Legends of Tomorrow Review: The Fixed Point(Season 7 Episode 10)

Legends of Tomorrow Season 7 Episode 10, “The Fixed Point,” attempts to prevent WWI with varying levels of success.

Over the last two seasons, the show has been going in a direction that is very much akin to Doctor Who.

Between the sixth season being aggressively and directly about aliens and this current season being essentially: what if the TARDIS turned against The Doctor but adapted for the Legends.

We’re continuing in that vein on this episode with a very Doctor Who concept, which is the idea of a fixed point in time.

This so something that Legends of Tomorrow doesn’t really engage with very much in terms of actual time travel and theory, something that is partly the overall point of this season.

This is a show that began as an attempt to fundamentally change the course of history and the future.

It has often shown a disregard for what can and cannot happen in regards to the timeline. There was always kind of a hand waving element to it before, in a wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey way.

You half expect the show to outright tell you not to worry and sometimes it kind of did. This is a concrete time rule that the show can’t shrug its way out of, though, which is the point. 

The fun thing about this isn’t just that there’s an immovable moment in time, but also what this fixed point is.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, and also World War I to a lesser extent, has a kind of comical connotation to it in a modern setting given how ridiculous it all seems.

Time travel stories that try to undo history always go to WWII and Hitler, rightfully so, but it’s often overlooked that the first World War was also the source of millions of deaths.

That makes it the perfect point for it to be serious but allow the series to have a lot of fun with.

Another noteworthy element to “The Fixed Point” is the treatment of Spooner.

Her characterization does feel like a direct result of slotting Astra and Behrad into a romantic relationship, or at least the starts of one.

It’s the writers explaining themselves for why they’re not going with Spooner and Astra instead as a couple.

The answer, of course, being that Spooner is asexual. that makes her part of a very exclusive club of television characters who identify that way.

Legends of Tomorrow has always been one of the more quietly progressive Arrowverse and this is further proof of it.

The only area where this really falls short is that it could have taken another step and had the conversation about the potential for being aromantic. 

Finally, we have the return of Eobard Thrawn.

This is a very good example where a lot of the time you have to think of Legends of Tomorrow as something entirely different from the rest of the Arrowverse. 

This is the show’s version of Thrawn, not The Flash‘s. If you think of him as the latter, then it’s just maddening. The way to think of him is just as a declawed villain that’s come back.

Apart from that, it’s an interesting turn on his character as the gatekeeper and instrument of destruction for their moment in time.

It works a whole lot more than it ought to, which is the zone that Legends of Tomorrow is most comfortable in.

What did you think of this episode of Legends of Tomorrow? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

Legends of Tomorrow airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

20 TV Characters Who Really Need a Hug