Game of Tones

"Game of Tones" is the one hundred and thirty-seventh episode of Futurama, the twenty-third of the seventh production season and the tenth of the tenth broadcast season. It aired on 14 August, 2013, on Comedy Central. The crew journeys into Fry's dreams to seek the meaning of a mysterious alien melody.

Production
As late as 8 January 2013, the episode's title was revealed.

On 5 February, released a preview clip for the tenth broadcast season, which contained footage from the episode.

On 19 June, it was revealed that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane would voice Seymour in the episode.

By 9 July, part of the animatic for the episode had been released online.

In the animatic, the montage of Fry spending time with his family was longer, and the song "" played over it.

By 8 August, Comedy Central had released a two-minute preview clip featuring the crew trying to discover the source of the melody.

Trivia

 * Fry was also stuck on an inclined table in "Cold Warriors", which also featured Fry's family. In addition, the digits in the production code for "Cold Warriors" add up to the same amount as the digits in the production code for this episode.
 * The episode shares multiple similarities with the 1986 film Star Trek . A mysterious ship arrives, sending a strange melody to communicate, which, however, damages the planet, and the main characters have to travel back in time (in this episode through dreams).
 * Nibbler says "bye-bye keys", which a toddler says in the Simpsons episode "".
 * The song that plays at the end of the episode is "Manchild", by the, from the 1996 album .

Allusions

 * The episode's title is a reference to the TV series .
 * English actress, who plays in Game of Thrones, guest-stars in another episode of the season, "Stench and Stenchibility". She and Seth MacFarlane used to date.
 * Shazam is a reference to.
 * Seymour sitting on the couch along with the rest of the Fry family and holding a is a reference to Family Guy's, who is also voiced by Seth MacFarlane.
 * There are several references to the 2010 film . From the very act of getting into a dream, to the fact that, if Fry dies in the dream, he wakes up, the time proportion being different (inverted in Futurama) between the real world and the dream, the crew members connected to the dream machine, the shots of the world shaking due to the dream's collapse and the slow motion and music used as Fry is falling into the cryo-tube.
 * The scene where the crew communicates with the alien ship via sound and lights on a billboard is reminiscent of the climax from the 1977 film . A location similar to is also seen in the background.
 * The final scene is a reference to the ending of the 2001 film , where the protagonist gets to live one last experience with his mother based on memories.

Continuity

 * Bender's "let's go already" song is from "Proposition Infinity".
 * Bender previously wore a diaper in "The Tip of the Zoidberg".
 * The episode revisits the cold opening of "Space Pilot 3000".
 * Nibbler tells Fry that he has once more done the Nibblonians a great service. This is a reference to "The Day the Earth Stood Stupid" and "The Why of Fry", in which Fry saves the world and the universe, respectively.

Goofs

 * Fry's alarm clock reads "09:01" thirty seconds after turning to nine o'clock.
 * This may be due to the fact that the clock is part of a dream.
 * The design of the radio-cranial dream injector in the second act is different from the design of the radio-cranial dream injector in the first and third acts. The animatic version of the design, however, is the same.
 * Fry laments that he didn't get to say goodbye to his parents, but in "Space Pilot 3000", he seems thrilled at the notion all the people he ever knew were dead.
 * His feelings may have changed as time went by.
 * If Digby knew the ship was on Earth, why not got there first, rather than trying random planets for a thousand years?

Characters

 * 20th-century kid
 * Amy
 * Bender
 * Charles Constantine
 * Debut: Digby
 * Donkey Kong
 * Fry
 * Glagnar
 * Hermes
 * Last clone of Agnew
 * Leela
 * Michelle
 * Mr. Panucci
 * Mrs. Fry
 * Nibbler
 * Noticeably F.A.T.
 * Professor Farnsworth
 * Randy Munchnik
 * Richard Nixon's head
 * Scruffy
 * Seymour Asses
 * Debut: Shazam
 * Yancy Fry Jr.
 * Yancy Fry Sr.
 * Zoidberg

Places

 * Apartment 00100100
 * Applied Cryogenics
 * Debut: Booby Tuesday's
 * Eiffel Tower
 * France
 * Fry's house
 * Debut: Fry's old apartment
 * Debut: Mount Shushmore
 * O'Grady's Pub
 * Panucci's Pizza
 * Paris
 * Planet Express conference room
 * Planet Express employee lounge
 * Planet Express lab
 * Debut: Planet Z-7
 * Robot Arms Apartments
 * Vergon 6

Miscellaneous

 * "Bender is great!" (in animatic only)
 * Charleston Chew
 * Cryo-tube
 * Debut: Digby's new spaceship
 * "Good news, everyone"
 * I. C. Wiener
 * Debut: Long-range scanner
 * Nibbler's shadow
 * Owls
 * Debut: Radio-cranial dream injector
 * "Walking on Sunshine"