(TW: suicide)
Good morning, and welcome to my weekly look at Doctor Who. Today we'll be reliving and reviewing The Zygon Inversion, the second part of what is essentially the 4th straight 2 part story this series. It looks like we have 2 single stories coming up, followed by a 2 part finale.
Before the review, a redcap...though it looks like the tweet has come down, Stephen Moffat has said this about the rumours that next series will be a year of specials followed by Capaldi's departure:
"For now, here is Moffat on what Doctor Who season 10 is going to look like:
We’re making a full series. I can confirm that. I’m making a full series of 12 episodes, plus a Christmas special. I don’t know when it goes out. That’s up to someone else. And even if I did know – which I genuinely don’t – I wouldn’t be allowed to say so as I have absolutely no say in it whatsoever. [But] it’s not being reduced in size. We’re not making fewer episodes. That’s all complete bunk. I can confirm that absolutely."
This is a relief for me, especially as I feel this year Capaldi has finally gotten consistent stories of quality that suit him and his skills very well. This two parter is no exception, as he was phenomenal in it.
So, preface being preface, let's dive in.
You know the rules. This is spoiler-filled, so if no watch, no read till watch. My blog version gets fully illustrated with screenies, but if you want the nitty gritty, read the FB version.
Here we go down the rabbit hole. Or is that Zygon hole?
The first thing we need to do is conclude the cliffhanger from last week...and a proper cliffhanger it was. It turns out the first SFM misses the plane...but how exactly? Well, in a feat of will, Clara starts waking up in her Zygon pod and realises something is wrong. She finds herself in a nightmare of sorts where nothing is right. She goes to brush her teeth, and the toothpaste is black. And then she can hear the Doctor's phone call through her television. And she gets to hear herself say she's dead. She tries to escape, only to find the classic nightmare scenario...doors and windows are covered over and inescapable.
Zygon!Clara readies to take another show, and Clara realises she can change the outcome...or hopes she can...because she's waking up and can possibly exert some kind of control over her duplicate. She tries to control the trigger finger, and does so for an admirable time. Unfortunately, she gets overridden at the last second, and the airplane, the doctor, and Osgood are blown to smithereens.
We come back from the credits to see a man with grocery bags running an abject terror from a tunnel while a workman sweeps up the still arcing remains of some poor souls who got killed by Zygons. And who to my wondering eyes should appear from the tunnel by Zygon!Clara without 8 tiny reindeer, but every bit as driven. The take away from this week and last is that Jenna Coleman does evil very very well, which has be very worried about the final two episodes and the end of her tenure.
Anyway our guy gets to his apartment and tries to hide, but Clara breaks the door down and faces down the man. She tells him that she knows what he is, and then after some frantic arguing, touched the man's temples, forcing him to transform into Zygon shape and run off. Zygon!Clara gets on the phone and announces that the first one has been changed, and that she will now go to unit to retrieve the Osgood box.
And the pace ratchets up.
Meanwhile, in Clara's dream world, she watches the presidential jet get blown up. A careful freeze frame reveals something Zygon!Clara could not have expected...two parachutes escaping the jet. It looks like the Doctor and Osgood made it out (a yay from the cheering section, please), and that is some small comfort. Now that Clara knows he's alive, she can try and use her new found power over her duplicate for good.
Meanwhile, on a beach, Osgood and the Doctor recover from their landings. Osgood is in shock, and alas, her glasses are broken. We also find that the Doctor's parachute is a Union Jack, because why not? Also, because of camouflage...they're in the UK, so a UK parachute fits in. Interesting logic. As he sees Osgood's glasses are broken, he quickly offers her the use of his, and begs her not to check his browser history...which she does immediately, of course, being Osgood.
The Doctor and Osgood have a lovely discussion about how the Doctor would be killed if Osgood were in charge...bullet between the eyes, 12 times if necessary, which is kind of spooky considering she's a big fan of the Doctor. The Doctor is still worried like hell about Clara, however, and for good reason.
