The Zygon Invasion

[daibhidc]

Woah.

First off, the obvious real world parallels. They started out seeming a bit forced, but by the end it was just, yes, the Zygon attacks work a lot like terrorism, that's just how it is, rather than "Look at the point we're making!"

And it's a tricky thing to get right. There are all sorts of potential ways an analogy like that can go horribly, horribly wrong. But we've already had the set-up of "Zygons are people, not monsters, and most of them want peace", and this gets emphasised with the Osgoods and their insistence that it doesn't matter which of them is which. (And it also works in another reference to hybrids.) So it's not "a race of terrorists", which would have been terrible, but a race with terrorists. Like Discworld dwarfs or Marvel mutants. Fair enough.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who spent the scene where the Doctor is lambasting the Zygon leaders wondering if he'd got the right girls or was just making an idiot of himself again. It turns out to be the former, of course, and when I thought about it of course he knew who they were; he didn't just think "Weird kids, must be Zygons".

I vaguely wondered if Clara had been replaced near the start, then I forgot about it, so it still came as a shock. The sheriff, on the other hand, I was pretty suspicious of all the way though.

Very disappointed to learn Harry Sullivan spent his time mixing up nerve gas, although given his own experience with Zygons, I suppose it's understandable. (Speaking of which, I suppose there's no chance the Skarasen is going to be in part 2? Presumably they've found a substitiute for its milk.)

Osgood, of course, was brilliant, as was Jac/Ros-from-Bugs. (I really hope they haven't actually killed her, although I can't see any way they haven't.)

And that cliffhanger! I'm calling it now, that's the real Kate who reported she'd been neutralised. The thing about "they're shapeshifters and could be anybody" works both ways. But I can't imagine how the Doctor's going to get out of this. (Not even an after-credits "Next Time"!) Doubtless all will be revealed next week, at the regularly scheduled time of "whenever"...

Comments

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

So -- do I understand correctly that you liked it? Or are you reserving judgment until you see how it's resolved?

(I'm one of those people who prefer to be spoiler'd)

[pedanther]

You were indeed not the only one wondering that about the scene with the Doctor and the girls.

I was suspicious of the sheriff from the start, too, and a bit disappointed in Kate that the possibility didn't seem to have occurred to her. (I'm also very disappointed in the troop of soldiers. Even if they decided it was worth seeing what their maybe-relatives wanted to show them, there was no reason for them all to go in.) I didn't think of the possibility of Clara being a duplicate, because I was too busy worrying that Jac was.

If that was the real Kate reporting in at the end, they're going to have to explain how she knew what to say.

My suspicion about next week is that it's going to come down to Osgood setting off Harry's nerve gas (out of the last resort box from the video prologue) to kill the terrorists and save the peace, with herself in the lethal zone and us still unsure whether it's going to kill her too.

Although there are several other options they could go with if they decide to unambiguously declare that this is Zygon Osgood, like having her transform into a duplicate Doctor to help keep the bad guys confused. (You could make it into a meaningful wossname, too, by saying that if she ever stops being Osgood she can't ever start again, now the original's dead, so she has to decide if that's a sacrifice she's prepared to make. Or is that too esoteric?)

I have no idea how the Doctor's going to get out of getting shot down by the missile, though. I just hope it's not a five-second sonic handwave type of solution.