Legion is less than the sum of its parts. But some of those parts are really, really funny.
PLOT
The crew are captured by a gestalt entity composed of their own minds, who wishes to trap them eternally so that it might continue existing.
ANALYSIS
It's the most basic Red Dwarf episode ever. 'Crew meets obstacle, crew finds a way around obstacle, lots of amusing yet barely connected skits along the way'. I mean, is it a laugh when the crew struggle with "Mamosian anti-matter chopsticks"? Yeah. Would it really make any sense for Legion to set up this overcomplicated dinner? Not really, unless we headcanon that the Rimmer side of his personality wants to troll them or something. Legion in general is kind of an odd figure. He's supposedly a composite of the entire crew, yet his calm, cultured demeanour is uncharacteristic of all of them. He claims to be capable of "insane and irrational behaviour", but not once do we see Rimmer's neuroses, or Kryten's need to clean, or Lister's slobbishness or the Cat's vanity. Anything that actually distinguishes the identities of the crew. In fact, Legion seems to be his own man until the plot requires for him to suddenly become Kryten's exact duplicate when everyone else have been rendered unconscious (so the crew could escape). The rest of the time, Legion has this Stephen Fry-esque personality that exists purely to facilitate various jokes, whether it be the ruined dinner, Kryten's attempts at knocking everyone out or Rimmer's obsequiousness. And again, it's not like any of them are bad jokes, but nothing comes together into a very coherent whole is what I'm saying. Even if we ignore Legion not being a gestalt of the crew, he's barely any sort of threat. The only worth he brings is in the actor's admittedly massive charisma. So the whole episode feels like a bit of an inconvenience the crew have to navigate around. The writers might have been better off just sending them back in time to a posh French court or something.
It's also more than a little baffling that they don't stay in Legion's comfortable space station. The only justification we're ever given is from Lister, who argues that as Legion's prisoners, they don't have the oppurtunity to meet other people. What other people?? Humanity is gone, and they themselves point out that anyone they've ever encountered in space has been a maniac. The crew would undeniably be safer with Legion (who is surrounded by advanced scientific research and technology, and still maintains some understanding of it) than on crappy old Red Dwarf. Given that they obviously have no intention of returning into stasis for a trip back to Earth, what life do they think could be better than the one Legion offers them? Heck, maybe with his knowledge, they could even find a way to get Kochanski back. There really is no practical reason to leave anytime soon. The only truly valid excuse I can think of is that Lister and Rimmer are attached to the only surviving remnant of their old lives, which is fair enough, but that point is never raised in the episode itself.
Ultimately, Legion is a good time as a series of Red Dwarf skits, but there's not a lot of substance to be found.
CHARACTERS
Rimmer finally receives a 'hard light' upgrade, enabling him to touch and feel. Which is a development I'm mixed on. I think the show drew a lot of pathos from his status as a dead man in series 1 and 2. Even in some of the later episodes, there's a quiet tragedy to him. I'm no fan of Bodyswap, but Rimmer's obsession with regaining tactile sensations is worth talking about. It's difficult to imagine the sensory deprivation hell he's living in. I also liked that he used to be somewhat limited in where he can go, like when they hold a deathday party for him on the moon in Thanks for the Memory and he can only attend inside a cage. Details like that add a lot of weight and reality and dark humour (perhaps the best word would be 'texture') to a series. So removing that aspect of Rimmer feels like an admission that they've run out of ideas. On the other hand, Rimmer is so proactive in causing trouble that it probably is far easier to facilitate some great gags if he can just do things without help. The idea of a weightless, touchless Rimmer might be funnier on page than it is onscreen.
It was great fun seeing him try to impress Legion. Definitely more in Barrie's wheelhouse than sitting on the flight deck shouting space directives. They even wheeled out the classic "m'laddo!' for the occasion, a personal favourite of mine. And 'L'gion' surely deserves a place in the pantheon of wonderful Rimmerisms as well.
Robert Llewelyn does such a great job of playing it cool as ice. The confrontation between Kryten and Legion (when they're both played by Llewelyn) is one of my favourite parts of the episode because of this. "Stalemate." "Not so." Both of them are a step way from stroking white cats as they speak, mr Bond.
NOTES
- As I understand it, Series 6 was filmed after Grant Naylor made their attempt to kickstart an American spin-off. And while this ended in failure, they did return from the country inspired to introduce certain American sitcom concepts into Red Dwarf. Primarily oneliners and constantly recurring gags. This is all too apparent in Legion, which features two Cat oneliners about being 'deader than insert-fashion-article-here', three jokes about Kryten's head shape, a Space Corps directive, grit on the radar screen being confused for something serious (from Marooned) and a reference to Rimmer's inflatable sex doll that only makes sense if you've seen Timeslides (three seasons ago!). Among others.
- Despite frequent criticism of these recurring jokes, the audience reactions seem to imply they were quite popular. They were howling with laughter during the latest Space Corps directive.
- I really liked the casual atmosphere from Psirens carrying over to the first half of this. Getting to see the crew on their new style of downtime in Starbug, with shifting rotations and a dismal pantry situation.
- Danny John-Jules is slathered in makeup for some reason.
- Kryten slicing Lister's carrot into a flower shape... bless him.
- Lister's accent is suddenly a lot heavier, with him using "me" instead of "my" and also the phrase "Let's flag down a black cab and head for Real Street here. This johnny won't come with us."
- The bit where Lister and Rimmer politely push each other to take the first bite using the anti-matter chopsticks was a great reminder of how wonderful Barrie and Charles can be on their own. They really are the heart of the show, and it's been a good while since we've had some great one-on-one scenes with them.
- Why does Legion's outfit convert into Kryten's?
- When did Lister start wearing longjohns? He doesn't seem like the type.
- The stardrive gag where Starbug is exposed to space and everyone's flying around is exquisite, but Chris is not trying as much as the others and it breaks the scene a little.
- Lister mentions that he went to art college, which he told Rimmer in Kryten.
- Rimmer re-affirms his belief in reincarnation, established in Marooned.
- Rimmer says that the crew have encountered 31 individuals in space who wished them harm, which corresponds with Legion being the 32nd episode of the show but certainly not with the actual number of harmful individuals they met. That number is debatable, given that some are hallucinations or monsters or video game programs or only relatively harmful or groups.
- Specifically mentioned are people who wanted to suck out the crew's brains (in Psirens) and people who wanted to erase them from history altogether (The Inquisitor).
- Rimmer mentions that Legion's quarters for him included his nocturnal sleeping gloves, a subtle callback to Timeslides.
RIMMER: "Hmm. Marvellous. Now this three-dimensional sculpture in particular is quite exquisite. Its simplicity, its bold, stark lines... pray, what do you call it?"
LEGION: "The... light switch."
RIMMER: "The light switch."
LEGION: "Yes."
RIMMER: "I couldn't buy it, then?"
LEGION: "Not really... I need it to turn the lights on and off."
SMEG OFF!
CAT: "Ah, the entire panel's deader than A-line flares with pockets in the knees!"
CONCLUSION
I feel like it could have taken better advantage of its gestalt entity premise, but what we got was good enough for a 25-minute romp.
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