Legion

Starbug is 24 hours behind Red Dwarf and is losing ground on the larger ship. They are distracted when a heat-seeking 'missile' locks onto them and tractors them to a space station inhabited only by a being called Legion, who proves his good faith by converting Rimmer from a "soft light" to a "hard light" hologram, thus making him able to touch and feel. Legion also performs an emergency appendectomy on Lister. Unknown to them, Legion is in fact a gestalt entity, made up of the personalities of those on the space station with him and must keep the crew on the station with him forever if he is to maintain his existence. Kryten saves the crew by rendering the other members unconscious, thus forcing Legion to take on only his personality, which is programmed to assist humans whenever possible. Legion helps put the crew back on Starbug, then comments on the relief it will be to not share in the neuroses of the crew.


Quotes

The crew are tracking a mysterious object through space, and the ship is on Blue Alert – basically, there is a small ALERT sign flashing blue

Rimmer: Step up to Red Alert!

Kryten: Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb.


Trivia
  • The working title for this episode was "Call Me Legion"; the title is a reference to Mark 5:9, wherein Jesus confronts a possessed man:

"For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"
"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."

(Legion says this when the Red Dwarf crew ask what they should call him).

  • The "Ionian Nerve Grip" which Kryten attempts to use on Rimmer is patterned after the famous Vulcan nerve pinch from Star Trek, perhaps with a dash of the Vulcan "death grip" thrown in for good measure.
  • Rimmer's statement: "Broadcast on all known frequencies, and in all known languages, including Welsh", has been used by several broadcasts as a nod to the idiosyncracies of the language.
  • One of the biggest continuity goofs in Red Dwarf occurs here. Legion is seen removing Lister's appendix though in the episode "Thanks for the Memory" Lister is shown to have had it out at least once, possibly even twice before. This is Rimmer's line "That's why I had my appendix out — twice" (commenting on a memory implant of Lister's life over his own). The Red Dwarf writers have since said that, when Lister was turned into a chicken and then turned back into himself (in "DNA"), the computer restored him with his appendix, hence explaining why Legion took it out here. A variant explanation provided in the novel Last Human suggests that Lister was born with two appendix.
  • The list of names of the scientists involved in the Legion Project begins with Heidegger, echoing a noted 20th century philosopher, but then continues with the names Holder, Davro and Quayle who echo Noddy Holder, Bobby Davro and Dan Quayle and are far from noteworthy in academic fields.