DC and CW’s newest TV series premiered last Thursday, Legends of Tomorrow, which is a spinoff of Arrow and The Flash. Check out Josh’s recap of the season premiere, which features 8 “legends” traveling through time to stop the evil Vandal Savage! Following the recap, both Josh and Violet share their thoughts about the episode.
Don’t need the Legend’s of Tomorrow episode recap for Pilot, Part 1? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s Legend’s of Tomorrow episode, Pilot, Part 1, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot, Part 1
The premiere of Legends of Tomorrow begins in the future, 2166, with a big war–being waged by Vandal Savage. Rip Hunter narrates, explaining Vandal Savage has taken over the entire planet. Then we see a kid named Jonas murdered by Savage.
Then we see Rip Hunter address a council. He is making a case to alter the time line to stop Vandal Savage. This council, the Time Masters, refuses to change the timeline to stop Vandal, worried history would be worsened with the changes. Rip seems to get a ship, and he tells Gideon, the AI for his new ship, to head to the early 21st century to get a team together.
He recruits his members–ATOM (Ray Palmer), Sara Lance, FIRESTORM (Martin Stein and Jefferson “Jax” Jackson), Hawkgirl and Hawkman, Captain Cold and Heat Wave–all via force. They all wake up on a roof, and Rip explains his plan–recruit a bunch of people to assist him in stopping Vandal Savage. Rip tries to lure the recruits in by saying that this team members are “legends” in the future, destined for greatness. Rip also shows the destruction the world would go through in 150 years if Savage is left unchecked. Rip leaves to let them think about it, and provides an address for the recruits to meet him at if they decide to go.
ATOM pays a visit to a friend, Oliver (aka Green Arrow), asking for advice. Oliver doesn’t seem to trust this Rip, but ATOM seems to plan to move forward with Rip anyway. As for Hawkgirl and Hawkman, The two are split, but Hawkman seems to convince Hawkgirl to join the team. Moving to Sara, she is back at the Arrow Cave, training with Laurel. Laurel seems to think it is a good idea for Sara to go, and has a new costume for her–the White Canary. As for Heat Wave and Captain Cold, Heat Wave seems against the team, but Captain Cold thinks it is a good opportunity–to steal stuff in the past, when it is easier. Then FIRESTORM argues with itself, with Jax not wanting to go, and Professor Stein pushing for it. However, Professor Stein decides to use a little subterfuge to get them both on the team–by drugging Jax.
So everyone shows up to the meeting place, and Rip reveals the invisible Wave Rider–the time machine they will be using for their mission. The first mission is to head to the 1970s to talk to a man who may know where Savage is. Professor Aldus Boardman is the only expert on Vandal Savage, according to Rip Hunter. The team straps in, and gets ready to head out. As the team heads out, Jax wakes up and freaks out as the ship makes its time jump.
Meanwhile, still in the present, some kids witness the Wave Rider leaving. Then we see a mystery masked figure shoot these kids, disintegrating them, because they are not “integral to the timeline.”
Most of the team heads out to find Boardman, but Sara, Captain Cold and Heatwave are left on the ship. Jax also decides to stay behind too. Another interesting thing is that Boardman is known to die very shortly–with 24 hours of the time they landed.
The team locates Boardman, and he is surprised to see Hawkman and Hawkgirl. He is very excited to see them, and Rip tries to get the show on the road, discussing Savage. We get a quick recap on Hawkman, Hawkgirl and Savage in their first incarnation. Hawkman and Hawkgirl were murdered by Savage and they as well as Savage were given immortality, and Savage absorbs energy released by the death of Hawkgirl and Hawkman. Boardman then explains that he knew both Hawkman and Hawkgirl, around World War 2–and that he is their son. He tells the story of the death of his parents when he was ten. Rip interrupts though, asking where to find Savage. Boardman tells the team that Savage helps conflict between nations, as weakened nations are easier to conquer.
Back on the Wave Rider, Sara, Cold and Heat Wave decide to get a drink at the bar. They tell Jax to stay on the ship though. Sara decides to get a little dance-y, but a man interrupts. Sara shuts him down–quite physically, which leads to a big bar brawl.
Aboard the ship, Jax tries to convince Gideon to take him home. But Gideon will not meet his requests. But then the ship is under attack. The mystery masked man is back. Gideon reveals this is a temporal bounty hunter, named Chronos. Stein feels the attack through Jax, and Rip orders the team back to the ship. Hawkman and Hawkgirl demand to take Boardman back to the ship, and Rip refuses at first, but then agrees given how stubborn the two were. Back at the ship, the team takes on Chronos. He is a formidable adversary though. Stein and Ray try to make it to their other half/suits so they can help fight. Then Heat Wave, Captain Cold and Sara make it back, and the whole team is together to battle Chronos. In the fight, Boardman is severely injured by Chronos. Rip tells Gideon to take them “anywhere but here”, and the ship leaves Chronos behind.
