Outside of science fiction, I do dip into a little sports geekery (not much!... I’m just a daywalker), especially over motor sports like Formula One, in which there is a general practice of “under-fuelling”. The teams actually start their cars without quite enough fuel to complete the driving at normal racing speed. This is to try and save time by gambling on occurrence of a safety car incident involving slower laps at less fuel consumption. A lot of TV shows do this as well by setting themselves a total that doesn’t quite cover, making every episode at their normal production value. This will often result in at least one cost-saving episode in a series. The classic option is a clip show: an episode comprising almost entirely existing footage requiring minimal new footage to be shot. Or the common approach is an setting an isolated story. Something takes place entirely within the common sets & locations of a show, requiring nothing new to be created and saving a lot of production costs (Doctor Who does this once a year without fail). It can result a poor episode but in the right hands can still be a triumph....as Legends has done this week as it turns a filler episode into a killer!
Marooned – The trail for Vandal Savage has gone cold but Rip Hunter believes a distress call from a Timemaster ship, The Acheron, may provide the new information they need. However, when boarding the ship, they discover it was a trap set for them by Time Pirates. Snart and Mick’s relationship gets pushed to breaking point while Stein gets to fulfil his childhood dream of being a space ranger.
For all intensive purposes, this is a cost-saving filler episode. It predominantly takes place on existing sets of the Wave Rider or the same locations re-dressed (and suing different lighting) to be the Acheron’s interiors. Director Greggory Smith is forced to work within these limitations but skilfully produces an episode that still feels like a proper adventure. Firstly, taking things into space immediately gives us something new from our Earthbound encounters to date. Not to mention the bucket loads Star Wars & Star Trek references it brings with it. Although Jax lands a good, “I have a bad feeling about this” and Stein sneaks about deactivating things like Obi Wan on the Death Star, the king geek of the episode is unmistakably Brandon Routh’s Ray Palmer. From his Captain’s log speech to getting annoyed over been judged as Picard rather than Kirk, he embodies the audience all while being epically funny. Then add pirate antics into the space case. The story runs through all the classic features of a pirate tale from getting captured, deals & double-crossing, and some good old fashioned in ship-fighting. What’s more, it doesn’t get tangled up in an overly complex plot like some previous episodes, which not only allows for better pacing but keeps things feeling a bit more unpredictable. The action takes a long while in the episode to arrive but makes it count when it gets there with some great close quarters beat downs. Rip Hunter Vs the pirate captain/Kanjar Ro (a Justice League villain) is particularly enjoyable. There’s something about seeing Anther Darvill leaping through the air for a flying punch that never will never get old. Some part inside of you can’t stop screaming “Rory’s a badass!” making it all the more satisfying.
The episode takes an interesting approach exploring the stakes of the team’s mission by doubling down on the personal back story of Rip Hunter, showing him in early state of hopelessness for believing he’s failing his wife and child; then showing Timemasters flashbacks, telling the story of their relationship. The simulation exercise is great fun and has a real feel of Star Trek to it, especially with Miranda’s Kobayashi Maru strategy. The Jedi style anti-love policy of their organization really helps put value on their connection as we see how they both risked everything to be together, helping to explain why Rip is doing the same to try and save her. Although overall, these scenes were better in idea and outline than execution. While the message was conveyed, there’s wasn’t enough chemistry between Rip and Miranda to compare with the magnitude of their actions. It could maybe have done with a little more screen time to get this across. It actually works better as a subject when Rip and the Acheron’s captain are discussing it in the brig, “We guard the very nature of time, there is no higher calling..... it’s called love”. Ironically, after being unimpressive last week, the developing Ray/Kendra relationship actually comes across much better this week as it feels more a product of the events and their circumstances than just forced into the episode.
We get some really great follow up on the Snart/Mick fall out by examining the co-dependent nature of their relationship. Mick is a violent unpredictable hot-head, and Snart knows this but at the same time, knows that he has some degree of calming and controlling nature over him, “Without me to keep him in check Mick can be a scary guy”. Or least he did before their recent change of scenery and purpose has pushed that too far. Yet thanks to a great little face of death moment between Snart and Sara, this becomes far less one sided. We hear Snart telling of his closest encounter to death at the hands of a gang in juvenile prison before being saved by Mick, and the big guy had his back front that day forward. Then, we understand that despite Mick’s volatile nature, Snart actually feels safer with him around; that somehow they balance each other out. Yet again, Wentworth Miller and Dominic Purcell are on fire (and ice) in portraying the conflict. Their Prison Break return is going to feel dull by comparison after Legends is through with them. It’s also a great statement of value on their characters that the state of their friendship becomes the end cliff-hanger.
On the surface, Marooned is Legends’ least interesting episode to date but it ends up being one of its best. The writing makes really clever tweaks around the well-known conventions like Rip’s codeword commands to Gideon while under duress and Mick’s parlay play taking a complete U-turn from everyone’s expectations. Despite the show being sold on the grand conflict against Vandal Savage, these last 2 episodes are showing a curious tendency to work better without him. Let’s not write the big guy off just yet and for now just savour this ace space adventure.