Episode no. Season 6
Episode 15 Written by Dan Vebber Original air date August 4, 2011 | Directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill Production code 6ACV15 | |
"Möbius Dick" is the fifteenth episode of the sixth season of the animated sitcom Futurama, and originally aired August 4, 2011 on Comedy Central. The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill. In the episode, the Planet Express crew pass through an area in space known as the Bermuda Tetrahedron, where many other ships passing through the area have mysteriously disappeared, including that of the first Planet Express crew. While exploring the area, a mysterious four-dimensional space whale devours the ship's engine, leaving them stranded in the area. The ship's captain, Leela, becomes obsessed with hunting down the whale.
Contents
In June 2011, as part of its "Countdown to Futurama" event, Comedy Central Insider, Comedy Central's news outlet, released three items of promotional material for the episode, including concept art, storyboards and a preview video clip of the episode. "Möbius Dick" received positive reviews from critics, who praised its story and humor.
Plot
Professor Farnsworth sends the Planet Express crew to collect a monumental statue of his first crew for a memorial marking the fiftieth anniversary of their disappearance. To save time on the return to Earth after forcing the statue to be recarved to fix a grammar error, Leela travels through the Bermuda Tetrahedron where they find a graveyard of lost spaceships, including the first crew's Planet Express ship. While the crew investigates the ship, a four-dimensional space whale appears and devours the old ship and statue; Zoidberg, the only member of the first crew who returned to Earth, identifies the whale as the one responsible for the first crew's disappearance.
Leela becomes obsessed with killing the whale to take revenge for eating the statue and delaying their return to Earth in time for the memorial, and grows increasingly insane with each failed effort. The whale eventually devours the Planet Express ship and swallows the crew alive (with the exception of Zoidberg, who again returns to Earth in an escape pod). Inside the whale, Leela encounters the captain of the first crew, Lando Tucker, fused to the inside of the whale's belly. Lando explains that the whale feeds on obsession, luring obsessive space captains into the Tetrahedron to feed itself. Leela is fused to the whale's belly like Lando, but her overwhelming obsession with completing her delivery grants her control over the whale, allowing her to bring it to the Planet Express building in time for the memorial. She forces the whale to release everyone and everything it has swallowed, including the statue and the first crew. Despite acknowledging that the space whale is not a monster, as it merely follows its instinct, everyone proceeds to kill the whale out of revenge for swallowing them.
Production
The episode was written by Dan Vebber and directed by Dwayne Carey-Hill. In June 2011, as part of its 2011 "Countdown to Futurama" event, Comedy Central Insider, Comedy Central's news outlet, released three items of promotional material for the episode. On June 1, concept art of the Planet Express ship modified to add sails was released; on June 2, storyboards of Zoidberg crashing into the Planet Express building were released; finally, on June 18, a preview video clip of the episode was released.
Reception
"Möbius Dick" originally aired on August 4, 2011 on Comedy Central. In its original American broadcast, "Möbius Dick" was viewed by an estimated 1.459 million viewers. The episode had a 0.8 share among adults 18-49. The episode was down about 34,000 viewers from the previous week's episode, "All the Presidents' Heads".
The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. Robert Canning of IGN praised the episode, calling it a "rollicking tale of adventure and laughs" and enjoying a return to plots involving deliveries, which he felt had been lacking in the new season. Giving the episode a rating of 8.5/10, he wrote: "It delivered a fun space adventure while keeping the laughs coming from every direction. Every character had their moments-- Amy's giraffe hunting flashback, for one-- which kept the entire half hour from getting bogged down with too much of one thing. I'll remember this one like it was interesting." Sean Gandert of Paste was also positive towards the episode, giving the episode an 8.4/10 rating. He felt that the episode was Futurama having "the most sheer fun [it's] had" in its sixth season, attributing this to the episode having the entire Planet Express crew prominently featured in the episode, writing: "...with so many personalities abounding, "Mobius Dick" [sic] didn't have to rely on just one type of humor. It wasn't an episode that made me think or left me moved, but “Mobius Dick” provided the biggest belly laughs I’ve had all season."
Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club was generally pleased with "Möbius Dick", giving it a B+ grade, but was more critical of the episode. While praising the episode's humor, he criticized the episode's opening segment for failing to properly set up Leela's role in the episode, writing: "...the focus of the episode is on Leela, and her obsessional nature, and by giving Farnsworth most of the screentime at the start, 'Dick' sacrifices an opportunity to re-establish Leela's intensity, to make it resonate better when she starts hunting down the whale. [...] ...since "Dick" is about Leela, and not about the first crew that went missing, Farnsworth's story comes off as vamping for time." Of the overall episode, he wrote: "The ep[isode] had some structural problems, but there were solid gags throughout, and the plot's basis in character helped hold the weaker jokes together. It's not a classic or anything, but it was solid from start to finish, even if all the pieces didn't fit together quite as snugly as they might have."