Neutopia (Futurama)

"Neutopia"
Futurama episode
Bender, Zoidberg, Fry, Scruffy, Hermes and Professor Farnsworth, having had their genders changed from male to female.
Episode no.	Season six Episode 108
Production code	6ACV20
Original air date	June 23, 2011
Opening caption	"Provides a full day's supply of Vitamin F!"
Guest stars
Dawnn Lewis as LaBarbara Conrad and Amana
Season six episodes
June 24, 2010 – September 8, 2011 "Rebirth" "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" "Attack of the Killer App" "Proposition Infinity" "The Duh-Vinci Code" "Lethal Inspection" "The Late Philip J. Fry" "That Darn Katz!" "A Clockwork Origin" "The Prisoner of Benda" "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences" "The Mutants Are Revolting" "The Futurama Holiday Spectacular" "The Silence of the Clamps" "Möbius Dick" "Law and Oracle" "Benderama" "The Tip of the Zoidberg" "Ghost in the Machines" "Neutopia" "Yo Leela Leela" "Fry Am the Egg Man" "All the Presidents' Heads" "Cold Warriors" "Overclockwise" "Reincarnation"
List of all Futurama episodes

"Neutopia" is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom Futurama, and the premiere of Season 6-B. It is the twentieth episode of the sixth season in production order, and the 102nd episode in broadcast order.^[1] It aired on Comedy Central in the United States on June 23, 2011.

Plot

Planet Express is facing foreclosure and the crew is trying to find a way to pay off the mortgage. Leela suggests they change the company into a commercial airline, but the men instead decide to make a pin-up calendar. Leela, Amy, and LaBarbara pose as models in skimpy clothing, forced to do so by a clause in their employment contracts, but the idea does not go smoothly. Professor Farnsworth then decides to convert the company into a private airline, but things go wrong when Fry and Hermes, who are piloting the plane, fall asleep and overshoot their destination by two days. The plane runs out of fuel and crashes on a planet made entirely of minerals with rivers of mercury.

Tensions begin to arise between the males and females of the group, causing them to split into two smaller groups consisting of each gender. They are then approached by a rock alien, who becomes fascinated by their different genders as its kind only has one gender. The alien tests the two groups on gender superiority, challenging them to reach the "Cave of Harmony" at an icy mountain before the planet reaches perihelion, which would cause everyone left outside to die from the heat. Both groups independently come up with the idea to steal parts from the other group's robot (Bender's gas compressor and the freon coil of a refrigeration fembot named Amana) to create a cooler. Hermes and LaBarbara catch each other stealing the parts and, after accusing each other of being underhanded, have sex. The next day, the rock alien saves the men and women from the heat, citing that their failure to work together as a team caused it to lose a bet with another rock creature called the "Borax Kid." It then uses its powers to neuter the groups' genders to resolve the issue.

Now without the tension generated by the males and females, the castaways get along much better and work together to repair the crashed ship. However, Hermes and LaBarbara begin to miss the physical intimacy their genders gave them and persuade the alien to undo the change. It attempts to do so, but inadvertently switches the two groups' genders; before it can fix the mistake, Zapp Brannigan arrives on a rescue mission and vaporizes it. Back at Planet Express, Leela and Amy take advantage of the men's gender switch and have them finish the calendar as the models. Within one day, they sell enough copies to pay off the mortgage and save their business. They then get a surprise visit from the Borax Kid, who restores everyone's correct gender (with the exception of Scruffy the janitor, who misses the Kid's arrival due to being in the bathroom).

Cultural references

The plot and the rock creature are based on the Star Trek episode "The Savage Curtain."

In the beginning, Amy is using a power loader to hand Leela a letter.

The name of the Planet Express crew's airline service is Plan Am, a play on Pan Am airways, also using a similar logo.

Bender acting as a metal detector, needing to confiscate an old lady's artificial kneecap, is in reference to the TSA harassing passengers during security screenings.

Zoidberg's stand-up routine on the plane is a parody of Jerry Seinfeld's stand-up where he frequently wonders, "What's the deal with...?". Also, immediately after getting booed, Petunia requests to see four episodes of The Office.

Hermes dismisses LaBarbara's intent to be leader by saying that, "Roller derby is not a society."

After melting in the river of mercury, when the rock creature transports both groups to the Cave of Harmony, Bender re-materializes like the T-1000 from Terminator 2, even lampshading it by saying, "I learned that from a movie."

When the genders get reversed, the female Bender, of course, looks like Coilette from "Bend Her," an episode from season 4 where he has the professor give him a robot sex change to cheat in the Olympics.

References

1. ^ Kevin Fitzpatrick (May 5, 2011). "Futurama's Gender-Bending Season Premiere 'Neutopia' Clip". ugo.com. http://www.ugo.com/tv/futurama-season-premiere-clip. Retrieved May 15, 2011. 

External links

• "Neutopia" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.