Rip takes the Wave Rider to the “Temporal Zone” which is a time limbo. Meanwhile, Hawkgirl is upset that her son has been injured. Rip tells a lot of truths now–he is not really working with the Time Masters, and stole this Wave Rider ship. Additionally, they are being hunted by Chronos for his actions. He also tells the team the real reason he chose these people–they actually have little impact on the timeline, so they would not be “missed”. He then explains why he is really on this mission–he had a wife, and a son–Jonas. As we saw at the beginning, both were murdered by Vandal Savage. Rip wants revenge. Rip refuses to give up on his mission though. He offers to let people go home who want to. The team decides to think about their “options”.
Hawkgirl talks with her son, who gives her a necklace that belonged to her in a past life. Stein also talks with Jax, and apologizes for kidnapping him. Stein explains how much this opportunity meant to him, and Jax actually gets on board with the mission too, enjoying being part of a team again–like he had been when he played football. Meanwhile Ray, Sara, Captain Cold and Heat Wave all talk about their irrelevance to the timeline. Ray is depressed about their outlook on life. But Sara thinks that maybe if they stay on this mission, maybe their fates will change. The four seem to want to be a part of the team.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl return to Rip Hunter, and Boardman has died. Rip explains that time tries to maintain its “course”, but Ray tells Rip that they are going to try to make changes. The whole team shows up and Rip gets the next travel plans in order.
Moving over to Vandal, he is in Norway, 1975. He explains that man seems to have the greatest advancements in times of war. We then see him open up a missile/bomb…
Josh’s Thoughts: Legends of Tomorrow, Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot, Part 1
I had some trepidations about this show to start. I wasn’t sure what to think really. Then the show began, and it was a little cheesy with how Rip recruited his team members–basically kidnapping them. But then things sort of began to fall into place. It does help that this is a time traveling show, and I have mentioned it before–I love time travel shows/movies.
The action is all little over the top for a few characters, which I will have to get over, particularly Captain Cold and Heat Wave. But overall, I think the premise is a good one. We have the Time Masters chasing down Rip while Rip and his team chase down Savage, which should provide a lot of story going forward. What I hope doesn’t happen, is the game of cat and mouse gets old, with Vandal always just barely making an escape. It looks like this season is 16 episodes, 6 episodes short of a normal CW season, which I actually think will be good thing. This will force the plot to be more concise. My biggest complaint for most CW and primetime TV shows is the loose plot which is dragged out over 22 episodes, and the story seems to get lost in the mix, only being truly relevant in the first few and last few episodes of the season.
I am curious to see where Arrow and Flash show up though. We saw a lot of Oliver this episode, but no Barry or Team Flash people. I wonder if this is something that will be addressed next episode.
Overall, so far I am looking forward to more episodes. This feels sort of like a darker Doctor Who mixed with superheroes, which makes sense given the lead actor starred in a few seasons of Doctor Who. But let’s see where the rest of the season takes us!
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 1 Episode 1 of Legends of Tomorrow: Pilot, Part 1
One of my favorite time travelers is back in action, Rory Williams! Er, I mean, Arthur Darvill, who plays Rip Hunter here, and played Rory Williams in Doctor Who, so it’s only fitting that he play a time traveler in Legends of Tomorrow. Although, here, he is (was) a part of the Time Masters (rather than Time Lords), and gets to control where and when the team travels, rather than being taken on adventures where another person controls where and when they go. It was a little underhanded the way that Rip Hunter brought the team together, but ultimately, it worked out in the end, even after the “legends” find out the truth.
It did start out a bit cheesy, and feels a little odd that Rip would recruit criminals to his team, but by the end of the episode, I could see the potential that things could work. However, it is quite a large team, so I’m a little skeptical as to how things will progress, unless they keep splitting up, like they did in this episode. I also wonder if some episodes will focus more on particular characters, rather than the team as a whole.
In any case, I thought this was a solid start to Legends of Tomorrow, especially as it showed us the potential of seeing into both the future and the past. It definitely grabbed my attention, as a fan of time travel stories, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else the show will bring throughout the rest of the season.
Scenes from Legends of Tomorrow, Episode 2: Pilot, Part 2
Here are scenes from the next Legends of Tomorrow episode, titled Pilot, Part 2:
Ive heard it isnt just a little cheesy, Ive only heard its really cheesy, I can only hope they learn how to make a good show
I dont like watching shows when theyre on because there isnt enough story, but I started watching this today and I watched 3 episodes…it is so bad, it has so much potential, but with its direction I dont think it has a prayer.