Tag: zygon

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Essay

The Zygon Invasion: Error of the Zygons

More than just nostalgia, “The Zygon Invasion” is a study of contrasts of modern and classic era Who. It follows Terror of the Zygons much better than “Day of the Doctor.”

Part of the show’s longevity is its ability to express its premise with different types of stories. Most of new Who stories fall into “soft” escapist space fantasy; the primary emphasis is action, humor, and romance. My preference is “hard” science fiction that speculates technology’s effect onour human condition. Rather than escape from reality, these stories mercilessly embrace political corruption, class warfare, race and gender roles, crime, violence, and more. Examples of classic Who stories include “The War Machines,” “The Enemy of the World,” “Inferno,” “The Robots of Death,” and “The Caves of Androzani.”

Right off the bat, Peter Harness rips the politically flimsy human/Zygon detente in “The Day of the Doctor.” For a sci-fi/fantasy show, this is as topical as Three Days of the Condor. It explores the consequences of allowing millions of the shape-shifting aliens to secretly settle among us. The tension between the “off the boaters” and younger Zygons is consistent with children of Jewish and Irish immigrants who saw a big difference between the American Dream and ghetto reality of the early 1900s. “The Zygon Invasion” covers the same human/alien immigrant theme of the 1980s show Alien Nation (without the harsher social indictment of District 9.)

The focus on real world events to tell a hard science fiction story is a welcome change from new Who‘s tear-jerking fairy tales. In execution, however, that realism is undermined by gaping plot holes and genre convention. The Zygon’s year-long campaign to neutralize UNIT seems to only affect the troops; technicians, administrators and managers are unaccounted for.

When compared to modern audience media access, new Who‘s politics—especially UNIT—are under written. Moffat, and previous show runner Russell T. Davies, gave nods to diversity by casting all women in authority positions. This seems progressive until the Doctor berates them like an angry, old, white man. The tenth Doctor deposes Harriet Jones, the democratically elected Prime Minister, in “The Christmas Invasion.” Here and in “Day of the Doctor,” Kate Stewart simply isn’t allowed to act on her own opinions. This approach certainly wouldn’t haveworked on the Brig. Part of what made “The Sontaran Stratagem” great was Colonel Mace using the Doctor as a scientific advisor, then beating the Sontarans with his own solution.

The wasted potential of Kate Stewart is disappointing. Showing her make tough decisions in chaotic situations would go a long way to defining her character. Classic Who usually got this part right; Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart always had someone to answer to, not enough resources, and wasin a constant love/hate relationship with the Doctor. In contrast, Kate doesn’t seem to have much character beyond speeches. And why the hell did she wear zebra-striped pumps? That’s more improbable than hunting for Zygons by herself in Mexico.

Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry

How did I miss that Doctor Harry Sullivan created Zee-67, the Zygon-killing nerve gas? He certainly looked angry enough to do it at the end of Terror of the Zygons. Either following orders or his own initiative to protect Earth without the Doctor, the Brigadier would have authorized UNIT to experiment on captured aliens.

Mundane realism got displaced by sci-fi adventure, but there’s plenty of room for both.

Sandeep, the lost boy in the hallway, is an example of new Who writing laziness. He doesn’t look frightened, sad, angry, or worried. He’s just an actor reading lines. If he was a Zygon participating in the trap to get Clara, his Zygon acting coach would be embarassed. Basing this scene on actual child behavior would not have ruined the episode. Like most new Who kids, however, he’s an adorable little device for Clara to look compassionate and get in the apartment.

Jenna as Clara as Bonnie
Jenna as Clara as Bonnie

After watching a second time, there are clues to Clara being a Zygon after the apartment scene. The Doctor and Jac look horrified by the execution of the Zygon High Command; Clara looks bored. Wanting to “swing by home and grab a couple of things” seemed odd even to Jac. In the elevator, her hand position is way too deliberate. Jenna Coleman turns in the best evil twin performance since Patrick Troughton in “Enemy of the World.” These behaviors, however, would have been more jarring if the real Clara were written better. The Doctor had no trouble spotting imposters for Martha (“Sontaran Stratagem”) and Amy (“The Almost People”).

