ROSWELL THAT ENDS WELL

"'Roswell That Ends Well'" is the nineteenth episode of the third production season of the TV show ''Futurama''. The Emmy Award winning episode originally aired on December 9, 2001.

Contents

Synopsis

Continuity

Broadcast and reception

Cultural references

See also

References

External links

Synopsis

As the crew kicks back to enjoy a supernova from point-blank range, Fry puts a non-microwaveable metal popcorn container into the ship's microwave. This causes a reaction between the microwave radiation and the “gravitons and graviolis” from the supernova that blasts the ship into 1947. On their return to Earth, they find a complete lack of a 30th century Global Positioning System, causing them to crash land in Roswell, New Mexico.
Bender (having refused to wear a seatbelt like the rest of the crew) flies out of the front of the ship and is smashed to pieces. The crew and Bender's disembodied head go to seek out a way to return, leaving Zoidberg behind to pick up the pieces. Zoidberg is captured by the U.S. military and taken to Roswell Air Base for experimentation. The military also "reconstructs" Bender's body in the form of a small flying saucer.
Meanwhile, the microwave needed to return to the future has been destroyed and replacements have not been invented yet. A microwave antenna from the army base would work, but Farnsworth gives stern warning against using it: they must preserve causality or risk changing history and doing damage to the future. Fry visits his grandfather, Enus, who is stationed at the base and engaged to Fry's grandmother (and who resembles Fry). Near-accidents cause Fry to become obsessed with protecting Enus from possible harm as Fry will cease to exist if he is killed. Desperate to keep Enus safe from possible harm, Fry inadvertently brings about Enus’s death by leaving him in a “safe” house—which unknown to Fry, is located in the middle of a nuclear weapons testing range.
Fry encounters and consoles his would-be grandmother Mildred, who was at the time engaged to Enus. Mildred latches on to Fry, who deduces that since he is alive, Enus and Mildred must not have been his grandparents, and the two end up having sex. When the rest of the group finds him, Farnsworth insists that Mildred indeed is Fry's grandmother. Fry realizes that he is his own grandfather and Professor Farnsworth gives up on noninterference.
The crew storms Roswell Air Base, overpowers it and steals the microwave dish. Fry and Leela rescue Zoidberg from an alien autopsy while the Professor grabs Bender’s body. Bender's head falls out of the ship and is left behind in 1947. Back in the 31st century, Fry laments the loss of Bender, until an idea sends him to Roswell's ruins with a metal detector. He and Leela find Bender's head, none the worse for wear and reattach it to his still-mangled, hovering, "UFO" body.

Continuity

This episode provides an important link in the story arc of Philip J. Fry. By becoming his own grandfather, Fry received a unique genetic abnormality which causes him to lack the ''Delta Brainwave'', believed to be present in all other intelligent lifeforms, robots, and certain plants. This genetic condition made Fry immune to the influence of the creatures known as the Brainspawn, who travel through the universe, eliminating all forms of thought and intelligence that they might be the sole possessors of all knowledge. Fry was thus able to defeat the Brainspawn in the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”, but it was not until the Season four episode “The Why Of Fry” that Fry’s abnormality was explained as being due to him having done "the nasty in the past-y".

Broadcast and reception

The episode won an Emmy Award in the Outstanding Animated Program (Programming Less Than One Hour) category in 2002. Rich Moore also won an Annie Award for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" in 2002^[1] and in 2006 IGN ranked the episode as the sixth best Futurama episode^[2]. In 2001 executive producer David X. Cohen noted that this was one of his favorite episodes of the series thus far "David X. Cohen boards the Planet Express to find meaning in Futurama" . Sci Fi weekly gave the episode an "A" grade and noted that it was "a half hour of pure entertainment" Futurama Premiere . This episode is one of four featured in the ''Monster Robot Maniac Fun Collection'', marking it as one of Matt Groening's favorite episodes from the series^[3]. Although the episode was well received by critics it continued to do poorly in its time slot. The original airing was in 83rd place for the week with a 3.1 rating/5 share^[4].

