Near-Death Wish

"Near-Death Wish" is the one hundred and twenty-fourth episode of Futurama, the tenth of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season.

Act I: "Let's boldly go where we've gone before."
Fry is disappointed when Professor Farnsworth is not there when he receives a prestigious Delivery Boy of the Year award, and wishes he had other relatives he could bond with. The Planet Express crew discovers that Farnsworth's parents have moved to the Near-Death Star, an artificial satellite whose elderly inhabitants are connected to power-generating pods similar to those in The Matrix. The pods keep the inhabitants' minds entertained in a virtual reality simulation. Fry, Leela, and Bender find Farnsworth's parents, Ned and Velma (whom Fry nicknames "Shabado" and "Gram-Gram," respectively), and Bender wires them into the simulation, which for them resembles a run-down nursing home. Fry enjoys meeting and bonding with the couple, but when the time comes to return to Earth, he disrupts the equipment and sets off the security alarms. Leela connects Ned and Velma direclty to the group's hovercart in order to power it and escape the pursuing robot guards, and the group returns to Earth.

Act II: "That is one crazy, uncircumcised, old man."
Farnsworth's surprise at seeing his parents quickly turns into resentment over a poor childhood, and he wants nothing to do with them. However, he spies on them as they enjoy several activities with Fry. When Leela and Amy confront Farnsworth, he tells them that when he was growing up, his parents never played with him nor paid attention to his scientific discoveries (one of which involved transplanting a mouse's head onto a frog's body). The family eventually moved to a farm in the countryside, further limiting Farnsworth's ability to study, and he has never forgiven them for it.

Act III: "Why would he go to Queens? He doesn't need tires."
Once he tells the rest of the group about his past, Ned and Velma explain that they moved in order to protect Farnsworth from meeting the same end as their first son. That son's scientific curiosity got him into trouble on several occasions; for his sake, they first moved to the farm, then later had to commit him to a mental institution and never saw him again. Ned and Velma claim that they did not want their second child, Floyd, to suffer this fate as well - whereupon Farnsworth realizes that they believe him to be Floyd. Farnsworth, the first son, was in fact committed, but escaped from the institution. Bender tells the group about the arrival of a man named Floyd who claims to be related to Farnsworth, but no one pays any attention and Farnsworth reconciles with his parents.

Ned and Velma ask to be taken back to the Near-Death Star to escape the pain of their physical bodies, and Farnsworth promises to visit. Once they are connected into their pods, he re-programs their simulation to present the country farm and revert them back to a younger age. Plugging himself in, he creates an image of himself as a child so he can play with them as his mouse-headed frog hops by.

Production
On 28 July 2011, it was revealed at the that, in an episode of the seventh production season, Professor Farnsworth's parents would be revealed to be still alive and living in the Near Death Star. On 29 February 2012, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its writer to be Eric Horsted and its director to be Lance Kramer. On 29 June, revealed the episode's air date.

On 12 July, following the broadcast of the episode "Zapp Dingbat", the public were given the opportunity to participate in a live chat with the Futurama cast and crew. Several clips of "Near-Death Wish" were shown during the live stream.

Continuity

 * The Fry-Leela relationship is featured again.
 * Fry is seen learning to play the Holophonor again.
 * The return to the Near-Death Star.
 * A poster of Braino is seen on the Professor's bedroom wall during a flashback, a call back to the "The Duh-Vinci Code" where the Professors says he has long been inspired by him.

Allusions

 * The characters mock the concept, used in  films, of using humans as a power source, pointing out that it would be impossible to get more energy out than one would put in.
 * The episode's title is a reference to the Near-Death Star, a "near death" experience, and the term "".
 * The "Theater in the Ground" is a reference to.
 * Professor Farnsworth parodies the Phantom in  at Fry's holophonor recital.
 * The Opening Title Caption "There's No Like Show Bismuth" parodies the phrase "There's No Business Like Show Business", which is also the title of  and  in the 1946 musical .
 * Fry states "We must boldly go where we have already gone once before," in an homage to Star Trek.
 * A poster of Braino sticking out his tongue like appears in Hubert's room.
 * Although introduced in the same episode, and considering the focus on the Fry/Farnsworth Family Tree, Cubert is completely absent from this episode.
 * The Professor's bedsheet has transformers on it - not the "Robots in Disguise" type, but the circuit symbol for an electric.
 * This is the first and so far only instance of anyone having any strong feelings toward Farnsworth being nude. However, in every other time, there was far more modesty on his part and it was easier to maintain eye contact.

Goofs

 * In "The Sting", when Fry is thought to be dead, the Professor claims to be the oldest living member left in his family.
 * There are three possible solutions: the majority of the events of "The Sting" are part of a dream thus would not count, the Professor was wrong as he would not know whether they were even still alive, and/or the attribution of "living" only applies to non-dead persons who are not in "virtual retirement".
 * The Professor's parents make it clear that Floyd would be unaware of Hubert as his brother, so how would he know about the professor to come see him years ago (as mentioned by Bender)?
 * Being homeless he could have gone and tracked down living family to possibly ask for money.
 * Here Fry can play the holophonor, but in The Devils Hands are Idle Playthings, he couldn't because he had stupid hands.
 * He could play short (and usually not very good) songs, which he did in this episode, plus he seems to have played enough to have some basic skills with the instrument by now.
 * Its mentioned (and shown) that the Professor was in diapers till age six, in Clone of My Own, but in this episode's flashbacks he doesn't have them.
 * Because here he was shown as 14. And in the virtual world, where he appears younger, that is how Hubert explained it, simply appearances.
 * When talking about his lack of living family, Fry forgets Cubert and Igner.
 * Fry may not fully understand his relationship to Igner and may not consider Cubert to be anything more than one and the same as the Professor since, genetically, they are the same person.
 * In Space Piolt 3000, its stated the Professor is Fry's only living relative, now presumably people on the Near Death star don't count, and Igner was a secret but what about Floyd? Why wasn't he mentioned?
 * This goes back to the surprise revelation that Ned and Velma still lived. As for Floyd, we may attribute this to Ned and Velma altering family records to hide one of their children and obviously got the wrong one due to their inability to distinguish their children.
 * The toll bots say that visitors are forbidden. So why are there "Visitor Entrance" ports in the virtual reality machines?
 * Perhaps visitors were allowed at the Near-Death Star's creation, and there was later a cultural shift that considered the occupants to be dead and hence impossible to visit. The design of the life support machines may not have been changed, hence the redundant ports.
 * It is also possible that important people, such as Clippie winners, are allowed to visit relatives.
 * Fry said he was most recently a high school student, but he became a proud college dropout in "Mars University".
 * The old man with a zimmer frame disappears during the Matrix-style camera shift when Fry, Leela and Bender enter the virtual old folks home.

Trivia

 * It is revealed in this episode that the Professor is uncircumcised.
 * It is revealed that the Professor has a younger brother named "Floyd".

Characters

 * Amy
 * Barrier Bots
 * Bender
 * Dwight
 * Fry
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Debut: Ned Farnsworth
 * Debut: Velma Farnsworth
 * Hermes
 * LaBarbara
 * Leela
 * Sal
 * Debut: Squeakers
 * Sunset Squad Chasers
 * Zoidberg