When did the Doctor become an expert on political revolutions? He normally takes off from a battle, usually surrounded by destruction and bodies, leaving reconstruction to others. The Doctor’s aftermaths usually look like Team America: World Police. Whenever asked to stay, the Doctor runs to that TARDIS so fast his feet kicks his own behind. His constant running is a theme in the classic and modern eras…and even this season. Perhaps 2,000 years of conflict have given him “back seat driver” ideals. “…radicalize the lot. That’s exactly what the splinter group wants” is an accurate assessment, but should have been said by Jac.

Twelve is still trying to resolve Three’s losses with Silurians, who were killed by UNIT in Doctor Who and The Silurians. Three called it murder, but the plot was logistically complicated. The Brig couldn’t see that the Doctor’s solution didn’t work, and the last Silurian was about to revive the others to launch a full-scale attack on humans. That situation was closer to Japan not surrendering until getting bombed. The Doctor who said “Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones. But you still have to choose” in “Mummy on the Orient Express” would understand this.

How did the Zygons extend the elevator shaft below the apartment building basement? They don’t have TARDIS-like transcendental dimension technology, so this extension would be 100% physical. It would take months, be loud, and shake the building. Perhaps there were enough militant Zygonsto infiltrate local government, disguising the task as replacing water and sewage pipes.

In Summary

“The Zygon Invasion” was entertaining, thoughtful and ambitious. The cinematography was outstanding, especially the outdoor Mexico scene and Zygon interiors. Considering the padding needed to get to the cliffhanger, director Daniel Nettheim paced the story he had extremely well. He certainly made the most of Jenna Coleman, who must’ve channeled her Christina Ricci as Wednesday Adams. Her portrayal of feminine evil is more effective and less exaggerated than Michelle Gomez as Missy.

A more realistic setting would have made it even better, pushing the Doctor into ethical conflict. How would he react to his advice being ignored, or to the possibility of being wrong?

TARDIS Bits

Since this is a week late, I obviously ran out of time. Shut up.

  • Why do the letters of USA have long pauses between them in the typewritten intro?
  • The family trick doesn’t make sense. It shouldn’t’ve worked. Hitchley’s “mother” deliberately evaded his questions. Benton would have fired.
  • The Doctor still preaches peace, while benefitting from guns and bloodshed.
  • Finding Osgood was too well timed. So is the bombing. How the hell did Osgood and the Doctor survive but the Zygon get killed?
  • The Zygons evolving their powersis fantastic.
  • “My name is, well, you can call me the Doctor” perfectly exposes his hypocrisy.
  • Did evil Clara deliberately reveal the real Clara’s pod? She looks sadistically gleeful at the deaths.
  • Why is evil Clara called “Bonnie?”
Categories
Essay

Zygon Inversion: Break the Cycle

War, what is it good for? Whether it be between two people, entire countries, or between races of beings…absolutely nothing. “The only way anyone can live in peace, is if they’re prepared to forgive.”

Clara has found herself within a dream before. She knows what to do. “Dream checks” we hear her saying as she flips through an unreadable paper where she finds a message from the Doctor and the ominous words that have been with us since last episode — truth or consequences. Those words may have added psychological weight to every fan in the Whodom. Who among us will not carry them within?

Following Clara’s dream check she turns to see Bonnie ready to blast the Doctor’s plane from the sky. She is able to knock her off balance and the shot misses. Despite Clara’s attempts to manipulate the trigger when Bonnie reloads and takes second aim, Bonnie was able to overcome the mind meld and hit her target. Short and surreal, the opening sequence left us wondering how the Doctor would manage to get out of this fine mess.

In the Mix

Bonnie is on a mission to convert all Zygons back to their original form. We find her following an unfortunate shape-shifted Zygon to make him the first that humans will see in Zygon form. Still, if he is going to be the first to “make the humans see” why is it that the four unsuspecting young people who are confronted by the Zygon act as if they cannot see him at all? There is no reaction, no movement, no recognition of anything out of the ordinary as the Zygon stumbles off. In the background we can see a mother and father with a baby carriage who are also still as statues. I’m making the assumption that Bonnie had this set up for video purposes. One would think, however, that a video would have been more effective if the “normalized” Zygon would have caused panic to the bystanders. At this point all that was missing was a white, corded earpiece for Bonnie and my flashback to Agent Smith in The Matrix would have been complete.

