The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion (2015) Review

"Doctor Who is so awful nowadays that the only way we can enjoy it is watching it burn in its own absurdity and self-awareness."

Okay, I take that back. It's just that I'm wishing so hard for the show to improve after the horror show of Series 8 that anything reminding me of it drives me crazy.

The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion is Doctor Who's second "international story", the other being the Series 6 premiere. This format... I can take it or leave it. On one side, I like that Doctor Who is expanding and instead of the usual studio-bound atmosphere, there's a realistic sense that the Doctor is only one man in a huge world. On the other, Doctor Who seems to lose a part of what makes it Doctor Who. It becomes more like a crime thriller with aliens in it. 

PLOT

When the human-Zygon peace starts to crack, Osgood(the surviving one) calls the Doctor back to Earth to help UNIT and the rebel faction reconcile.

ANALYSIS

That scene in the Black Archive. It might just be my favourite moment of the new series. And for a show that I no longer entirely respect, written by a writer that I definitely don't respect, that says a lot. No jokes, no hypocrites, no flippancy. Whatever brought this scene about(probably the ongoing immigration issues that are too real to make fun of), I'm thankful. I'm not saying I want the issues to exist of course, I'm just saying that I'm thankful it's given us something like this, so no flaming please.
Ditto for the 1970s oil crisis that gave us the Pertwee classics. Whatever positive can be taken out of these things, it's worth taking.

Is this a classic? Sort of, maybe. That scene pushes this story much, much higher than I would've originally put it. The main theme here is paranoia and hatred towards what we don't understand. My first reaction was to shun the story for being another "love is the key, but humanity doesn't understand" type. I hate stories that tell us how much we suck. UNIT seems to be Doctor Who's go-to for "stupid apes" and "pudding brains" who just want to shoot aliens, even in the RTD era, because they are its closest consistent representation of government and as well all know, the government is always greedy and dumb etc etc. 

But this story HAS a moral center. Kate Stewart doesn't push the button. Neither does Bonnie. The Doctor finally earns their respect by showing them just how much more he has suffered than they have and how pointless the whole thing is. That shows a level of maturity I thought the show had long abandoned.

Steven Moffat has redeemed himself. 

CHARACTERS

Peter Capaldi's acting in the Black Archive scene... my God, he deserves an award for that. For a moment, I saw the First Doctor in his eyes. Not the rapscallion who drank cocoa and got married, but an unimaginably old and burned-out spirit that has survived every form of torture and is still here to help. I saw the Fourth Doctor. Not the grinning giant having a ball in Victorian London, but a shrivelled, terrified man. Once he was a father and grandfather. Now he is neither, but he is still a doctor.

But now, onto a lighter subject... you can imagine my bemusement as I watched not one, but two Jenna Colemans having a mental catfight. Oh good grief. I thought Bonnie was a really great villain and Coleman did a terrific job in making her creepy(even though, oddly enough, none of the Zygons actually act like she does... why is it always only when they're in human form that they don't snarl?)

So... Kate's assistant stayed dead? THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES!!

The weakest character was Osgood, unfortunately. I like the actress and the fangirl idea(and the fact that the Doctor is a fan), but I got a really pretentious vibe off of her in this episode. They are ridiculously over-exaggerating her importance to the peace. Note that she had next to nothing to do with actually keeping the boxes away from the Zygons and UNIT. Also, those last lines... yeah, that's something real people would say. 
Also, about the question... I think the remaining copy is Zygon. They're keeping her memory alive by taking her image.

NOTES

*I get that Bonnie and Kate have been convinced not to attack each other, but how did they calm down the UNIT and Zygon forces?

*The only reason the Zygons were cooperative in The Day Of The Doctor was because they had no memories. So what was to prevent them from immediately breaking the treaty after that?

*Isn't it funny how, in a way, the Doctor has been dealing with this treaty from before the Time War even ended?

*Also, remember what I said about the flashbacks in the previous Capaldi review? Now we have Tennant and Smith(and Hurt) in the opening. Just like that. I will never get used to that.

*LOL Kate just shot the Zygon in the face. Epic cliffhanger resolution.

*I think this is only the third time the Doctor has been driving in a car... the first was World War Three and the second was The Sound Of Drums.

*I love that they made fun of the insane President Of The World concept from the Series 8 finale. The Doctor just has his own giant plane now. Lolz.

*Neat James Bond reference with the Union Jack parachute. Nobody does it better.

*The Doctor has question mark underpants? That's brilliant!! They have to be seen and then mass-produced in shops!! I wish they'd actually told us why he has them, though.

*The Doctor's first name is Basil. (His second name is Fawlty Junior. Admit it.)

*How exactly did UNIT smuggle 20 million Zygons to Earth? Did 20 million people give consent for aliens to use their image? Did nobody notice the large amount of twins showing up? 

*And where did the 20 million Zygons even come from? They came to Earth via paintings and there were only a few Zygons per painting(unless the paintings were MUCH bigger on the inside, Mary Poppins style). My point is, this large a number was never implied in The Day Of The Doctor.

*Why does Bonnie act confused when she finds Clara in the pod? In fact, why even reveal Clara at all? Just get the Zygons to attack the UNIT soldiers!

*At one point, the location titles spell UNIT as Unit. Oops.

*I'd like to know where the name Bonnie came from. Just... why would she keep such a silly name? Commander Bonnie, for real?

*How many times has that memory thing in the Black Archive been broken already?

*Whatever happened to the bloke who's been working in the Archive for years and never knew?

*A few days ago, I had my first-ever jelly babies. They're an acquired taste, but I've grown really fond of them. Still prefer gummy worms, though.

*Sooo many Clara-is-leaving references this series. I wish they'd stop hyping it up so much. It's kind of annoying when a large chunk of her time spent in Doctor Who is taken up by references of her leaving. If Eccleston was the Doctor now, every single one of his episodes would foreshadow his departure.

*I'm still confused by the decision to use Zygons as major characters. They were a one-off, disposable villain in the early 70s. For the life of me, I can't see how they became so popular, especially given that they look really ridiculous. 

BEST QUOTE

The whole Black Archive scene, of course.

CONCLUSION

It wasn't a story I really enjoyed, but I'm glad that it led up to Doctor Who's most mature five minutes ever.