Where No Fan Has Gone Before
Encyclopedia
"Where No Fan Has Gone Before" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the animated series Futurama
. It originally aired in the United States
on April 21, 2002. Along with "The Why of Fry
" (which precedes this episode in production order), it is one of two episodes that do not feature Professor Farnsworth
.
holds a court-martial
of Bender, Leela, Fry
, and most of the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series
, for traveling to the forbidden planet Omega 3. He orders the group to recount the events that led to the court-martial.
Fry explains that he had learned that Star Trek is forbidden in the future; after the show became a worldwide religion, all of its fans were killed during the Star Trek Wars and the "sacred" tapes of its 79 episodes and six movies sent to a forbidden planet. Leonard Nimoy's head
at the Head Museum denies knowledge of the show, but realizes he cannot escape the truth and recounts to Fry how the rest of the cast left Earth.
Fry, Leela, Bender and Nimoy's head journey to the forbidden planet. There they find several original sets from Star Trek, and most of the original cast (a character named Welshy replaced James Doohan
, the actor who portrayed Scotty
, as the latter "had trouble yodelling" in a musical reunion in the 23rd century) with their bodies and eternal youth
. An energy being
named Melllvar appears and explains that he became an obsessed Star Trek fan
after watching the tapes over and over again. Melllvar gives Nimoy a body, and orders the actors and the Planet Express crew to participate in a Star Trek convention until the end of time. Welshy is killed in a show of force
to force their obedience. While Melllvar forces the cast to perform his fan script
, Bender, Leela and Fry escape in the Planet Express Ship
. Fry convinces the crew to attack Melllvar to save the actors, but Melllvar destroys the ship's engine as he drags it back to the planet.
After seeing the Planet Express crew's attempt to defeat him Melllvar wonders if they are more worthy of his adoration than the Star Trek cast, and decides to settle the question with a battle to the death. After several minutes of fighting (with the exception of Leela and Shatner, who end up making out), Melllvar's mother appears and makes him come home for dinner. While he is gone, the two groups combine the engine of the cast's ship with the hull of the Planet Express Ship to escape. In order to lose enough weight to lift off, the cast jettison their bodies. Melllvar follows the crew into space with his own ship, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Brannigan boards the Planet Express Ship and starts the court-martial. Leela points out that while the court-martial is in progress Melllvar is still chasing them.
Fry convinces Melllvar that he cannot spend his life watching Star Trek, and Melllvar agrees to end the chase and "move out of [his] parents' basement." The crew returns with the tapes to Earth. The cast goes with them, deciding that immortality is not worth living with "one really annoying Star Trek fan."
.
All of the living members of the original Star Trek cast agreed to appear in the episode with the exception of James Doohan
, whose agent replied with "No way." Because of this, the episode's working title was jokingly named "We got everybody but Scotty" and the character Montgomery Scott
was replaced with "Welshy". DeForest Kelley
was physically portrayed in the episode but had no lines due to his death in 1999.
Multiple designs for the energy being were considered for this episode; however, the final version was decided upon due to a desire to keep the design simple. Despite this effort, Shinagawa still notes that the final design for Melllvar is more sophisticated than some energy beings featured in the original series.
. A "forbidden planet", traveling to which is punishable by death, is the setting of "The Menagerie" and its basis "The Cage".
There are several direct references to individual episodes in dialogue. When Fry references an episode where Spock got "high on spores and smacked Kirk around", he is talking about "This Side of Paradise". When Nichelle Nichols
mentions being heroic in kissing William Shatner
in the third season, she is referring to "Plato's Stepchildren". The Nazi Planet episode mentioned is "Patterns of Force". The episodes referred to by Fry and Melllvar in which higher powers make the crew compete for their own amusement are "Arena", "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "Spectre of the Gun", "The Savage Curtain", and "Day of the Dove". Nichelle Nichols's fan dance can be seen in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
, and Walter Koenig
says "nuclear wessels" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
.
In the DVD audio commentary, Goodman notes his pride in having included a large number of quotations from the original series, particularly those items which he claims "the people on the internet" had not found on their own. He noted that in "Shatner's Log", based on Star Treks "Captain's log", the line "The impossible has happened" quotes the opening log in "Where No Man Has Gone Before
". In the flashback scene the line said by Scotty at the end of "The Trouble With Tribbles", "they were no tribble at all", is read by the Trekdom priest. Shatner's comment to Leela that "There's no right way to hit a woman" is from "Charlie X". When Melllvar says, "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend", he is quoting "Balance of Terror
". William Shatner's line at the end, "Let's get the hell out of here", is also the final line of "The City on the Edge of Forever".
