Review of The Zygon Inversion
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.
This is the episode that made me look back and admit I hadn’t been entirely fair to Moffat.
Regular readers will know that I’ve long since tired of Moffat’s regular tricks and quirks. It was easy for me, therefore, to jump to conclusions about previous stories that I now know to have been incomplete. In particular, I was really angry after Death in Heaven when Osgood died. It felt like an attack on the fandom for whom she was a cipher.
Now, though, it’s obvious that Moffat had a larger character (and plot) arc in mind for Petronella Osgood (I kind of wish we still didn’t have a given name for her…). He has even tied up the glaringly loose end of the Zygon peace agreement with humanity, left dangling for nearly two years since The Day of the Doctor. Many of us noted how that particular plot line had been abandoned unceremoniously at the end of the anniversary special; some felt the Zygons had been underutilized as a result. It’s nice to see those threads being tied back into the ongoing narrative.
Speaking of call-backs to previous episodes, Clara’s in-pod experiences during the pre-credits sequence was extremely reminiscent of both Last Christmas (with Clara’s search for dream tells) and Asylum of the Daleks (in that Clara was physically trapped inside an enclosed space, but had made a different space in which to exist in her mind). Long-term continuity was well considered here (more on that later).
Despite having a different focus than the opening episode of the pair, this one continued several of the ideas we saw introduced last week. For example, the phrase Truth or Consequences was everywhere. In The Zygon Invasion, it was referenced as the name of a town in New Mexico. This time, it was alternately a death threat to Clara by Bonnie, the name of the Zygon splinter group (according to their outed Zygon victim), and the labeling scheme for the buttons inside the Osgood Box(es). It gives off another whiff of foreshadowing, as if the idea will come back to haunt us later in the series.
Another thing that was everywhere was the sparking balls of death fuzz—yet no one besides the Doctor or Osgood reacted to them! There was even a street sweeper out gathering them up, but none of the bystanders in that scene took any notice of either the foul-smelling piles of organic refuse or the panicky individual begging for help. Nor did any of them so much as bat an eye at his normalized form.
I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that those bystanders were all Zygon themselves, either from the splinter group (thus glad to see the change) or simply trying to remain neutral so as not to become the next victim. Further, we’ve still seen nothing to counter my crackpot theory from last week, but have had more to back it up: all those Death Balls are the remains of Zygons, not humans.
I maintain that Bonnie and her Truth or Consequences group have been killing not humans, but only Zygons. The Doctor tells Osgood, “They think the rest of Zygonkind are traitors,” and at the end of the last episode after Jac pointed out that all the pods had humans in them, Bonnie clearly told her lackeys to “kill the traitors.”
Zygons can’t tell other Zygons apart from humans any better than humans can (see, for example, the out’ed Zygon who suicided), so Zygon-Jac wouldn’t have known that Bonnie was a Zygon and not really Clara. Truth or Consequences stole the locations of all the Zygons at the beginning of this mess, so they knew who was who without being able to detect others directly. That may or may not have interesting implications somewhere down the line.
The other ongoing mystery involves Osgood’s identity. People just can’t let it go, especially the Doctor. I have a couple points I’d like to make on that score. First, I can’t help but think about how we as humans are always trying to force each other into easily-defined boxes, yet in reality, most of us don’t actually fit neatly into one slot or another. Gender is one such box. I have several friends and acquaintances who identify as non-binary (that is, neither male nor female), and I could not help but think of the Doctor’s insistence that Osgood “out” herself as one or the other—Zygon or human—in those terms. Her identity as “Osgood” rather than as either species is just as valid as someone’s non-binary gender identity. It doesn’t matter what DNA she has any more than it matters what genitalia a non-binary person has. (And frankly, I would’ve expected the Doctor to be a little bit more accepting of that idea.)
Regardless, I felt like we got an answer to the DNA question at the end of the episode, when Bonnie became Osgood. Unless both individuals are now Zygons (which is not how I read it at all; I understood there still to be one human and one Zygon half of the pair), the Osgood with whom the Doctor was working this whole time had human DNA.
