#8.11 “Legion” Review

NOTE: Let me tell you up front that this review will spoil you rotten. Do NOT read any further if you want to remain spoiler free. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This episode was written by probably the most notable freelance writer for the show yet.

Just in case you were wondering why Smallville is always hiring outside writers, it’s actually stipulated by the WGA contract so every episodic TV series has freelancers come in.

The Writer’s Guild of America contract Master Bargaining Agreement spells it out in very legal terms, which is hard to read (I looked it up, so take my word for it). So, I won’t quote that, but generally what it means for Smallville is that they must give three outside writers an opportunity to write an episode. They must hire at least one, but usually they get about two freelance scripts a year, sometimes three, with sometimes less than ideal results.

That’s how you get dreck like Hero more times than not. Although, like I’d pointed out at the time, Todd & Aaron Helbing probably didn’t have much a shot at pulling that one out of dreck-i-tude it was destined to descend into… The core idea of that episode had some very serious flaws not even Aaron Sorkin could have pulled a good episode out of that.

However, this year the freelancers they’d brought in have been Bryan Miller (Committed and Bulletproof) and Geoff Johns to write Legion.

That right there shows in a very real way why this season is so much better than the last. If you’re forced to hire outside writers, why not try to get the best writers you can?

And it was because of Geoff Johns that this episode had a lot of advanced press about it. A well-known and extremely experienced author who’s written comics for years, it was a notable thing. Especially so since this episode featured the introduction of DC Comics’ characters from the Legion of Super-Heroes, a superhero group from a thousand years in the future. That also happens to be a comic book series that Geoff writes. It was notable enough that The New York Times had an article on Geoff writing this episode.

I’m not sure I’ve read any of his books, but the next time I have some spare cash I may just pick up one of his trade paper backs. He did a remarkably good job in this episode.

Unlike most freelance writers, Geoff was trusted with a mythos-centric episode. Most freelancers get filler dreck like Hero to write and are never heard from again…

If Smallville gets another season, still haven’t heard officially they would or not (still waiting on the network to give official confirmation of another season, which requires them to get good results from Tom Welling’s contract negotiations). If they do come back, I hope they bring Geoff back next season. He did an excellent job with this script.

I wasn’t entirely happy with all of his choices, but overall the episode was a strongly written one. It started out with a really great tease. I loved The Persuader, but Fraser Aitcheson had a nearly thankless job in this episode. I’m sorry Rokk (Ryan Kennedy, or Cosmic Boy) had sent him back to the future so soon. Maybe we’ll see him again, but the episode wasn’t really about him so I didn’t really mind it too much that his confrontation with Clark was so one-sided and so short. He was the MacGuffin: just around long enough to give the new characters a reason to come back in time.

At least if The Persuader ever comes back, Clark should have a better fight with him because he’ll be expecting the ax to be able to slice into him. He will be more ready for him next time.

I loved the new characters from the 31st Century and I loved the actors who played them. I hope they also come back, but they I know they may not. I loved the first interchange between Garth and Clark. It was hilarious.

“Hey, Kal…. Where’s the cape?”

The humor in this episode was largely based on making fun of Clark’s lack of the most iconic parts of his life later in his life: no glasses, no flights and no tights. The new producers had teased that maybe the first thing might be history by the end of this season (although at this point I won’t hold my breath), but Geoff making fun of that was fantastic.

It’s like the characters were saying what fans had been saying, ‘Now he’s working at the Planet, where are the glasses? ‘When is he going to fly?’ ‘Will Clark ever put on the tights?’

I know we won’t see the tights, per se, in any real way from what they’ve said. It has to do with some nonsense apparently with them conflicting with the feature film version of Superman, but why worry about that? Smallville is its own thing, as if it hadn’t been shown before, they really proved in this episode. The continuity should be outside of anything that features division is doing. I mean, in the Batman Begins/The Dark Knight universe there is no Superman, so why couldn’t Smallville exist outside of whatever feature film continuity they’re worried about?

I don’t understand the problem and, in the end, if we see nothing of the suit, it will be a mistake.

A shirt rip at the end of the last episode with the trademark Superman symbol on Clark’s chest would be good way to end it, even if they don’t have Tom Welling wearing the suit as he flies across a Metropolis sky.

An image of the suit worn by Smallville’s Clark Kent, whether it’s just a picture of his chest or more, would be the biggest money shot of the entire series.

You can’t take us on a series long journey to him becoming Superman and not show Clark wearing the tights.

I mean, it’d be like if they hadn’t shown us Sam going home at the end of Quantum Leap.

Oh, wait…

Okay, yeah. I’m still bitter at NBC for cancelling that show after production had wrapped for the season and not letting Donald Bellisario reshoot the final episode so he could send Sam home what had ended up being the series finale.

Dawn Ostroff better not even come close to considering doing anything like that with Smallville… The lack of respect the network gives it biggest cash cow is astounding to me, it’s mystifying to me why the show is given so little publicity. Also, Dawn had suggested in an interview a month or so ago that the show may have to produce a season 8 ender that could also act as a series finale. I can’t imagine an episode that would do both, so unfortunately I think her cutting them off without much notice might be a real possibility.

