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Futurama Reviews: S10E04 -"The Numberland Gap"

As someone who has never comprehended the appeal of math, an episode like "The Numberland Gap" -which deals in formulas and equations- was always going to be a bit of a tough sell for me, regardless of its quality otherwise. Math jokes are part of the fabric of Futurama though, given the educational calibre of the people behind it (they've joked they are the most overqualified writers' room in television), though I can't recall an episode where they have been this central a feature.
The episode is credited to "Ken Walsh", but longtime fans of the show will recognize the distinctive hand of Ken Keeler a mile away (why he is still using a pseudonym remains a mystery), widely regarded as the show's nerdiest writer when it comes to math and quantum physics material. He eases the audience in via a dinner at the Krokers where Bender picks up the signal of a numbers station -real things as the show makes clear that exist for espionage purposes- and it is established that Bender has a never-before-expressed fear of all numbers past two. It's a worrying sign that not even halfway into this season, we've had two sudden lame adjustments to Bender's character directly at odds with his personal continuity.
This time, Bender isn't the only one though -Fry is also taken with a brand new passion for art, yet because he is an idiot he can only do paint-by-number (despite occasions in which he has drawn without). One of his pieces though has the same series of numbers as came out of the numbers station and were listed as winning lotto numbers as well. Colouring them in reveals a hidden schematic for a device that proves to be a portal to another universe -Numberland, a realm of abstract numbers. It appeals immediately to the Professor, who has been growing tired of material existence, while freaking out Bender.
Of course the universe is not totally abstract -the conscious numbers exist as transforming entities of appropriate quantities of floating cubes -their numerical identity plain to see. In this world, Keeler has some fun with his jokes -fractions like 3/7 being the offspring of 3 and 7 (7/3 is an illegitimate child), or the offense that 55 takes with the 'racist' Roman depictions of numbers on Fry's watch. The Professor decides to stay here forever while the rest of the gang return to reality for an art contest Zoidberg signed Fry up for in a strange act of pity. Nobody considers Fry's art any good and even he questions his talents in the context of merely painting over someone else's work -but the contest he is entered into gives him confidence, especially after he wins second place. However it turns out to be a pet contest, not that it deters Fry at all. An incredibly middling subplot overall, Fry's stupidity and low standards saving him from having to resolve anything. 
Bender meanwhile, after consulting Danica McKellar of all people about facing his fear, returns to Planet Express and is knocked into the Numberland Gap (note how neither he nor Fry make important choices on their own this episode) where he reunites with the Professor and also nineteenth century mathematical genius Georg Cantor -an interesting pull for a guest character, like something out of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Together they challenge the theological hierarchy of Numberland as being an incomplete universe that doesn't account for every quantifiable number -it cannot encompass the infinity of mathematical possibilities. Cantor demonstrates to the assembled integers a chart of their canon fractions with decimal expansions (knowing Keeler, likely legitimate) that change entirely with just one number out of place. Shocking though it is to these puritan numbers it is an effective illustration of Cantor's point -and epitomizes well the theme of the impossibility in the abstraction the Professor wishes to attain, whilst fueling again his own mathematical passion.
Still it is blasphemy to the prime numbers and they attack, but Bender breaks up 10/100 ("Googol" -the dorkiest joke of the episode) which causes a flood that propels our heroes back to the gap. Cantor declines the option of coming to the reality of the 31st century -choosing instead to create his own even more abstract universe to vanish into. So the Professor and Bender go home and board up the gap. Rejuvenated in his enthusiasm for the mathematical possibilities of his material plane, the Professor is given a sentimental gift by Fry -a blank paint-by-numbers sheet that ultimately reveals the Planet Express crew, made up of numbers.
"The Numberland Game" spends a fair bit of time in the build-up to Numberland that is rather banal and not often funny, but once it arrives there the episode is markedly more interesting. This universe provides for some fun jokes out of numerical concepts being made sentient that you don't have to be a math wiz to appreciate. And the Professor is given a nice little character arc. But it is a very protracted arc, and much as the other storyline does genuinely fit as a counterpoint modestly on theme, it is still meagre -leaving the episode as a whole curious but uneven. Weird that I would be more compelled by the math of the story than the art.
Now, time for some stray observations:
  • Amy is bisexual! After being forecast in the season trailer I’m glad it came about in the context of her Baked Alaska and not some contrived break-up with Kif. Although it does make this reveal kinda cheap at this stage in the series, without any requirement to actually showcase representation there. Of course, we already knew Amy was robosexual.
  • It’s good to see Amy putting her own inventing skills to use in the absence of the Professor’s spirit for it. So often her scientific excellence is forgotten.
  • “Sometimes I wonder if my rote copies of other artists’ work lack originality”. Do you really think so Fry? I appreciate him standing in for A.I. this episode -but then it’s even more baffling the episode ends without him learning anything.
  • So there’s another famous Bender out there -a boogie-boarder- and apparently Danica McKellar is a big fan.
  • “Well if math has a point, and I’m not sure it does…”
  • Love the idea that numbers being used for equations and economics is some great violation for the numbers themselves.
  • Bender is technically summoned via Morse Code to come rescue the Professor, but he doesn’t heed the message and only winds up through the Numberland Gap by a freak accident. It’s a touch of irony in the script that is in keeping with the show’s style, but it also stands out in the context of Bender having little agency this episode.
  • “You’re blowing my mind but still -BLASPHEMY!”  A good Tress MacNeille delivery can turn any fine line of dialogue into a funny one.

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