Then again, maybe I’m wrong about their original species. The point is that it doesn’t matter. Each of them identifies as Osgood—both species in one—rather than as one or the other, and that’s perfectly valid. The Doctor—and by extension, we the audience—should stop asking the wrong question and accept them for who they are.
On another level, though, this episode was just plain fun to watch. Aside from the identity questions, the dynamic between the Doctor and Osgood is lovely. She analyzes everything and gives it voice (“You’re talking nonsense to distract me from being really scared.”) She swaps roles with him, thinking through the clues to reach a conclusion to give him hope. Then she gets the all-important invitation so many fans had been hoping she would: come along in the TARDIS. Wisely, though, she knows that she’s got to stay—even if the Doctor is “a very big fan” (apology accepted, Mr. Moffat).
The other major players were also a joy. At this point, we’ve come to expect that Kate will get out of pretty much any situation, so it can’t have been much of a surprise to anyone that she was the victor in the showdown with the Zygon-Sheriff last week (as I predicted). What was a surprise, and a delightful, squee-inducing one at that, was her three-word explanation of how she survived: “Five rounds rapid.” If someone had been recording the reactions of fans around the world as they watched the episode, I bet there would’ve been a significant jump in the collective sound output at that moment.
Moving on to Clara, I still can’t say I’m all that excited by the character, but Jenna Coleman was phenomenal in her double role, particularly as Bonnie. In fact, I was amused to realize that I was initially thinking that Coleman didn’t have a lot to do in this episode because there wasn’t a whole lot of Clara, even though there was plenty of Bonnie. It’s a testament to Coleman’s skill that the two were different enough that they occupied completely different parts of my brain.
The big prize, though, goes to Peter Capaldi. I have yet to come across anyone (I’m sure they’re out there, but they must be in a tiny minority) who didn’t think The Speech wasn’t phenomenal—or at the very least, phenomenally well performed. Listening to Capaldi’s delivery felt like watching television history unfold. I would not be surprised if we are looking back on that moment in ten or twenty years with the same kind of reverence fans still use when talking about Tom Baker’s “Have I that right?” speech from Genesis of the Daleks.
The sheer emotion behind the words gave the Doctor’s role in the Time War some of the gravitas it seems to me it’s been lacking since Eccleston’s Doctor broke down in the face of Rose’s compassion for the “last,” lonely Dalek. The real cost of war can never be known at the moment it begins, and all of it comes back to needing to come to an understanding. I can’t possibly do that lovely moment justice here, so I’ll quit trying. Suffice to say the script was brilliant, Capaldi was brilliant, and I’ll be cherishing it for years to come.
There was one final exchange that really struck me, and that was the moment when the Doctor and Clara had both returned to the TARDIS.
“So you must’ve thought I was dead for a while,” Clara says all casual-like.
“Yeah.”
“How was that?”
The Doctor takes a moment to reply, and when he does, his voice is hoarse with emotion. “Longest month of my life.”
“It could only have been five minutes!” Clara exclaims with a half-laugh.
The Doctor gives her a Significant Look that she doesn’t see. “I’ll be the judge of time.”
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I thought that boded some serious ill. He’s given her Looks before during this series. Do you suppose he already knows (a) that and (b) how she’s going to die, but just not precisely when (which could depend on whose timeline you look at anyway)? What if he spent a month assuming he’d never be able to slip back into her time stream at a point where they could interact again before finding a work-around?
We all know that Clara won’t be with the Doctor much longer; we just don’t know what to expect as far as when, how, and why she ends her travels with him. I’d put money on it that this exchange will hold a lot more significance for us when we can look back and see the series as a whole. That is, after all, Moffat’s speciality.
Speculation
Okay, as you know, I haven’t been watching since “Listen” as I couldn’t bear the thought that I was going to have to put a hammer through my TV sometime soon – no matter *how* much I like Capaldi. So bearing in mind that I haven’t seen this story there are two things I would like to say:
1) I still don’t believe Moffat plans out character stuff in advance. After the debacle of The Time of the Doctor, where he hastily tried to wrap up/rewrite/shamelessly ignore all the little pits he’d dug for himself during Seasons 5-7, I just don’t buy it.
