Brannigan Begin Again
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Futurama episode | |
| "Brannigan Begin Again" | |
 Brannigan arrests the crew. |
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| Episode no. | 15 |
| Prod. code | 2ACV02 |
| Airdate | November 28, 1999 |
| Writer(s) | Lewis Morton |
| Director | Jeffrey Lynch |
| Opening subtitle | Not Y3K Compliant |
| Opening cartoon | "Pigs in a Polka" |
| Season 2 November 1999 – December 2000 |
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| List of all Futurama episodes... | |
"Brannigan Begin Again" is episode two in the second production season of Futurama. It originally aired in North America on November 14, 1999 as the sixth episode in the second broadcast season. The episode was written by Lewis Morton and directed by Jeffrey Lynch.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The Planet Express crew arrives at the new Democratic Order of Planets (D.O.O.P.) headquarters in orbit around the Neutral Planet, in order to deliver the oversized scissors for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. After deciding the Neutral Planet is evil and deceptive, Zapp Brannigan arrests and interrogates the crew, thinking they are assassins. Shortly thereafter he destroys the entire station by attempting to use the Nimbus' laser to cut the ribbon.
At the former D.O.O.P. headquarters in Weehawken, New Jersey Brannigan is court-martialed and he and Kif Kroker are stripped of their titles and dismissed from D.O.O.P. service, the latter being dismissed after Brannigan unjustly points to him as the true guilty party. Unable to find employment, the pair wander the streets until they finally arrive at the Planet Express building. Leela tries to turn them away, but Professor Farnsworth decides hiring Brannigan would be good for the company's public image.
The augmented crew is sent to deliver pillows to a hotel on Stumbos 4, a high-gravity planet. Despite Leela's order to deliver one at a time, Fry, Bender, and Zapp decide to deliver all the pillows at once, which in the intense gravity causes the hover dolly to collapse. As punishment, Leela orders them to deliver the pillows by hand, which causes resentment among the crew.
Fry, Bender, and Zapp stage a mutiny against Leela, and lock her in the 'laundry brig'. Brannigan decides to attack his imagined nemesis, the Neutral Planet, thinking this will make him a hero and get him reinstated as a D.O.O.P. captain. When Fry and Bender discover the plan is a suicide mission, they free Leela and she retakes command.
After returning to Earth, Leela testifies that Brannigan was an amazing hero; so the D.O.O.P. will reinstate him, and thus keep him out of her life for a little while longer. Leela also decides to be a bit more lenient with Fry and Bender, but when the Professor overrules this, the three decide to start their own mutiny.
[edit] Continuity
The majority of the jury at Brannigan's trial are characters from previous Futurama episodes. Among the familiar ones are Glurmo from "Fry and the Slurm Factory", the fat anglerfish-antennae alien from "Hell is Other Robots", a Neptunian, an Insectoid, a Robot Elder from "Fear of a Bot Planet", and Fry's Trisolian advisor Gorgak from "My Three Suns". Included in the 3-D chess game Bender and Fry play are a Decapodian, a Horrible Gelatinous Blob, Lrrr the ruler of Omicron Persei 8, a Trisolian from "My Three Suns" and an Amphibiosan.
[edit] Reception
In 2006 IGN.com ranked this episode as number five in their list of the "Top 25 Futurama episodes". The episode ranked highly in large part due to the character of Zapp Brannigan, particularly the Midnight Cowboy parody with Kif and Brannigan as Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.[2] A review on 411mania also noted that the return of Brannigan was a highpoint of the episode and gave it an overall rating of 8.0/10 or "very good".[1] In Doug Pratt's DVD Pratt noted that the episode combined the series' science fiction setting with good character humor.[3]
[edit] Cultural references
The title is a play on the Irish folk song Michael Finnigan, which is also known by its refrain, "Finnigan, begin again." The episode opens with Fry and Bender playing a game of chess similar to that played by Chewbacca and R2-D2 in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.[1] The sequence where Zapp attempts to make a living as a gigolo is taken from Midnight Cowboy,[2] including the film's theme, "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Cusson, Jerome (2008-03-18). Going to the World of Tomorrow 3.18.08: Futurama - Brannigan, Begin Again. 411mania.com. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
- ^ a b "Top 25 Futurama Episodes". Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ Pratt, Douglas. Doug Pratt's DVD: Movies, Television, Music, Art, Adult, and More!, 474.
[edit] External links
- Brannigan Begin Again at TV.com
- Brannigan Begin Again at the Internet Movie Database
- Brannigan Begin Again at The New York Times Movies
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