Career Chips: Trackers of the Future?

Welcome back, Fanaticals! Today, I want to dive into some conflicting scenes, and the theory that comes from the conflict. It's an interesting discrepancy that probably only the biggest of Futurama fans would notice without much thought. As it is, I was.... Let's say not entirely sober when I noticed this. 😅 However, once I noticed it, I started thinking about the possibilities as to WHY it was written that way; despite the fact that there is still one question in it unanswered. Let's take a look!

I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the fact that Fry is clearly a total nerd. All the call backs that the creators did to things like D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek... They make up some of the best scenes and episodes in my opinion. My favourite part was the line "Star Wars Trek" when discussing the "Star Trek Wars" and I just can't help my giggles every time that episode comes up. However, it's actually that specific episode that has part of our discrepancy today.

Star Trek Forbidden?

Season 4 holds one of the funniest episodes of the series, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". In the opening scene, we see Fry mention Star Trek, and alarms begin going off. During the episode, it talks about how the Star Trek Wars became an issue, and Star Trek was banned. However, we have to ask the question: is it really forbidden?

During the pilot episode, Fry goes into the Head Museum and when he sees Leonard Nimoy he immediately says "Spock!" Then he asks him to "do the thing", aka the Vulcan hand symbol. All Leonard does is chuckle and state he doesn't do that anymore. Yet when he rushes in during Season 4, Leonard is doing everything he can to avoid mentioning Star Trek.

According to the timeline, Star Trek was banned several hundred years before; Leonard even states that his fellow castmates left "300 years ago" prior to the moment they were talking. This has the combination question of did the creators forget the scene in the pilot, or is there a bigger reason for it not being mentioned in the pilot?

Career Chips are Trackers

With the questions left behind due to the episode mentioned above, a theory pops up connecting the "ban" and career chips: are the career chips trackers? Leela and the others from the Cryo Lab make it seem vitally important that every single person much have a career chip.

Fry does not have one when he sees Leonard in the Head Museum the first time, which could potentially explain why the alarms never went off when he spoke about Star Trek. The only question in this would be the difference in Leonard's reaction to the subject of Star Trek in both episodes.

However, when you think about it, this theory makes a lot of sense. If you cut out Leonard's two different reactions, it could make it entirely plausible that once someone has a career chip, it's easier to track if they say something that has been deemed "forbidden". Not to mention, Mom has her own monopoly on things (such as the new EyePhone which was able to turn the city into mindless zombies), it almost makes sense that they would have something to be able to track everyone and everything.

Are the career chips the Futurama version of people's conspiracy that the government will find ways to track us 24/7? Was Star Trek really banned? Or did the creators forget that they had referenced it already? What do you think about these theories? Come join our community and swap ideas! Tune in tomorrow as we take a look into the alien species of the show.