We see Clara making weird hand motions, which Zygon!Clara mimics in real life on her mobile. As this is going on, Osgood wants to know why this group of Zygons wants to destroy the ceasefire, and the Doctor goes monologues about the ideas of xenophobia, radicals, and the difference between the radicalised ones and the ones who just want to live in peace. Just then a text comes through from Clara alerting the doctor and Osgood that she's awake. The Doctor speaks lovingly of her, admiring her strength, when Osgood pieces it together...Clara isn't dead, she's trying to exert control piece by peace. The Doctor isn't fully relieved by this is seems, but the two head off.
Zygon!Clara makes her way to UNIT to retrieve the Osgood box, but not before a strange things happens. To whit...she passes a mirror, where her reflection is Clara in the dream world. She passes the mirror again, and she's 'normal again.' Either way, she goes over to a portrait of the First Doctor (!), opens a safe behind it, and gets a laptop. How did it stay charged so long, Julie wonders? Anyway, Clara opens it up to a video from the Osgoods, reveling their duplicity...the box exists, but it's not there and they won't say where it is.
And Clara flips out, tossing the laptop and breaking it to bits.
The Doctor and Osgood...or John Disco and Osgood, ask for some help from the constables, before realising that they are Zygons as well, and they set off quickly. Osgood calls Clara who answers, and we get some lovely dialogue between the doctor and Zygella (I love that name, and will use it henceforth), including typical Doctor wordplay and punning. When Zygella starts winking (another signal from Clara), we get the lovely like 'I'm over 2000 years old...I'm old enough to be your messiah!' The Doctor engages in some reverse psychology voodoo, telling Clara exactly what to tell Zygella by telling her not to tell her.
At first the Doctor has wonderful words for London, but by the time they get there, his optimism has turned to pessimism, declaring it a dump, and the complaining about being locked up, kidnapped, shot at, and allsorts. She enter the building that Zygella and the scared man entered before and find a shop, because every place has to have a little shop. Our scared man is there, and he repeatedly threatens to kill the doctor, holding back each time, all the while being begged to allow Osgood and the Doctor to help. And in what I think may be a first in the series, the man commits suicide.
Meanwhile Zygella returns to pod central and enters into a conversation with Clara. She threatens to kill her, and Clara once again tries to call her bluff...only she's dealing with herself, who knows she's calling her bluff. She questions Clara, finally diving the location of the Osgood box, and uttering one of the most chilling line I have heard regarding the coming war against humanity: 'then we will die in the fire instead of living in chains.'...and then wants her killed. Unfortunately for her, Clara tells her that once she gets there, she'll want to talk to Clara again, so reluctantly, Zygella gives the order to take her pod to the Black Archive...and Kate Stewart and her guards return, reporting back from North America. Zygella announces her intent to go to the Black Archive, and commands Kate Stewart to capture the Doctor, duplicate him if possible, and then kill him.
The Doctor continues to ask Osgood whether she's human or Zygon, to which Osgood continually replies Osgood. It may matter to the Doctor, but it doesn't matter to Osgood, and I think that's an important point to be made.
Kate catches up with the Doctor, who is almost certain that she's a Zygon duplicate, and agrees to follow her to where Clara's pod is. Zygella makes it to the Black Archive, and with a typical villain monologue, enters. Meanwhile in pod central, the Doctor and company find the Clara pod missing, and realises that he's been placed in a trap...only for Kate to kill both the Zygon guards. Turns out she's the real Kate anyway, and the Doctor asks how she got free, she gets to utter her father's famous like: "Five rounds, rapid."
Zygella finds the Osgood box, but still hasn't figured out why Clara said she'd want to speak to her. As she enters the room, it's obvious, and more obvious why it's called the Osgood Box.
There's two of them.
After threatening the Doctor with Clara's death, the Doctor finally reveals that the blue box normalises all the Zygons. She opens it, and finds not 1 button but two...truth or consequences. Incensed, she opens the red box and finds the same...a box within a box, so to speak.
