| "Legion" | |
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| Red Dwarf episode | |
| Episode no. | Series 6 Episode 2 |
| Directed by | Andy de Emmony |
| Written by | Rob Grant & Doug Naylor |
| Original air date | 14 October 1993 |
| Guest stars | |
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Nigel Williams |
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| Series 6 episodes | |
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| List of all Red Dwarf episodes | |
"Legion" is the second episode of science fiction sit-com Red Dwarf Series VI[1] and the 32nd in the series run.[2] It was first broadcast on British television on 14 October 1993.[3] Written by Rob Grant & Doug Naylor and directed by Andy de Emmony.
Contents |
Starbug is now twenty-four hours behind Red Dwarf and is losing ground on the larger ship. The piloting of Starbug is now a long-term menial task which is carried out by using shift changes. Food and water supplies are running low, so much so that water is recycled and Lister is served space weevil for dinner.
They are distracted when a tractor beam locks onto them and pulls them into an apparently deserted space station. They decide to explore the station for supplies when they meet a being called Legion. He proves his good faith (and incredible technology) by converting Rimmer from a "soft light" to a "hard light" hologram (thus making him able to touch and feel), as well as by performing an instantaneous emergency appendectomy on Lister. The crew invites him to join them, but Legion insists that they stay with him. They are shown their ideal bedrooms with the entire room stocked with their own unique personal tastes and requirements.
Kryten states that despite the pleasantness and charm of their host, they are still prisoners, and continue to lose ground on Red Dwarf. Following Lister's advice, they attempt to escape using a method from the film "Attack of the Surfboarding Killer Bikini Vampire Girls". When they confront Legion and the plan fails dramatically, they discover that he is a gestalt entity - a combination of all active minds present on the station, melded together to form one. The space station used to be occupied by a group of scientists who created Legion, but all have perished from old age. Without conscious minds, Legion is a mindless, formless entity. Kryten discovers a solution by knocking out the rest of the Red Dwarf crew, reducing Legion to purely Kryten's persona. Legion claims a stalemate, but Kryten reminds him that he now shares the android's overriding servitude to the needs of his companions, with nothing else to dilute it. As he is forced to help the crew safely leave the station, Legion admits relief that he will no longer be sharing their assorted neuroses. Kryten then asks if Legion ever developed anything that could help with the pursuit of Red Dwarf.
Later, aboard Starbug, Kryten installs an experimental stardrive engine provided by Legion that should allow Starbug to catch up with Red Dwarf in mere nanoseconds. However the rest of the crew doubt it'll work, knowing their luck with such things. Kryten tells the crew that the events of the past couple of days prove that 'the whole is great than the sum of its parts', and forces them all to voice their belief that the stardrive will work. Once activated, the engine crashes through the wall and shoots out into space on its own, leaving the crew struggling against decompression. Kryten notes that, despite this, the stardrive did technically work.
The working title for the episode was "Call Me Legion", and later shortened to "Legion".[4] This episode introduces the hologram Hardlight - an indestructible physical form which Rimmer could form into. It was becoming tiresome for the writers that Rimmer couldn't touch anything, so it was retained for the remainder of the series.[5]
Nigel Williams played the character of Legion, whose costume was so tight he had to be sewn into it. Once he was in it he had to stay in it until the shoot was finished.[6]
The episode title and certain dialogue reference Mark 5:9, wherein Jesus confronts a possessed man: "My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."[7]
The "Ionian Nerve Grip" which Kryten pretends to use on Rimmer is patterned after the famous Vulcan nerve pinch from Star Trek.
Legion tells Rimmer that the hard light bee is practically indestructible. In season 7's "Stoke Me a Clipper", Ace Rimmer reveals he is a hard-light hologram and that his light-beam had been hit, after he was shot. However, this could be explained that it was a lucky shot that hit Ace Rimmer's light beam, as the light bee whizzes around inside a hologram projecting its image, and the force of the gunshot could have penetrated the hard light form.
There is no explanation as to why Rimmer is a soft-light hologram in the next episode (Gunmen of the Apocalypse) and is transformed into his hard-light state. Would they not have kept Rimmer as a hard-light hologram after Legion? He is also shown briefly as a soft-light hologram in "Out of Time" in the later part of the season, with no explanation.
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