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2ACV02: Brannigan Begin Again
First UK airing: Sky One, 8:00pm, 21-3-00
"I have no strong feelings one
way or the other."
Ooh, ooh, ow. Nothing like an episode that completely
contradicts everything previously established about a spaceship's
layout to give webmasters at sites dedicated-ish to spaceship
layouts a headache. Cargo bay directly behind the bridge, and
door on the port side of the bulkhead, huh? Are we to
assume that this is some magical spaceship? And while
we're on the subject, where did that second DMCU in the engine
room come from? "Wizard." (Or Amy.) Just go and check
out the Goofs page to see everything
that went west this week...
Annoying continuity glitches aside, 'Brannigan Begin
Again' was a fun, if lightweight, Futurama
episode. Kif finally got some characterisation -- though it made
him even more pathetic than he was before, heh heh, and the "child's
spacesuit" bit was brilliant -- and it was a laugh seeing
all the new and old aliens in the (short-lived, helas)
DOOP headquarters. (Was that a reference to B5's Shadows in the
way Zapp sliced and diced the station? Hope so -- it'd be nice
to know that Futurama's writers
watched TGSFSOTE(UTEOSFAL)* as well.) Odd to see that Chapek
9 is a member of DOOP, though. I guess they don't have a problem
with non-humanoid aliens.
It's also good -- er, I think -- that Star Trek is
still well-known in 3000AD. Let's just hope it's not Voyager
that they remember.
The episode at least did something new with Zapp and
Kif rather than just recycling the usual schtick, which was a
relief -- before seeing the episode I was worried that it would
just be more of the all-too-same. Which it was, a bit, but fortunately
at a level that raised smiles based on familiarity rather
than groans. Rather like The Fast Show. (For the benefit of the
American audience, The Fast Show is... um, kinda hard to describe.
Jeez, use Yahoo or something if you're that bothered. Get off
my back!) Despite never having seen Midnight Cowboy I knew exactly
what Zapp and Kif's NNYC odyssey was all about, which could be
taken as either an advantage or an indictment of living in a
pop-culture-will-eat-itself society, and the moment where Hattie
chose Kif over Zapp was priceless.
However, despite some nifty bits like the high-gravity
world (I loved what happened to everybody's hair, and was it
just me or did the hotel look a lot like the Overlook from The
Shining?) or the noncommittal Neutral planet ("Beige alert!"),
2ACV02 was just average Futurama.
(In other words, about a 9.99999 on the Veronica's Closet scale.)
The very nature of the situation made it fairly easy to predict
what was going to happen -- after all, who didn't figure
out that Zapp would come up with an idiot plan that even Fry
would realise was not to his best advantage, and free Leela?
That's not to say that the journey wasn't enjoyable, but we all
knew the destination.
A quick bout of DYNs: Fry didn't know what DOOP is,
despite having been drafted into its service in 1ACV12; Mr Horrible
Gelatinous Blob and Gorgax were in both the holographic chess
game and the DOOP courtroom (Gorgax was even on the jury, along
with Glermo 1/2 and a Robot Elder); in the scene where the Professor
can't remember Bender, Our Favourite Robot seems to have acquired
trendy shoulder fins -- fashion statement or animation glitch?;
Leela appears to have got a taste for miniskirts after pretending
to be Jenny McNeill, and what man would dispute her decision?
(Er, hang on, I must remember she's not actually real.)
On a sidenote, I guess Amy and Kif's 'thang' (from
1ACV10) didn't work out. Well, he is a bit of a wet, and certainly
doesn't seem to be her type. Funny how Amy was nowhere to be
seen in this episode; good job for the writers that she had a
lot of classes at Mars U this week, eh?
Rating: 
BTW: This is worrying -- I had my
first Futurama dream last night (Monday 21st March), discussing
the Jonestown (sp?) Kool-Aid business with a (live-action) Amy
and Bender. And no, I'm not kidding. As to why a distinctly American
bit of mass poisoning would be lodged in my subconscious (you
can't even get Kool-Aid in England) I have no idea, but what
I do know is that live-action Amy was indeed hot. If not for
the fact that I just had one, I'd think I needed a break. Maybe
I need to do more work...
*The Greatest
Science Fiction Show On Television Ever (Until The End Of Season
Four, At Least)
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