Difference between revisions of "Möbius Dick"
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* The {{w|Oceanic Airlines}} plane seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron is an allusion to the TV series ''{{w|Lost (TV Series)|Lost}}''. | * The {{w|Oceanic Airlines}} plane seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron is an allusion to the TV series ''{{w|Lost (TV Series)|Lost}}''. | ||
* The spaceship used in many album covers of British rock group {{w|Electric Light Orchestra}} can be seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron. | * The spaceship used in many album covers of British rock group {{w|Electric Light Orchestra}} can be seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron. | ||
* The {{w|Fourth Doctor}} from the British television science fiction series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' can be seen, amongst others, emerging from the body of the | * The {{w|Fourth Doctor}} from the British television science fiction series ''{{w|Doctor Who}}'' can be seen, amongst others, emerging from the body of the [[Four-dimensional space whale]]. | ||
=== Continuity === | === Continuity === | ||
Revision as of 13:56, 5 August 2011
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| Season 6 episode Broadcast season 8 episode | |||||
| Möbius Dick | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | 103 | ||||
| Production number | 6ACV15 | ||||
| Written by | Dan Vebber | ||||
| Directed by | Dwayne Carey-Hill | ||||
| Title caption | FEATURING SPARKY, THE INVISIBLE ELF | ||||
| First air date | 4 August, 2011 | ||||
| Broadcast number | S08E08 | ||||
| Title reference | Moby Dick and Möbius strips | ||||
| Additional | |||||
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| Season 6 | |||||
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"Möbius Dick" is the one-hundred-and-third episode of Futurama, the fifteenth of the sixth production season and the eighth of the eighth broadcast season. It aired 4 August, 2011 on Comedy Central. Leela becomes obsessed with hunting down a mysterious four-dimensional space whale.
Production
During June 2011, Countdown to Futurama released three items of promotional material for the episode: concept art of the Planet Express ship with sails on 1 June, part of the storyboard showing Zoidberg crash in the ship's escape pod on 2 June, and a video clip of the Planet Express crew hunting the whale down on 18 June.
Image gallery
The episode overview showing what appears to be a whale.
Concept art of the Planet Express ship with sails.
Page 121 of the storyboard.
A screenshot from the video clip.
Additional Info
Trivia
- The episode was for some time thought to be the broadcast season's second episode, but the announcement that "Benderama" would air on 23 June in its place proved otherwise.[1]
- This is the first episode where Zoidberg is addressed as "Johnny" (his first name being John).
Allusions
- The title and the overall plot is a parody of the Herman Melville-penned novel Moby-Dick, which was previously referenced in "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid". The title is a portmanteau of Moby Dick and the Möbius strip.
- Möbius Dick is also well known in the mathematics community as the answer to a pun-based math riddle: What's non-orientable and lives in the ocean?
- Mobius Dick is also the title of a 2000 science-fiction novel by Andrew Crumey.
- The Bermuda Tetrahedron is a reference to the real-life Bermuda Triangle, a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
- When Leela calls the crew "you space dogs", she is referring both to the expression "you dog", and to the Soviet space dogs of the 1950s and 1960s.
- When the current crew explores the old ship, multiple allusions are made to the Firefly episode "Bushwhacked".
- The Oceanic Airlines plane seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron is an allusion to the TV series Lost.
- The spaceship used in many album covers of British rock group Electric Light Orchestra can be seen in the Bermuda Tetrahedron.
- The Fourth Doctor from the British television science fiction series Doctor Who can be seen, amongst others, emerging from the body of the Four-dimensional space whale.
Continuity
- Leela's parents are shown on the surface, after being granted their freedom in "The Mutants Are Revolting".
Goofs
- Dr. Zoidberg is shown to have been working at Planet Express since at least 2961, but it was established in "Insane in the Mainframe" that he began work in at Planet Express during 2992.
- When hunting the whale, Bender calls for Leela from above the ship and Leela replies. Seeing as sound can't travel in space, they couldn't have heard each other. Similar goofs have been made in the past as well.
- It is possible that Bender was actually communicating through radio with the ship.
- Leela calls Amy "miss Wong" instead of "Dr. Wong". Of course this could have been a mistake on Leela's and not the writers' part.
- Doctoral titles are often not used outside of academic settings. However, as Leela insists on using "boaty" terms, she should have referred to Amy as "doctor".
Quotes
Leela: Okay, which of you space dogs has the guts and know how to harpoon that whale?
Amy: I spent a semester in Africa harpooning giraffes, and giraffes are basically just land space whales.
Leela: Miss Wong, you have the 'poon.
Characters
- Amy
- Bender
- Debut: Candy
- Doctor Who
- Dwight Conrad
- Professor Farnsworth
- Debut: The four-dimensional space whale
- Fry
- Hermes
- Inez Wong
- LaBarbara Conrad
- Debut: Lando Tucker
- Leela
- Leo Wong
- Debut: Lifter
- Scruffy
- Turanga Morris
- Turanga Munda
- Zoidberg
References
- ^ reed (03 May 2011). "How many Benders is too many?". CGEF. Retrieved on 04 May 2011.