A Clone Of My Own

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A Clone Of My Own			Written by Patric M. Verrone
					Directed by Rich Moore
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Production code: 2ACV10			Original Airdate: 9-Apr-2000

TV Guide synopsis:
    On his 150th birthday, Professor Farnsworth clones himself.

Title Sequence

Opening theme promotion:
	Coming Soon to an Illegal DVD

Opening theme cartoon: 
	Out of the Inkwell  {jk}


Did You Notice...

... the old-fashioned Slurm billboard in the year 2851?

Adam Foster:
... Alien text when the film starts?  A lot of it is distorted,
    but I managed to make out works like 'COLOR' and 'PICTURE',
    and then two single-frame messages saying 'START SOUND',
    then what I presume was a countdown.

Haynes Lee:
... Bender rolling up his metal sleeves?

John Wasser:
... every car in the Mars University parking lot is a VW New
    Beetle?

Greg Weir:
... in Leela's film, the quick shot of "fast cars" the front
    end of that car was that of a 1963 Studebaker Avanti?  The
    lack of a grille is unmistakable, but especially the shape
    (and location) of the hood ornament, which is over the
    driver's position to be used as a sight.


Voice Credits

- Starring
  - Billy West (Fry, Dr. Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth)
  - Katey Sagal (Leela)
  - John DiMaggio (Bender, Elzar)
- Also Starring 
  - David Herman (Dean Vernon, Wermstrom)
  - Phil LaMarr (Hermes)
  - Lauren Tom (Amy)
  - Kath Soucie (Cubert)


Movie (and other) References

+ "A Clone Of My Own" by Isaac Asimov
  - Episode title is identical to this parody of "Home On The Range"
+ They Saved Hitler's Brain (Movie)  {jk}
  - Farnsworth's complaint about his disciplinary charges.
+ Star Trek (TV Series) "Menagerie" Episode
  - Dramatic incidental music.
  - Captain Muskie is based on Captain Pike.
  - A muskellunge is a pike and "muskie" is an abbreviated term.  {sq}
+ Schroedinger's Kit-Kat Club
  - Based on "Schroedinger's Cat," a physics paradox.
    (One wonders whether the club has any life in it.)  {jd}
+ H.G. Wells' Time Machine (Movie)
  - The time machine Farnsworth invented resembles it.  {jk}
+ Star Wars (Movie)  {jk}
  - Farnsworth' hologram message.
  - The Near Death Star.
+ The Matrix (Movie)  {jk}
  - Human bodies hooked up to a virtual world.
  - Rotating 3D shot as the ship leaves the Near Death Star.


Previous Episode References

- [1ACV08] Mars University, Professor Wermstrom, and the Smelloscope.
- [1ACV11] Mars University and Dean Vernon.
- [2ACV01] A scene from this is in the "Living Obituary" movie.
- [2ACV05] Use of dramatic incidental Star Trek music.
- [2ACV08] Bender speaks Spanish because he's made in Mexico.


Freeze Frame Fun

Signs: 
  - Laboratory: Mice please enter through maze
  - Mars University:  Knowledge bring fear
  - Happy Sesquicentennial, Professor Farnsworth!
  - Schroedinger's Kit-Kat Club


Animation, Continuity, and other Goofs

In a 1999 interview with WiReD, Matt Groening said, "We created
a character named Cubert who will anticipate fan complaints
about the show's inconsistencies, and then will address them
within the show."  I take this to mean that there can't be any
animation, continuity, or other goofs in this episode.  {jd}

The English subtitles on the DVD sometimes misspell his name as
"Qbert."  {jd}


Reviews

Adam Foster:  Brilliant.  Utterly brilliant.  One of my favourite
    episodes so far.  From Farnsworth's (living) obituary to the
    incredible computer animated stretch, it was excellent.  I
    think some of the things Futurama is best at is visual
    humour and plain 'cool' scenes -- of which there were plenty
    in this episode.  I must have watched the chase sequence
    twenty times ...

