When Aliens Attack 2011

In this episode’s opening, the year is 1999 and Fry is delivering a pizza to the control booth of WNYW, New York’s Fox flagship station. A spill—beer, or perhaps soda per later in-universe notes—on the console interrupts a broadcast of a spoof episode, and Fry nonchalantly mutters, “Like anyone on Earth cares.” The camera then pulls back from the chaotic broadcast tower, drifts through space, and settles on Omicron Persei 8, a distant world a thousand light-years away and a thousand years in the future. The Omicronians, frustrated by missing their target, unleash an invasion fleet in response to the interrupted transmission.

Jumping forward to the year 3000, the Planet Express crew, off duty, heads to Monument Beach for Labor Day—a place where, in this era, most of the world’s monuments stand because of the rule of New New York’s infamous supervillain governor. But the invasion continues to advance, and the Omicronians systematically destroy the monuments one by one. Their leader, Lrrr, makes an explosive demand: they want “the one called McNeal.” When President McNeal orders Zapp Brannigan to mount a counterattack, the human fleet suffers devastating losses, culminating in the destruction of the Hubble Space Telescope. Earth’s forces are overwhelmed by the invaders’ superior technology, and the government ultimately hands over President McNeal.

Lrrr reveals the grim twist: the McNeal they want is not who they thought, and he vaporizes the real McNeal. Instead, the invaders flash a photo of Jenny McNeal, the title character from a long-lost television show, Single Female Lawyer, declaring that they demand the broadcast of that show or Earth will be destroyed. With most videotapes already destroyed in the 25th century, the Planet Express crew races to fake the series in order to save the planet.

Fry’s script for the episode falls short, as he estimates it would take an hour to perform what he wrote in an hour. Leela steps in as Jenny and improvises a scenario, even proposing marriage to the judge—portrayed by Professor Farnsworth—during a crucial moment. Between commercial breaks, Fry confesses that audiences prefer familiar structures and clear endings over clever twists, a sentiment echoed by Lrrr, who publically backs Fry’s viewpoint. The improvisation persists as Fry crafts an ending in which Farnsworth dies, thereby leaving Jenny McNeal a single female lawyer once again. The Omicronians, satisfied with this resolution, decide the episode is good enough to spare Earth, but not good enough to grant humanity immortality. Fry even blames the misstep on Zoidberg’s overacting.

As the plan completes, the aliens depart Earth to watch a 1,000-year-old Jay Leno monologue. Fry reflects on the craft of television, declaring that the secret of a successful series lies in everything returning to normal by the episode’s end. The curtain closes with a stark image: New New York burning, even as the world pauses to resume its ordinary rhythm. The episode ends on a note that mixes humor with the consequences of an interstellar demand for entertainment, reminding viewers that, in the end, the status quo is the world’s most reliable constant. >“the secret to a successful television series is that everything ends up back to normal at the end of each episode.”