I was rather taken be Legends of Tomorrow’s debut, and as any anyone that read that review will know, I wasn’t shy about expressing it. Yet for all the flash, my favourite moment of the episode was the brilliant twist reveal on the title. That despite everything we’ve been led to believe by the promo footage, our superheroes were not the legends they were made out to be. In fact, Rip Hunter chose them because of their minimal impact on the timeline (so if they get killed, no real loss). Suddenly, this flips the entire audience perspective. Instead of a bunch of Earth’s finest heroes, we have a gang of time-travelling Goonies as loveable underdogs rather over-hyped champions. It is the perfect way to subvert audience expectations and makes even the smaller victories more meaningful. The concluding pilot part only serves to compound that as this by showing how well the team can function as an ensemble cast.
Pilot, Part 2 – Using the professor’s journal, the team tracks Vandal Savage’s 1975 location to Norway but by miss-placing a piece of future tech they make things even worse for themselves. Getting the tech back requires the expertise of a 25 year-old Martin Stein, who is not exactly what the team imagined.
Now, the clear MVP of Tomorrow in part one was Auther Darvil’s Rip Hunter, but in this episode, he takes much more of a back seat, allowing the rest of the team to take the spotlight and develop themselves both as individuals and a unit. It’s the variety of the bunch that really stands out. The opening pre-title ten minutes develop into a super powered showcase of a fight. The scale is immediately clear, being bigger and flashier than anything we’ve seen on Arrow or Flash, but director Glen Winter shows a clear understanding all he has at his disposal. The sequence is epic! From the swirling camera pans around a staff twirling White Canary, to the lengthy horizontal tracking shots of ATOM or Firestorm in flight, the constant switching between the team ranks keeps everything flowing and energized. Yet this versatility does not begin and end in the fight sequences as they all get their moments to shine throughout. The early location of a terrorist arms auction sees Captain Cold get to play arch villain. The Hawkman/Hawkgirl relationship gets explored further as Kendra lays down the law that a few millennia of pre-destiny and reincarnation does not equal consent. Though, the real fun with strong and defined archetypes is not just playing to their known strengths making enjoyable out of character ventures as the contrast is so easily relatable. This unexpectedly sees Martin Stein becoming the comedic highlight of the entire episode. From his brilliant early bout of being a tough guy villain to his reactions and disbelief when being confronted with the aspects of his younger self he’d clearly forgotten. It’s a great play on idea of forgotten youth and the dialogue gets outstanding, especially when the accompanying likes of Jax and Sara start enjoying his discomfort, “When I get back stop flirting with me!”.
The episode also does a lot of groundwork to embed its time travel physics (always a wise move) but particularly succeeds in doing so as part of the episode story rather than a set “explainer section”. The notion of time-travelling “do overs” is dispelled by confirming that they cannot change/repeat events they have already participated in. This raises the dramatic stakes by keeping everything a one shot situation. This is a break from the existing Flash time travel lore in rich Barry has twice repeated a day but that could well be dependant on the speed force. Speaking of the Flash, Scarlet speedster fans will recognize the idea of the ship's futuristic computer, Gideon, being unable to compute and relate the impact of any timeline changes from Harrison wells in Season 1, “Gideon, show me the future”. While this could be seen as a bit of a timey whimey stretch, it is actually, as demonstrated this episode, a very efficient plot device. Rather than doing a Back to the Future Part 2 and not knowing they’ve screwed up until they get home, such immediate awareness saves endless episode time wasting trips back and forth, and allows the team to try and fix their mistakes. It’s a classic model of cause and effect utilized well in how the smallest detail can result in the biggest change. It also creates some good conflict within the group as Rip raps them for their blunders. The personal risk of time travel also gets a look in (and continues the Back to the Future homage) as Martin Stein unwillingly pulls a Marty McFly on his family future. However, despite playing heavily on the consequences of meddling and intervention, Rip Hunter’s final scenes help pull things back to the lighter tone of the show. While Rip berates the team for their actions, there is the clear implications that he’s made just as many historical screw-ups through his tenure as a Time Master, “One thing that time travel teaches you is that time changes”. This circles back nicely to the show’s premise which despite noble intentions, is to change history, so the series must show itself as more neutral good than lawful.
This double episode pilot concludes itself satisfyingly in what could easily have been a TV movie rather than the start of the series. Hopefully, like last autumn’s Doctor Who, we’ll see plenty of multi-part episodes throughout the season. It had the odd off moment like Firestorm rescuing the captured team members proving a bit too easy, but nothing that really spoiled anything. Legends continues to show to playfully show it’s Flarrow-verse links with a great swing by from Damien Darhk dressed a little like Doctor Evil (remember has his own stash of Lazarus pit water to vastly extend his life). After its impressive start, Legends also proves capable of finishing a story. Roll on the rest of the season.