Difference between revisions of "Decision 3012"

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*This episode contains a paradox, if Chris Travers had caused himself to cease to exist, then his future would occur, then he would exist, and then he would go back, and then cause himself to cease to exist and so on, so there would be no actuall solution.
*This episode contains a paradox, if Chris Travers had caused himself to cease to exist, then his future would occur, then he would exist, and then he would go back, and then cause himself to cease to exist and so on, so there would be no actuall solution.
**Travers did use a paradox corecting time code.
**Travers did use a paradox corecting time code.
* Bender's Reelect Nixon ass stickers disappear after they are first shown.


=== Characters ===
=== Characters ===

Revision as of 14:35, 15 August 2012

Season 7 episode
Broadcast season 9 episode
Decision 3012
Decision 3012 screenshot.png
The political debate. Senator Chris Travers is in the centre and Morbo is to the right.
No.117
Production number7ACV03
Written byPatric M. Verrone
Directed byDwayne Carey-Hill
Title captionMade from 100% recycled pixels
First air date27 June 2012
Broadcast numberS09E03
Title reference"Decision 2012", a media nickname for the 2012 U.S. presidential election
Additional
Commentary
(Transcript)
Transcript
Storyboard

Pictures

Season 7
  1. The Bots and the Bees
  2. A Farewell to Arms
  3. Decision 3012
  4. The Thief of Baghead
  5. Zapp Dingbat
  6. The Butterjunk Effect
  7. The Six Million Dollar Mon
  8. Fun on a Bun
  9. Free Will Hunting
  10. Near-Death Wish
  11. 31st Century Fox
  12. Viva Mars Vegas
  13. Naturama
  14. Forty Percent Leadbelly
  15. 2-D Blacktop
  16. T.: The Terrestrial
  17. Fry and Leela's Big Fling
  18. The Inhuman Torch
  19. Saturday Morning Fun Pit
  20. Calculon 2.0
  21. Assie Come Home
  22. Leela and the Genestalk
  23. Game of Tones
  24. Murder on the Planet Express
  25. Stench and Stenchibility
  26. Meanwhile
← Season 6Season 8 →

"Decision 3012" is the one hundred and seventeenth episode of Futurama, the third of the seventh production season and the ninth broadcast season. It aired on 27 June 2012 on Comedy Central. Leela becomes a campaign manager for a presidential candidate whose birth certificate is missing.

Plot

Act I: "I'm going to get involved in the political process and make my voice heard!"

Richard Nixon's head runs for a third term as president of Earth. The crew, with the exception of Leela, are set on voting for Nixon, especially Bender, who has been swayed by the free beer given by Nixon to citizens for his campaign. They point out that they would rather stick to a candidate they have already experienced rather than face the possibilities of a new candidate. Leela decides to become a campaign manager for one of Nixon's opponents, Senator Chris Travers, whose good-hearted views are disliked by the general public. She helps him reinvigorate Travers' faltering campaign by making promotional stops to help him socialize with the people. Travers is eventually named a nominee against Nixon. The crew decide to help Leela in Travers' campaign, with the exception of Bender, who collaborates with Nixon in helping sabotage Travers' campaign.

Act II: "We voters demand you release your Earth certificate!"

At Travers' presidential headquarters, Bender attempts to find some incriminating info about Travers, but only succeeds in finding positive information about him. When he reads out Travers' middle name, "Zaxxar", Nixon points out how the name sounds like that of an alien and how voters hate aliens. Despite the fact that Travers is a human, Bender and Nixon decide to spread a rumor that Travers is an alien. At one of Travers' campaign stops, Bender questions whether Travers was actually born on Earth and demands his "Earth certificate". Leela plans to release the certificate to prove he was born on Earth, but Travers dismisses the rumors as distractions from the real issues and tells Leela not to look for the certificate. Nonetheless, Leela, Bender and Fry travel to Our Lady of Patriotism Hospital in Kenya, where Travers claims he was born, to find the certificate. They find a file labelled "Travers", but fails to find an Earth certificate. Travers then arrives at the scene. Leela examines the file more, and finds that Travers' mother was admitted to the hospital that morning. Travers then reveals that while he was in fact born on Earth, he will only be born tomorrow, for he is actually from the future.

Act III: "It really doesn't matter who you vote for!"