In Clara’s stuck-in-her-flat lucid dream, she is able to zoom in on the television screen and see two parachutes drifting away from the in-air wreckage. It’s a good thing that time is timey-wimey because I’m not sure how the Doctor and Osgood got their parachutes on so quickly. But they’re lucky that they did as they appear to be the only survivors. They touch down on a beach and the Doctor climbs from a Union Jack parachute, ala James Bond, and hands over his sonic glasses for Osgood to use since hers were broken when she landed. He warns her not to look at his browser history. Of course we all want to know what is in the Doctor’s browser history now. If only we could get a peek through those sonics.

Osgood speculates at Bonnie’s misfire, certain that her connection to Clara’s mind would instill the knowledge that there should be no hesitation in killing the Doctor. The Doctor, still in “hope phase,” doesn’t want to talk about Clara, doesn’t want to think about the possibility that she may be dead. Without the stereotypical romance aspect of relationship, we are, perhaps, better able to see loved stripped to the bare core — deep, still unexplainable, and always present. Yet, isn’t that in its essence romantic? Maybe…maybe romance is more than our attachment to the concept of a relationship that includes sexual intimacy.

Clara is busy focusing on a mind meld that will allow her to contact the Doctor. The Impossible Girl is always, of course, successful and texts a message to the Doctor stating that she is “awake.” He is sharing his view of the revolutionaries with Osgood, describing them in this way: “Don’t think of them as rational, they’re different. They don’t care about human beings. They don’t care about their own people. They think the rest of Zygonkind are traitors,” when his text sound is heard. He doesn’t believe that it could really be Clara, but Osgood does. Ok, it’s a theory, but Osgood believes it.

What Bonnie hasn’t yet understood is how mentally strong Clara is or how Clara has been able to infiltrate her. She does a double-take when walking by a mirror where Clara’s reflection appeared. Bonnie is in search of the Osgood box to break the ceasefire and finds a video. The video reveals that the Osgoods have lied and the box is not at the location it was thought to be. “There’s a reason it’s called the Osgood box,” they tell us. How many of you had, by that point, figured out that there were two boxes?

Bonnie throws a childish temper tantrum and smashes the computer. Doctor John Disco is flashing psychic paper at unresponsive people until he figures out that something is not right and he and Osgood walk away. Osgood calls Bonnie on Clara’s phone, which is a set-up to get a message to Clara. The Doctor refers to Bonnie as Zygella, a name that she denies. The strange, unresponsive people are closing in on the Doctor and Osgood, and since a van just happens to be parked on the deserted road, a car theft via sonic sunglasses seems to be exactly what the Doctor ordered. Before you continue to groan at my phraseology, at least I didn’t call myself Dr. Puntastic.

Set-ups

At first it appears that Bonnie/Zygella seems to have no idea that the Doctor is communicating with Clara. He becomes blatant when he tells Clara not to let Bonnie get to her memories. After he hangs up, Osgood reminds him that Bonnie heard everything he said. “The mind of Clara Oswald, she’ll never find her way out,” The Doctor says and smiles.

The Doctor used the non-verbal communication he talked about to find Clara and set up Bonnie, and Clara understood. She knew just what to do again. Now that’s a companion. Bonnie goes straight to Clara’s pod to get to the memories. Clara plays her like a fiddle. It’s likely that potential protocol for the nightmare scenario had been discussed previously. The Doctor’s no dummy.

He is, however, fixated on whether Osgood is human or Zygon. In fact he feels that it’s important. Osgood maintains that she is just…Osgood. Osgood with a first name of Petronella (rock, solid), which she revealed after the Doctor threw out that his first name was Basil. Basil is a Greek name that means royal or kingly — fitting, yes? But is it really his first name?