The Doctor finally faces down Zygella, and the meat of the episode begins. We realise just how far the Zygon duplicating Clara has gone...she doesn't care if she wins or loses, all she cares for is panic, bloodshed, and if she cannot win, then death in glory and fire. She's the ultimate analogue to the modern day radical, who dares speak for all of their kind as if they know the minds and thoughts of everyone. She is the radical who causes us to hate and fear the different, when 99% of the different are just like 99% of us...scared, clinging to the skin of a planet, and just wanting to live.
Cracking dialogue between the Doctor and Zygella, each blaming the other for this situation. Safeguards beyond safeguards, which Zygella decries as wrong and not fair...the bleatings of a petulant child who isn't getting her way, and the doctor acting like a sideshow huckster or game show host. In fact, he's accused of playing this like a game, which leads him into one of two amazing monologues. In the first, he rails against cruelty, cruelty begetting cruelty, and the cycle it creates. 'The only way anyone can live in peace is if they are prepared to forgive,' the doctor says, in a line that is truly truly his.
The second monologue begins after Zygella states simply that she wants war. The Doctor is the last man to say that to. If 10 was the Man who Regrets and 11 was the Man who Forgets, Twelve is the Man who Remembers...every decision, every death, and it's driven him to make sure the same never happens again....driven him to the point of almost madness, it seems.
He points out that the two boxes are not a game, after being accused to playing both Kate and Zygella for fools. It's a scale model of war...every war. Divested of any responsibility, of any need to see the pain inflicted in others, it is the Milgram experiment writ large. Buttons without consequences. Decisions without repercussions. Just push a button, and it's all over, one way or another.
Kate is the first to blink...closing her box, and apologising to the Doctor for her part. Zygella finally stands down, and the Doctor, to ensure no one remembers, blanks Kate's memories...retaining Zygella's. When asked why, The Doctor explains that he's been where she was, in front of a box that with a button push would have killed billions upon billions, but for the fact that Clara got into his head and stopped him. Clara's in Zygella's head too, now, and the doctor hopes it is enough to soften her and show her a better way.
Zygella announces through central command that the insurrection has been put down, and the ceasefire is back in place.
The Doctor, Clara and Osgood make their way back to the TARDIS, and Osgood asks what it means. The Doctor, incredulous, gives her his answer: Totally ad Radically Driving in Space. And then he asks the question we've all wanted since the special...he asks Osgood to come along with, as a companion. And I squeed, hoping she would. Even Clara was smiling, knowing it was a great idea. More than anything she wants to go, but she thinks she has to stay, to keep the earth protected.
The Doctor asks the question again of Osgood...human or Zygon? Osgood once again says she's me, but she'll answer the question one day...when the answer no longer matters. Suddenly a second Osgood appears, dressed in a Seventh Doctor duffle coat, tie, scarf and jumper. Julie's inner 7th Doctor fangirl lost it at this point, and I'm pretty sure I stated crying.
We then get a shocker...The Doctor reveals all this has been going on over the course of a month...the loneliest month of his life. His voice is quiet, somber, almost broken as hesays 'I'll be the judge of time. He sets coordinates, engages the TARDIS, and walks off out of the console room, leaving Clara alone and confused.
Meanwhile, the Osgoods agree to go for ice creams, then back to work defending the Earth. A puff on their inhalers, and the walk off.
End credits.
There was only one way for this episode to end, and it was this. It took all the themes from last week and closed them up as best as possible. The thing is, and I know the Doctor knows this, is that peace is never permanent, unfortunately, because some new radical group will come to destabilise, whether it's organic or sanctioned or created to further a plan. This was a victory, but it was a small one. In the end...no one wants to die, they're just told to, and they do so out of fear, not out of hope.
Every actor was superb. Jenna Coleman and Ingrid Oliver were great in dual roles. The Doctor finally got his defining speeches, and Capaldi put his mark in the book. This was his episode, and he rose tot he occasion with amazingness. Jemma Redgrave went from subtlety to subtlety gracefully and wonderfully.
And the script? I was worried when I saw Moffat had co-written, but I think it lived up to the high standards of last week.
This is 8 straight solid very good to excellent episodes.
I'm glad there'll be a full series 10. If it is as strong as this,...if it is as strong as this.