Travers explains that he was sent back from the year 3028 to prevent Nixon from getting elected. He goes on to explain the series of events that follows after Nixon's election. Nixon's promise to build an alien-proof fence around the solar system eliminated cheap alien labor from Earth. Without the aliens to perform these jobs, the economy collapsed. Starvation and civil unrest became widespread around Earth. Nixon then eliminated working-class humans, turning them into a food product named Soylent Majority. With the working class gone, robots were forced to do all of Earth's labor, and they eventually rose into revolt, led by Bender. The last remnants of humanity hid underground and sent Travers back in time to oppose Nixon and prevent him from getting elected. As he has not yet been born, he has no certificate. Leela then comes up with the plan of broadcasting his birth on live television. His mother eventually gives birth and his certificate is printed. The election results are announced, and Travers is declared the winner. When Amy asks Bender why he is not upset over Nixon's loss, he replies that he does not really care. Travers starts to fade away as Bender points out that since Nixon never won the election, the robot uprising never occured and Travers was never sent back in time to begin with. All mentions of Travers are erased as he disappears, and Morbo announces that Nixon has won the election. Back at the Planet Express headquarters, the crew realize that it does not really matter who one votes for. Leela points out that they at least tried to make a difference, but forgets Travers' name. Hermes points out that they never even left the building. At the end, Nixon says that he always wins.

Production

In 2012, two revelations concerning the episode were made. On 29 February, CGEF revealed the episode's title, its writer to be Patric M. Verrone and its director to be Dwayne Carey-Hill.[1][2] On 25 April, MSN TV revealed the episode's plot and air date.[3]

In May, Countdown to Futurama began releasing promotional material for the episode. It has so far released five items: a character design of Bender dressed as Napoleon on 13 May,[4] a character design of Senator Chris Travers on 14 May,[5] a video clip featuring Morbo as the host of a political debate and suggesting that the presidential candidate mentioned in the MSN TV plot was Travers on 15 May,[6] a promotional picture featuring a Robot army consisting of Bender dressed as Napoleon, Destructor, four Killbots and several other machines on 16 May[7] and part of the storyboard showing both Bender break into a cave full of Humans and the portion of the video clip where Morbo addresses Travers for the last time[8] and the announcement of the second Futurama podcast - which confirmed that the presidential candidate mentioned in the MSN TV plot was Travers - on 17 May.[9] A preview of the episode aired on 20 June during the credits of the episode "A Farewell to Arms".

Reception

1.452 million viewers.

Additional information

Allusions

Nations at the convention

There are several nations which were represented at Travers' nominating convention, including:

Continuity

  • Bender has previously worn a Napoleon hat and briefly joked with the others that he believed he was Napoleon in the HAL Institute during "Insane in the Mainframe". He was also seen dressed up as Napoleon in a portrait in "Godfellas".
  • Bender's sunglasses were last seen in Bender's Big Score.
  • Travers traveled back in time to 3012 thanks to the Machine language time code, thought destroyed in Bender's Big Score, but is revealed to have survived on a photocopy of Fry's rear end. He was erased from time shortly after his infant duplicate was born. This is because in Bender's Big Score none of the paradoxes stopped themselves from getting the time code in the first place, however, Travers erased the point in time where he used it, therefore he never did at all.
    • A big deal was made about the time code being a paradox-correcting time code. A much better way to preserve continuity would have been to kill adult Travers off since, after infant Travers was born, adult Travers could have technically been considered a time-travel duplicate, and therefore doomed anyway.
      • Travers also not only vanished in "Back to the Future" style, but people forgot his existence and all the stuff they did didn't happen. It was not like this in Bender's Big Score. But perhaps since the time code was from a photocopy, they might have not duplicate the time travel perfectly....kind of like how a photocopy does not make a perfect reproduction of whatever it's photocopying.
  • A presidential election was last featured in "A Head in the Polls".
    • Ironically, Bender and Nixon were enemies in "A Head in the Polls", but now they've joined forces in this episode. An allusion to this reversal is seen early on in this episode where Bender shows off reelect Nixon bumperstickers he used to repair his ass, while at the end of "A Head in the Polls", Bender struggles to get the elect Nixon bumperstickers off of his ass.
  • The robot uprising shown in Travers' future may be the same shown in "The Late Philip J. Fry".
    • It is worth noting that in the version of time that the war is seen in "The Late Philip J. Fry", Bender could not have been the leader of the robots as he did not exist in it. Also, the war in "The Late Philip J. Fry" takes place 9,996,972 years after 3028, and humans now seem to be fighting back.
  • A sign at the convention says Atlanta, which was shown to be both under the ocean and its own nation in "The Deep South".
  • The state of eHIO was previously mentioned in "Bendin' in the Wind".
  • The fact that Bender was a convicted felon so he couldn't vote was previously mentioned in "A Head in the Polls".
  • When Travers confronts the protesters outside his office, he asks what would it take to convince them he's from Earth? To be born right in front of their eyes? That's exactly what happens later in the episode.
  • Traver's Earth Certificate says the baby's name is "Senator Chris Zaxxar Travers". Note the inclusion of the job title "Senator", could this be related to the career chips? Are people's jobs determined at birth?

