Doctor Who The Zygon Invasion Series 9 Episode 7
With flashbacks aplenty Peter Harness explains to us the history of the Zygon peace treaty that emerged from The Day of the Doctor, and sheds some light on Osgood’s death from Death In Heaven last season. Last season as well Peter Harness gave us Kill the Moon. You’ll excuse me if I’m not overly confident that this two part Zygon tale is in safe hands.
The peace treaty that was negotiated (off screen) before the climax of the 50th anniversary special allowed for twenty million Zygons to integrate themselves into Earth’s population, and to remain anonymous to all but UNIT. All seemed well, until a splinter group developed inside the Zygon high command that wants to reveal themselves, be themselves and of course take over the Earth. One woman was key in keeping the peace between humanity and the Zygons, and that was Osgood, who was killed by the Master at the end of last season. But which Osgood was killed? Was it the human or her “sister” the Zygon? They kept the secret to keep the peace. Never letting anyone on either side know who was who. Now, Osgood has been taken prisoner by the rogue faction, but before her capture, she managed to get a message to the Doctor. Reuniting with Kate Stewart and UNIT, the Doctor calls upon Clara to help him solve the mystery and prevent all out war.
This all sounds good, but really I didn’t think that anything happened in this episode. Well, let me clarify, sure things happened, UNIT sprung into action, and traps were sprung around them. Key humans were replaced by Zygon duplicates, and we’re not quite sure who we can trust. It very much reminded me of the 11th Doctor episode with the ‘Gangers (Rebel Flesh) in that way. Everyone splits up in this episode, Clara stays in England to help UNIT; Kate Stewart goes to New Mexico to track down Osgood; and the Doctor goes to a small European village that UNIT has discovered to be a Zygon training facility and are intent on bombing. By the end of the episode, everyone has walked into a trap, and the Doctor’s plane is about to be shot down by a rocket launched by Zygon infiltrator.
As I said, it didn’t really feel like anything happened in this episode. We were left with more questions than answers, unfortunately the questions were just parts of the story, and not something the audience thought up on their own. This episode moved along really slowly I thought. A lot more story could have been developed and delivered if they picked it up a notch or two. Depending on how next week turns out, I really wonder why this one was a two parter. Zygon Invasion played up a lot of classic sci-fi themes and current political issues such as racism, war and refugees, but failed to really make them matter and instead pushed slowly into the disjointed invasion plot.
The Good:
• I think they made a reference to Harry Sullivan, travelling companion to the Fourth Doctor, who was a Naval doctor and did encounter the Zygons in their only other episode.
• We got more references to the “hybrid” that it seems will be the big, deadly, climactic season finale, over-reaching plot point. I’m not minding this one as much as in past years, because we’re just being reminded that it’s on the Doctor’s mind, and not being hit over the head with it every week, like the Nethersphere clips last year that took up valuable screen time that (a few times) could have been better used to flesh out the stories.
The Bad:
• Everyone splits up? With rogue Zygon factions, the “head” of UNIT goes to America alone? Really? This just felt like it fell out of an old Scooby-Doo script.
• The pacing.
• The logic. Again. How do 20 million new people just show up an integrate themselves on Earth?
• The surviving Osgood will probably die next week and we probably still won’t know if she’s human or Zygon. They better not hatch another one of her, fully grown out of thin air….or the moon.
The Ugly
• They really seemed to be playing up “Clara’s Theme” in this one….we get it. She’s done at the end of this series.
• Why did every reveal have to be so obvious?
• I’m dreading the point where they make a “let Zygons be Zygons” pun next week.
• The Zygons were not really well played tonight. They could have been a tragic monster, one we have sympathy for, but they were reduced to snarling killing machines.
There was no “Next Time” this week, probably because it would be too spoiler-y, so here’s a clip they put out to celebrate some of the scarier moments of the show since tonight was Hallowe’en.
