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2ACV10: A Clone Of My Own
First UK airing: Sky One, 7:00pm, 11-6-00
"Everyone's always in favour
of saving Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of
a great white shark, ohh-ohh-ohh, suddenly you've gone too far!"
I'm just wondering if, after seeing this week's opening
credits joke, somebody from Futurama
reads my wafflings on this site. Surely not!
One question that I have to ask is, was there a cut
in the UK transmission? When the Professor says that he's taped
over Bender's soaps, Bender says "You-" and the shot
cuts to the next very quickly. I suspect there was a "bastard!"
in there -- can any US viewers confirm or deny? If there was,
it's another example of Sky's haphazard and unpredictable approach
to censorship -- sometimes shows in the early evening go out
uncut, other times late-night shows (like The X Files) get butchered.
Go figure.
'Clone' was funny, but also a bit forgettable -- when
I watched it again to do this review, I was constantly going,
"Oh yeah, this bit" -- even though it introduced a
new character. Actually, I hope that Cubert is only a semi-regular,
since I have to admit that I found him intensely annoying. I
know that was no doubt the idea, but even so... Cubert strikes
me as being a Zapp-like character -- at his best if he's just
popping up to deliver an appropriate joke, but rather irritating
if overused. We'll see. Did anyone else think that he was just
the Comic Book Guy in the body of Martin Prince?
The best joke in the entire episode was without a
doubt the Captain Pike gag (makes you wonder what the life expectancy
of OFC will be) and its 'only on Futurama'
follow-through, which as a Trekkie was absolutely superb, and
the fact they used some actual Trek music was the icing on the
cake. Mind you, a close second had to be the 'Near-Death Star'.
Having some pseudo-scientific explanation of the technology in
the show was entertaining as well, and considering the weird
science news that came out in the last few days about the possibility
of breaking the speed of light, it had an odd kind of relevance.
And Futurama still has better science
than Voyager. (I'm not kidding. The last episode I saw was the
one that claimed gravity could be radioactive!)
There was a lot of smart CGI this time as well --
the obvious section was aboard the Near-Death Star (and I did
like the Matrix-style 'bullet time' shot during takeoff), but
the bit that impressed me was when the Sunset Squad arrived at
the Planet Express building to collect the Professor, in that
every time we see the neighbourhood, they've modelled even more
of it. How long before the whole of NNYC is mapped out?
The end result was standard fare, with some good jokes
(and a plot that took unexpected turns, for a change) but nothing
that really stuck in the mind. I will be watching the
repeat next Saturday -- but only because I forgot to switch my
video to SP to record it. Aaaaarse! BTW, I had a demo of Pioneer's
DVD-RW system this week -- damn it, I want one, and I want it
right now! A mere two hours per disc at DVD-Video quality? I
don't give a rat's ass, I got money, blank discs are the least
of my worries. Get the bloody thing installed under my TV tomorrow!
This system is amazing -- it offers broadcast quality recordings,
and you can edit out the crap you don't want more or less seamlessly.
Like they said in the credits, available soon on an illegal DVD...
but not soon enough!
Last DYN -- anyone else spot the training remote from
Star Wars on the shelves in the Professor's room?
Rating: 
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