The Zygon Inversion

I’m going to set you free. Humans cannot accept the way we really are. If we cannot hide we must fight.

Bonnie

Synopsis

Shapeshifting Zygons are everywhere in the UK, and there is no way of knowing who to trust. With UNIT neutralised, only the Doctor stands in their way. But how do you stop a war? And what can the Doctor do to save his friends?

Review

The Zygon Inversion manages to improve on the first part of the Zygon two-parter, following from the solid but unspectacular The Zygon Invasion. The resolutions of the cliffhangers are relatively straightforward and don’t involve any trickery, temporal or otherwise.

Compared to some of the other two-part stories in Series 9, The Zygon Inversion feels a lot more conventional, as the story doesn’t play around structurally. However, it feels almost as though the usual order of the parts has been subverted giving us the quieter and more contemplative part as the concluding part, as opposed to the usual bombastic conclusions that we are used to, which is what happens in The Zygon Invasion. The story is not subtle in its condemnation of aggression and war, but it works really well and feels in keeping for the characters involved, allowing it to work organically rather than feeling as though it has been shoehorned in. The reveal of the truth of the Osgood boxes and the fact that they do not contain anything at all could undermine the story considerably, but it is well put in well and resolved so cleverly that the story does not suffer as a result. The fact that the Doctor is able to get both Bonnie and Kate to stand down through words alone stresses the importance of words and the importance of trying to find a solution through diplomacy. The story reflects on this earlier than the speech, with Osgood stating that, if she were invading the Earth, she would shoot the Doctor as many times as she had to before he could start talking.

It’s also a story that explores what may happen to the Zygons caught in the middle of humanity and the rebel Zygons, by giving us the character of Etoine, a Zygon disguised as a human who Bonnie forces to change in one of the story’s more effective moments of body horror, and ultimately kills himself rather than be stuck in a limbo between his two forms. This is a position that rarely gets put across in the invasion stories that Doctor Who sets out – we’re usually presented with a unified front of enemies prepared to invade, rather than being shown that there are those who would rather not be at war at all, which is ultimately the reality of any war.

With Clara sidelined, this story allows for Osgood to slot into the vacant companion role for this story, which is another element that works really well and Ingrid Oliver and Capaldi bounce off each other really nicely, in so much that it is a shame that she turns down the offer to travel with him and, that this is to date the last time we’ve had Osgood appear on screen. At the end of the story, she and Bonnie, now also in the form of Osgood and having been won over by the Doctor’s speech, is there to ensure that the ceasefire between humanity and the Zygons stands. Kate’s role in the story is rather more minimal than her scientific advisor’s but equally crucial. She banks on the Zygons being complacent that they would have been able to kill the real Kate in New Mexico as being crucial to getting her back to the Doctor and the Black Archive. I know that there are some who dislike the call back to ‘five rounds rapid’, but I think it is a nice nod to her father. Jemma Redgrave is a solid addition to the show as Kate, and it is good that the show has continued to use her moving beyond the Moffat era – I was concerned, especially following Resolution that we would not see her again. I would say that she hasn’t had the opportunity to do much since her early appearances, but I hope that she is given a bit more to do when she appears opposite the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors in future.

Peter Capaldi delivers a masterclass of a performance in this episode, capped off with that fantastic speech about the futility of war to Bonnie and Kate in the Black Archive. The story allows that speech to really breathe and lets Capaldi’s acting do the talking, even cutting any incidental music until quite late on. It’s a well-written speech and can be seen to be an example of the show getting a message across effectively and within the confines of the story. There are a lot of different elements to the speech, and it is difficult to imagine any actor being able to sell all of them convincingly, especially given aspects like the American game show host. Other incarnations of the Doctor would be able to sell various aspects of the speech, Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor is the perfect one to do so. He’s far enough removed from the horrors of the Time War that when he brings up the events and deaths he has witnessed it really hits home, combined with the subtle reintroduction of the music. Peter Capaldi is utterly captivating throughout this story and I think he is clearly having a great time in this story.

So you must have thought I was dead for a while?

Yeah.

How was that?

Longest month of my life.

It could only have been five minutes.

I’ll be the judge of time.

Clara Oswald and the Twelfth Doctor

Jenna Coleman is really superb here too in the role of Bonnie, the leader of the rogue faction of Zygons. With Clara separated from the Doctor, it allows for her to retain a presence in the story, whilst also allowing the production team to continue to seed the idea that Clara is not going to be around much longer and trying to get the audience used to that idea, something which Series 9 has been playing with in different ways. When the Doctor and Clara are finally reunited and have come to terms with the events of this story, the Doctor tells her how long it feels like they were apart for. Capaldi gives such a small and subtle glance as he sets the TARDIS into flight which I really love. I really like the scenes set inside Clara’s Zygon pod, complete with the reassuring label of the tube of ‘toothpaste’ and the askew angles that director Daniel Nettheim uses to let the audience know that something is awry are a nice touch. The power struggle between Bonnie and Clara at the top of the story works really well, and it is nice to see Clara’s cockiness undermined and exploited by Bonnie when she realises how to get the truth out of her and get to the Black Archive.

Verdict: The Zygon Inversion is a great example of a story improving on a disappointing opening part, helped by a tour de force performance by Peter Capaldi. 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald), Jenna Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood), Nicolas Asbury (Etoine) and Aidan Cook, Tom Wilton & Jack Parker (Zygons).

Writer: Peter Harness and Steven Moffat

Director: Daniel Nettheim

Producer: Peter Bennett

Composer: Murray Gold

Original Broadcast Date: 7 November 2015

Cast Notes

• Nicholas Asbury has appeared in a number of Big Finish productions, including The Silurian Candidate and Colony of Fear.

Best Moment

There’s a lot of good stuff in The Zygon Inversion, but ultimately, it can only be that speech. Well-written, well performed and beautifully directed.

Best Quote

This is a scale model of war! Every war ever fought, right there in front of you! Because it’s always the same! When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who’s going to die! You don’t know whose children are going to scream and burn! How many hearts will be broken! How many lives shattered! How much blood will spill until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: Sit — down — and — talk! Listen to me, listen, I just– I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It’s just a fancy word for changing your mind!

I will not change my mind.

Then you will die stupid! Alternatively, you could step away from that box, you can walk right out of that door and you could stand your revolution down.

No. I’m not stopping this, Doctor. I started it, I will not stop it. You think they’ll let me go, after what I’ve done?!

You’re all the same, you screaming kids, you know that? “Look at me, I’m unforgivable.” Well, here’s the unforeseeable: I forgive you! After all you’ve done… I forgive you.

You don’t understand. You will never understand.

I don’t understand? Are you kidding? Me? Of course I understand. I mean, d’you call this a war, this funny little thing? This is not a war! I fought in a bigger war than you will ever know! I did worse things than you could ever imagine, and when I close my eyes… I hear more screams than anyone could ever be able to count! And do you know what you do with all that pain? Shall I tell you where you put it? You hold it tight… till it burns your hand, and you say this: No one else will ever have to live like this! No one else will have to feel this pain! Not on my watch!

The Twelfth Doctor and Bonnie

Previous Twelfth Doctor review: The Zygon Invasion

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