Writer: Peter Harness
Director: Daniel Nettheim
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Ingrid Oliver, Jemma Redgrave, Rebecca Front
Synopsis: With the Doctor’s plane shot out of the sky and Clara Oswald presumed dead at the hands of a rogue Zygon, all hope seems lost. As the rebel Zygons continue their search for the Osgood box to disrupt the ceasefire, it appears war is inevitable…
Verdict:
I’ll preface this review with an admission: unlike fellow Doctor Who blogger Matt, I wasn’t so struck with the show’s political allegories in last week’s The Zygon Invasion. Like later seasons of The Simpsons, attempting to relate the script to specific current affairs might inflate its relevance at the time of airing, but reduces its capability for repeat viewings to zero. In essence, the show loses its timelessness.
Thankfully, the second half of this entertaining two-parter goes some way to rectifying that issue in its superb climax – but more on that later. For now, let’s discuss the real stars of The Zygon Inversion. It seems odd to have to highlight the performances of a show’s two lead actors as something unnatural, but Doctor Who has suffered lately from not giving Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman much chance to show off.
The Zygon Inversion remedies that wholeheartedly. Regular Clara once again gets very little to do – the show’s response to comments of her stealing the limelight has apparently been to omit her entirely – but Jenna Coleman excels as Evil Clara (or should that be Bonnie?) throughout the episode. From scheming leader to petulant child, she has more opportunity to showcase her range in 42 minutes than she’s had for the past two seasons.
It’s just a shame that range doesn’t extend back to Regular Clara – whether by virtue of Coleman or the script – though that will at least make her impending departure easier to swallow; something which The Zygon Inversion almost makes us wish wasn’t coming. Almost.
Peter Capaldi’s Doctor has had less of a fraught season than Clara, with more chance to settle into the role (but really, he’s had almost two seasons now, and just look how much of an impact Christopher Eccleston had with a mere 13 episodes). Nevertheless, The Zygon Inversion’s climactic stand-off just might be Capaldi’s magnum opus as the Doctor.
As Matt wisely noted last week, Petronella (!) Osgood’s plot-driven inclusion here is far more welcome than the fan-service role she’s played previously, particularly considering it forms the basis of Bonnie and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s head-to-head. The Osgood box transcends its status as a mere MacGuffin to become the foundation of the Doctor’s powerful speech on the futility of war.
While this is ground which has been well-trodden before, it doesn’t matter: largely because here, it’s done so much better than even the 50th anniversary managed. Speaking of which, this two-parter neatly ties up those loose Zygon-related threads, while still leaving that air of mystery around Osgood’s true form – both of them (again). It’s hard not to question her logic about never seeing the Doctor smile, though; he smiled plenty in the 50th (at least, Tennant and Smith did) and Capaldi even smiled earlier this episode.
The Zygons, meanwhile, continue to be such a daft character design hangover from the classic series that they have to spend most of this episode disguised as humans. But while The Zygon Inversion isn’t perfect, it still packs enough of a powerful punch into its set pieces to become – at least in this writer’s opinion – perhaps the series’ stand-out episode.
Best Bit:
The Zygon ‘exposed’ by Bonnie who just wants to live in peace. His suicide carries plenty of relevant political commentary without being too on the nose about it, and really hammers home the effects of even just the threat of war on a race with everything to lose. It’s only a brief moment that doesn’t really gel with the rest of the script – and perhaps would have been better placed in last week’s episode – but its impact is no less because of that.
Best Line(s):
The Doctor: What’s your name?
Osgood: Osgood.
The Doctor: No no no, your first name.
Osgood: Well, what’s your first name?
The Doctor: …Basil.
Osgood: Petronella.
The Doctor: …let’s just stick with what we have.
Doctor Who continues on BBC One next Saturday. Be sure to check out our review straight after here on THN.