In addition to story elements and dialogue, there are several visual references to Star Trek episodes. The landscape of the planet on which the Planet Express crew arrives is similar to the Vasquez Rocks
seen in the episodes "Arena" and "Friday's Child". The sets on the planet are from "Spectre of the Gun", "Bread and Circuses", "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "Patterns of Force", "The Ultimate Computer", and "The City on the Edge of Forever". The chair used when the crew are testifying before Zapp Brannigan is the chair used by Captain Pike in "The Menagerie". The machine gun Bender finds is from "A Piece of the Action". When repairing the ship, Bender works in a Jeffries Tube. The ship used to bring the Star Trek cast to Melllvar's planet has warp nacelles
. The end credits contain stills from the show, which is how Star Treks credits were edited; they end in a still of Kif
's head in the same style as one of Balok from "The Corbomite Maneuver" that was used at the end of the credits for many Star Trek episodes.
The head of Jonathan Frakes
, a member of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation
, briefly appears. As Leonard Nimoy's head is removed from the shelf Frakes' head takes its place, where he exclaims, "Yes! Front row!"
The Star Trek tapes are fired onto Omega III from an Eagle
from the science fiction series Space: 1999
.
in 2004 for best script. IGN.com ranked the episode as number ten in their list of the "Top 25 Futurama Episodes" in 2006. The Futon Critic ranked the episode number 44 in its list of the top 50 television episodes of 2002. The popularity of this episode combined with the large volume of Star Trek references has made this episode a touchstone
among Trekkies
. This episode, along with "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles
", has been called one of the great moments of the fourth season.
Futurama
Futurama is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of a late 20th-century New York City pizza delivery boy, Philip J...
. It originally aired in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on April 21, 2002. Along with "The Why of Fry
The Why of Fry
"The Why of Fry" is the tenth episode in the fourth season of the animated television series Futurama. It originally aired in North America on April 6, 2003. The episode was written by David X. Cohen and directed by Wes Archer...
" (which precedes this episode in production order), it is one of two episodes that do not feature Professor Farnsworth
Hubert J. Farnsworth
Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, or simply The Professor, is a fictional character in the American animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a combination of impressions of Burgess Meredith and Frank Morgan. Farnsworth is the proprietor of the Planet Express delivery...
.
Plot
Zapp BranniganZapp Brannigan
Captain Zapp Brannigan is a fictional character in the animated sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West, but was originally intended to be voiced by Phil Hartman, with West taking over the role after Hartman's death. Brannigan is a 25-Star General in the Democratic Order of Planets, and captain...
holds a court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
of Bender, Leela, Fry
Philip J. Fry
Philip J. Fry, known simply as Fry, is a fictional character, the main protagonist of the animated science fiction sitcom Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25.-Character overview:...
, and most of the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, for traveling to the forbidden planet Omega 3. He orders the group to recount the events that led to the court-martial.
Fry explains that he had learned that Star Trek is forbidden in the future; after the show became a worldwide religion, all of its fans were killed during the Star Trek Wars and the "sacred" tapes of its 79 episodes and six movies sent to a forbidden planet. Leonard Nimoy's head
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
at the Head Museum denies knowledge of the show, but realizes he cannot escape the truth and recounts to Fry how the rest of the cast left Earth.
Fry, Leela, Bender and Nimoy's head journey to the forbidden planet. There they find several original sets from Star Trek, and most of the original cast (a character named Welshy replaced James Doohan
James Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
, the actor who portrayed Scotty
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
, as the latter "had trouble yodelling" in a musical reunion in the 23rd century) with their bodies and eternal youth
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
. An energy being
Energy being
An energy being or astral being is a name given to a group of fictional or alleged life forms sharing some aspects of their appearance or abilities attributed to the idea that they are composed of pure energy and not made of matter...
named Melllvar appears and explains that he became an obsessed Star Trek fan
Trekkie
A Trekkie or Trekker is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, or of specific television series or films within that franchise.-History:In 1967, science fiction editor Arthur W...
after watching the tapes over and over again. Melllvar gives Nimoy a body, and orders the actors and the Planet Express crew to participate in a Star Trek convention until the end of time. Welshy is killed in a show of force
Redshirt (character)
A "redshirt" is a stock character in fiction who dies soon after being introduced. The term originates with fans of Star Trek , from the red shirts worn by Starfleet security officers who frequently die during episodes.-Star Trek:...
to force their obedience. While Melllvar forces the cast to perform his fan script
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
, Bender, Leela and Fry escape in the Planet Express Ship
Planet Express Ship
The Planet Express Ship is a fictional spaceship in the animated series Futurama, which bears the official designation "U.S.S. Planet Express Ship." The ship was designed and built by Professor Hubert Farnsworth and is the sole delivery ship of Planet Express, a delivery service owned by the...
