3ACV02: Parasites Lost First UK airing: Sky One, 8:30pm, 28-1-01 "I had a great time today. The flowers, the puddle, the way you hurt that guy..." Yay! History's repeating itself! After an episode that concluded a production block in a very feeble manner, the first new show of the next block is an absolutely corker. Character- rather than plot-led, unpredictable, giving screen time to everyone and very, very funny. Plus Amy got more than three lines for the first time in ages. And it's finally out in the open. Fry loves Leela! (G'uh.) And now she knows it! And she feels the same way about him! Of course, by the end of the episode everything was back to normal (or worse), but since Futurama is actually willing to pay attention to continuity when it wants to (everything from Scruffy through owls to Fry and Amy's past relationship got mentioned), I'd be willing to bet this'll come up again. All well and good in my book -- the more character comedy there is, the less chance there is of clunkers like 'The Cryonic Woman' taking up space. So what was it that made 'Parasites Lost' so much better than 'Cryonic'? Easy. 'Parasites Lost' had heart (and I mean more than in the literal sense), with the comedy coming from the characters as much as the situation, whereas 'Cryonic' was just a mechanical procession of gags. If you've got a reason to get involved with the people, then you can have as much CGI as you want. (George Lucas, listen up!) The whole Fantastic Voyage spoof was superb, and it even addressed the most scientifically ludicrous part of that film -- where does all the mass go when you shrink the ship? (Pity Deep Space Nine didn't bother doing that...) And while Zoidberg's bit with the sperm was easily the most gut-bustingly funny moment of the whole show, I would still have liked to see his microdroid being digested by an antibody up in the turret bubble, like Donald Pleasance, just for the hell of it. On top of that, it was the most 'shippy episode ever (even more so than 'Put Your Head On My Shoulders'), with Fry and Leela actually together! For real! Without coercion! Or the 'what if' machine! I definitely wasn't expecting that. I was expecting something to go wrong, since Fry and Leela becoming an item would mean a serious change to the series format -- not that it would be impossible to do, but extremely unlikely -- but I certainly didn't guess that Fry would lop a chunk off his hand-eye coordination node with a sword. And the ending was kind of sad, in a way that you don't often get in sitcoms. Don't give up, Fry! Rupert Murdoch's granted you at least another 32 chances to try again! Oddly, tonight's episode was actually scheduled to be 3ACV03, 'A Tale Of Two Santas', not that I'm complaining. However, I do have a complaint -- either somebody's toying with my mind... or the theme music is getting slower by the week. Quick, somebody give that composer some Class-A drugs! Rating: