One episode takes a page right out of Moby Dick where Leela is determined to deliver a package, even though the route will take the Planet Express crew straight through an unusual section of space where the company's first crew mysteriously disappeared. The allusions to Moby Dick aren't subtle by any means since the crew ends up being terrorized by a giant white space whale and that creature stands between Leela and the delivery.
In another episode, Fry gets fed up with being a delivery boy and joins the police force. Assigned to a special future-crimes prevention task force, this episode quickly slides into a parody of Minority Report as Fry sees images of himself killing Bender.
This volume also seems to do some character development on Zoidberg as there are a couple of episodes that focus on him. In one, we find out that he and Professor Farnsworth have known each other since a mission while the pair worked for Mom. During this mission, the entire crew came down with an illness, and there is a good chance that Farsworth will someday show symptoms. So, despite the doctor's general ineptitude when it comes to human physiology, the Professor has some very good reasons for keeping the lobster-like alien around. This long-term relationship comes up a couple of other times in the season, and at one point, we get to see Zoidberg stand up for himself when Clamps comes to Planet Express to replace Bender and seems to be trying to horn in on Zoidberg's cutting duties.
Another amusing episode has the crew being thrown back into the American Revolutionary period where it turns out a Farnsworth was a major traitor to the rebelling forces. Unfortunately for all, it seems they made a few more changes than they expected and when they return to the future, things are not quite the way they left them.
The last two episodes of the season, "Overclockwise" and "Reincarnation," are also amusing. In the first, Bender learns how to overclock his system and also add more processors to his CPU. As he gathers more and more hardware, he eventually becomes a god-like being who can predict the future. Too bad he isn't going to help the Professor or his clone, Cubert in their court proceedings for opening up the robot and voiding the warranty. One of the special features in Futurama: Volume 6 focuses on the development of one of the scenes in this episode. In it, you get to see everything from early ideas about the scene, to rough sketches, full animation and even how the sound effects get added.
The episode "Reincarnation" contains three segments, each done in a different animation style. The first hearks back to old black-and-white cartoons like "Steamboat Willie," while the second goes for an old-school videogame style reminecent of adventure and RPG type games from the early 1990's. The final segment goes anime and pokes quite a bit of fun at many of the types of shows seen in the art style, as well as some of the less-than-perfect animation that has been used in anime over the years. All around, its an amusing twist of an episode. This episode also gets a featurette, this time, on the idea behind and the production of "Reincarnation."
The remaining special features on Volume 6 include deleted scenes, commentaries and a Q&A with fan letters and many of the creators behind the series. As for the fact that the show is on Blu-ray, there is a definite level of clarity from the cartoon that simply wouldn't be possible on the lower-end media.
Any fan of the show would find these 13 episodes to be a good addition to their collection, and I would highly recommend this volume to even the more casual viewers of Futurama, even if it is just a rental.