Cultural references

★ The episode bears many obvious similarities to the ''Back to the Future'' movies^[5].

★ The time vortex and accompanying music resembles that of British time travel science fiction series Doctor Who.

★ Much of Enos' character is taken from ''The Andy Griffith Show’s'' Gomer Pyle⁵, in his accent and characteristics, his childlike love of his commanding officer and use of Pyle’s trademark “Gol-ly!”.

★ Professor Farnsworth notes that the ship chronograph at one point is changed into a pinup calendar, with the actual picture resembling the famous portrait of pin-up girl ''Betty Grable''.

★ The title of the episode is derived from the title of Shakespeare’s play ''All's Well That Ends Well''.

★ The soylent products that Professor Farnsworth tries to order at a restaurant come from the movie ''Soylent Green''.

★ Much of the plot parallels many episodes and films of the Star Trek franchise. The supernova/microwave oven's visual effect on the Planet Express Ship bears half of a striking resemblance to the V-Ger weapon's effect in "." The crew crash landing in 1947 Roswell, NM and subsequently becoming the basis for the Roswell story follows the "" episode "Little Green Men" in which a trio of Ferengi are catapulted back in time, becoming the "Roswell aliens." In the DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" Julian Bashir contemplates the urge to become his own ancestor upon meeting a woman who may or may not be his great-grandmother (Bashir fails to act upon this urge, while Fry shows much greater impulse). The fate of Bender’s head is a parody of the '' episode "Time’s Arrow" wherein Data’s head is detached in the 19th century and found in an archaeological dig in 2368.

★ After Fry attempts to remind Professor Farnsworth about the dangers of messing with the time line, the Professor refers to Fry as "Mr. I'm My Own Grandpa".

★ In 1947, there is a "Hard Croon Cafe", a parody of Hard Rock Cafe and a reference to the fact that in 1947 rock and roll didn't exist yet.

★ When Leela and the Professor are sitting in the diner, we see the nuclear blast that kills Fry's grandfather in the background through the window. Typical for this era and locale, everyone in the town takes it in stride. Interestingly, so do Leela and the Professor.

★ A newspaper article is shown which looks similar to a famous photo of Gen. Roger Ramey and Col. Thomas Dubose.

★ The newspaper shown reporting the UFO crash is the ''Roswell Daily Record'', the actual newspaper of Roswell, NM that famously reported the UFO crash in 1947. The masthead shown resembles the actual ''Daily Record'' masthead.

★ Fry's being his own grandfather bears similarities to Zaphod Beeblebrox's family line from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' trilogy.

★ On the side of the rocket it reads the episode title and also parodies the Kilroy was Here sign by using Zoidberg in the drawing rather than Kilroy.

★ Among the accurately rendered 1940s-era aircraft seen at Roswell were P-51A and P-51D Mustangs and a demilitarised B-24 Liberator transport.

★ When the Professor learns that he is trapped in the 1940s, he laments that "we'll have to endure the terrible music of the Big Bopper and the horrible tragedy of his death!"

★ This episode is set in Roswell 1947, parodying the rumor that in 1947 Roswell had an alien invasion. In this episode it reveals in fiction the aliens who invaded were the Planet Express crew.

★ Fry accidentally killing his grandfather and impregnating his grandmother resembles the story of Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father and married and had children with his mother.

See also

★ Predestination paradox

★ Grandfather paradox

★ ontological paradox

★ "I'm My Own Grandpa", a song in which a man becomes his own grandfather through a series of bizarre marriages rather than time travel. (Referenced in the episode)

★ "All You Zombies—", a short story by Robert A. Heinlein where the hermaphrodite protagonist, thanks to time travel and gender reassignment surgery, becomes both his own mother and his own father.

References

1. 30th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners
2. "Top 25 Futurama Episodes"
3. Futurama - Do the Robot Dance! Gord Lacey
4. Futurama, Family Guy Not Fairing Well
5. Fox's 'Futurama' funny, freaky, fetching Rob Owen

External links

★

★ Episode capsule