14 Great Futurama Characters In Only One Episode
5. The Thubanian Leader (That Darn Katz! - Season 6, Episode 8)
Everyone knows of the typical villain in which they always stroke a white, sinister cat in their laps whilst monologing to their nemesis. But Futurama puts a little twist on this stereotype.
In the episode “That Darn Katz!”, Amy is ready to defend her doctoral dissertation in applied physics but decides to have a few drinks the night before to relax her mind. Leela’s pet Nibbler also comes out as the fully articulate, intelligent being he is and would stay that way for all future episodes.
Amy’s late night causes her to feel flustered when giving her presentation the next day on Mars. She is met with a harsh judging panel, including Professor Morris Katz who happens to bring his own cat with him. He’s a pompous, smug, rude lecturer who allows his pet to ruin Amy’s proposal because she is allergic to cats and can't concerntrate.
The professor’s cat follows them back to Earth and entices each crew member with his ‘adorableness’. The Planet Express team become so stupidly distracted by the charms of the cat, apart from Amy and Nibbler who are suspicious of his presence. When observing his behaviour, they’ve found he’s hypnotised Leela and also summoned a space ship.
Amy and Nibbler go to investigate further by visiting Professor Morris. Nibbler makes the discovery that he is just a string operated puppet, designed for use by a cat, meaning it was the intelligent pet cat himself who rejected Amy’s doctorate. The Thubanian Leader is smart, evil ruler who came to earth because his home planet, Thuban 9, began to lose its rotation and was starting to deteriorate. Katz manipulated the Planet Express crew in order to build a technology that would continue his home world’s rotation whilst stopping Earth’s, causing impending doom for all its inhabitants.
Amy suggests that the Earth’s rotation could still be moved if it was in the opposite direction. Her plan works and in recognition of her smart idea, Amy receives her doctorate in applied physics and the evil wrath of Katz is never heard of again.