Haynes Lee:  I really like this episode but why did we have to wait
    so long for Cubert to be introduced?  Great special effects in
    the battle sequence.  sqrt(A-)


Comments and Other Observations

Cubert

Cubert wanting to be something useful like a teacher's aide or
science-fiction comedy cartoon writer.  Before Futurama, there
hasn't been any steady work in this field since The Jetsons last
aired 37 years ago.    {hl}

Cubert has been announced over a year ago, in the February 1999
issue of WiReD magazine.  An article in May 1999 Spin magazine
revealed that he is a clone of Hubert and like the Comic Book
Guy from The Simpsons.    {hl}
- More like the "Comic Book Guy" element of Usenet fandom.  {jd}

In the DVD Audio Commentary, Matt Groening reveals that Cubert's
appearance is somewhat inspired by Charles Addams' New Yorker drawings
of Pugsley (a.k.a. Pubert) Addams (not the TV or movie Pugsley).    {jd}

Français {jd}

The Professor's Universal Translator speaks in French, which he
calls "an incomprehensible dead language."  In the French version
of this episode (Le clône Farnsworth), the machine speaks in
German.

Recall that in the pilot [1ACV01], they said "neuf" in Paris
during the countdown to New Year's 2000, but by New Year's
3000, Parisians were saying "seven."  Sacre bleu!  (In the
French version of the pilot, though, they say "neuf" in 2000,
and "sept" in 3000.)


Quotes and Scene Summary{sm}

Professor Farnsworth addresses the Planet Express morning meeting.

Prof.: Good news, everyone, the university is bringing me in on 
       disciplinary charges!  Wait, that's not good news at all.
Leela: Whatever you did, professor, I'm sure there's a reasonable
       explanation.
Prof.: Yes, but they won't listen.  Everone's in favor of saving 
       Hitler's brain, but when you put it in the body of a great
       white shark, uh-uhh, suddenly you've gone too far!

The PE Ship transfers to Mars
At Mars University, Farnsworth stands before the tribunal.  All is dark,
except some lightshafts.

Dean Vernon: Professor Farnsworth, do you know why we've called 
             you here today?
      Prof.: Listen to me, you pompous frauds, if I'm going down, 
             I'm taking you all with me.  Dean Vernon, I know the
             truth:  it was you driving your hovercar that night,
             not your horse!  Dean Epsilon, I know all about your
             "Department of Poolboy Studies."  And Dr. Wermstrom ...
             Wermstrom!
Dean Vernon: Actually, Professor, we merely  have called you here
             today to say ... [lights go up] ... Surprise!

A oval shaped TV-Screen above them signs: Happy Birthday!
A crowd of guests cheers, the Crew is revealed standing behind Prof.
Farnsworth, holding a big banner:  Happy Sesquicentennial 
                                   Professor Farnsworth!

  All: Surprise!
Prof.: And you Coach Smarley, or should I say, Coach Hairpiece!
Leela: No Professor, it's a surprise party, for your 150th
       birthday.
Prof.: Oh.

Bender takes the speaker's desk and plugs a Microphone into his side.
Left and right the crew and faculty members are seated.  The TV screen
shows now a picture of a happy looking Farnsworth.

Bender: Good Evening, I'm ... [feedback noise] ... Oh, Sorry
        [he turns his amplifier down]  Alright. I'm Bender, and
        I'm MCing this roast.  You know they say you can judge a
        man by the company he keeps, so here's the professor's
        oldest friend, a grotesque stinking lobster!

Dr Zoidberg takes the speaker's podium.

Zoidberg: Good evening, ladies and germs.  [rim shot]  That
          wasn't a joke.  I was talking to Dean Streptococcus.
          Now I'm not saying that Professor Farnsworth is old,
          but when you consider his age, he's likely to die soon.
          [no response from the crowd]  Hey Ringo, that was the
          joke.  [sadly]  Oh, it's showtime at the Apollo all
          over again.
-- Tough crowd, tough crowd, "A Clone Of My Own"

Zoidberg leaves the podium.

