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Futurama Reviews: S11E03 -"Lords of the Ring"

A story inspired by Larry Niven’s Ringworld series and yet it still gets named after the work of a more prominent genre legend. It is a cool thing to see manifested in Futurama anyways though, especially given how few adaptations of that story and concept have actually made their way out of literature. It is a reminder of how nerdy the writing staff on this show is, who in the early days often mined the more obscure avenues of science-fiction as much as the iconic ones.
It comes here in the context of a story that is also interesting if perhaps not very original. We’ve seen a few times now on the show the evolution of a civilization out of something mundane –"Parasites Lost", "Godfellas", "A Clockwork Origin" -the last of which this episode has the most in common with given it is another case of one of the Professor’s experiments evolving an entire world and civilization. "Lords of the Ring" doesn’t compare to any of those, a story more convoluted and less funny. But it does have some worthy moments of distinction and some chaotic fun.
The episode begins with the Professor exhibiting slightly more concerning memory issues than usual -he forgets to pick Cubert up from chess, leaves a bath running so long it floods over, and even forgets what his “good news” is. He is diagnosed with Absentminded Scientist Syndrome (A.S.S.), and in looking for treatment it is discovered he himself was the lead researcher on it roughly a century ago when he ran experiments on mice on the planet Vivisectoid Alpha. Results of the testing should have yielded after a year left alone but the Professor (typically) forgot. So the crew go out to find this experiment and learn what they can by dissecting the brains of whatever mice remain. However they wind up crash-landing on what Leela observes to be a fairly normal forest world, albeit they are stranded due to a damaged vacuum cube on the ship. They soon discover that the world is not normal as, looking up to the sky, they can see a feint metropolis above them on the other side of a giant ring.
It’s not a particularly grandiose approximation of the concept -the world is rather thin and it doesn’t take too long for the crew to eventually reach the other side, but it is the show’s first compelling new world in quite some time -the kind that, as much as the Professor, you want to learn more about. Soon the crew stumble upon a giant evolved rat called Dr. Vermius, an archaeologist, whose finds encompass the remains of the Professor’s old equipment (and in one case dentures). He is suspicious of these outsiders in the planet’s Forbidden Zone, but nonetheless escorts them back to Ratcliffe University, passing through a few of the regions of this ringworld -a wind-powered agricultural sector and a village where they don mouse ear disguises so as not to make civilians uncomfortable. They dispose of these minutes later upon reaching the university, the whole bit clearly an excuse for a Steamboat Willie gag that the show did much better back in “Reincarnation”.
All the while, the Professor keeps his identity and purpose a secret -the rat people here not being fond of their mysterious creator and the experiments he put their ancestors through. At the university though it becomes harder to hide his scientific and evolutionary curiosity, especially as he learns the origin of the world, first via the rats’ mythological texts and then with certainty from an orbiting security drone that is one of Vermius’s artifacts. Either way, the maze the Professor left them in was torturous -the great struggle of their people. It is at this point that Vermius deduces who the newcomers really are through some considerable leaps and is finally able to exact revenge.
This of course takes the form of the Planet Express crew being experimented on by the rats, and the episode takes a turn into the topic of the ethics of animal testing as the Professor fruitlessly tries to defend it. Little real commentary is made though -in its place a series of jokes involving Leela running on a mouse wheel, Bender choosing the shock button as a jolt of electricity, and Hermes limboing under a mousetrap. But just as the Professor planned to do, the next experiment is the dissection of their brains -in this case in search of a cure to a burgeoning (and ironic) epidemic of bubonic plague. Fortunately, in a very Planet of the Apes-style beat, another scientist Dr. Pestia frees them.
The subsequent escape attempts by the crew are fun and ludicrous. Given the ship is on the other side of the ring, they try running back to it only to run so fast as to speed up the whole planet’s rotation and thus slow its gravity. Pursued by the rats, there is a beat where they evade capture by hanging off the side of the ring and another one where the rats catch up by coming at them from the other direction (“that’s how rings get you”). Bender manages to literally kick the world (again, scientifically dubious) into a spin to get them to the other side, but when they try to take off (having gotten a vacuum cube from Pestia) they just crash into the side where they started from. But it all works out when it is found that the planet’s fleas are the carriers of the plague and that the flea-repellent make-up tested on Fry wards them off. The grateful rats, including Vermius, let the crew go and the Professor’s memory issues -totally abandoned after the start of the episode- are apparently cured as a result of the testing.
Very starkly an example of losing the plot, nonetheless the excuse to bring about the situation of “Lords of the Ring” is modestly worth it. The episode is not as funny as it might like, and the animal testing thread comes at the expense of further exploration of the ringworld to little cogent thematic value. But there is a fair degree of creativity at play in step with the unique setting that makes the episode enjoyable if not exceptional.
Onto some stray observations:
  • The Professor’s work with laboratory rats in pursuit of a cure for memory loss has shades of Flowers for Algernon.
  • From the Forbidden Zone to the Lightly Discouraged Zone. I think that is where I live.
  • “Free the fleas”. I believe the spirit of the campus protest here is a touch out of date. Unsurprising perhaps given writer Bill Odenkirk hasn’t been in college since the 1980s. Then again, I don’t know if I trust this show to handle modern college protests responsibly.
  • “Professor, you seem strangely familiar with scientific concepts such as air and gum, plus you’re wearing a lab coat and you’re called the Professor.”
  • I like that the ancient history book for the rats styles the ancestors like Redwall. The animation is very nice too, it has a bit of a Watership Down prologue vibe.
  • “Really? Just shove it in, no romance.” New sides to Bender being revealed every day.
  • “Bear in mind, I tend to die easily.” The Professor’s choice to stay behind and endure brain death as a form of atonement is narratively alarming. There is no real build-up to his change of heart , it feels entirely plot-motivated.
  • The fleas were indeed the carrier of the Plague as any history student could tell you. Did none of the Planet Express crew remember that?
  • If you remember nothing else from this episode, remember this: always vent your cheese cave.

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