A Clone of My Own

"A Clone of My Own"
Futurama episode
File:Futurama 215 - A Clone of My Own.jpg
Episode no.	Season two
Directed by	Rich Moore
Written by	Patric M. Verrone
Original air dates	April 9, 2000
Episode features
Opening cartoon	"Koko's Earth Control"

"A Clone of My Own" is episode ten in season two of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 9, 2000.

Plot

Professor Farnsworth receives word from Mars University that they are revoking his professorship. When he arrives before the university's professors, he reveals all their secrets until he realises it was his 150th birthday party. After everyone talks about how great he is, Farnsworth becomes concerned with his own mortality. He decides he needs to name a successor. The Planet Express staff expects one of them will be named, including Fry, but Farnsworth reveals that his successor will be a 12-year old clone of himself, Cubert Farnsworth.

Cubert decides that being an inventor is not an appealing career choice. He makes cutting remarks about the Professor and his inventions, which includes a time travel machine and a translator which turns words into an incomprehensible, dead language (French, despite this being used in the show before). A depressed professor makes a recording over Bender's soap operas telling his crew that he has been lying about his age. He is actually 160, the age when robots from the Sunset Squad take people away, never to be seen again. Under cover of an overly-dramatic thunderstorm, a Grim Reaper-like hooded robot arrives, and takes the professor away even when he says good-bye to everything in sight.

The crew sets off to rescue the professor, and finds the Near-Death Star, the Sunset Squad's base of operations. The crew sneaks in with Fry dressed up as the professor (who apparently escaped) with Cubert on his back posing as a hump to make him look 'old'. They even brought a huge jar of Cubert's blood just in case. They locate the professor, who is unconscious and hooked to a life-support system. The robots discover the crew, and they race back to the Planet Express Ship, Professor Farnsworth in tow.

As they reach the landing pad, Cubert is knocked unconscious, but they make it onto the ship in one piece. When the ship takes off, the robots open fire, damaging the engines. A reawakened Cubert announces that he knows how to fix the engines, and the crew makes their escape. It is revealed the dark matter engines don't move the ship, but instead move the universe, allowing the ship to go faster than the speed of light. Safely back on Earth, Cubert tells the professor that he has decided to follow in his footsteps.

Characters

Characters who first appear in this episode are:

• Cubert Farnsworth

Cultural references

• Captain Muskie's introduction music is a musical cue from the original Star Trek television series. His appearance and chair are based on that of Christopher Pike from the Star Trek episodes "The Menagerie" parts I and II.
• The city scene in the initial seconds of film on Farnsworth life shows a billboard "Slurm, Medicinal Tonic". Likely a parody of the popular soft-drink Coca-cola, which had its origins as a medicinal remedy.
• Birthplace of Farnsworth is mentioned as "Hell's Laboratory", likened to Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan in New York.
• During the escape from the Near-Death Star, the Bullet Time camera technique, which was heavily incorporated into the Matrix movies, is used to pan around Planet Express ship for a climactic conclusion.
• The Near-Death Star and the crew's escape from it are both references to Star Wars.
• The way the old people are treated, and later further explained by the Professor is in reference to the virtual world in The Matrix.
• Dr. Zoidberg remarks that he had once appeared on Showtime at the Apollo (first revealed in "Anthology of Interest I".)
• Zoidberg makes a reference to Ringo Starr when he told his joke and the drummer failed to play.
• It is revealed that the Planet Express ship moves in a manner similar to that described in the Arrow Paradox.
• When Leela tries to smell the professor, she smells "BendGay", a reference to Bengay which was also used by Bender in "Bendless Love."
• During the Summary of Farnsworth's time video, there is a picture of the professor with the note Dungeon Master and a wand.
• The professor's gesture at the end of his holographic farewell is similar to Princess Leia's gesture at the end of her holographic message in Star Wars.
• In the roads of the Near-Death Star, there is a sigh reading "Elm. Street", a reference to horror film series A Nightmare on Elm Street

Continuity

• In this episode it is revealed that Professor Farnsworth is 160 years old.
• This is the first time the Professor actually admits to "good news" being bad news. ("Good news everyone! The University is bringing me up on disciplinary charges! Wait. That's not good news at all!") This is also the first time he says "Bad news everyone!"

Production notes

• In this episode Cubert is named as the professor's heir. However, in Anthology of Interest I it is revealed that if Leela were a little more impulsive she would have been named as his heir for being so unimpulsive.
• In the French dubbed soundtrack, the "incomprehensible, dead language" is German.
• Cubert's role was originally intended to point out the inconsistencies and plot holes of the show, though the producers couldn't figure out a way to introduce him until season two, and this episode is the only one in which he took upon his intended role.

External links

• "A Clone of My Own" at IMDb