I hope The CW and Warner Brothers (the parent and both its Television and Home Video units) all realize what a mistake that would be and give us fans a satisfying ending, whether this season or the next.

Anyway, Geoff did a great job inserting humor into what might have otherwise been another joyless episode. I mean, Chloe’s situation (she must die or risk the lives of billions) isn’t one that would normally invite a lot of humor. However, the humor fit the characters he wrote in too.

I loved the fact that even though the characters from the Legion had doubts about Clark because of him apparently not measuring up to his own legendary reputation, the future Man of Steel still taught them something. Clark is a leader and is the moral compass of the show. Nobody should be teaching him lessons on that kind of thing.

Even with the doubts he’d had, the risk to billions of lives, he still was resolved that he wouldn’t resort to murder unless there wasn’t any other choice. He showed that there was a way to succeed with all of them using their powers at the same time. I loved that Geoff had engineered a solution to the problem that required Clark to figure it out and bring them all together to save Chloe and to save the world using their unique gifts.

I also really liked the little nods to the future he slipped into the episode. Oblique mentions of Garth’s sister and Brainiac 5 (a member of The Legion of Superheroes, he’s a much kinder and gentler ‘descendent’ of Brainiac) were nice touches.
As much fun as this episode was, sadly, it wasn’t perfect. Lana as Clark’s Super Ex-girlfriend I wasn’t so happy with… I read an interview Kristin Kreuk had done a few weeks back and I was a bit concerned by it.

Kristin had said that she’d input on the storyline when Lana came back and that she wanted to make sure that Lana really mattered before she left again. I was glad it sounded like Lana’s leaving this time will be more consequential and will provide some closure for Clark. However, I’m concerned by the general direction this ‘meaningful’ departure seems to be heading. Putting Lana up on a mile-high pedestal after she’d been knocked off it last season I’m not sure is the best choice.

I don’t think that Geoff is particularly to blame for that, the Executive Producers guide the direction of the storylines of each episode in terms of where they fit in to the season as a whole, but did he have to lay it on so thick? One or two brief mentions would have been sufficient. With how much Imra had emphasized how important Lana was to Clark’s life as a whole seemed like too much. They probably wanted Geoff to lay the groundwork for something that happens in a later episode, but we’re not stupid. Did they really have to spend so much time on it? More oblique references to it might have been more fitting and less preachy about Lana’s place in Clark’s future past, whatever her final role will turn out to be.

I can understand Kristin’s frustrations, I had some with some of Lana’s previous storylines too, but taking a perennial victim and turning her into best-thing-since-sliced-bread ex-girlfriend (who sacrifices her own happiness to make Clark Superman) is taking too far the other way… I hope I like where this ends up, but I’m a bit worried given what happened in this episode…

Also, some of Geoff’s dialogue was a bit heavy handed and would have probably worked better if an actual person hadn’t needed to speak. Clark lecturing Cosmic Boy at the end of the episode about always protecting other’s lives, “There’s always a way, Rokk. If it ever seems like there isn’t, remember what we accomplished here today.”

Okay, that looks clunky even written out and not even Tom could completely sell that line.

It just didn’t sound like Clark. It seemed more keeping with what I would read in a comic, instead of being spoken by a person on a live-action TV show.

I guess dialogue wasn’t the best part of this episode. In another example, some of the words ‘Chloe’ used when she was still under control of Brainiac didn’t sound right.

After Imra had told Brainiac his sadism was historic, as well as his defeat. Brainiac-as-Chloe said, “Well, history is about to get a rewrite.”

That didn’t sound like something Brainiac would have said. That was very casual and sounded how Chloe might have put that, not the Brain-Interactive-Construct… Milton Fine wasn’t always very formal in his speech, but he didn’t use a lot of slang either. It just didn’t sound like him…

I’m a bit confused at why all the online fan wank about the Legion never having heard of Chloe. I can see that. If you take the comics now as being a sort of record of Clark’s future exploits as Superman, of course Chloe wouldn’t be in there. She’s not in the comics. I think Geoff was trying to explain that and maybe also give The Legion a reason to think that she doesn’t enter into historic record was because she died. Anyway, that was a bit weird, but it didn’t really bother me much.

While I didn’t see the script as being perfect, I did really enjoy the story and thought it was well done. It had the new characters have a good story arc, they all learned something from Clark, and they were interesting and well-rounded. I wish he would have spent more time on them and Clark interacting and less time with Imra telling Lana how great she is, but overall I have no serious complaints. The pacing was good, the action never lagged, and the episode was exciting. The episode ending cliff-hanger, with Doomsday apparently being more in control of Davis, combined with Rokk’s warning to Clark about being careful, he left us places to go too and left some questions to still be answered.