Bender: Where would the professor be without students who love and
        respect him?  Right there!  [points to Farnsworth, laughs]
        But cheers.  Of all the former crewmembers of the professors
        delivery ship our next speaker is by far the most alive.
        Captain Muskie!

While ominous incidental music from Star Trek plays, Captain
Muskie enters the stage in a hover box that displays just his chest
and his horrible disfigured face.  His speech consists merely of a
beep, but everyone breaks into laughter.

Zoidberg: I wouldn't want to follow that guy.

Bender: [Laughs, wipes off a tear]  And now a man who needs no
        introduction!  [He leaves the podium, but nobody walks up,
        until...] Fry, get up there!

Fry takes the podium.

Fry: Thank you.  You know, when I was first asked to make a film
     about my nephew, Professor Farnsworth, I thought, why should
     I?  Then later Leela made the film.  But if I had made the
     film, you can bet there would have been more topless women on
     motorcycles.  Roll film.

Film starts

        Title: Hubert Farnsworth:  A Living Obituary
Leela's Voice: Hubert J. Farnsworth was born Aril 9th 2851 in New New
               York's nerdiest slum, Hell's Laboratory.  A precocious
               child, young Farnsworth learned to read while he was
               still in diapers, at age eight.  And before long he
               blossomed into a greasy teenager.
          Fry: Dork alert!
Leela's Voice: After fourteen years of graduate school, Farnsworth
               settled into the glamorous life of a scientist:  Fast
               cars, trendy nightspots, beautiful women.  The professor
               would design them all, working at his tiny one-room
               apartment.  For fifty years he worked at Mom's Friendly
               Robot Company, where he created the first robot capable
               of qualifying for a boat loan.  And now, even as he
               nears his hundred and fiftieth birthday, the professor
               retains the firey passion of youth.
 Prof's Voice: Listen to me, you pompous frauds, if I'm going down,
               I'm taking you all with me.
        Title: Hubert J. Farnsworth:  To be continued ... ?

Film ends.  Farnsworth looks rather unhappy.

Bender: How About a few words, professor?
 Prof.: [Startled gibberish]
Bender: I said words!
 Prof.: What a pleasure it is to see my lifetime of accomplishments
        summed up into a three minutes film.  My best years are behind
        me, so much left undone, so little time.
Bender: Funny, funny ... stuff ...

At Planet Express,the crew tries to comfort a now very depressed 
Professor.

   Prof.: My life is over.
   Leela: No it isn't.  You have another ten years left.
    Fry: Leela!  He could live another hundred years.
          [winks]
   Leela: No, he couldn't.  When you turn 160, robots of the Sunset
          Squad take you to a mysterious planet, and you never
          return.
     Fry: Wow!  A whole planet of old people.  Where is it?
  Bender: [dramatically]  Nobody knows!
   Prof.: So many longs half longed, so many inventions half invented.
          That damn time machine alone set me back fifteen years.
Zoidberg: If only it had worked, you could go back and not waste
          time on it.

   Prof.: There is no one to carry on, no one to take over my work
          and my research and my fabulous fortune.  My God!  That's
          it!  I've got to name a successor!
    Crew: A successor?
Zoidberg: A successor to the professor?
   Prof.: There is no time to lose.  I'm off to my lab to build a
          successor-naming machine!

Days later at Planet Express.

     Fry: Man, the Professor's been in his lab for days.
  Bender: I hope he didn't die, unless he left a note naming me as
          his successor, then I'd hope he did die.
Zoidberg: You, his successor?  Over my dead shell.  The Professor
          would take me.  Only I have his lobsterlike tenacity!
  Hermes: Up yours, Zoidberg!  Up where ever your species
          traditionally crams things!  The only sensible way to
          pick up a successor is with a limbo contest.
   Leela: What?
  Hermes: Kingston rules:  Two men go down, one come up.

He limbos under the oven, where Leela blocks his way out with the
garbage can.

