Fear of a Bot Planet

"Fear of a Bot Planet" is the fifth episode of Futurama and of the first season. It aired 20 April, 1999 on FOX. The Planet Express crew is sent to Chapek 9, a planet filled with human hating robots, Bender immediately likes the place, being tired of his friends opinion of him as nothing more than an item.

Act I: "From up here, the entire world can seem insignificant."
Fry and Leela are in the cockpit of the Planet Express Ship, admiring the view. They're gazing out at a green, ringed planet, which then splatters on their windshield.

Act II: "You humans are so scared of a little robot competition!"
Fry, Leela, Farnsworth, Bender, and Zoidberg are at a Blernsball game. Fry is confused about the game rules, such as the ball attached to a thread. They start talking about great players, and Bender brings up Wireless Joe Jackson from the Robot leagues. Bender drops his cup only to find a robot cleaning up the mess, he becomes enraged due to the fact that robots are used as cleaners and not allowed in the Blernsball game. They argue about whether it's right to exclude literal Blern-hitting machines from the human league. Hermes calls them back to the office for a mission to Chapek 9, "a world where humans are killed on sight." Bender tries to get out of work claiming a Robot holiday, Robanukah. Bender, being asked to actually do something for the first time since working at Planet Express, cries discrimination. They make him go anyway, and he is captured by the native robots.

Act III: "Death to humans!!!"
Fry and Leela disguise themselves as robots and venture onto the planet to try and rescue Bender. Fry blows their cover, and they run and hide in a movie theatre. The movie, It Came from Planet Earth, is a cheesy horror film about a human who breathes fire and eats robots. When the robots gather for their daily human hunt, they finally locate Bender - declaring his intention to destroy all humans!

Act IV: "Got you, you murderous flesh piles!"
On the human hunt, Leela and Fry talk to Bender. Bender tells them he wants to stay, but that they should leave. When they are all three caught, Bender pretends he was capturing them. They are tried for the crime of being human. Leela informs them that she has one eye therefore is not human. But they still charge both of them. The computer judge sentenced them to perform tedious calculations and spot-weld automobiles. When convicted, they are taken before the council of robot elders and they decide Fry and Leela must be killed. The elders try to get Bender to kill them himself. He refuses, and they then turn on all of them. In an unusual display of cunning, Fry helps them escape by scaring the elders, threatening to breathe fire on them. This had worked only because the Robot Elders do not know much about Humans, they are unsure if Fry really can breathe fire. When in the ship, the robots try to capture them by climbing onto each others shoulders and Fry throws them the package. It turns out to be a box of desperately-needed lug nuts, and the robots cheer and break off their pursuit. Back on the ship, they all celebrate Robanukah, which Bender admits is made-up.

Trivia

 * The names listed in Leela's scoring card are:


 * Karis
 * Adler
 * Horsted
 * Verrone
 * Keeler
 * Burns
 * Cohen
 * Kaplan
 * Morton
 * Costanza
 * Maris
 * Zork
 * Zork Jr.
 * QZDJLYD (pronounced Miller)
 * Lombard
 * Gore
 * Raspberry
 * Jones with Clemens' Arm


 * The robot mayor says "that makes 146 thousand unsuccessful hunts in a row," suggesting that the robots have been on the planet for over 2800 years if they only do 1 hunt a day.

Allusions

 * The title is a reference to the Public Enemy album "Fear of a Black Planet".
 * The planet Chapek 9 is named after Karel Čapek, who is credited with inventing the word "robot".
 * The story is based on a short story by Stanislaw Lem in which a human crash-lands on a planet full of robots and disguises himself as one, only to find out eventually that all the robots are indeed humans in disguise.
 * Hermes shows up in the form of a hologram, much like Princess Leia in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
 * A movie called "Buffbot the Human Slayer" is advertised on a Chapek 9 theatre marquee, referencing "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".
 * Just after Leela sneezes, a robot points and lets out a shriek. This is a reference to the 1978 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
 * Bender's line "tote that space barge, lift that space pail" is modified and taken from the song "" (minus the word "space" of course).

Goofs

 * When Bender is adding butter to his popcorn, a man in the background is missing his eyes.
 * In one scene, the robot elder on the far left changes its eye- and teethcolor from red to yellow.

Characters

 * Bender
 * Debut: Computer Judge
 * Dr. Zoidberg
 * Fry
 * Hermes
 * Leela
 * Prof. Farnsworth
 * Debut: Robot Builder
 * Debut: Robot Cleaner
 * Debut: Robot Elders
 * Debut: Robot Guards
 * Debut: Robot Human
 * Debut: Robot Mayor

Episode Credits

 * Writers
 * Evan Gore
 * Heather Lombard
 * Directors
 * Ashley Lenz
 * Chris Sauve
 * Voice Actors
 * Billy West
 * Katey Sagal
 * John DiMaggio
 * Tress MacNeille
 * Phil LaMarr
 * Maurice LaMarche
 * Dave Herman
 * Tom Kenny