We last saw Kate Lethbridge Stewart in Truth Or Consequences, NM. We thought she was dead. But is she? When she shows up, it appears that the Doctor thinks she may be a Zygon shape-shifter too, but he and Osgood follow her to find Clara’s pod. Once there, they find the pod missing. Bonnie finds two Osgood boxes. Kate contacts her to say she has the Doctor and Bonnie tells her to keep him alive, which Kate questions. When the Doctor and Osgood realize that the guards who had been with Kate were Zygon, Kate reacts by shooting them dead after Bonnie issues an ultimatum for the normalized guards to bring the Doctor to her. In answer to the question of how Kate survived, we see a flashback to Truth or Consequences — she shot the Zygon there, too. Kate apologizes, knowing the Doctor doesn’t approve. “Why does peace keeping always involve killing?” he asks. So far, it appears that the set-ups are all around. Either the Doctor, Kate, and Clara are amazingly good guessers or they’re brilliant strategists — or both.

The Final Countdown

“This is war. You pull the trigger. You may the price.” Now we have two boxes, one Bonnie, and one Kate, and Kate and Bonnie are on opposite sides of the issue. The Doctor, as usual, is in the middle. He launches into an approximately ten minute speech on the horrors of war — and he’s damn good at evoking emotion. “When you’ve killed all the bad guys and when it’s all perfect and just and fair, when you have finally got it exactly the way you want it, what are you going to do with the people like you — the trouble makers? How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one?” He asks Zygella. After her response that they will win, he concludes:

“Maybe you will win, but nobody wins for long…break the cycle.”

Basil has put the ultimate set-up in place, showing small-scale warfare contained in one room. The Doctor wants so desperately to be able to stop people from making the same mistake he did. I flash back to “The Day of the Doctor,” where both ten and eleven keep the double Kate’s in a room, waiting for one of them to call off detonation of explosives.

Then, this man who professes that he is not in touch with emotions, shows how well he can read eyes and expression, how much he recognizes Clara’s emotions when he sees them in Zygella’s eyes and on her face.

Following her surrender to logic and emotion, Zygella takes Osgood form and the Doctor tries one last time to figure out if one of the Osgoods is human. Their response is that they’ll tell him one day…”when nobody cares about the answer.”

Back in the TARDIS, Clara asks him how he felt when he thought that she may have been dead. His response: “Longest month of my life.” Clara is surprised and says that it couldn’t have been more than five minutes. “I’ll be the judge of time,” he replies. Minutes of loss can easily drain us of days, weeks, or longer.

End Notes

Why does the Doctor wipe Kate’s memory clean but no one else’s, with the exception of the Zygon soldiers? Why not Zygella’s memory as well?

Jenna Coleman puts in a superb performance as Bonnie/Zygella and as Clara Oswald in this two-parter. Peter Capaldi is more than on point with his performance. The war speech is long, but it is commanding, intense, and thought-provoking.

The depth of care between the Doctor and Clara deepens with each episode this season. We know that Clara is leaving; therefore, it makes sense, on the one hand, that the writers would build on this emotion progressing toward a profound loss. On the other hand, why wait until this season to punch this home? We are shown the potential for loss when the Doctor thinks Clara may be dead. What we see is love. Fiction mirrors life and, unfortunately, many may never realize their  love or the potential pain of its loss, until loss actually happens. In the Doctor’s case, “luck” reversed the probability of death. In reality, most of us don’t get that reprieve. Care now.

Both “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion” make global statements that relate to current events, the macrocosm. That is a clear and necessary point. Yet, we’d likely be doing ourselves a disservice if we didn’t also see the microcosm. Every day we interact interpersonally, relating person-to-person, frequently fighting our own mini wars and/or mini cold wars. One of the most poignant speech quotes is this: “The only way anyone can live in peace, is if they’re prepared to forgive.”

Sit down and talk, the Doctor demands of the characters (and, in truth, of us). Otherwise, “You will die stupid,” he says to Zygella. Why do many of us not yet realize this?

Categories
Essay

Zygon Invasion: It’s A Bonnie Day Indeed?

Peter Capaldi presents continuing evidence that he is growing into the 12th Doctor’s regeneration through superb performances in his own style. Jenna Coleman (aka the Impossible Girl) is, perhaps, having her best Series yet!

