Futurama Reaction Paper

Futurama's pilot episode, Space Pilot 3000, features a delivery boy named Fry who during New Year's Eve is still working at Panucci's Pizza. During one of his deliveries (his last at that shop), he is accidentally frozen in a cryogenic chamber and does not wake up until 1000 years later.

While he is frozen, the viewers are given a quick glance at the events during that 1000 years. New York City is destroyed by aliens, rebuilt, then destroyed again until it is finally rebuilt to the city that Fry wakes up to. 

After being welcomed in the new era by two scientists, he meets Leela, an alien who is tasked with assigning Fry his permanent job. After Fry discovers he will still be a delivery boy like his past life, he escapes and gets his first actual look at the world he now lives in where he also meets a robot named Bender who eventually becomes his best friend.

We see that there are weird-shaped buildings, flying cars, transportation tubes that are able to take you to another place by you telling a computer where you want to go, mutated fish and even preserved heads of famous personalities as seen in the Hall of Heads. This shows that Futurama has a very idealistic or romanticized view on the future. 

On the other hand, the means by which Fry went to the future was not the typical time machine. The show tackled the subject of cryogenic freezing or preservation. During the time this episode was released in 1999, cryogenic processes were still under research and it was only last year when a human being was put under cryogenic sleep. Having said this, Futurama's concept was still based on actual science research and it is not solely fiction. And its view on science is very ambitious but progressive at the same time.

Hasmin Gaile Gavica
2013-16603

Futurama is American-animated sci-fi cartoon series featuring Philip Fry. Who got his second chance living by getting inside a time-travelling machine and going one thousand years in the future


Trying and hoping to escape his fate being a delivery boy, he became so devastated when he knew that he is still the same in the future.
basically, it tells a story of a robot trying to escape his fate. he wants to change his destiny. he doesn't want to be a delivery boy forever.


After watching the Pilot episode (Space Pilot 3000), it made me realize what freedom is today. Because in the series, your job,
your fate, is life, is fixed and cannot be changed. It all depends on the technology. It also shows me what will happen when we get to 
dependent on science and technology. 
With computing or calculating what will happen in the future, it isn’t the way life is. And we have to avoid it. For me, Human nature is just normal in the present and I do not want to let it change.

'Space Pilot 3000' Reaction Paper

Labrador, Ana Micaela B.
2011-02178

Futurama shows the typical, almost ‘romanticized,’ expectations that humans already have for the future – flying cars, quick transportation, oddly shaped buildings, completely sentient robots, the possibility of aliens and other life forms, and other allusions to technologic possibilities of the future.

When Fry was frozen in time, the window next to him displayed how history is a cycle: a community is developed and sustained, and is eventually driven to the ground and taken over by a higher power that seeks to rule over it, until a stronger power comes along to establish newer structures. The scene in which aliens take over the Earth differs very little, in terms of concept, from how ancient kingdoms would wage war against each other for the sake of claiming each other’s territory, population, and technology to prove their power.

Not only do such cyclical ‘wars’ change the physical environment of a community, but also affects the way a society behaves with the passing of time. The language used in the future is different from the present (‘jobless’ versus ‘job–abandoners’), and present taboo ideas may be seen differently in the future (ex. the concept of suicide; presently it is a sensitive subject, but in the future it appears to be a very ‘normalized’ subject, with the regular presence of ‘Suicide Booths’).

What’s interesting is that its use of time travel depicts how the future as a whole is unpredictable, but despite this, there are a few ‘universal constants’ that will always remain. Besides the aforementioned ‘cyclical wars’ that shape a society, popular sayings and social structures from the past have not changed much, even in the present day. People now still adhere and hold on to words of famous icons (ex. the cameo of the popular icon Leonard Nimoy), and jobs are still seen as extremely important and something that must be followed to an absolute point (ex. the popular saying, “You gotta do what you gotta do”).

Overall, time travel in Futurama, and the show itself, shows how stark the differences between the past, present and future are, and yet also highlights evidence of similarities between these three points in time.

REACTION PAPER: Space Pilot 3000 (Futurama S01E01)

Futurama is in itself an illustration of how humanity intervenes with the supposedly purely beneficial impact of the advancement of science and technology. Utmost innovation does not guarantee utmost comfort in life. People are inevitably, at first, in some ways slaves of science, but they grow out of it when they fail to perceive the rationale of things they perform routinely for science.  As Philip J. Fry said, “It’s up to you to make your own decisions in life. That’s what separates people and robots from animals…and animal robots.” Science’s provisions assure us of security, yet our responsibility to be wary of its consequences and to be deliberate in choosing what to accept in our lives remain within us.

One subtle depiction of time travel that Futurama did was inconvenience; the traveler is most likely not knowledgeable enough of the period’s culture he is destined to experience. As a result, he finds difficulty in adapting to that environment. Of course, everything about time travel is thrilling; but the part where you get yourself accustomed to an alien domain is the great challenge. Besides, escaping reality by departing today for another time does not make the predicament in the least better. In the case of Fry, he rejoiced in having been accidentally delivered to the future where he would apparently lead an entirely different life. He deemed his life miserable, so he thought that the accident was a blessing in disguise.