   Leela: Look, the Professor trusts me with a giant spaceship.
          He wouldn't trust the rest of you with his dentures.
     Amy: [mouth full of dentures]  Yes he would.
     Fry: Sorry everyone, but neither of you realizes that blood
          is thicker than water.
Zoidberg: [scribbling a note]  Blood ... thicker? ...
          water ...

[The laboratory]  Sign:  Mice please enter through maze.

Prof.: Everyone, I have a very dramatic announcement.  So anyone
       with a weak heart should leave now.  Goodbye!  [leaves]
Leela: Er, Professor ...
Prof.: Oh yes, the anouncement.  As you all know, I am not long
       for this world.  [Crew agrees]  So I picked my successor.
       It's someone in whom I have great faith even though his
       mind is undeveloped, complete to nothing.  [Fry smirks]
       My closest living relative, ...
  Fry: [smugly] Oh, yeah.
Prof.: ... my clone, Cubert Farnsworth.

Everyone gasps, especially Fry.  The Professor turns some [[[hebel]]]
and reveals a glass tank filled with water and a naked boy.

Zoidberg: He is horrible!
     Fry: Crud.  Can I at least get inheritance to your dentures?
     Amy: [mouth still full]  You wish!
     Fry: Where did Cubert come from?
   Prof.: Twelve years ago, I began the cloning process by removing 
          some skin cells from one of the shapelier growths off
          my back.
   Leela: Wait.  If he is your clone, why does't his his nose look
          like yours?
   Prof.: I left him in his first tube too long.  He got squished
          up against the side.
  Bender: Is he dumb or just ugly?
   Prof.: Let's find out.

He presses a button, and releases the tanks of water.  Cubert coughs,
spits out water, and realizes everone's staring at him.

Cubert: What?  You've never seen a genius' wiener before? 
  Crew: No, uh-huh, nope.
   Fry: Well, once in the park ...

Later, Cubert inspects the crew. Bender and Fry play Penny to the Wall,
Dr. Zoidberg sucks on some tomato juice.

  Cubert: As long as I'm going to be in charge, let me examine my 
          so-called crew, if it can so be called.  First of all:
          Dr. Zoidberg, do you even have a medical degree?
Zoidberg: I ... lost it ... in a volcano ...
  Cubert: And why do we need a bending robot here anyway?  What
          possible use do we have for you?
  Bender: Me no speaka da English.
  Cubert: And why does our space captain have just one eye?
          There's someone I want you to meet.  His name is
          Depth Perception.
   Leela: Why you little ...
-- And Bender could meet Manuel Labor, "A Clone Of My Own"

She tries to slap Cubert and misses.

Cubert: Wow, that hurt ... the air!
Bender: ¡Impendo para un bendo!
 Prof.: Oh, Cubert, come in here.  I have something amazing
        to show you.
Cubert: What is it?  A competent employee?  I doubt that
        very much.

He joins the Professor, leaving a disgruntled crew.

On the third floor of the Planet Express building, Farnsworth shows
Cubert around.

     Prof.: Cubert, as my successor I'm trusting you to carry on
            my work.  These are just some of the half-finished
            inventions you'll spend your life finishing.
    Cubert: I didn't realize you were the inventor of the
            junk heap!
     Prof.: That's my price-winning Smelloscope.  If a dog craps
            anywhere in the universe, you can bet I won't be out
            of the loop.  And this is my Universal Translator.
            Unfortunately, it only translates into an incomprehensible
            dead language.
    Cubert: Hello.
Translator: Bonjour.
     Prof.: Crazy gibberish!
    Cubert: Don't you have any worthwhile inventions?
     Prof.: Why, certainly!  Step over here.

Outer space.  The PE Spaceship zooms along.  Farnsworth and Cubert,
dressed in spacesuits, are standing near the engines.

 Prof.: These are the dark matter engines I invented.  They allow
        my starship to travel between galaxies in mere hours.
Cubert: That's impossible!  You can't go faster than the speed of
        light.
 Prof.: Of course not!  That's why scientists increased the speed 
        of light in 2208!
Cubert: Also impossible!