“Once upon a time…there were three doctors, two Osgoods, one peace treaty.” After these words scroll our screen, we are launched into a clip from the fiftieth anniversary special, “The Day of the Doctor.” We first met the fangirl Osgood during this special. She believed in the Doctor’s deity and prayed to him to keep her safe. Osgood became a favorite character for Who fans and her apparent death at the hand of Missy during “Death in Heaven” was a blow to viewers. “The Day of the Doctor” brought back the Zygons, who had not been seen since the 1975 4th Doctor serial, “Terror of the Zygons.” Though Cybermen have gone through many incarnations throughout Doctor Who‘s long and successful run, the Zygons have not changed much since 1975.

Zygon invasion4

Following “The Day of the Doctor” clip we find both Osgoods discussing their human/Zygon nature on video and telling of the upcoming terror due to the demise of a peace treaty set up during “The Day of the Doctor.” On the one hand, as realization sets in that a renegade faction of Zygons are planning human destruction, I am left to wonder how the many, many peace-loving Zygons who have made earth their home are pulled into the fight. Then I remind myself that the historical precedence for such an uprising is very real. Given the state of the world, the story is current. The question is whether or not Peter Harness, who penned, “Zygon Invasion,” wrote with an eye toward contemporary politics. Since “write what you know” is an oft used phrase given to writers seeking inspiration, how could there not be a Who episode with the world’s political state as fodder? The Osgood sisters make their most pointed statement on humanity and our understanding of it with these words: “Any race is capable of the best and the worst, every race is peaceful and warlike, good and evil…if one Zygon goes rogue, or one human…” Over the course of humanity there have been many times one individual has gone rogue. Who, in the world, is now rogue? After this video was made, we know that one of the Osgood sisters dies.

The surviving Osgood sister, under threat, is able to make contact with the Doctor just before she is taken by a Zygon. The sequence opener leaves us with the RockDoc strumming “Amazing Grace” while reading the message from Osgood: nightmare scenario.

In the Mix

The Doctor, in his black, sonic sunglasses, looks good on a swing waiting to stalk what appear to be children, but are, instead, the Zygon commanders. He is leaving Clara a message with one of the several 12th Doctor inspired phrases that are sure to become Who fandom lingo: “Hello, it’s Doctor Disco.” He attempts to talk to the two girls, calling them Monster High and Cinderella, both modern day children’s references. Monster High is a trademark for monster fashion dolls and Cinderella a Disney reference. Perhaps an allusion that the illusions of the Zygon people are about to be shattered. Is there a fairy godmother to save the peace-loving Zygons and all of humanity? We are whisked to UNIT to hear Kate Lethbridge-Stewart indicate that there is possible tracking for the 20,000,000 Zygons who have shape-shifted and are living an earthly life. A nice NSA reference.

Meanwhile, back on the playground, the Doctor pulls rank on the Zygon twin-like commanders, receives a phone call from Kate, and watches, helplessly, as the commanders are abducted. “The war is about to begin,” Osgood reports from captivity. “There will be truth or there will be consequences.” The Doctor is still unable to get in touch with Clara. If you’ve been following along since Clara’s inception on Doctor Who, you will understand that this seems a bit odd. The Impossible Girl is always available.

Are you paying attention? We find Clara at her apartment building where she comes across a young boy sitting on the stairs. He indicates that he cannot find his parents and Clara offers to help. She is greeted by a father who acts suspiciously and a zombie-looking mother. When Clara leaves the apartment she is nonchalant, seemingly unfazed despite hearing the child’s screams. Did you take notice? Detached from the incident, she phones the Doctor with a quip about his disco Doctor reference.

The Doctor and Clara arrive at a school that is the headquarters for the Zygon. While there, a video comes through showing the assassination of the two Zygon commanders by the revolutionaries. The transmission ends with a revolutionary saying “truth or consequences.” This is a theme projected by the Zygon throughout the episode. After discussion of strategy, Kate is off to Truth or Consequences, NM (based on Clara’s knowledge of the city), Clara and Jac will stay there, and the Doctor is off in a big plane, because he likes “poncing about.” Clara’s questions directed toward Kate don’t appear strange since she’s recently arrived on the scene, but we are clued into the fact that something is off when Clara tells Jac that she needs to stop by her apartment to “grab a couple of things.” At the apartment building, they are witness to a body being removed.

