The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
Story 258, Episodes 820 and 821, Series 9 Episodes 7 and 8
Doctor: The Twelfth Doctor
Companion: Kate Stewart, Clara Oswald
The Zygon peace treaty has been broken, and now the Zygons aim to wage war on all of humanity. The only hope for both sides in the Osgood Box, said to have the power to end the war…for good.
The Review
The Doctor gets the call: the shapeshifting Zygons have violated the ceasefire and waging open war. Soon things become clear that it is a splinter group tired of being forced to live in humanity, and Clara and the Doctor get roped in with UNIT. Kate goes to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico where she is ambushed by a Zygon who has wiped out the town. The Doctor goes to some foreign country where soldiers are lured to their deaths by Zygons, but he finds the surviving Osgood (Missy killed the other) and a prisoner.
The whole time in London, Clara has been helping UNIT find the Zygon base, except she’s actual the Zygon Bonnie, leading them into a trap. She then fires an RPG at the Doctor’s plane, but interference from Clara’s subconscious gives the Doctor and Osgood time to escape. The race is on to get to the UNIT Black Archives and the ‘Osgood Box’, and all five major players reach the Box, will boxes. Two boxes, two buttons inside, all varying levels of everybody dies.
There, the Doctor gives one of the show’s best speeches. He talks about his past as a warrior, and just how awful war is and how many lives it ruins. The delivery is so incredible that it causes both Kate and Bonnie to back down. Bonnie ends up becoming the new second Osgood, and the Zygon peace is restored. So much happened, and so much amazing.
The build-up in the story is perfectly executed, and the threat of the Zygons seems very real. Osgood, Clara/Bonnie, Kate are all very well realized, but as usual the Doctor steals the show. His speech against war is so impassioned and brilliant, it will easily be held in the annals of great Doctor moments. There have been many alien invasions of Earth in Doctor Who history, but the Zygon Invasion of 2015 may be one of the best.
The Zygons return from the 50th Anniversary, and an episode with many parallels to recent debates on immigration will thrill anybody. With great writing, direction, and acting, this story is another classic.
9.8/10. Series 9 is proving that Doctor Who is maybe the best it ever has been, night in and night out.
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