Legends of Tomorrow Midseason Premiere Highlights the Importance of Film

I usually wind up writing the least on The CW’s Legends of Tomorrow out of all the DCTV shows but I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the super nerdy midseason premiere.

We had the midseason premieres of Supergirl and The Flash this week as well, both excellent, but Legends of Tomorrow was especially poignant last night. “Raiders of the Lost Art” had actor Matt Angel playing none other than a young George Lucas!

At first I wasn’t sure how much George would factor into the plot of the episode or if this was just fan-service by the creators but as it turned out, he was integral to the story. Because the Legends arrive in the 70s to save Rip (who still has no idea he’s Rip), they frighten off the young film student causing him to quit film school all together. That in turn has a huge impact on both Ray Palmer and Nate Heywood who were inspired to become who they are today from Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark, respectfully. Without Star Wars, Ray wasn’t inspired to become an inventor and therefor no more Atom, while Nate no longer got interested in history while watching Indiana Jones go on adventures. Ray instead became a heart surgeon and Nate a yoga instructor.

It made for an interesting story but it reminded me just how important fiction is and why current events are so scary. While people of all ages take inspiration from real-world events and people, stories (film, TV, books) can have a huge impact on who we become. I’ve written at length about this as it pertains to representation in our fictional world. We’re constantly inundated with media and connect with stories on a deep level. So imagine how many things in the world would change if Star Wars never existed? And that’s one single piece of media!

I was reminded of this again today when I heard the lovely Mary Tyler Moore passed away today. She famously played a journalist on the The Mary Tyler Moore Show and inspired Oprah (and countless others) to become journalists themselves. On her own right she inspired many women to get into comedy.

The arts are important and not just for creating more artists. Last night’s episode of The Flash made a mention of inspiring future generations to greatness…

We may not be able to grow up and become literal superheroes but who knows who your fiction will inspire to greatness?

[Editor’s Note: Arrow is back tonight, feel free to discuss the entire first week of DCTV in the comments!]

(GIF via olympain on tumblr)

4 Responses to “Legends of Tomorrow Midseason Premiere Highlights the Importance of Film”

  1. George Lucas quits film school for an hour, so Atom’s & (Citizen) Steel’s powers vanish because he’s their inspiration. Except that doesn’t make sense given the series’s only consistent time travel rule is time travelers’ histories don’t automatically change as soon as
    there’s a time aberration, otherwise nobody would accomplish anything due to constant paradoxes. So this episode made an even larger hash of its already tenuous chronal logistics just to wallow in George Lucas nostalgia. He’s done some wonderful stuff, but his ego is big enough as it is without implying his sci-fi & fantasy films are the only ones that matter.

    https://mattthecatania.wordpress.com/2017/01/26/what-is-dead-may-never-die-on-tv/

    https://mattthecatania.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/smoak.png?w=1198&h=698

    • I’m going to give the time paradox issue about as much thought as I do when watching “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” Our actual knowledge about any of this is still nil, so it’s basically open to artistic interpretation. I know that we should still strive for logical consistency to more easily embrace the stories we’re watching, but time travel is just one where I give it a huge pass.

      This episode didn’t feel that nostalgic to me. I thought it would be a lore more so than what it was. And, regardless of our feelings of George Lucas’ talent (not a fan but he had a great team around him at least in the 70s/80s), I think it’s safe to acknowledge that his films have had a *tremendous* impact on pop culture, and have no doubt inspired many people to go into particular career fields.

      Maybe not as much as Star Trek, but then… Star Trek is better ;). /runsaway

  2. MisterShoebox says:

    Arrow Thoughts: Oliver, you are one of the stupidest, blindest men ever in the history of television. It is NOT your Laurel. She is a murderous thief who has done horrific things on her Earth who played YOU like a fiddle. There is no “Old Laurel” left in her – that IS the Old Laurel. That IS the Laurel Lance of Earth 2. Deal with it. That’s who she is – irredeemably evil. Just because she looks like a squeeze of yours doesn’t mean she’s a good person.

    Also…I’m sorry, but that last image of the “New BC” reeeaaally came off as “Every Strong Woman Stereotype Put Together” for me. Overly combative, fighting off two sexist men, black leather…it seems like they’re trying too hard. Those little niggles aside, though, the episode wasn’t TOO bad.

    • The thought I had after watching Arrow was that they’ve consistently not given their characters a chance to develop or even stick around. The fact that we’re going to get another BC just makes me so annoyed they didn’t just do it well the first time and stick with it.

      Sara wasn’t perfect but before they really got to work with her they killed her off and then did… a whole bunch of other stuff. Laurel picking up the mantle made sense but her training was like 2 weeks long and then she was out in the field. Hey, remember Wildcat?? And then mini-BC lasted 5 minutes and was brought back with an entirely different persona and now this new woman. It’s so frustrating.