In Turmezistan, the Doctor introduces himself to UNIT soldiers as the “president of the world,” Doctor Funkenstein. He is, after all, the RockDoc. In Truth or Consequences, Kate finds one lone officer as resident, demanding where Kate’s back-up is. And back at home, Jac has found something very odd going on below London.

One of the most poignant scenes occurs in Turmezistan while troops are seeking to locate Osgood. Zygon shape-shifters successfully lure the troops into a building where they execute them. They lure them by assuming human shape, in one case, as the mother of one of the soldiers. Despite her inability to answer specific questions about him, the soldier cannot bring himself to shoot, and he and his men are executed. The Doctor does, however, find Osgood and is able to get her back aboard the plane.

Twists and Turns

Despite earlier clues that something as just not right about Clara, the twist in this plot takes us by surprise. Or, it did me. When I went back to watch the episode for the second time, the discrepancies in Clara’s responses earlier in the episdode became clear. Before the twist is revealed, we are treated to some fun aboard the plane when Osgood shows her fangirl stripes and asks the Doctor why he no longer wears the question marks. He quips back: “Oh, I do. I’ve got question mark underpants.” “Makes one wonder what the question is,” Osgood responds. The question is a good transition to the Doctor asking if she is the human Osgood or Zygon. The answer is, Osgood gives no definitive answer, but she does inform the Doctor and the viewing audience on Zygon shape-shifting updates.

Back under London, Clara and Jac stumble onto Zygon pods. When Jac figures out that they cannot be growing duplicates, but that the people in the pods are humans, Clara reveals herself as a Zygon. A flashback to the apartment scene shows that Clara was replaced with the shape-shifted Bonnie. The choice of name intrigued me. Bonnie can mean pretty (Scottish: a bonnie lass) or Bonnie is one of the names given to a mob girlfriend. The latter derives itself from Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde. With Bonnie taking aim at what one would presume is the Doctor’s plane, she informs the Doctor that Clara and Kate are dead: truth or consequences. She definitely exhibits the callousness of Bonnie Parker, wife of Clyde Barrow and Jenna is almost more convincing in that role than in her role of Clara. Watching her next week will be interesting.

End Notes

Since the announcement that Jenna Coleman will be leaving Doctor Who, nearly every episode leaves the question of how Clara will exit dangling. This writer wishes that she didn’t know she was leaving. Then there would be no guessing what will happen and who will take her place. Reading through overviews and reviews this week, I found that there were those who wondered if Osgood would take her place, last week people wondered if Ashildr/Lady Me would take her place. The truth is that we don’t know what will occur yet, and guessing may be taking us out of the story at hand.

If I had the time, I would allocate more discussion for the allusions to other Who episodes and the way their links to this episode attempt to address plot continuity. But that would make this review far too long and I’d lose much of your interest. However, this leaves a lot of fodder for another day and room for another article or two or three.

The RockDoc appears to be here to stay for the season. Capaldi is growing into his role and making this regeneration his own. His on-screen antics during even dramatic or intense scenes make him at once both human and alien. Tennant and Smith had an ability for bringing levity to intense new Who situations as well, yet each of the three have their own particular style of doing so – Tennant with charm, Smith with bumbling, and Capaldi with a mature and somewhat detached sense of confidence, or arrogance, however you choose to look at it. Whatever flavor Doctor you choose as favorite, they are all variations on a same theme.

Pertaining to this episode in particular, how could Clara have missed 127 phone calls? Why didn’t Kate bring back-up with her to Truth or Consequences, NM? Doesn’t that seem odd that the head of UNIT would not have back-up with her? Why was it so easy, once in the building, for the Doctor to have had unchallenged access to freeing Osgood? Finally, I like Osgood, don’t get me wrong, but this writer may be one of the few people that is not clamoring to have her on board more permanently in order to see a succession of past regeneration cosplays. It’s been a novelty, but one that would likely grow old.

I have heard from a good source that next week’s episode is stellar and that Capaldi rocks! As the RockDoc should.