TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Zygon Inversion

As The Zygon Inversion opened on a clone of Clara (Jenna Coleman) firing a missile at the plane holding The Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Osgood (Ingrid Oliver), with the real Clara trapped beneath London in a weird pod prison thing, you could be forgiving for thinking this was going to an all-out battle, let’s all shoot at each other and set things on fire sort of an episode. But it really, really wasn’t. Clever, topical and stridently anti-war, this was Who with a message, and it worked.

According to The Doctor, what people should do ‘in the first place’, before they even think of fighting, is talk. And The Zygon Inversion very much practiced what he preached. Apart from a spot of parachuting and a few unfortunate incidents later on, this episode consisted, almost entirely of talking. Not managing to thwart Bonnie/Zygella from firing the missile, despite giving it a damn good try via their psychic link, Clara found herself locked in a battle of wills with her counterpart, whilst The Doctor and Osgood tried to find their way to her. And that was where the battle of wills really started, as The Doctor effectively refereed between leader of the Zygon rebels Bonnie, and UNIT leader Kate (Jemma Redgrave). 

But we’ll come to that.

Meanwhile, the doubling provided a great opportunity for Jenna Coleman to flex her acting muscles. I have a slight theory that she’ll be one of those sort of characters where as soon as she’s gone, we’ll realise how great she was. She’s a grower.

And I know I say it every week but I’m going to do so again. The show continues to be genuinely laugh out loud funny. I’m not sure it’s ever been that until this series, but I like it. A lot. Much of it comes down to the fact that Capaldi’s excellent delivery makes everything feel a little unsteady and unpredictable. In the heavier scenes, this can be electrifying. In the funnier moments, it’s just plain hilarious. ‘Ah London… what a dump!’ being one such example. Both he and the writing work together to take you in directions you never expected to go, all in the space of a line.

There’s a splendid mythology developing around UNIT now, as we re-visited The Black Archives. They always felt a little bit shoe-horned in before, but now they have more of a proper place in the story arc. Speaking of which, is there anybody on the planet who doesn’t completely love Osgood? No, thought not.

We saw more of the same themes throughout the episode as we’ve seen all series, as we met more hybrids and pairings, particularly evident when Bonnie completed the broken Osgood pair, as well as this episode and its predecessor’s titles. Not to mention the ongoing trope of The Doctor solving the problem by talking, at length. We saw it with Davros way back at the start of the series, with The Woman Who Lived and now with Kate and Bonnie, as they both quite literally stand with their fingers on the button, ready to destroy each other.

Whole essays could be written on that scene. I’ll restrain myself, but between the powerful anti-war and pro-immigration messages, the memory wiping, Capaldi’s even-more-excellent-than-usual performance and the striking image of the pair (another one) of the red and blue boxes, we’d have enough to talk about for hours. As it was, it was yet another example of Capaldi’s brand of Doctor. His power is very much in his words – and he intends to use them. The result was seriously powerful stuff.

Others have commented that these last two episodes have been a little boring, perhaps slightly pedestrian, as The Doctor rode in a plane not the TARDIS, and two policeman who weren’t policeman walked slowly down a road and didn’t actually attack anybody…But to do so is to miss the point. They were always supposed to be a little quieter. The Zygons aren’t particularly scary, which is why ‘the enemy within’ angle works so well. And that’s what gave the episode its message – we all just want to get on with life, but disillusionment happens, and we need to talk about it, not just blow each other up like ‘screaming kids.’

And with that much emotional clout, surely the show can only keep getting better and better?

Becky will be here to tell you next week.

P.S I concur. *Applauds for Action Rebecca Front*

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Zygon Invasion

First of all, let me apologise for the lack of reviews for the previous two episodes, both Jen and I were afflicted with unfortunate life things and the good Doctor had to fall by the wayside for a couple of weeks! But we are back and what a cracker of an episode to return to.

The Zygon Invasion finds the peace treaty negotiated between human and Zygon back in the 50th Anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor, under a considerable threat. The treaty, forged by Osgood and Osgood (one human, one Zygon), allowed 20 million Zygons to settle in human form all over the world provided they keep their true species hidden. When one Osgood is killed back in the last series, the other Osgood is consumed by grief and the negotiated peace begins to break down. Zygons want their freedom and will stop at nothing to get it. As they repeat throughout the episode, it's a game of 'truth or consequences.'

The idea of consequences is something this series has been playing with a lot where the Doctor is concerned, as decisions of his past have considerably affected his future. Here, it's dealing with a treaty that he oversaw to save both the humans and the Zygon race as well as the death of Osgood and the shaky ground that treaty is based on. The Day of the Doctor was itself along those themes as the Doctor came to terms with his part in the apparent destruction of Gallifrey during the Time War and it makes sense that The Zygon Invasion, a pretty much direct sequel to that episode, should pick up those themes too.

We are not only dealing with that, but the whole episode functions as an analysis on our own society and the fears that we constantly deal with. The idea of a 'secret invasion' has come up a lot as part of the European refugee crisis, that the refugees aren't fleeing because their country is consumed by war and their lives are in danger, but because they're secretly after our benefits/jobs/homes or that they are secretly terrorists on their way to undermine our country through violence. You name it, a tabloid newspaper has printed it. The parallels run through The Zygon Invasion with abandon, from the white and black logo that Osgood sits under during her demand video to UNIT consistently arguing that there was no way the human population would react to the Zygon presence with anything but fear and xenophobia.

