Game of Tones
| "Game of Tones" | |
|---|---|
| Futurama episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 7 Episode 23 |
| Directed by | Edmund Fong |
| Written by | Michael Rowe |
| Production code | 7ACV23 |
| Original air date | August 14, 2013 |
| Opening caption | "If Unable To See This Message, Turn On "Futurama" Now" |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
|
Seth MacFarlane as Seymour in a fantasy sequence |
|
Seth MacFarlane as Seymour in a fantasy sequence
"Game of Tones" is the twenty-third episode of the seventh season of the animated sitcom Futurama. It originally aired on Comedy Central on August 14, 2013. The episode was written by Michael Rowe and directed by Edmund Fong. The Planet Express crew enter Fry's dreams and find themselves back in the year 1999 in search of a mysterious alien song.
The title is a spoof of Game of Thrones, while the episode as a whole makes many references to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Earth is slowly approached by a mysterious alien ship that repeatedly broadcasts four loud musical tones, which can be heard by everyone on the planet. At first, the music is merely an annoyance, but as the ship draws nearer, the booming tones begin to cause structural damage, and will eventually grow so loud that the vibrations will literally shake the planet apart. No one has any idea what the ship is trying to communicate; only Fry seems to recognize the alien melody, but his memory of hearing it is so vague that he cannot place it.
Seeing that it is crucial for Fry to recover his memory of the melody, Farnsworth scans Fry's brain, finding that Fry's memory of the music originates from December 31, 1999, the night he was cryogenically frozen. While the alien ship is still two weeks away from Earth, Farnsworth connects Fry to one of his machines and sedates him, transporting Fry in a kind of dream state to the world of his memories of that day. The crew are able to view Fry's experience on a TV monitor, and even communicate with Fry with microphones. After exploring his neighborhood and retracing his steps for a very short time, he accidentally wakes up, only to find that he has been asleep for almost two weeks. The alien ship is now so close that major earthquakes occur every time the tones are played.
After complaining that he doesn't want to go back, remembering what a bad day it had been for him, mentioning in particular "hanging out with my crazy family", Fry returns to the dream state. As he arrives at the family home, he laments, "There's not one thing about this place that I missed." Just then Seymour runs up to greet Fry. As Fry muses on his feelings for Seymour, he thinks about his family, and realizes that perhaps he does miss them after all. In spite of Farnsworth's protests, Fry re-engages with his family, savoring the experience. He realizes that he needs closure, especially with his mother, but his fellow crewmembers begin to arrive in his dream, interrupting. Eventually they drag him out of the house, insisting that he continue his mission. Making a final effort to escape them, he runs back inside, but his people are gone; a quirk of this dream state has eliminated them.
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