Legends of Tomorrow - 'Camelot/3000'

Ray Palmer was always too joyous for Star City.

Fire up the turbines and set a course for adventure, as the Legends are catapulted into the golden age of Camelot!

Lily Stein's algorithm takes them first to the year 3000, where Dr Midnight has already been murdered by Rip Hunter, Time Bastard, for you see it turns out that pre-bastard Rip entrusted the segments of the Spear to the remaining members of the JSA – Dr Midnight, Stargirl and Commander Steel – during their final mission. Rip then hid the other three throughout the timeline; Midnight in 3000 and another of the guardians in post-Roman Britain.

"Looks like we have a little Brittanian standoff."

To Nate's disgust, Ray leads the team in dressing up like Ran Fair rejects for the mission, although this is as nothing to his distaste when Queen Guinevere and a band of fully-armoured knights welcome them to the Kingdom of Arthur and lead them to Camelot. It turns out that, in order to create a structured society capable of defending the Spear, Stargirl has adopted the role of Merlyn and forged an Arthurian culture in the midst of post-Roman decline. Ray is delighted to have a chance of meeting Sir Galahad, although things turn sour when the Black Knight terrorising the countryside turns out to be Damien Darhk, and he and Rip use Dr Midnight's year 3000 tech to control Arthur and most of his knights, leading to the death of Galahad.

Sara and Amaya recover the Spearhead, which has been stuck to the tip of the Sword in the Stone, and intend to leave after knocking heads with Stargirl, whom Amaya realises is in love with Arthur (which would probably be more of an issue is Sara's pantemporal lesbidar wasn't locked in on the King's largely political missus Guinevere.) Ray is determined to join the good fight and ultimately the team are not willing to abandon him, leading Amaya to realise that they are more than a team; they are family. They join the fight, and Stein is able to rig some tech he swiped from 3000 to hack Rip's control network, although to his disgust it turns out that his intelligence is less effective as a control signal than Mick's utter, bloody-minded intensity.

"I enjoyed meeting you."
"And I too, Sara Lance... a lot.(3)"

Knights freed, Ray takes down Darhk in a swordfight before being shot(1), and the Spearhead is secured. Huzzah! Sara even gets to kiss the Queen before it's off into the Timestream again, with Rip Hunter captive(2).

'Camelot/3000' is a weird little episode. Its take on Guinevere  - as Arthur's political bride and platonic partner in utopia-building – is an interesting one, and I like the dropping of lines from Camelot into the ethos that Stargirl has instilled. It's all good fun, and I fault it less for being more legend than history or for gender-flipping Merlin than I do for its failure to include Arthurian DC standards like Morgaine le Fey, Etrigan the Demon(4) or the Shining Knight. As was so often the case in Season 1, I find Legends most frustrating when it pulls back, veering more towards the Arrow end of the sliding scale of weirdness, on which the rest of the Arrowverse lies well towards the Silver Age.

Seriously, Legends. Etrigan. Look him up.

(1) Which isn't bad going, even with his sword souped up into a lightsabre. Also, points to Ray for thinking to wear his blast resistant ATOM suit under his faux-mediaeval armour.

(2) Although possibly still in possession of overrides for Gideon's programming.

(3) I see what you did there.

(4) Because what series isn't improved by Jack Kirby characters who speak entirely in rhyme?