A Clockwork Origin

Professor Farnsworth finds himself arguing with Dr. Banjo, a hyper-intelligent orangutan who believes in "Creaturism", a form of creationism. In an attempt to prove evolution did occur, the Professor excavates the lost missing link, which Dr. Banjo depicts as Homo farnsworth anachronistically riding a Stegosaurus in an attempt to support his Creaturist beliefs. The Professor becomes fed up and resolves to leave Earth. He takes the rest of the crew with him to an abandoned planet to live in solitude.

After Professor inserts nanobots into the nearby pond to clean the water, the nanobots evolve rapidly into flora and fauna. Robotic versions of an Elasmosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex attack the crew, but a solar flare short circuits the dinosaur robots, causing a mass extinction of every robot creature except for "small mammalian robots" that were hiding in caves, including Bender.

The next day, the crew wakes up to find both Leela and Amy kidnapped by caveman-like robots, but the following day, they find that Leela and Amy are free, because the robot cavemen have since evolved into a completely civilized, modern robot society. The Professor states that he is proud of the nanobots' growth after he dumped their ancestors in a pond a few days ago. The robots, who believe unquestioningly in robot evolution, are angered by Farnsworth, when he shows a picture of a robot (Bender) riding a robotic Stegosaurus at the start of their creation. Bender represents him in court and in his arguments, states that the Professor is not arguing against evolution, but only claims a small role in beginning it by providing the materials necessary (the nanobots). He also tries to declare the Professor insane.

The following day, the robots have now evolved into a state of incorporeal transcendent higher consciousness. They are no longer concerned with the Professor any more, finding corporeal beings altogether irrelevant, and sends the crew home. The Professor and Dr. Banjo reconcile their differences. Dr. Banjo argues that what the Professor witnessed was evolution, but evolution set in motion by an intelligent creator. The Professor agrees that it is possible, however unlikely that Earth evolution was set in motion the same way.

The title are references to the books A Clockwork Orange and On the Origin of Species. It could also be considered a reference to William Paley's Watchmaker analogy, a teleological argument found in his work Natural Theology. The episode includes several cultural references related to depictions of evolutionary history and the debate between evolution and creationism. The crew's encounters with the robotic dinosaurs and Amy's two-piece cavewoman outfit are parodies of the 1940 fantasy film, One Million B.C.[1] The trial held in the episode also parodies the Scopes Monkey Trial.[1] During the anti-evolution rally, a Flying Spaghetti Monster—a satirical symbol [2][3][4]—appears, arguing against evolution.[5]

"A Clockwork Origin" originally aired August 12, 2010 on Comedy Central.[6] In its original American broadcast, "A Clockwork Origin" was viewed by an estimated 1.926 million viewers with a 1.3 rating/2% share in the Nielsen ratings and a 1.0 rating/3% share in the 18-49 demographic, nearly identical to the previous week's episode, "The Late Philip J. Fry".[6]

The episode received mixed to positive reviews from critics.[1][5][7] Merrill Barr of Film School Rejects gave the episode a mixed review, calling it "[a] 50/50 episode of Futurama."[7] He stated, "There were parts I loved, and parts I hated. That is all."[7] He also criticized the Zoidberg and Cubert subplot saying, "while on his own Cubert is a funny character, paring [sic] him with a character like Zoidberg is a bad idea."[7] Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, saying, "It mostly worked, but I was mildly disappointed by the end, because I keep waiting for the episode to move from good to great."[5] Sean Gandert of Paste gave the episode a score of 7.9/10, writing "'A Clockwork Origin' was still a good, fun episode, but was a more disposable piece of entertainment than the show can be at its absolute best."[8]

Robert Canning of IGN gave the episode a strong, positive review, rating it a 9.0/10.[9] Canning praised the episode's pacing as the season's best describing "A Clockwork Origin" as "a very funny, very solid episode."[9] Danny Gallagher of TV Squad gave the episode a positive review as well, saying "It's far from the best episode of the season, but that's still saying a lot for a show that has managed to find new ways to stay fresh while it's been in the can for so long."[1] He also called the robot dinosaur world a perfect parody of One Million B.C..[1]

• Ascension
• Grey goo
• Technological singularity

• "A Clockwork Origin" at the Infosphere, the Futurama Wiki.
• "A Clockwork Origin" at IMDb
• "A Clockwork Origin" at TV.com
• "A Clockwork Origin" at MSN