A story can be like a paper airplane: You take your time, craft it the right way with enough skill, and it will take flight when launched. But anyone that’s ever tried that in your average back garden knows that sometimes, where an aeroplane lands can be more interesting than its journey to get there; sometimes it discovers a unexpected new direction. The world of Doctor Who launches stories in all kinds of directions and some even prove worthy of revisiting. In the epic 50th Anniversary episode, The Day of The Doctor, a peace treaty was agreed between humans and the shape-shifting Zygons (the one’s that look like big walking tongues) over shared occupation of Earth. A great story in itself, and now two years later, we examine just how well that’s been working out.
The Zygon Invasion – Following the Zygon peace treaty of 2013, roughly 20 million Zygon’s have been secretly introduced into Human society all over the world. Now though, a rogue Zygon faction is tired of living in hiding and declares war on humanity. Can The Doctor, Clara and UNIT stop this nightmare scenario coming true?
By building entirely on prior Who canon, The Zygon Invasion does step into the ring with a lot of baggage. Naturally, this requires an opening few minutes of exposition from The Day Of The Doctor but the “Once Upon a Time” framing has some fun with this. Then there’s similarly fact-dumping catch up to present on the state of Human/Zygon affairs in the form of an excellent little failsafe video from the returning UNIT member and lovable Doctor fangirl (her collar question marks are a brilliant reference), Osgood. Firstly, it’s just great to see Ingrid Oliver back in this (dual) role as she comes to embody the peace treaty by seeing both versions of herself as Human and Zygon in symbolism of unity (and another perceived hybrid, the 3rd this season, after Davros’s prophecy.... something’s building up). Although it may be a precarious subject, there are some superb real world political comparisons to their opening notions about Humans and Zygons. Both species are essentially the same: peaceful by nature but capable of war. Yet such actions or desires of the few do not define the whole, and it’s important to remember that. This is no different from viewing all Muslims as terrorists for the actions of a few extremists. It’s not trying to shove politics in your face, but it’s a great subtle undertone of using the show’s science fiction setting to deliver a meaningful message (especially to younger viewers). The idea of hate creating escalation and radicalisation is also alluded to in UNIT director, Kate Stewarts investigation of the New Mexico town believed to be the origin of the rogue faction. Here, we discover a state of racial/species prejudice all triggered by a child Zygon accidentally revealing their true form and causing them all to be labelled as monsters, attacked, and in some cases, murdered. We see “No British” graffiti throughout the town and even racial segregation of crimes in the Sheriff’s office with the “British murders” board in the background. It doesn’t get too adult in its message yet still makes a good statement by boiling things down into a simple family friendly ideal: if you call someone a monster enough times, they may just become one. We see rash extremist approaches from Humanity too as certain seniors would refer bomb the hell out the Zygon faction and ask questions later.
Like their 50th Anniversary outing and their Tom Baker 1975 debut, Terror of the Zygons (which gets referenced when Clara and Kate talk about a past invasion attempt and a confiscated super weapon), the Zygons make an excellent story presence for their doppelganger/shape-shifting abilities. Their mere presence is a bunch of plot twists waiting to happen by revealing characters as a bit pinker on the inside than expected. Of course, this old trick has a tendency for predictability and in some cases, this episode shows switches coming, but at the same time, others do sneak in under the radar and one even makes for an outstanding shock. Some of the impersonation antics come with an overcoating of cheese. Using the drone pilot’s family to stop the strike is excellent psychological warfare but the later church standoff is much less effective for being overly drawn out. The Zygons bring some good morality too in their insurrection story. Although the means may be wrong, the motives of wanting to be themselves are highly relatable. As a species, they have their own culture and traditions just like Humans so why should they be made to feel ashamed of it?
The most surprisingly and welcome aspect of this episode is the pace. It bursts straight of the blocks and barely slows throughout. The whole first half of this season had a slower plodding feel to it so it’s good to see this episode (and presumably next week’s concluding “The Zygon Inversion”) change that up. Also, unlike most regular Who episodes being staged in a singular location, this does have genuine feel of being a globe-spanning affair as the branching arcs traverse North America and continental Europe as well as the good old bowels of London. The ever enjoyable humour is still in the picture despite being nudged to the edges by the more serious topics. The highlights include The Doctor’s leniency towards being President of the World if he gets to “ponce about” on his own Air Force One and tickling the fancy of a the Zygon computer. The gruesome appearance of the Zygons also adds a good horror factor (appropriate for being shown on Halloween) as do final act “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” elements. Although electric straw post-kill bodies don’t really add anything.
The Zygon Invasion is not just a great episode but crucially a great utilisation of a criminally under used addition of the Doctor Who rogues gallery. Don’t keep doing yet another Weeping Angels episode and finding an excuse for the Cybermen to clink into picture; pick a good, barely touched idea from vaults of past and give it a modern spin. It also delivers the best cliff-hanger/to be continued of the season’s pairing episode pattern so far. There are yet more illusions of Clara’s upcoming exit. The feeling is still “not quite yet” but it’s great to see these regular teases. A war may be looming but let’s hope The Doctor can persuade everyone to just let Zygons be Zygons.