. Fry convinces the crew to attack Melllvar to save the actors, but Melllvar destroys the ship's engine as he drags it back to the planet.
After seeing the Planet Express crew's attempt to defeat him Melllvar wonders if they are more worthy of his adoration than the Star Trek cast, and decides to settle the question with a battle to the death. After several minutes of fighting (with the exception of Leela and Shatner, who end up making out), Melllvar's mother appears and makes him come home for dinner. While he is gone, the two groups combine the engine of the cast's ship with the hull of the Planet Express Ship to escape. In order to lose enough weight to lift off, the cast jettison their bodies. Melllvar follows the crew into space with his own ship, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Brannigan boards the Planet Express Ship and starts the court-martial. Leela points out that while the court-martial is in progress Melllvar is still chasing them.
Fry convinces Melllvar that he cannot spend his life watching Star Trek, and Melllvar agrees to end the chase and "move out of [his] parents' basement." The crew returns with the tapes to Earth. The cast goes with them, deciding that immortality is not worth living with "one really annoying Star Trek fan."
Production
The writer for this episode, David A. Goodman, states in the DVD audio commentary that making this episode was a "dream come true" for many members of the crew including himself. Pat Shinagawa, who directed the episode, also states that there was a certain amount of jealousy that she had gotten to do this episode whereas Matt Groening states that while he is a fan of the Star Trek franchise he has never seen an episode of the original series all the way through, but he has seen the first movieStar Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
.
All of the living members of the original Star Trek cast agreed to appear in the episode with the exception of James Doohan
James Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
, whose agent replied with "No way." Because of this, the episode's working title was jokingly named "We got everybody but Scotty" and the character Montgomery Scott
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
was replaced with "Welshy". DeForest Kelley
DeForest Kelley
Jackson DeForest Kelley was an American actor known for his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.-Early life:...
was physically portrayed in the episode but had no lines due to his death in 1999.
Multiple designs for the energy being were considered for this episode; however, the final version was decided upon due to a desire to keep the design simple. Despite this effort, Shinagawa still notes that the final design for Melllvar is more sophisticated than some energy beings featured in the original series.
Star Trek references
This episode contains many story elements based on episodes of Star Trek. For example, the idea of a near-omnipotent antagonist whose mother comes to collect him is from "The Squire of Gothos". Melllvar's giant green hand is a reference to Apollo's hand in "Who Mourns for Adonais?". Bender's self-destruct sequence is the same as that of the Enterprise, as seen in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and Star Trek III: The Search for SpockStar Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with Star Trek IV:...
. A "forbidden planet", traveling to which is punishable by death, is the setting of "The Menagerie" and its basis "The Cage".
There are several direct references to individual episodes in dialogue. When Fry references an episode where Spock got "high on spores and smacked Kirk around", he is talking about "This Side of Paradise". When Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting...
mentions being heroic in kissing William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
in the third season, she is referring to "Plato's Stepchildren". The Nazi Planet episode mentioned is "Patterns of Force". The episodes referred to by Fry and Melllvar in which higher powers make the crew compete for their own amusement are "Arena", "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "Spectre of the Gun", "The Savage Curtain", and "Day of the Dove". Nichelle Nichols's fan dance can be seen in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is a 1989 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fifth feature in the franchise and the penultimate to star the cast of the original Star Trek science fiction television series...
, and Walter Koenig
Walter Koenig
Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.-Early life:...
says "nuclear wessels" in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series and completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The...
.
In the DVD audio commentary, Goodman notes his pride in having included a large number of quotations from the original series, particularly those items which he claims "the people on the internet" had not found on their own. He noted that in "Shatner's Log", based on Star Treks "Captain's log", the line "The impossible has happened" quotes the opening log in "Where No Man Has Gone Before
Where No Man Has Gone Before (TOS episode)
"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is the second pilot episode of the television series Star Trek: The Original Series. It was produced in 1965 after the first pilot, "The Cage", had been rejected by NBC. The episode was eventually broadcast third in sequence on September 22, 1966, and was re-aired on...