He met a robot, named Bender, in the line for the suicide booth which he mistook for a phone booth. Together they embarked on a journey as fugitives to escape their assigned Fate. In the end, the Fate Assignment Officer realized that it was high time she quit her job, which only involved her obsequiously following her boss’s orders around, her personal views and values completely neglected. She cannot make decisions by herself; she would disrupt her system if she does. This is just like how we unconsciously let science be our ultimate boss- an utter human flaw that results from our lack of understanding of the significance of things unrelated to science: wisdom, relationships, family, friends, and emotions, among others. Fry’s act of surrendering to his Assigned Fate is equivalent to his surrendering to what he is destined to be and stop running away from it. There are instances when people use science in an attempt to alter destiny; although in one way or another, there is always a good effect, the end never seemed to appear satisfactory to the proponents. Though sometimes we loathe the fate that we have come upon, it still is the product of our actions and decisions and therefore the reflection of our being as a whole. It may not always be in our favour, but at least we can do something about it- better than having your arm implanted with a career chip thus going through life performing a job you did not partake in deciding.

Apple Czarline C. Cruel

2013-59992

Futurama S01E01

Space Pilot 3000 is Futurama's pilot episode which was aired on Fox on March 28, 1999. It was all about Philip J. Fry, who experienced cryogenic freezing when he fell into a cryogenic tube while he was delivering pizza to "Applied Cryogenics" on December 31, 1999. By the time that he was defrosted, he discovers that he woke up a thousand years later, which was on the year 2999, realizing that he is now seeing the New New York City.

The plot goes like this. Fry meets Leela, who decides one's fate, and then again, Fry was assigned as a permanent delivery boy. Not wanting this, he flew into the city. Tracking his only living relative, Professor Farnsworth, he meets a robot named Bender who also does not like his job. Together they hid from Leela in the Head Museum and then eventually realizes they were underground, where the Old New York ruins are. Then Leela catches Fry who then accepted the job because he was too depressed knowing he was alone, and then Leela pitied him who also realizes she was alone and later on quits her job too. Then the three of them found the professor who hires them as crew of his ship.Fry then discovers he was going to be a delivery boy, but this time he was happy about it.

As the title suggests, this cartoon or animation is really futuristic. With Fry waking up a thousand years later, certainly a lot of things had changed. Everything was so, in his eyes, new and were once in his time impossible. Yet. This series' take on the future is that it will be very much advanced, with all the inventions and innovations and technological improvements. Of course it will not happen all at once, or very soon, but it is definitely not impossible. Futurama tackled time travelling in a subtle way, I guess. It didn't have that time travelling machine or something, but the ice served as this when it preserved Fry's body for a thousand years.

Palaroan, Graciel M.
2013-60784

REACTION PAPER (No. 4): ALL THE TIME

Thea Selina G. Morales

2013-59204

STS THX

   

          If I were given the chance to do an update or adaptation of the story, it would show the current issues and aspects in our society and environment.  My main character’s name is Skyler.  She is a seventeen year old college student.  Her family is very traditional and her parents are very strict when it comes to her studies.  This is why they do not allow her to watch television, have a cellphone or any gadget.  Skyler understands this, she feels blessed to be given an education that not all people are given. 

On her eighteenth birthday, they surprised her with an ipad.  Overwhelmed with joy and due to her lack of exposure to technology, this became her new obsession.  Day until night she would use it relentlessly. Her parents would get mad at her whenever they see her using it too often, that’s why she resorted to staying in the library after school so she can continue using it. One afternoon, while she was at the library, she observed the strong and endless downpour of rain.  It was almost midnight and being satisfied with her alone time with the ipad, she decided to go home.  Stunned, she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the whole barangay submerged in water.  At first she felt lucky that her school was on high grounds but suddenly realized what the aftermath of this tragedy meant – her home, her family, were gone. 

While looking outside she hadn’t realized that her ipad was being soaked in the rain, and eventually it was broken as well.  She was too attached to her ipad she overlooked the significant things in life.  Skyler realized the difference between aloneness and loneliness. Now she was left with nothing but the guilt.

Today, technology plays a huge role in our society.  But sometimes it blinds us from what really is important in our lives.  As we look around, isn’t it normal to see people busy on their phones – surfing the web or using different apps?  What about human activities– exercising or conversing?  Technology definitely has its advantages but it also has its disadvantages.  It is crucial that we find the balance. 

We should also learn to value the earth we are living in today.  Soon, it might be too much for Mother Nature that all the harm we have done might backfire through natural calamities.  The time to change our wrong ways is now.  Let us do our obligation of caring for the environment, not only for ourselves but for the future generations. 

REACTION PAPER (No.3): TRIP TO THE MOON

Thea Selina G. Morales

2013-59204

STS THX

        As an audience of the first ever screening of the film, I would be astounded and wonderstruck.  Since it was the year 1902, scientific studies were definitely not as explored and developed compared to how it is today.  But studies concerned with the solar system were already present. I would ask myself: “Is it really that easy to travel to the moon?”, “Is it that near to the earth”, “Do other living organisms exist besides human?”, “Can I go on a trip to moon too someday?”.   

           I would think that the film, in a way, makes fun of the science. “Trip to the Moon” blurs the boundary between the possible and the impossible.  It activates a sense of curiosity but also a sense of confusion. The film goes against the purpose of science which is to develop the state of knowing and to explain reality.

 I believe that the director intended this silent film to be a comedy and it definitely was.  It is very entertaining and unpredictable. Overall, it would have been an enjoyable film to watch in the year 1902. Watching “Trip to the Moon” gave me the thirst to know more about the possibilities in the world of science.