| “ | My name is Legion, for we are many. | „ |
| ~ Legion |
| “ | I just want you to be happy! | „ |
| ~ Legion |
| “ | The next hint of insurrection, and the scalpel ends up (points on his groin) here. | „ |
| ~ Legion threatens the crew |
Legion is the main antagonist from the Red Dwarf episode Legion. He is composed by all people who are in his proximity, combining all their personalities and skills. He wars a mask to hide his face, composited of various faces.
He is portrayed by Nigel Williams.
History
When the greatest minds in the 23rd century, for example Heideger, Davro, Quayle and Holder, are experimenting in collective intelligence in the research facility, they create Legion which has a part of everyone in himself. As a result, Legion becomes the most intelligent being in the universe. He is a professional in every discipline, mainly the art and technologies. For exmple, he creates many masterpieces of art.
Unfortunately, years pass and all the scientists die of old age gradually. Legion slowly loses all his intelligence and skills he earns from their minds. When the last one dies, Legion disappears.
Three million years later, the Red Dwarf crew is forced to land in the research facility after their Starbug is caught by the guidance beam. They decide to go out and try to find anything they can salvage. Suddenly, they bump into polite and sophisticated Legion which obviously knows everything about the crew, much to their confusion. He sets Rimmer's holo-bee, changing his projection unit from soft light to hard light. It means Rimmer is solid again, can touch things and is indestructible. Legion uses his scalpel to take out Lister's appendix, of course painless and bloodless.
Legion's true face
Legion invites the shocked crew to have dinner with him. He refuses to join their team, but also doesn't want them to leave. After dinner, he shows them their cells which are stocked for their personal tastes. However, although they are treated well, they are still prisoners.
Next day, the crew decides to escape and Lister comes up with a plan, based on the movie "Revenge of the Surf Boarding Killer Bikini Vampire Girls". Unfortunately, Legion knows the movie too and becomes violent. He sends flying Lister and the Cat, and then eventually puts his mask off, showing them his face which composited of faces of the crew. Thansk their bad behavior, he becomes completely insane. To demonstrate it, he stabs his own hand, causing pain to the crew.
Luckily, Kryten then gets an idea how to stop Legion. He knocks the Cat and Lister out and Rimmer turns off his light bee, causing Legion becomes only Kryten. He can't hurt humans anymore, so he helps Kryten to get the crew into the Starbug. He also creates a Star Drive which could get them to Red Dwarf faster. Unfortunately, when the crew turn it on, the Drive flies away and doesn't take Starbug with itself.
Trivia
- Although Legion was very violent and does everything to force the crew not to leave at first, he doesn't do anything to stop Kryten knocking the crew out.
- Legion's name and his assertion "My name is Legion, for we are many" are references to Legion - a creature composed of many different evil spirits - from Bible (Mark, chapter 5).