You say you want a (Zygon) revolution?
Warning: Full spoilers below.
The Zygons returned in this week’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Zygon Invasion.” Or rather, it turns out they never left! And that’s become a bit of a problem now for the Doctor, and the whole planet, actually.
Last seen in “The Day of the Doctor” (as we are reminded in the opening moments here), the Zygons struck a peace with Kate Stewart and UNIT after their attempted invasion of London in that episode. It seems the result of that truce was an agreement that allowed some 20 million Zygons to take up residency on Earth, disguised as ordinary humans via their shapeshifting (and budget-saving) natural abilities. But now, a rogue group of Zygons have decided that they want to live free in their natural form — or die hard! Time to call in John McClane… or even better, Doctor Disco.
The Doctor is confronted with an interesting problem in this episode, and one that could be seen to reflect real world struggles on a couple of different levels. There’s the obvious immigrant analogy here, with the refugee crisis of the Zygons (who have no homeworld, and in fact whose homeworld may have been destroyed because of the Time War). This parallels the Syrian refugee situation, which is something that the UK is dealing with right now.
There’s more to it than that though, with the concept of the “panic” and “paranoia” the Zygons are feeling in their lives as they worry over what would happen if the humans they live among found out who and what they really are. Surely this is a reflection on what life must be like for illegal immigrants, or anyone who fears being judged as different from those around them whether it’s by race, religion, creed or what have you. You don’t have to be a suction-cup covered monster to feel that way.
Which brings us to the Doctor, that peace-loving destroyer of worlds. Yes, he’s the guy who blew up his own planet in order to end a war once (though, yeah, it got better), but of course his first instinct is to not bomb the living daylights out of folks. “I’m the president of the world,” he tells a UNIT commander. “I’m here to rescue people and generally establish happiness all over the place.” Well, it’s true!
So the question is, does this faction of Zygons have a point? Surely their methods are abhorrent — disintegrating humans and whatnot — but they do deserve to live as true Zygons, right? And is this the only way they can make themselves heard? Through terror? Even Osgood’s video-under-duress message drives home the terror angle that Doctor Who is taking here. “Isn’t there a solution that doesn’t involve bombing everyone?” he says. “If you do that, it will radicalize the others.” We’ll see next week how the Doctor figures his way out of this quagmire, which real life tells us is not so easy to solve.
As on the nose as this all is, it’s still intriguing. Unfortunately, the execution of this particular episode (written by Peter Harness and directed by Daniel Nettheim) is somewhat underwhelming. Splitting up the main participants, in particular the Doctor and Clara, hurts the action as the stuff with Kate and the cop in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, drags (of course the cop was going to turn out to be a Zygon!), as does the Clara/Jac subplot (until the final reveal, anyway). With Jenna Coleman leaving the show very soon, I wonder why the writers have worked to keep her and Peter Capaldi mostly apart these last two episodes.
And speaking of Clara, we have an Evil Clara on our hands now. Or a Bonnie, as the case may be. With all the theories flying around lately about Clara, I half expected her to be revealed as a Zygon here… but a Zygon who’s been with the Doctor all season. It would seem that is not the case, however, as she was only just replaced at the start of the episode. Would’ve been a cool way to go though.
Some notes:
- I’m not sure what’s more hilarious, Clara’s “I used to memorize Trivial Pursuit questions so I could win” line or the Doctor’s reaction to it.
- It’s nice to have Osgood back, and her latest Doctor fashion statement — a question-mark shirt that calls back to the Fifth and Sixth Doctors.
- Speaking of which, does Twelve really have question-mark underpants on? “Makes me wonder what the question is.”
- “Everybody middle-aged always thinks the world’s about to come to an end.”
- You haven’t heard “Amazing Grace” until you’ve heard it on the electric guitar being played by the Doctor. In the TARDIS!
- On the topic of Clara’s duplicate, remember when it turned out Doctor Bashir on Deep Space Nine had been replaced by a double for like half a season and we didn’t know it?
Doctor Who’s very strong Season 9 hits a bit of a wall with “The Zygon Invasion,” an episode that poses some thought-provoking questions but does so in a rather ponderous fashion. While it’s nice to have Osgood and UNIT back for this story, I hope that the resolution of it next week amps up the excitement level a bit.
