Doctor Who (Spoilers!) Review: "The Zygon Inversion"

                After last week’s cliff-hanger, there were so many directions this episode could go in. There’s so much potential in the idea of humans and shapeshifting Zygons starting a war. It could pick up seconds or months after the last episode, introduce new characters struggling in this environment of paranoia and fear, or show our heroes planning their response and actions. Whichever possibility it could have gone in, the events of “The Zygon Inversion” were not what I was expecting.

                Which isn’t a bad thing as I didn’t know where the episode was going a lot of time keeping some of the suspense from the last. However I do have to say I wasn’t too optimistic for a while.

                Clara in her own mind (which kinda dully resembles her flat) realizes she has a degree of control over her doppelganger causing her to miss the Doctor’s plane at first. She soon does hit it, but the Doctor and Osgood parachute to the ground in a very James Bond fashion. Zygon Clara calling herself Bonnie communicates through a kind of telepathy with the real Clara in an attempt to locate the Osgood box which has been keeping the peace. Though the two bluff each other for a bit Clara eventually is forced to disclose the location by Bonnie’s ability to know if she’s lying. The Doctor soon finds out their plan and they make their way to the box’s location to prevent what could be the annihilation of one or both species.

                The first half of this episode is really not impressive. The world spanning locations and stakes, the sense of fear is all traded in for simply double Jenna Coleman (not in THAT way, stick to your fanfics). The scenes of Clara trying to be clever and outwit her double aren’t terrible, but it just feels like meandering and uninteresting, especially knowing what’s going on in the outside world. I wanted to see more of Kate for instance. That being said I respect the attempt to put more of a focus on Clara than we’ve been getting this series, but at the same time this has been a really solid series thus far without much focus on Clara. Bonnie is a lot more interesting. The scenes with the Doctor and Osgood are an alright alternative and their dynamic is actually enjoyable to watch. Some good humour is injected into these scenes particularly Osgood’s disturbingly well thought-out plan to kill the Doctor if she wanted to, and the Doctor insisting his name is Basil (not to mention the line “I’m old enough to be your Messiah”). Ingrid Oliver and Peter Capaldi have a definite chemistry.

                This episode not only cut back on the location budget severely from the last, but also the cast which is a shame. Jac and Colonel Walsh were great characters in “The Zygon Invasion” but are completely absent in its sequel I suppose out of implication they’ve been replaced by Zygons as well. And for a long time I worried that we weren’t seeing Kate. The one new character, a human-disguised Zygon called Etoine is very interesting. He’s been living as a human for so long he doesn’t want to change back and as part of the warring factions’ tactic he’s been forced to. It turns him into a representative of the tragic victims in the crossfires of war, who have no allegiance but are harmed nonetheless. His transformation scene is fantastic too. You can tell it’s where a lot of the effects budget went into this episode, as it’s almost something out of a horror movie. And I have to admit, Jenna Coleman was great, but not as Clara. She was clearly enjoying this diabolical Zygon character while also taking it seriously enough. I kinda bought her as a real threat. I know, Clara! But she was good, particularly in the latter half which required her to express a lot of anger and subtle fear.

                And now I’ll talk about that latter half which definitely picks up in comparison. I was underwhelmed (though I hadn’t been expecting much to begin with) at the reveal that this clever secret as to why the Osgood box was called the Osgood box, was that there were two boxes. Kate who emerged suddenly in a badass scene earlier (“five rounds rapid” in honour of her father) and now thinks it’s too late to avoid war, takes to one box and Bonnie to the other finding when opened each has two further buttons labelled Truth and Consequences coincidentally the phrase repeated throughout the two-parter (uh…smart?). Both are under the assumption that one of the boxes will lead to the defeat of their enemy while the other would doom their own race. Essentially it’s a repeat of the scene we saw in “The Day of the Doctor”. And as is made known to the Doctor, it’s a direct of consequence of his actions there; but the Doctor encourages them not to risk further consequences, to talk it out and find peace. He gives a stirring (and timely seeing as Remembrance Day’s coming up) anti-war speech that while a little indulgent is pretty gripping. Capaldi handles it fantastically, eventually pulling out his cheat card by referring to his actions in the Time War and specifically “The Day of the Doctor” which manages to calm down both parties. Bonnie realizes that neither of the boxes would have done anything, which to be honest I felt was a bit of a cheat. The Doctor pulls a Men in Black move by erasing everyone’s memories but Bonnie’s and the war is called off.

I wondered why Peter Harness who’d written “Kill the Moon” and last week’s episode so well, couldn’t quite repeat the success and the intrigue here. As it turns out, he co-wrote it with Steven Moffat. And yeah though I’m not part of that base that hates Moffat, I do feel this is an episode that his involvement in the writing process harmed. Some of his Moffat-isms had a poor effect on the drama and while the build-up of the last episode may have been impossible to satisfy, this certainly wasn’t as interesting or enjoyable a follow-up as it should have been. Particularly in that I don’t think the Zygons were used to their full potential and were a little wasted here. Apart from the slightly tense scene at the end there wasn’t much from this episode that left an impact, where the last was greatly compelling. It may have been a cute ending where Bonnie apparently is now masquerading as another Osgood (though a somewhat quick and inconsistent shift with her character in the rest of the episode) and I do admit after not really caring for Osgood I did find myself optimistic she might become a companion. But instead we’re sticking with Clara for the time being (who annoyingly is again being credited for one of the Doctor’s pivotal decisions), and the two Osgoods are off to be the Pinky and the Brain of Earth-saving it seems. The Earth is safe another day, I just wish a lot more went into saving it.