In front of the ship's two furnaces.

 Prof.: And what makes my engines truly remarkable is the 
        afterburner, which delivers 200 percent fuel efficency.
Cubert: That's especially impossible.
 Prof.: Not at all!  It's very simple!
Cubert: Then explain it!
 Prof.: Now that's impossible! It came to me in a dream, and I
        forgot it in another dream.
Cubert: Your explanations are pure weapons-grade balonium.
        It's all impossible!
 Prof.: Nothing is impossible.  Not when you can imagine it.
        That's what being a scientist is all about!
Cubert: No, that's what being a magical elf is all about.

Later, an evening at Elzar's fine Cuisine.  Farnsworth has invited
his crew to quiet dinner.

Bender: Oh god.  Oh my god!  It's Elzar, the TV Chef.  Kill me
        now, people!
 Elzar: How we goin' here?
Bender: Oh, Elzar, everything is so good.
 Elzar: What are you, an ass-kissing machine?
Bender: Yes sir!  A good one, sir!
 Prof.: Oh, it's a gem of an evening.  I feel so wonderful having
        someone to take over my life's work, and it's all thanks
        to Cubert.
Cubert: Look professor, I may be identical to you in every possible 
        way, but that doesn't mean I'm anything like you.
 Prof.: You ... what?
Cubert: I don't wanna be an inventor.  I want to be something useful,
        like a teacher, or a prison guard, or a sience fiction
        cartoon writer.
 Prof.: But but ... but what about my hopes and my dreams and my
        wonderful inventions?
Cubert: In your entire life your only half-decent invention was me,
        and I didn't turn out like you wanted either.

Farnsworth can't answer to that, and starts to cry silently, watched
by a helpless crew. Elzar interupts the falling mood.

 Elzar: You folks are doin' alright?
Bender: Oh yes, Elzar.
 Elzar: Good.  Because it turns out that I forgot to cook that
        chicken.

Later, Night at PE.  Storm Clouds fill the sky, lightning cuts
through it.  The Professor starts the home video equipment for a
private message.

Prof.: Bad news, everyone.  By the time you watch this tape,
       I'll be gone, leaving behind me a life of failures and
       my original hip bones.  You see, I've been lying about
       my age, I'm actually not a hundred and fifty, I'm a
       hundred and sixty.  Oh vanity, thy name is Professor
       Farnsworth!  Now that I've got nothing to live for,
       I've alerted the Sunset Squad robots to take me away.

Through a hole in the sky a dark blue burial hovercar descends
and docks to Planet Express third etage.  Its door opens, and a dark
figure emerges.  The death robot commands the professor to come with
him, just as Farnsworth has finished recording his final words.

Prof.: Goodbye, cruel world!  Goodbye, cruel lamp.  Goodbye,
       cruel velvet drapes, lying together what appears to be
       some sort of cruel muslin and the curtain pompom tails,
       cruel though they may be ... Oh!

Fed up with this, the death robot takes Farnsworth on his shoulders 
and leaves the Planet Express building.

On the next morning, the crew watches the Professor's last message.

 Prof.: Now that I've got nothing to live for, I've alerted the
        Sunset Squad robots to take me away.  I know you're all
        very upset.  Especially Bender.
Bender: Well, life goes on ... except for you!  Hahahaha!
 Prof.: I'm sure Bender has just made a cutting remark, but he
        doesn't know I taped over his soap operas to record this
        message.  [message ends]
Bender: You bastard!
   Fry: We've got to get him back!
Cubert: Impossible.  Noone knows where they take those old geezers.
   Fry: Nothing is impossible!  You'd know that if you really
        took after the Professor, like I do.
Cubert: You're his uncle, dummy, he takes after you!
   Fry: You ... what?
Cubert: Wait a second, that means I also take after you.  Ahhrgh!
 Leela: Quiet.  I think I know how to find the Professor.
Bender: [dramatically] Lay it on us, Big Boots.