". In the flashback scene the line said by Scotty at the end of "The Trouble With Tribbles", "they were no tribble at all", is read by the Trekdom priest. Shatner's comment to Leela that "There's no right way to hit a woman" is from "Charlie X". When Melllvar says, "You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend", he is quoting "Balance of Terror
Balance of terror
The phrase "balance of terror" is usually used in reference to the nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War....
". William Shatner's line at the end, "Let's get the hell out of here", is also the final line of "The City on the Edge of Forever".
In addition to story elements and dialogue, there are several visual references to Star Trek episodes. The landscape of the planet on which the Planet Express crew arrives is similar to the Vasquez Rocks
Vasquez Rocks
Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a 905-acre northern Los Angeles County, California, USA park acquired by the Los Angeles County government in the 1970s...
seen in the episodes "Arena" and "Friday's Child". The sets on the planet are from "Spectre of the Gun", "Bread and Circuses", "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "Patterns of Force", "The Ultimate Computer", and "The City on the Edge of Forever". The chair used when the crew are testifying before Zapp Brannigan is the chair used by Captain Pike in "The Menagerie". The machine gun Bender finds is from "A Piece of the Action". When repairing the ship, Bender works in a Jeffries Tube. The ship used to bring the Star Trek cast to Melllvar's planet has warp nacelles
Warp drive (Star Trek)
Warp drive is a faster-than-light propulsion system in the setting of many science fiction works, most notably Star Trek. A spacecraft equipped with a warp drive may travel at velocities greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude, while circumventing the relativistic problem of time...
. The end credits contain stills from the show, which is how Star Treks credits were edited; they end in a still of Kif
Kif Kroker
Lieutenant Kif Kroker is a character from the animated television series Futurama. He is the long suffering assistant to Captain Zapp Brannigan and Fourth Lieutenant on the Democratic Order of Planets starship Nimbus...
's head in the same style as one of Balok from "The Corbomite Maneuver" that was used at the end of the credits for many Star Trek episodes.
The head of Jonathan Frakes
Jonathan Frakes
Jonathan Scott Frakes is an American actor, author and director best known for his role as Commander William T. Riker in the Star Trek franchise, as well as for his tenure as host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction ....
, a member of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, briefly appears. As Leonard Nimoy's head is removed from the shelf Frakes' head takes its place, where he exclaims, "Yes! Front row!"
The Star Trek tapes are fired onto Omega III from an Eagle
Eagle (Space: 1999)
The Eagle Transporter is a fictional spacecraft and the iconic image of the 1970s television series Space: 1999. The Eagles serve as the primary spacecraft of Moonbase Alpha, which has a fleet of them. The Eagles are primarily used to explore alien planets, defend Moonbase Alpha from attack, and to...
from the science fiction series Space: 1999
Space: 1999
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television series that ran for two seasons and originally aired from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, nuclear waste from Earth stored on the Moon's far side explodes in a catastrophic accident on 13 September 1999, knocking the Moon out of orbit and...
.
Broadcast and reception
Although the episode was not the last episode produced for season four, it was used as the season finale for the fourth broadcast season. The episode was then nominated for a Nebula AwardNebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
in 2004 for best script. IGN.com ranked the episode as number ten in their list of the "Top 25 Futurama Episodes" in 2006. The Futon Critic ranked the episode number 44 in its list of the top 50 television episodes of 2002. The popularity of this episode combined with the large volume of Star Trek references has made this episode a touchstone
Touchstone (metaphor)
As a metaphor, a touchstone refers to any physical or intellectual measure by which the validity or merit of a concept can be tested. It is similar in use to an acid test, litmus test in politics, and a shibboleth.-Touchstone in literature:...
among Trekkies
Trekkie
A Trekkie or Trekker is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, or of specific television series or films within that franchise.-History:In 1967, science fiction editor Arthur W...
. This episode, along with "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles
Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles
"Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles" is the ninth episode of the fourth production season of Futurama. It first aired on March 30, 2003 as the seventh episode of the fifth broadcast season. The episode was directed by Bret Haaland and written by Jeff Westbrook.-Plot:Professor Farnsworth is chasing...
", has been called one of the great moments of the fourth season.