Tom Welling was fantastic in this episode. He looked great and Clark was about as Supermanly as I think we’ve ever seen him. A few more heavy-handed bits of dialogue aside, I think Tom did a wonderful job. Probably my favorite part was when he confronted Rokk in The Daily Planet. He played Clark as angry and frustrated by Rokk’s intransigence in considering a solution other than killing Chloe. He played Clark as resolved to do the right thing no matter what.

I also really liked the ending scene with Clark and Lana. Tom showed that Clark is still just a guy who’s still figuring things out. He’s not that hero The Legion knows far into the future yet, he’s getting there but it’s a pretty big idea.

Allison hit the episode out of the park, for the most part. I loved her as Brainiac and her scenes later with Clark after Chloe had been exercised were both terrific. I loved Allison’s performance except for one thing: her physicality. I think she got James Marsters’ voice and facial mannerisms as Brainiac down perfectly, but there was something sorta off by the way she moved. I think it had more to do with the dress than anything…

That may seem weird, but let me explain. Like a million years ago when I was an acting student in college, one my teachers said that the costuming is a key to any performance. It’s why you wear a corset and long skirt even in rehearsals instead of your comfy jeans or sweats. You move differently in different clothes, so what you wear affects how you perform.

I could really see evidence of that in this episode. Allison moved like a girl wearing a dress, and not like an inhuman robot that had only inhabited her body while she was wearing that dress.

I would think that if Brainiac were caught in another body and couldn’t shape-shift his way out of being a twenty-something human female, that he wouldn’t act like a girl who enjoyed wearing a full skirted sleeveless lace wedding dress. Allison almost sashayed instead of walking deliberately and with little wasted motion like James Marsters’ Brainiac.

It is fun, for lack of a better word, to wear a dress with a full skirt like that. (I’ve worn one or two in my life, so I know.) It might be hard to not play into that, but I just don’t think Brainiac would have let the dress affect the way he moved quite the way that Allison had let it affect the way she moved.

Sam Witwer did an outstanding job as conflicted, confused, Davis. He wasn’t on screen much, but he effectively played Davis’ dilemma. It was painful to watch him to try and deal with the situation.

Kristin Kreuk wasn’t in this episode much either, but for the most part I really liked what she did. I think she was a bit too self-aware of Lana’s future ‘sacrifice’ at times and her reading of those parts didn’t come off naturally. However, I still like her chemistry with Tom Welling. The scenes she had with him were all terrific. I especially liked her final scene with him on the porch.

The Legion, Alexz Johnson as Imra Ardeen (Saturn Girl), Ryan Kennedy as Rokk Krinn (Cosmic Boy), and Calum Worthy as Garth Ranzz (Lightning Lad) were all terrific. The casting choices were all perfect.

I found Ryan fascinating to watch. He had an intriguing presence. It was like there was something going on inside his head at all times, even when he wasn’t speaking, and he has a terrific speaking voice. When he held up the remains of Brainiac at the end of the fourth act, it reminded me for a second of the famous speech in Hamlet where he’s holding up the skull of the court fool. ‘Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him…’ (Okay, that was probably just me…)

Anyway, I thought Calum had the excited fanboy earnestness that Garth shows in this episode down pat. He was so excited about everything, yet when he thought that Clark wasn’t measuring up to his reputation, Calum had portrayed that disappointment in a very realistic way.

Imra as a character wasn’t as easy to read as Garth or even Rokk. She had an enigmatic personality, but Alexz played that perfectly. She also had quite a striking presence and her speaking voice was remarkable. That was probably a key part of her role, since many of her lines were in voice over.

Director Glen Winter delivered yet another outstanding episode. I really like how much more active the camera is when he directs. The camera was always moving, either craning up or down, or tracking from side to side or the hand held operator followed the actors around the set getting large parts of scenes in one take. He got terrific performances from everyone too, even the guest cast.

Gord Verheul, who had previously shot Smallville episodes Glen had directed (he had also shot Jensen Ackles film “Ten Inch Hero,” which was very well done by the way), did an excellent job. His Stedi Camera operator, Chris McMullin, earned his paycheck big time and the camera operators/focus pullers also got a work out. I LOVE the way he shoots the show.

The active and extremely mobile camera made an action-packed episode like this even more exciting. The camera was hardly ever static, even the close-ups were fluid since he would push in even if only a little. I loved the way that the redressed Fortress of Solitude was photographed too. The high contrast ratio, the deep shadows and almost over-exposed whites, was a terrific choice. This was a beautifully shot episode.

James Philpott did a remarkable job getting that Fortress set to look so different. I wonder how they do that kind of thing on the shoe-string budget they have… James does miracles, I think.

Melanie Williams did an excellent job Smallville-izing The Legion’s costuming. They looked realistic for someone young to wear in a more-or-less realistic world, without being too obviously over-the-top, but still kept key elements of their comic-book costumes.

Not a perfect episode, but it came pretty darn close. I give this outing 4.5 Legion Rings out of a possible 5.

Note: The views of Triplet don’t necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite. Send her feedback.