Leela is at the Smelloscope.

 Leela: If the Smelloscope can pick up the professor's odor, we 
        may have a chance to save him.
Cubert: I think not.  As you probably don't know, odor is made out
        of particles which can't travel through the vacuum of space.
        [Bender electroshocks Cubert]  Ohaahhrgh!
 Leela: I'm zeroing in on him.  "Ben Gay!"  Mothballs!  Letters to
        the editor!  It's the Professor!
Bender: [dramatically]  To the flying machine!

The PE ship zooms through the void, with the Smelloscope serving
as a periscope.  Fry operates it.

   Fry: To the left.  No, to the up. U-turn! U-turn!
Cubert: We'll never find this place.  Robots are very good at
        keeping secrets.
Bender: No, we're not, you little bed-wetter! ... oh, sorry.
 Leela: There it is, the Near Death Star.

The ship lands on a steel planet with massive spikes protruding out
of it.  Leela and Bender get into death robot cloaks.

Leela: Okay.  We tell them the Professor escaped, and we are
       bringing him back.  Fry, you have to dress up like a
       hundred and sixty year old man.
  Fry: I'm on it.

He pulls his trousers to his chest and start mumbling incoherently.

Cubert: My God!  The illusion is so perfect!  I almost forgot
        I was looking at an idiot!
 Leela: Now, when they ask for an DNA sample ...
   Fry: I'd like to see them find it.
Cubert: This plan is impossible.  We don't even have a sample of 
        the Professor's DNA.
Bender: I think I know where we can get some.

He pulls out a giantic syringe and aproaches Cubert, who realizes just
seconds too late what Bender's up to.  A loud scream fills the ship.

On the Near Death Planet, they march through a tunnel to Guest Drop-Off.
Fry wears the professsors glasses and lab coat.  Cubert is hidden under 
the coat, making Fry look like a hunchback.

Cubert: Why do I have to be the hump?
   Fry: Because you're too ugly to be a wart.

All laugh, naturally except Cubert.

They pass the huge Guest reception machinerie, where thousands of
old people get stripped naked, washed and rocker-chair seated.

Leela: Your Medicare dollars at work.

They arrive at entrance control with gatebots an armed guard robots.

Gatebot 1: Halt!  Identify this guest.
    Leela: Uh, this is Professor Hubert Farnsworth.  He escaped.
Gatebot 1: Escaped?  Noone escapes.
Gatebot 2: This guest does not look a hundred and sixty.
      Fry: What?  I'm old!  Listen!  [old voice]  Hey you kids,
           get off the lawn!
Gatebot 1: Hmm.  It is true that old people are often concerned
           that there are children on their lawns.
Gatebot 2: There's no denying that, but we still need to verify
           his identity with an DNA sample.

Bender presents a glass labled "Tissue sample", with about 1 1/2
litres of blood.

   Bender: Got a hot steamin' batch right here!
Gatebot 1: We only needed one cell.
   Bender: Eh, keep the change, buddy.
   Cubert: Stupid robot!

The other guard robots get alarmed and raise their guns.

Gatebot 1: Did your hump just say something?
      Fry: Uh, I ... I've got talking hump syndrome.
Gatebot 1: Ah, THS.

He puts a drop of Cubert's blood in a machine, which lights up.

Gatebot 1: Ah, Identity confirmed.  Return the shambling
           shuffleboarder to his room.  7152 Maple Drive.
    Leela: Sounds nice.
Gatebot 1: Prepare to be surprised.

The streets turn out to be huge gravestone-like buildings, each 
containing thousands of drawers for the soon tbe dead.

  Fry: So this is where they stick old people.  It is horrific!
Leela: At least it keeps them from driving.

They board a hovertransporter and ascend to the Professor's last home.

Sign:   Hubert J.
       Farnsworth
    b.2841  d.SOON
      
Leela: [pulling out the drawer]  Brace yourself for the worst!

She reveals Farnsworth, connected to some kind of machine.  Everyone 
screams.