2) I read all the doom and gloom about Clara and just think back to all the doom and gloom we were given about Rose, Donna, Amy and Rory, all of whom appeared destined to die and yet didn’t. I think back to River, who is supposedly dead, then isn’t, then is (ad infinitum), Strax, Vastra and Jenny (who gets killed twice in NotD and still comes back to life). Moffat just can’t kill anyone off, which always irritates me, as implying he will and then not *repeatedly* is hugely insulting to the audience, almost suggesting we’re stupid enough to be taken in every time.
Osgood was worse. It was a major moment for that character and, as he said himself, a crucial moment to show that the Master/Missy was evil and ruthless. So rather than leave her dead, he brings her back. Personally, I rather like Osgood, but it undermines his previous actions and essentially makes it a cheap shock tactic. If he has the backbone to *really* kill Clara off I will be amazed. Pleased, but amazed. And forever slightly suspicious that he won’t bring her back at some point by using some time-wimey, crappy-wappy nonsense, just because he can.
Having said all that, I am happy that people are loving Doctor Who, it’s just not *my* kind of Who. And there is room for all of us in fandom 🙂
Moffat’s style
I agree with you in many ways about Moffat. He claims to have had a vision of something happening to the Eleventh Doctor at his regeneration that reverberates down through his whole existence without the Doctor knowing why, and that’s what Moffat was tying together in The Time of the Doctor. If that’s true, he’s especially pants at resolutions. I’m also willing to believe he makes this shit up as he goes.
He also got defensive when fandom came down on him when he killed off Osgood. “I had to show…” Yeah, whatever, dude. But in typical form, he used the half-truths to try to get people to believe what he wanted them to believe from what was on screen. When fans posited it was the Zygon Osgood who’d been killed, he said, “No, it was the real Osgood.” Of course the whole point in this two-parter is that they were both “the real Osgood,” so he wasn’t technically lying. This time. Though he often does.
Also, I completely agree with you about his inability to kill a character. It’s tiresome. Yes, I like those characters and don’t want them to die, either, but sometimes that’s what the story demands. Stop fucking with the integrity of the story because you’re too big a weenie! (Okay, that was perhaps a bit off the rails. But at least you understand the sentiment.)
I really hope that some day in the future it becomes a show you can enjoy again. Preferably soon than later, and with Capaldi still there (but, of a necessity, with Moffat not). Until then, I appreciate that you continue to support my blog. 🙂
The ‘month’, and Clara.
Here’s a workable theory: what if Clara is already dead, for the Doctor? Maybe current Clara will be revealed to be one of the echoes, and in the finale it turns out he tried replacing ‘original’ Clara but just can’t deal with the grief anymore.
If we take “Longest month of my life.” literally, it could be a direct nod to the month this series is airing in. We’re all waiting to find out how Clara cops it, and Series 9 is spanning a month or two.
Dunno; but fun to ponder. It’s not too far off the theory that Smith’s Doctor, in Series 7A, was having adventures with the Ponds in a non-linear order, as he already knew of their fate. Maybe.
Sadly, I suspect fan theories
Sadly, I suspect fan theories (for me) will turn out better than what actually happens anyway. I’m bored by Moffat’s constant attempts to wrong-foot us, to the point where I don’t much care anymore. He wants to be clever, rather than just write something satisfying. And, frankly, Clara’s already 2 exits too many.
Fan theories
Well, I’m not sure I buy your theory that she’s already “dead” and he’s visiting a ghost, but who knows. And yes—fans often come up with more creative twists than the showrunners. 🙂
Capaldi’s performance
You wanted to meet somebody who wasn’t all Gosh Wow! impressed with Capaldi’s speech? Now you have. I thought he overacted terribly (though the American accent he keept slipping into was perfect).
Firstly, I didn’t like the situation. I thought the two boxes thing was hokey. Was anybody ever supposed to believe that The Doctor would leave a box there with a botton which would nuke all of London? It was absurd.
I didn’t like the way Kate Stewart was willing to kill all the innocent Zygons to get rid of the few terrorists. I expect a more broad minded approach from her. Even the human centric Brigadier would have had problems with that but Kate seemed eager to do it. And it was never even considered what other effects the release of the gas would have. Just releasing poison gas into the environment world wide seems like a very bad idea to me. Has it been tested to be harmless to rainforest environments? What if it kills all the polar bears as well as the Zygons?
