The Memoirs of Nicodemus Legend: The Gospel According To Legend

"The Gospel According To Legend" was the seventh episode of Legend, and first aired on June 12th, 1995. It was written by John Considine and directed by Michael Vejar. You can watch the episode via Amazon Prime Video or DVD.

An itinerant preacher named Mordechai comes to Sheridan, and the townsfolk are quickly drawn to his message. Ernest Pratt immediately recognizes Mordechai as Willie Miles, aka “Willie the Weasel,” a con artist who has already served a decade in prison for his crimes. But before Pratt can warn anyone of Miles’ potential plans, Miles sees Pratt in the crowd, and immediately confesses his past, claiming to have found God in prison. As the people of Sheridan respond, Miles looks straight at Pratt, knowing that he’s won the first round of the battle to come.

Even Bartok is inclined to give Miles-as-Mordechai the benefit of the doubt, thinking that his preaching can do no harm. Although Bartok himself is too busy working on a rainmaking project in response to a drought threatening the region, he encourages Ramos to join Pratt and visit Mordechai’s tent service that evening. Pratt’s initial assumption that Mordechai intends to profit off of the generosity of the locals is immediately proven wrong when Miles announces that there will be no collections taken during the services. It isn’t long before Miles’ intentions become more evident, as he begins condemning the scientific findings of Charles Darwin, and quickly makes a connection between Darwin and the scientific efforts undertaken by Bartok, even going so far as to accuse Bartok of being a tool used by Satan.

Although both Pratt and Ramos are concerned by this turn of events, Bartok dismisses the danger, recognizing the people of Sheridan as his friends. When he and Pratt go into town, however, they quickly find that the situation is serious. People run from Bartok in fear, Bartok is served with legal papers accusing him of causing the drought via his experiments, and someone even attempts to burn the quadrovelocipede.

Bartok is deeply hurt by this betrayal, and joins Pratt at the next tent meeting in hopes of reasoning with those present. Pratt and Miles trade barbs, and Pratt publicly accuses Miles of using the Bible as a weapon against Bartok. When one Sheridanian proclaims that they don’t have a problem with Bartok, but rather “science,” Bartok attempts to explain the basic principles of what he’s doing, but he only confuses people further. Pratt takes over, and nearly succeeds in winning the people over when he demonstrates how science has improved their lives, but all this is negated when rainmaking chemicals in Bartok’s pocket ignite, and Bartok is forced to flee in a cloud of red smoke, much to "Mordechai's" delight.

Having learned from friends in San Francisco that Mordechai is sponsored by something called “The Creation Foundation” in Denver, Pratt proposes that they investigate. The trail leads them to a company run by Edgar Taggart, who had been helping Bartok earn a research grant. Pratt and Bartok break into the company’s files, but before they are able to depart with any evidence, they run into Taggart and Miles, who immediately capture them. “The Creation Foundation” has apparently been created for the sole purpose of sabotaging Bartok’s rainmaking work. Taggart and Miles have a plan to sell a new drought-resistant fertilizer to the desperate farmers.

Knowing that Pratt and Bartok must be disposed of, but needing to do so in a way that won't implicate Taggart or his company, Miles proposes a plan to have the people of Sheridan take care of the problem for them. Pratt and Bartok are taken back to Bartok’s laboratories, where they (and Ramos) are tied up and locked in. Miles, as Mordechai, then preaches to the townspeople, suggesting that to save Bartok’s soul, they must burn down Bartok’s laboratory. The townspeople quickly form a mob, with only Skeeter seeming to recognize that something isn't right.

While the mob sets fire to the laboratory, Team Legend is trapped inside with just enough mobility to hop around. They work together to launch Bartok’s rainmaking rockets into the clouds in hopes of creating a rainstorm. As they successfully launch the rockets, it begins to rain, and Skeeter, having overheard our heroes’ efforts from outside the lab, finds a way to break in and untie them.

Finally able to move freely, Pratt runs outside, proving to those present that there had been people trapped inside the burning building, and that “Mordechai” has attempted to murder them. With Miles exposed, the ashamed townspeople promise to make things right for Bartok.

As the rains douse the fires, Pratt further shouts to the mob that Bartok’s “evil science” just ended the drought, but Bartok tells him that the fire had destroyed the chemicals before the rockets launched. Whatever happened to make it rain, Bartok can take no credit. Perhaps some higher power is at work after all….


Some additional notes:

• This episode, with its theme against using the Bible as a weapon (and specifically pitting Christianity against science), has always resonated particularly well with me, and I fear that it’s no less timely today.
• Unsurprisingly, this was one of John De Lancie's favorite episodes. Besides being such a Bartok-focused show, he said, "I particularly liked it because it was about something. In this case, it was the idea that religion and the Bible can be used as a weapon, although the person wielding the weapon, interestingly enough, was not religious as such."^*
• Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published on November 24th, 1859. It was indeed controversial at the time, and there were definitely alternative theories put forth to object to Darwin’s theory by the time this episode takes place in 1876. That said, I can’t help but imagine that many of Mordechai/Miles’ specific arguments were drawn more from more contemporary anti-scientific sentiments.
• Miles is played by Robert Englund, most well-known as the original Freddy Krueger. Arguably the highest-profile guest star in Legend's short run, UPN made special effort to advertise this episode, highlighting Englund's appearance and scheduling it to air immediately after Star Trek: Voyager for the first and only time during Legend's run. John de Lancie himself sent out a message specifically encouraging people to watch this episode (and the next) in hopes that a sufficient response might yet save the show. As we'll get to next time, the production crew had already been told that the series was being cancelled by this point, so I'm curious at this level of added publicity.

Next up: "Bone of Contention," in 8 days.

Totally unrelated to Legend, but if you're looking for something to do on Saturday, June 14th, may I suggest The Game Show Game Show? It's an online event hosted by a convention friend of mine, and I'll be one of the players! For more information, including tickets (pay what you can), go to this link at Eventbrite.

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^*Source: Nazzaro, Joe. "Heroic Passings." Starlog 221, December 1995. pp. 35-37.