That critique of our society is painted in large brush strokes and does get a tad heavy-handed at times, but it gives the episode a greater depth than simply offering up some sci-fi based entertainment. It allows for some wry commentary from the Doctor, whose function has often been to point out some of the more ridiculous and dangerous aspects of human behaviour during his relationship with Earth. And the Zygons want something that feels deeply humane; to be allowed to live and stay true to themselves without judgement. It's pretty ambitious stuff for a Saturday evening family show and really great to see Who again striving to do something more than simply entertain.

This political background provides a solid foundation on which to build the narrative of the episode and to spin out some really great sequences from it. Being the first of a two-parter meant the story was paced better, a recurring theme in this series and it's been much stronger for it. There's an oppressive, paranoid atmosphere to it all so we are aware there are twists coming, but they lose none of the impact for that or guessing what twists they might be. The Zygons' abilities are also utilised for great dramatic effect as soldiers are confronted with Zygon copies of their families, planting a seed of doubt about the reality of the situation. The drone pilot confronted with copies of her family on the steps of the building she's about to bomb offers a neat counterpoint to the inhuman use of drones; it personalises a destruction that is usually kept at a distance.

This series of Doctor Who has been consistently strong and it seizes the opportunity to take on a bigger, global story now that everyone has settled in for the ride. This episode left us on a whopper of a cliffhanger and Jen will be here to discuss how that plays out next week.

Oh, one final thing. Can we get a round of applause for Action Rebecca Front? She was awesome.

- Becky

You can read Jen's review of Before the Flood here.

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TV REVIEW: Doctor Who - The Magician's Apprentice

The last series of Doctor Who, the first of Capaldi's reign, was decidedly one of the better and most consistent of recent series, one which put character first and tied it all nicely in with some rollicking timey-wimey adventures. Capaldi's Doctor is on the darker end of the emotional spectrum and it continues here, building on a theme that has been hovering round the edge of New Who for a while; should you change the past if you know it will benefit the future?

The cold open is eerily effective, the puntastic hand mines as creepy as anything Moffat has produced across his writing and showrunning work. The idea of a world shrouded in the fog of war, with little to no chance of survival, immediately gives the episode a murky morality, one which is further compounded by the Doctor arriving to save the boy. Although I was aware Davros would be in this series, I'd missed any reference to him in this episode and remained largely spoiler free (a somewhat momentous achievement in this day and age). The boy telling the Doctor his name during the rescue was a great shock, giving way to the lesser one of the TARDIS leaving, one of those heart-in-your-mouth moments that seemed to ring out throughout the opening credits.

This kind of opportunity to change time, supposedly for the better, is something that has cropped up before throughout New Who, particularly back in the haunting Fires of Pompeii episode (coincidentally, the one that Capaldi guest-starred in). There, we learn that Vesuvius' eruption is a fixed point in time. It cannot be changed, no matter how hard Donna attempts to convince the Doctor otherwise. As mentioned in The Magician's Apprentice itself, it's been previous concern of the Doctor about whether it is morally right to stop a child before he goes on to become a heinous adult. It was used for comic effect in Moffat's earlier season opener, Let's Kill Hitler, but nothing is more deadly serious here.

The episode lends great weight to the Doctor's decision to leave the boy Davros without hammering it home; Colony Sarff (great name) searching for the Doctor across the galaxy and amongst his known associates offered a neat touch. Not only does it allow us to check in with some faces we've not seen for a while, it also works to build the tension for the episode. It also helps that Colony Sarff is as creepy as anything. I'm with Indy: why did it have to be snakes? Missy's introduction, comical as it is, doesn't really shatter that tension either. Michelle Gomez treads a fine line between sinister and outlandish all the way through the episode, but it never crosses into pantomime. And past history dictates that the Master wanting to help out the Doctor is a pretty big deal.

When the Doctor finally gets his entrance (and what an entrance - Rock Star Capaldi needs to be a thing more often), Capaldi gets to shine because this is his episode. We've all seen the Doctor make the tough decisions and (not) destroying Gallifrey still stands at the heart of that; Davros becomes a representation of all of those tough decisions. Everything could have changed if that little boy had been lost to the hand mine. Instead, the Doctor is left with the responsibility that his inaction has led to everything that Davros became; the destruction of everything the Doctor holds dear. The end of the episode, the apparent destruction of Missy, Clara and the TARDIS, hammers that point home. Is this, like so many things he holds himself accountable for, the Doctor's fault?

And with that, we're back on the turrbulent road that is Doctor Who. After the last series possibly restored the faith of some and further alienated others, The Magician's Apprentice is going to do pretty much the exact same thing. It's dense, emotional and entirely character driven and for that, I loved it.

As ever, we will be reviewing alternate episodes across the series so Jen will be with you next week for the wonderfully named The Witch's Familiar (I am loving the episode titles for this series).

- Becky

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