Doctor Who Is NEW!: The Zygon Invasion

Hi! Dave-El here. Saturday was a very busy day for me and so was Halloween night. As Rory's dad once put it, "I'm cream crackered."  

So I'm going to jump right into this look back at last night's episode after the spoiler caution.  





Here comes the recap/ review thingy in 5

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The Zygon Invasion

by Peter Harness 

In case you need a refresher with what's up with the Zygons, the episode opens with recap of events from The Day of the Doctor with the 10th and 11th Doctors along with the War Doctor brokering a peace between humans and Zygons, We also get a helpful video message from Osgood...and Osgood explaining the whole peace deal arrangement and how bad it would be if it fell apart. 

And then it falls apart. 

The Doctor meets with UNIT where Kate Stewart who was once all about "my father taught me science leads" but is now willing to bomb the bejeezus out of some Zygons. But the Doctor is in the "anti-bombing the bejeezus out of anybody" camp. So here's the deal: 

• The Doctor heads off to join up with a UNIT force in Tzrksrxstan where Zygons are holding our remaining Osgood (after the other Osgood got zapped by Missy last season). A whole bunch of UNIT soldiers with guns gets taken down by Zygons who look like their mothers. UNIT gets in some missile strikes on Trzgxkrkstan but not before the Doctor rescues Osgood and captures a Zygon. Well, score one for the Doctor but...all is not what it seems.
• Kate Stewart is off to Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico all by herself. (Don't worry, she has a little gun. You should see it, it's so adorable.) Kate finds the town deserted save for one lone female police officer who tells the tale of town over run by....British people. Oh, and who later turned into alien reptile creatures and killed everybody. So it looks like Kate is on to something but... all is not what it seems. 
• Clara Oswald and a UNIT operative  named Jac are holding down the fort in London looking into weird stuff going down with elevators....excuse me, this is in the U.K....going down in LIFTS. (Why can't the English speak English?) This weird stuff which leads to a really strange underground Zygon base where (say it with me) all is not what it seems. 

So the Doctor and Osgood are on his Earth President plane; the Doctor might not like being President of Earth but he really likes the plane. At this point the captured Zygon lays down some cold hard truth: the Zygons have been busy for a year getting ready. And the consequences? The Zygon invasion has already begun. 

At this moment, a person with a familiar and friendly face shoots an anti-aircraft missile at the Doctor's plane and...

To Be Continued. 

Doctor Who takes on a rather big and very much real world problem, tensions over immigrants. Tensions within an immigrant community between assimilating into another culture or holding fast to their own. Tensions among natives torn between accepting newcomers and being on guard against those who may cause trouble for all. And tensions between immigrants and natives. 

Here, we have Zygons, 20 million of them, living as humans in peaceful co-existence. Mostly. There are Zygons who want to let Zygons be Zygons. (And yes, I do love that joke! Every single freaking time!)  And humans are on pins and needles about this. Who can we trust? Are we speaking with a human or a Zygon? If it's a Zygon, is it a good Zygon or a bad one? It's a very tense situation with certain humans and Zygons each determined to respond to the other with violence. 

A few points to address: 

Osgood is back! Well, may be. Kind of. Sort of. Ish. The Osgood we meet here could be human or a Zygon. Osgood thinks of herself as both, a hybrid. (Oh, there's that word again!) Osgood has added to her Doctor cosplaying with the 7th Doctor's question mark sweater and the white collared shirts with red questions marks worn by 4th, 5th and 6th Doctors. Osgood even tosses in some Brigadier cosplay as well. (Go back and look at the still I posted earlier; that sweater she's wearing looks exactly like the kind the Brig used to wear back in the day.)   

The Doctor is trying out new names besides just "Doctor" such as "Doctor Disco" and "Doctor Funkenstein". Really! 

Alas, poor Clara Oswald gets Zygonized. To be honest, Clara being a Zygon for most of the episode was not a big surprise. But wow, Jenna Coleman does a great slow fade from innocent Clara to not so innocent Zygon duplicate named Bonnie. 

And Kate Stewart gets replaced by a Zygon...again. Except...I don't think so. Yeah, I'm thinking Kate overcame the Zygon in New Mexico and is pretending to be Zygonized.  

And there's more I would like to cover but the hour is late and sleep is pounding on my door. Suffice to say, this was a taunt thriller of an episode with some high stakes real world messages attached. Will real world politics enhance or hinder this new Doctor Who adventure as we head into part 2? Let's see if writer, cast and crew can keep this flying straight as we head into next week. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

Dave-El 

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You