Review: Season 1, Episode 7: "My Three Suns"

Airdate: May 4th, 1999

What, Fry usurp the Emperor? You may very well think that. He couldn't possibly comment.

Synopsis: Leela and Fry's professional relationship is rapidly approaching a boil- Fry gets himself in stupid situation after stupid situation (such as replacing his lungs with gills), and Leela has to bail him out. This comes to a head during a delivery to the planet Trisol 9, where Fry, dehydrated from Bender's cooking ("The sodium level was 10% less than a lethal dose!"), grabs a drink of nice, refreshing emperor.

Literally.

He drinks the emperor of Trisol 9. And, under Trisolian tradition, he is immediately crowned as the new emperor. A frustrated Leela points to the rapid succession rate of the emperors (the average reign lasting a week), but Fry dismisses her advice, essentially telling her to buzz off. All seems to be up for Fry... until the setting of the three suns.

Review: Fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation might remember the episode "Reunion". In that episode, Picard winds up at the center of a succession scandal in the Klingon Empire- the chancellor was assassinated, and he has to preside over the struggle of power, as well as the swearing-in of the new chancellor. Science fiction TV shows often showcase a series of assassinations in order to obtain power.

So, what if this alien species consisted of a liquid? Assassination should be easy! And it is- you just need somebody unfamiliar with the species, make him/her thirsty, and sweet ascension is theirs for the taking. (Oh, thank god House of Cards wasn't sci-fi!)

"My Three Suns" continues on Futurama's world-building abilities first established in "Fear of a Bot Planet". In less than 15 minutes, we're introduced to a world, examine it's political system, it's beliefs, it's weaknesses. We'll probably never see Trisol 9 again, but it's as well-established (if not more so) than many Star Trek one-off planets.

However, that's not the heart of the story. That belongs to the relationship between Fry and Leela.


If Leela is an analog of Captain Picard- driven by a sense of rules and sanity- Fry is almost certainly an analog of The Doctor- quirky and critical of the rules surrounding them. Putting Picard and The Doctor in the same room would cause the Enterprise and/or the TARDIS a lot of trouble. Thus, through the entire episode, Fry and Leela are at each other's throats- Leela saving Fry from certain doom, and Fry critical of being controlled.

More importantly, this episode shows the blooming of a friendship between Fry and Leela. Sure, the two are close professionally, and are more casual than they were in "The Series Has Landed". However, a real boss in a situation like that probably would've let Fry get taken out by the Trisolians. Leela goes to save him. THAT'S friendship.

Now, I do have a bit of an issue with this- that being that Leela bailing Fry's tail out might become a cliche. Hell, it's already a bit of a sci-fi cliche. However, unlike other shows, we actually get genuine remorse from Fry at the episode's climax- he believes that his impulsiveness has driven Leela, and by extension, himself, to doom.

This episode is a bit joke-light- outside of some development of the trio (which I'll get into in the tidbits section), it's also a self-contained episode. However, as far as self-contained episodes go, it's pretty good.

Tidbits:

• After a series of episodes showing Bender at his most callous and criminal, we get a look at Bender's softer side- one that shows a childlike sense of ambition. Here, he gets into cooking. Something of an unexpected interest, he tries to hide his love for cooking... only to fail. Hysterically. Incredibly, it seems like the only problem with his cooking so far is that he lathers whatever he cooks with salt. Lots and lots of salt. The crew's response is just hysterical.
• Bender's call to Leela for help is pretty damn sweet. This one scene shows the friendship that's developed between the three.
• Getting back to Bender's cooking obsession, one of the shows he watches is Essence of Elzar. For those unawares, Elzar is a send-up of Emeril Lagasse, a 90s TV chef who dominated the industry. Elzar is basically a Y3K version of Emeril- right down to the accent and the catchphrases. The comedy comes with him almost dying as a result of trying to cook live squid- probably a send up of the wacky dishes celebrity chefs might whip up. Nice job.
• Bizarrely, Emeril even got his own damn sitcom. Yes, Emeril got a sitcom creatively titled Emeril. It lasted eight episodes. Bam.

Favorite Scene: A lot of the pre-coronation scenes are hysterical, but I have to go with Bender's first outing as the ship's chef. "My vision's fading. I think I'm gonna die."

Least Favorite Scene: When making the call to Leela, Bender declares that he's "not giving my name to a machine." Two episodes ago, Bender was vehemently pro-machine. Now, he won't give his name to a machine? Eh, that change of heart was huge.

Memorable Quote: "At least my assassin will get what's coming to him."- Fry, completely cool with the fact that the Trisolians prepared spaces for the portraits of his assassin... and their assassin.

Score: 7.5.