The season starts off with the company getting a new drink dispenser robot named Bev (Wanda Sykes). What starts off as a rivalry between Bev and Bender becomes a short and destructive romance where Bender becomes a father. In a strange twist of events, Bev leaves and Bender is left raising the young robot on his own. This episode finally shows how viewers where baby robots come from. Let's just say, Bender makes a rather unconventional father.
This volume also pokes fun at the Mayan Apocalypse when ancient Martian ruins are uncovered claiming the Earth will be destroyed in the year 3012. There is also a bit of obvious political commentary this time around as another election year makes its presence known when Nixon's head faces off against a young senator who seems to be a truly honest candidate.
This collection of episodes also introduces us to the Professor's parents as the crew travels to the Near-Death Star because Fry wishes he had more relatives. Meanwhile, Hermes decides to start replacing his human attributes with various robotic replacements. At first, it's a few simple enhancements like a harpoon launcher in his chest, but before too long, his only human element is his brain.
One of my favorite episodes in this collection was "Fun On a Bun" where the crew goes to Oktoberfest, only the experience isn't quite the celebration of drunkenness that Fry remembers. Instead, Oktoberfest is a prim and proper, low-key and sophisticated event. When Fry falls into a forgotten land inhabited by dinosaurs and neanderthals, he loses his memory and leads the cavemen in a revolt against the surface world.
There is a lot more; Bender joins a fox-hunt club, but ends up protesting for robot-rights; Leela and Amy join a roller-derby style sport, but instead of using roller skates, they fly around with butterfly wings. While they are all amusing, the collection wraps up with an odd episode featuring three short stories done in a nature show fashion. Each segment examines some Earth species with the various characters portraying different animals. In "Salmon," the main characters are fish being born, swimming out to sea and back to the stream they were born in for spawning. The second part, "The Pinta Island Tortoise" has most of the crew taking on the roles of finches, while the Professor is an ancient turtle trying to trek across the island to find his love, played by Mother. The last one follows a collection of elephant seals with Bender as the alpha male in control of the beach, while the other males keep lusting away after the females.
Futurama: Volume 7 comes with a few special features. One is a short featurette about Christopher Tyng, the composer for the series, while the others consist of some screen savers themed after the DVD's last episode and a collection of karaoke sing-alongs from some of the show's bigger musical numbers. This includes "Welcome to Robot Hell," and, a personal favorite, "Even If It's Not a Good Idea (The Bureaucrat Song)." Not a lot of extras this time around, but the episodes themselves should be worth the price of admission for Futurama fans, so what special features exist are bonus.
