Every Star Trek Reference In Futurama

24. Pike's Chair In A Clone Of My Own

Star Trek Futurama
Fox

In the episode A Clone of my Own, Professor Farnsworth becomes obsessed with his own mortality after his 150th birthday party and decides to name his successor at Planet Express. To the disappointment of the crew, this successor ends up being the Professor's clone, a 12-year-old version of himself named Cubert.

During the Professor's birthday party, the only living ex-crewmember of the Professor's is in attendance. He resembles Captain Pike from the two episodes The Menagerie Part I and The Menagerie Part II, complete with robotic wheelchair and beeping, which he uses to tell a joke 'beep'

The chair makes appearances in more than one episode of Futurama, but this is its introduction. In Star Trek, the chair is used by Pike, who has suffered horrific injury and is confined to the chair and beeping to communicate. The Menagerie has Pike and Spock tell the story of their journey to Talos IV before Kirk was captain.

The episode used footage from the pilot episode of Star Trek, which featured the Enterprise journeying to Talos IV and meeting the supremely powerful being who lived there. The episode was never aired, and Pike was replaced by Kirk for the actual run of the series.

Contributor

Consumer of visual media, attempted writer