Quotes

    Chris Travers: Look, let's be honest here. No one likes taxes. But they pay for our basic needs. Roads, schools, defence. If we hope to realise our aspirations as a great planet, we must each pay our fair share to achieve those noble goals.
    [Cut to: The audience. They all lean forward and boo, except for Leela, who stands up and claps slowly. They quiet down, leaving Leela left standing and clapping alone. She makes an angry face and sits down, crossing her arms.]
    Morbo: Thank you, Senator. A thoughtful and lucid answer. [angrily] You will be destroyed!

    Bender: All right, I'm low on bullets. Everyone scooch together.

    Richard Nixon's head: I promise to cut taxes for the rich and use the poor as a cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel!
    [The audience applauds.]
    Fry: That'll show those poor!
    Leela: You're not rich.
    Fry: But someday I might be rich, and people like me better watch their step!

    Bender: Is that you Big Throat?
    Hedonismbot: In the flesh.
    [Giggles.]
    Bender: Listen I need some dirt on Senator Chris Travers.
    Hedonismbot: How quaint, but I suppose I should do my part for political intercourse. Come closer, and I'll expose what I know.
    [Bender walks up to him, and leans down to his mouth.]
    Hedonismbot: There's nothing. He's as clean as a freshly waxed buttock.
    Bender: Hey did you put your tongue in my ear?
    Hedonismbot: Certainly not, I don't have a tongue.
    Bender: Oh good, cause I don't have an ear.

    Leela: This is crazy! You're from the future?
    Travers: Yes. I was sent back from the year 3028 to prevent Nixon from getting elected.
    Fry: I was sent forward from the year 2000, but you don't hear me gassing on about it.
    Leela: But, why would it be so important to stop Nixon?
    Travers: Because of the horrific events he's going to set in motion. [Travers begins to cry.] Oh God... I can't bring myself to describe it.
    Fry: Oh well, wanna hear about how I got frozen?
    Travers: [He wipes his nose.] Not really.

    Bender: Wait, I know a robot named B.B. Rodriguez. Wait, I am a robot named B.B. Rodriguez!

Trivia

  • This is the first episode in which the opening sequence continues directly into the episode itself.
  • This marks the first time the full opening sequence was used in season seven.

Goofs

  • If Chris Travers never came to the future, Nixon wouldn't have been running unopposed. Instead, Mr. Greenland, the first runner-up, would've gone against Nixon in the election.
    • Maybe Mr. Greenland dropped out in that timeline thereby Nixon was unopposed? Or does the next candidate then also take over? If so, maybe they were forced to drop out too. You know how Nixon likes to use underhanded tactics.
  • If Travers hadn't been born yet, and as such named, then why did he have a file in the hospital?
    • Adult Travers may have put that there, as he did anticipate the crew going there.
    • Travers is his last name, the file Leela finds is only label "Travers". It's possible it's his mother's file as she was admitted to the hospital that morning.
  • This episode contains a paradox, if Chris Travers had caused himself to cease to exist, then his future would occur, then he would exist, and then he would go back, and then cause himself to cease to exist and so on, so there would be no actuall solution.
    • Travers did use a paradox corecting time code.
  • Bender's Reelect Nixon ass stickers disappear after they are first shown.

Characters

(In alphabetic order)

References

  1. ^ Episode Guide: 7 ACV. (CGEF.) 29 February 2012. Retrieved on 29 February 2012.
  2. ^ "Just Fan" (29 February 2012). "Futurama: Futurama News (pre-season 7)". (PEEL.) Retrieved on 29 February 2012.
  3. ^ Futurama - Episode Guide. (MSN TV.) Retrieved on 26 April 2012.
  4. ^ Matt Tobey (13 May 2012). Countdown to Futurama: Bender as Napoleon Sketch. (Comedy Centrl.) Retrieved on 13 May 2012.
  5. ^ Matt Tobey (14 May 2012). Countdown to Futurama: Senator Chris Travers. (Comedy Centrl.) Retrieved on 14 May 2012.
  6. ^ Matt Tobey (15 May 2012). Countdown to Futurama: Crowded Field of Candidates Clip. (Comedy Centrl [sic].) Retrieved on 15 May 2012.
  7. ^ Matt Tobey (16 May 2012). Countdown to Futurama: Robot Army. (Comedy Centrl.) Retrieved on 16 May 2012.
  8. ^ Matt Tobey (17 May 2012). Countdown to Futurama: Scooch Together and You Will Be Destroyed Storyboard. (Comedy Centrl.) Retrieved on 17 May 2012.
  9. ^ a b Comedy Central (15 May 2012). iTunes - Podcasts - Futurama: Countdown to Futurama by Comedy Central (Week 2). (iTunes Store.) Retrieved on 22 May 2012.