Capaldi was just too shouty. He seemed to me to be talking too loud and too fast, like somebody trying to convince somebody else with sheer volume rather than by a compelling arguement. It seemed to work on Bonnie and maybe The Doctor knew that this was the approach most likely to succeed with her but it didn’t strike me as elegant.
And I’m sorry, just forgiving Bonnie seems the wrong way to go. I realise that The Doctor still has issues with soldiers, war and genocide and wants to forgive others as he wants to be forgiven for what he did during the Time War (even though he retroactively saved all the timelords and no longer has to bear the guilt of his decision). But a LOT of people were killed. Perhaps mostly Zygons but they were still sentient beings and The Doctor should know better than anybody that the exterior package doesn’t matter. Think of all the sparking balls of black fuzz we saw (and I doubt we saw all of them). Think of the innocent Zygon in the pharmacy who killed himself from terror at what Bonnie had done to him. Bonnie doesn’t deserve to walk off scott free. Afterwards she chose to dedicate her life to protecting the peace between Zygons and humans but we didn’t know beforehand that this is the path she would choose.
And what’s this business about this being the 15th time that The Doctor has presided over a stand off over the boxes? This has happend 15 times? Really? With all the attendant death and destruction we saw this time around? Perhaps if the “peace” is going this badly The Doctor should just find the Zygons another place to live. He’s made similar offers to other aliens. Just find the Zygons a nice, unoccupied planet where they can live in their natural shape and enjoy their own culture rather than pretending to be humans.
And stop erasing Kate Stewart’s memory. How can she learn from her mistakes if she doesn’t remember them?
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the episode up until the confrontation scene. I liked the Clara/Bonnie mind games and really liked Osgood as a temporary companion. I hope we see more of her, both of her. I just wish the ending hadn’t felt like such a let down.
Different strokes for different folks
See, I knew those fans were out there! 😉
I am personally biased toward Capaldi, so I have a hard time disliking anything he does from a performance perspective. On the other hand, I know that he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and I get that. To each their own.
As for the rest of your points (I kind of wish we could talk this out on a podcast—so much easier than typing all my thoughts out), I’m not going to go one by one, but some of them I agree with (e.g., Kate’s role in the mess) and others I don’t (e.g., forgiving Bonnie). That’s as it should be; if everyone liked the same stuff, life would be boring. 🙂
I apologize for the cop-out, but I barely have enough spoons left to finish my day, and I just can’t spend them here today. Perhaps we can revisit this in the future. 🙂
Capaldi
I guess I come at Doctor Who from a different perspective from many fans. I realize that many of the actors on it are well known from other BBC shows. I saw from another blog that the actress who played the military commander who’s troops were slaughtered by the Zygons is a well known actress. But for the most part, I’ve never heard of any of them before.
I know Capaldi played a character named Malcolm Tucker in some show I’ve never seen and is well known for it in Britian. I’m completely unfamilliar with him in that role. In fact, I’d never heard of Capaldi before he became Doctor Who. So I have no preconcieved notions about him as an actor or how he should play the part. I’ve been enjoying his take on the character enormously. Some of his performances last season were iffy, but I considered that more the fault of inconsistant scripts. Since he was a jealous dick in one script and fatherly in the next and aloof in the next how was Capaldi supposed to figure out how to play the part?
The scripts have been more consistant with his character this season which has been a relief. And Capaldi’s performances have been better and more consistant. But something about his big speech just rubbed me the wrong way.
Big speeches
As an(other) American, I was also totally unfamiliar with Capaldi before the announcement that he would be the next Doctor. But I got on board immediately, and have loved his Doctor since he stumbled out of the TARDIS and started flirting with a dinosaur (though I didn’t so much love the flirting). My complaints have always been with the scripts rather than with him.
That said, I can readily see how a Big Speech would rub someone the wrong way (or just not fly for some reason). There were some of Matt Smith’s speeches that others were fawning over that made me go, “meh,” so I really do get it. 🙂