Futurama: Volume 4

For fans of this science fiction series created by Matt Groening, this is the final chapter for a show that never found a large enough audience to survive, which is puzzling considering The Simpsons seem to have no end in sight. Fry, Bender and Leela make their untimely exit with a strong gathering of episodes, which includes a fantastic plot in which Professor Farnsworth accidentally creates a parallel universe within a cardboard box. In This alternate dimension life decisions are made with a flip of a coin but each toss results in opposite outcomes, creating a world where Bender has a gold finish and Fry and Leela are married. This episode, as well as numerous others, shows that the possibilities for plotlines were endless, as there was nothing too weird or impossible in the 30th century. The most fitting episode on this series send-off edition features sees the entire original cast of Star Trek lending their voices, basically showing that the two shows share the same curse of being cancelled prematurely. Hopefully Futurama will share the same legacy as Trek's campy live-action space travels. This final DVD offers the same extras found in previous episodes, including full-length commentary on each episode, which includes Dan Castellaneta, who provided the voice of the Robot Devil. Each audio track is insightful, full of nerdish references to old science fiction films and obscure television shows. However, the final episode is a rather lacklustre affair. Split-second deleted scenes, storyboards and animatics round out the usual suspects of DVD extras, but for the final instalment it would have been nice to have seen some kind of "behind the scenes" look at a show that was just too clever for network television. Plus: international clip, still gallery, how to draw characters. (Fox)