The Zygon Invasion: The Good, the Bad and the Nerdy

Gustaff Behr goes through the highs, the lows and everything else from the 7th episode.

Doctor Who went global this week as we finally got an answer to the Zygon peace treaty subplot that was perhaps the only fault I could find with The Day of the Doctor and even then its ability to lower my enjoyment is quite miniscule. It’s also no secret that I was quite hesitant going into this episode given my feelings towards Kill the Moon. Pushing through my reservations, what did I think of an old fashioned RTD earth invasion in the Steven Moffat era?

The Good

There are a lot of things right with this episode, but let’s stick to the highlights for now, starting with a certain scientific cosplayer. My feelings about Osgood are well documented. My main criticism being her lack of anything other than “Doctor-cosplay-fangirl” who may have a deep inferiority complex towards her sister. The Zygon Invasion managed to do so much for Osgood that it’s almost unbelievable. While we’ll probably never see this supposed “prettier” sister, what we do get is some solid development. Showing us the gravestone of one of the Osgoods, her chat with the Doctor, the fact that while she still cosplays, her outfit here is already much tamer than what she usually wears. This helps shape her into a more believable human being. I mean come on, UNIT is a military organization and she is the only one usually dressed like a clown. Osgood goes from Doctor-cosplay-fangirl to grieving sister who is willing to share/discard her identity just to keep the peace. Peter Harness has turned Osgood into a very clever example of a walking, talking Schrodinger’s Cat without shoving in down our throats at every opportunity.

Next up we have evil Clara or Bonnie or more specifically, lack of actual Clara as I enjoy watching Bonnie so much more than Clara. It is also a good opportunity to give Jenna Coleman some new material to work with which she pulls off amicably. It is interesting to note though that despite being hyped as the ‘golden times’ or ‘last days together’, the Doctor and Clara don’t actually seem to be spending a lot of time together this series.

I should mention that the scale of this episode really helped it avoid falling into the ‘global catastrophe’ trope that In The Forest of the Night attempted to fool us with last year. Lots of different locations, accents, buildings and even screen texture helped convince us that we were watching events taking place in different corners of the world.

The characterization of Twelve was spot on. While his saving of Ashildr was sweet, we are talking about a guy who casually sacrifices people in order to either test his theories or for the greater good – “kill as few of them as possible” as opposed to say “don’t kill any of them”. Doesn’t seem in his nature to save some girl he barely knows even if he was under the spell of an epiphany. But here, we get the Doctor telling UNIT to kill, but just kill a few so there is someone alive to talk to afterwards. That is some creepily dark stuff when you think about how any of the other Doctors would’ve reacted in that situation.

The Bad

“Is that all you got? Impersonations with guilt trips attached? You’ll have to do better than that. Did you forget what I did to your friend Sloth? I killed her while she was wearing the face of my own mother.” – Edward Elrich, Fullmetal Alchemist

The spot-the-Zygon reveals were pretty predictable all across the board which is a shame as the spot the imposter trope is usually supposed to be full of red herrings and twist endings. Clara’s scene at the apartment was too out of place from the rest of the episode, not to mention walking away from a distressed child? Come on. Stevie Wonder could see that wasn’t her! The officer with Kate just so happens to be the only survivor but no one bothers asking how. I don’t buy that either. Plus, we have Zygon breathing as she enters the town.

I also want to put special emphasis on UNIT. You see UNIT is an organization who is trained to defeat aliens. They are trained to take down Zygons. They know Zygons have one trick (until the electricity of course). That’s their thing. It’s like how Marty McFly only has one attack: The “look behind you it’s [insert name]” fake-out.

So if you know what their one trick pony is, then how can you still fall for it?

The church scene isn’t even executed properly. I do not expect my mother to know the name of my favorite toy, but there is something seriously wrong if she can’t even remember my date of birth. It’s like the quote above says, the Zygons’ only power is impersonations with guilt trips. At least Edward had some common sense. You can make the argument that pointing a gun at your own mother is emotionally crippling, but what about jointly following everybody inside? Asking more questions? How about going back to the questions that were suspiciously ignored? What about neutralizing one of the hostages? What about something?

Second UNIT issue I have: They stand around for like a minute after the Zygons reveal themselves and nobody bothers shooting? Are these guards from the same class as those two idiots from Death in Heaven? Did they all graduate together?

People keep telling me UNIT is competent and now uses the “science leads” motto whilst still harkening back to the Pertwee Years. That was FORTY years ago and the only place this motto is currently leading anyone is to an early grave. Back in the 70s, UNIT tended to shoot first and ask questions later. Nowadays they don’t shoot at all and nobody bothers asking questions (good/relevant ones at least) so how is UNIT competent? How have they evolved over the last forty years? Protecting the earth? I wouldn’t entrust UNIT to tie their own shoelaces. I am also fiercely dreading UNIT: Extinction next week.

The Nerdy

This week’s music reference was brought to you by the Twelfth Doctor, who puts the ‘amazing’ in Amazing Grace with the help of his trusty guitar. Speaking of Twelve, Peter Capaldi and Rebecca Front previously worked together on The Thick of It.

Osgood had quite the cosplay week. Dressing up as both the Seventh Doctor (pullover) and the Fourth (scarf), but sticking to the Fifth for most of the episode with the question mark lapels and weird brownish cardigan which looks like said Doctor’s outfit without the crickety bits added to it.

We had not one, but TWO blink and you’ll miss it moments this week. Most of you probably clocked the picture of the First Doctor on the wall, but how many spotted the Missy poster in Truth and Consequences?

And once again, we get a neat Big Finish reference (or do we?) with Osgood claiming that Zygons don’t need the original host to permanently shape shift into them. The Zygon Who Fell to Earth featured just such a Zygon.

Can Peter Harness keep the momentum going, or will the next episode be an inversion of the success this episode proved to be?