'lovenasium' and almost murderously cavalier attitude
to the lives of his men. Maybe some ancestor of his was a British
general in World War 1.
The Vergon 6 section was a fun change of pace, with
some cheerful visual gags coming from the animals (loved the
Hermaphlamingo(s)). The writers have a whole bizarre universe
to play in, and it's good to see them making use of it. (Though
they should have taken more care with shipboard continuity, mumble
grumble. How's a man expected to fritter his time away on trivia
like deck plans if people don't stick to them?)
Overall, I thought that 'Labors' (or 'Labours', as
Shakespeare originally put it) was what could be called 'average'
Futurama -- entertaining and funny,
but not really pushing terribly hard. On the other hand, if all
TV comedies were of the same standard as an 'average' Futurama,
I'd watch a whole lot more TV comedies.
Rating: 
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