2ACV17: War Is The H-Word First UK airing: Sky One, 8:30pm, 14-1-01 "We have all seen too many bodybags and ball sacks." Well, a spoof of Starship Troopers was somehow inevitable, and Futurama did a decent (though not spectacular) job with it. 'War Is The H-Word' was one of those okay-grade episodes that raised some laughs but didn't really engage me -- once it finished, it was largely forgotten. Let's face it, the whole war was just an excuse to get in as many jokes about the word 'balls' as possible. I did think they missed one opportunity, though, especially considering the Starship Troopers spoofing going on -- when the aliens attacked en masse for the first time, one of the soldiers should have started screaming "Balls! Baaaalls!" Still, it was fun seeing Zapp suffering from Mary Martin Syndrome (or as MST3K fans know it, Mr B. Natural Syndrome) with "Lee Lemon", and for the 'shippers out there one thing was firmly established -- Fry fancies Leela, and she's pleased about it. Will this be followed up? Probably, since the sexual tension between Fry and Leela is a staple of the show, but it was nice to see it being addressed so openly. (I still think Amy's a better match for Fry, though!) However, what little sympathy I had for the deeply pathetic Kif vanished when it turned out he was also a bully. I mean, bullying Fry... it's like kicking a kitten or something. The M*A*S*H spoof was quite entertaining as well, even though it did take me two viewings before I fully got 'iHawk' (which produced a real "D'oh!" for not realising earlier). Hey, I'd had a few beers, okay? Zoidberg playing the Frank Burns role (and wiping out a few patients) got some laughs too. Actually, has anyone done a 'Death Tote Board' for the Planet Express gang yet? Bender took out at least three people in were-car form last week, Zoidberg finished off a few wounded soldiers, the Professor has a whole set of delivery crews that he's sent to their deaths... hell, even Fry (indirectly) caused mass devastation by knocking Single Female Lawyer off the air. These people are killers! One genuinely black bit of comedy was only visible in freeze-frame, at the recruiting office. A poster on the wall shows the Earth Army 'employee of the month'... a coffin with a flag draped over it. Continuity Cops: After Bender's lack of familiarity with "round rubber feet" in 'The Honking', how come there were all those tyres to hop through on the assault course? (Maybe the Springfield tyre pile is still in business.) And strictly speaking, shouldn't Fry and Bender already have military discount cards? They did fight for DOOP against the Omicrons, after all. Isn't there a veterans' discount, or something? Incidentally, I finally got hold of the first issue of the Futurama comic (since my comic shop upped sticks and moved last year, it's a hell of a lot less convenient to get to). Apart from the fact there wasn't nearly enough Amy in it, I liked it, though you've got to be worried about the disclaimer "printed on recycled paper with 10% post-consumer waste". I don't even want to think about what's been mixed in with the paper... Something I did notice, though; in Matt Groening's intro, he says, and I quote, "we're also going to try to sneak in some actual human emotion along with the laughs." Considering what The Simpsons has turned into lately, it's pretty clear which show is getting most of Matt's attention, I think... Final note: the 'wrong'-sounding theme music noted in 2ACV18 seems to be here to stay. Is it just me, is it a PAL/NTSC thing, or has anyone else noticed it too? Rating: BTW: I just realised that because of all the pre-emptions on Fox, the US is only two or three episodes ahead of the UK now. Does this mean that come the next batch of re-runs on Fox, Sky will catch up and then move ahead... or will Rupert Murdoch (who owns both networks) step in and prevent us Brits getting first dibs on new episodes? We'll see (although I bet I already know the answer).