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)