Bender: And yet he looks so natural.
Cubert: What's happening?
 Leela: He's hooked up to a life support system.  We have to
        disconnect him very very carefully, or the shock
        could kill him.

At this very moment a guardrobot on a armed saucer appears, ordering 
them to freeze.  At once Leela rips Farnsworth out of his drawer,
dumps him on the transporter floor und revs up the engine.  They get
away, but other guardbots join the pursuit.

Guardbot 1: Seize them!
Guardbot 2: Seize them!
Guardbot 3: Get them!  I mean ... seize them!

It is a Star Wars-like dogfight with robots crashing against
various obstacles.

Guardbot: Oh, I'm so bad at this.  [explodes]

They crash through entrance control and reach the escape tunnel,
just as the front gate lowers to close.

 Leela: We're probably gonna make it, but we might not!
Cubert: [peeking through the lab coat]  It's impossible! 
        We're never gonna fit!
   Fry: We are too!

Cubert smashes against the gate's door, as the hovertransporter
passes under it.

Cubert: Told you!  [drops unconscious]

They reach the ship and prepare for lift-off.

Fry: Come on Leela, step your big boot on the gas pedal!
    
They seem to make it, but are at the last second intercepted by the 
remaining guardbots.  The engines get hit, and the ship drops rather
hard onto the landing pad.

Leela: They blew out one of our engines.
  Fry: Fix it!  Fix it!  Fix it!  Fix it!  Fix it!  Fix it!
Leela: Only the professor knows how to fix it.  We have to
       wake him up.

They try waking him by loud sirens, water and shuffling. but to
no avail.

   Fry: Try shocking him!
Bender: Your social security check is late.  Stuff costs
        more than it used to!  Young people use curse words!
   Fry: Damn it, we have to fix the engines by ourselves.
 Leela: We can't, you bastard, noone knows how it works.
        It's impossible!
Cubert: [regaining consciousness]  Nothing is impossible!  I
        understand how the engines work now.  It came to me
        in a dream.  The engines don't move the ship at all.
        [he starts repairing the engines]  The ship
        stays where it is, and the engines move the universe
        around it.
Bender: That's a complete load!
Cubert: Nothing's a complete load.  Not when you can imagine
        it.  That's what being a scientist is all about, right,
        Professor?
 Prof.: [mumbles incoherently]

The whole Near Death Star opens fire against them, but with the engines 
repaired, they make a sucessfull escape -- after a quick suspended-in-space
rotating camera Matrix shot.

Days later at Planet Express.

Cubert: Good news, everyone!  He's made a complete recovery!
  Crew: [cheers]
 Prof.: I'm as spry as a hundred and forty year old!  [makes a
        small jump]  See?  I only broke one ankle.
   Fry: So what have they been doing to you in that awful drawer?
 Prof.: Oh, they had me hooked up in a bizarre virtual world, that
        seemed absolutly real.
   Amy: What was it like?
 Prof.: It was as though I was living in a facility in Florida with
        hundreds of other old people.  All day long we'd play Bingo,
        eat oatmeal and wait for our children to call.
  Crew: [groans]
 Leela: It's a hundred times more horrible than anything I could
        imagine!
 Prof.: Oh my, yes.  Thank you all for saving me, especially you,
        my little clone.  No matter what you decide to do with
        your life, I'm still proud of you.  [hugs Cubert]
Cubert: I've already decided.  Dad, when I grow up, I wanna be
        just like you.
Prof.:  Oh, don't worry son, you will.  Incidently, you might read
        up a condition known as wandering bladder.
Cubert: Why?
 Prof.: No reason.  No reason at all ...

[End of Act Three.  Act Time:  Running Time:]


Contributors

Quotes and Scene Summary by Sophie Mateju.
Rest of capsule authored by Jym Dyer.

{jd}  Jym Dyer
{af}  Adam Foster
{jk}  Joe Klemm
{hl}  Haynes Lee
{sm}  Sophie Mateju
{sq}  Squintiferous
{jw}  John Wasser