History Recap / FuturamaS7E23GameOfTones

** The plot of an alien ship causing massive destruction via attempts to communicate, and the protagonists needing to save Earth by discovering how to answer said communication attempts, is taken near-directly from ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''.

''If unable to see this message, turn on Futurama now.''

* ActorAllusion: At one point, the usually-normal dog Seymour sits upright and asks Fry if he's lost weight. Creator/SethMacFarlane voiced Seymour, referencing his role as anthromorphic dog Brian Griffin in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.

* DudeWheresOurCar: This turns out to be the basis for the events entire episode. Having successfully completed their mission to get Fry into his cryogenic tube in 1999, Digby and Nibbler go off to celebrate by drinking on New Year's Eve. They get drunk and drop the keys to their spaceship down a storm drain, forcing them to take a taxi back to Vergon 6. Digby then spent the next thousand or so years traveling from planet to planet with a spare set of keys, trying to track down the lost spaceship by pressing the key fob, which is the source of the sound threatening to tear the Earth apart.

* DudeWheresOurCar: This turns out to be the basis for the events entire episode. Having successfully completed their mission to get Fry into his cryogenic tube in 1999, Digby and Nibbler go off to celebrate by drinking on New Year's Eve. They get drunk and drop the keys to their spaceship down a storm drain, forcing them to take a taxi back to Vergon 6. Digby then spent the next thousand or so years trying to track down the lost spaceship with a spare set of keys.

* DudeWheresOurCar: This turns out to be the basis for the plot of the entire episode. Having successfully completed their mission to get Fry into his cryogenic tube in 1999, Digby and Nibbler go off to celebrate by drinking on New Year's Eve. They get drunk and drop the keys to their spaceship down a storm drain, forcing them to take a taxi back to Vergon 6. Digby then spent the next thousand or so years trying to track down the lost spaceship with a spare set of keys.

* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: Digby, for some reason, doesn't notice that the tone he's broadcasting is destroying the Earth, and already has destroyed several other worlds. As a bonus, the tone in question either originates from or is an amplified version of the one produced by the key fob for the spaceship he and Nibbler used to travel to Earth in 1999 that he's been trying to find for the past 1000+ years ever since they lost track of it after getting drunk on the New Year's Eve, dropping the original keys down a storm drain and having to take a taxi to Vergon 6.

A mysterious alien ship broadcasts four musical tones, which eventually becomes dangerous. Only Fry vaguely recognizes the melody, and Professor Farnsworth discovers the memory of the melody stems from Dcember 31, 1999, so now Fry must get transported to a dream of his memories of that day.

** Digby, Nibbler’s aide, might be a very obscure (to a US audience, at least) reference to ''ComicStrip/DanDare'', where the hero’s batman was called...Digby.

* ShoutOut: The plot of an alien ship causing massive destruction via attempts to communicate, and the protagonists needing to save Earth by discovering how to answer said communication attempts, is taken near-directly from ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome''.

* WhiteVoidRoom: Whenever Fry tries to enter a room he was never in.

* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: Digby, for some reason, doesn't notice that the tone he's broadcasting is destroying the Earth, and already has destroyed several other worlds. As a bonus, the tone in question either originates from or is an amplified version of the one produced by the key fob for the spaceship he and Nibbler used to travel to Earth in 1999 that he's been trying to find for the past 1000+ years ever since they lost track of it after getting drunk on the New Year's Eve and having to take a taxi.

* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: Digby, for some reason, doesn't notice that the tone he's broadcasting is destroying the Earth, and already has destroyed several other worlds.

* HypocriticalHumor: Hermes tells off Zoidberg, Amy, and Bender for getting [[DeliciousDistraction distracted by the Fry family's dinner]], only to get distracted himself when he sees they have manwiches.

* NoSympathy: Due to the immediate danger, no one is considerate of Fry's desire to see his family one last time, even if it was in his memory. [[spoiler:Except Nibbler]].

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: If Nibbler and Digby hadn't gotten drunk, they wouldn't have lost track of their ship. If Nibbler had remembered that they'd lost their ship, the plot would've been resolved in minutes.

* MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: Digby, for some reason, doesn't notice that the tone he's broadcasting is destroying the Earth.

* DepthDeception: The alien ship in the opening.

* SequelEpisode: To "The Why of Fry"

* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: Fry, and the rest of the Planet Express crew journey to Fry's dream of Dcember 31, 1999, in order to find out what the alien melody is.

A mysterious alien ship broadcasts four musical tones, turning from an annoyance to structural damage. Only Fry vaguely recognizes the melody, and Professor Farnsworth discovers the memory of the melody stems from Dcember 31, 1999, so now Fry must get transported to a dream of his memories of that day.