Terror of the Zygons

Dear Gary—

“THE Loch Ness Monster.” I’m skipping ahead, Gary; all the way to modern Doctor Who—School Reunion. Sarah Jane and Rose are bickering about their travels with the Doctor, each trying to top the other with the aliens they have encountered. Sarah holds the trump card—The Loch Ness Monster.

Terror of the Zygons is that trump card stopping Rose in her tracks: “Seriously?”

Unfortunately Nessie doesn’t live up to her billing; she’s rather an unconvincing monster, a little more convincing than the dinosaurs of The Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but not much so. Terror of the Zygons however, more than makes up for this lapse in special effects.

The Doctor had received a message from the Brigadier at the end of Revenge of the Cybermen (the Doctor explaining that he had left a space time telegraph system with the Brig) and so the TARDIS materializes in the Scottish countryside as our story opens. We know immediately where they are as the Doctor emerges with a bit of flair from the culture—a tartan scarf and tam. Not to worry, though, his own beloved endless scarf is draped rather amusingly around Harry and Sarah sports his trademark floppy hat.

A bit of a side note here, Gary. I notice that our four Doctors to date seem to alternate style choices. The first and third Doctors take on the gentlemen of the universe, dapper role while the second and fourth are more of the space hobo variety. Each, however, in his own inimitable way.

To carry the Scottish theme further, the Brigadier is wearing a kilt, to the amusement of the Doctor and Sarah, although I have to say, Gary, the Brig carries this off with aplomb. In fact, if the others hadn’t commented on the fact I might not have even noticed. And then there is the constant bagpipe playing by the inn’s landlord that annoys the UNIT team. I find it a nice little touch that the Brig sends Benton to quiet the noise, noting that Benton gets on well with the man. Terror of the Zygons is full of these throw-away moments that enrich the characters and the story.

Another moment that impressed me early on is when the Brigadier comments on the Duke of Forgill: “What an odd man; rather medieval in his ideas.” “A man of convictions,” the Doctor counters. Brief observations tossed out and almost lost as the action takes off, but there all the same to deepen our understanding of the characters. However, there is a later scene that somewhat bothers me. It is another small, unnecessary-to-the-plot snippet that is rather amusing if it were not somewhat cruel and contrary to that prior moment. That is when the Doctor does a mocking impression of the Duke as they sit in his castle awaiting his arrival.

Small moments aside, the action of our story is rather good too. The Zygons are yet another alien race that has crashed to Earth and are stranded and intend on making the Earth over into their own. In order to accomplish this the Zygons are using a giant cyborg sea monster under their control that lurks in Loch Ness. The Zygons have a nifty talent of shape shifting to take on the appearance of humans they have captured, and there is a truly terrifying scene of a Zygon Harry threatening Sarah with a pitchfork in a hay loft.

There is also an exciting chase as the Doctor tries to draw off the Loch Ness Monster in a car. When the car stalls he is forced to make a run for it across the moors. Despite the fact that the monster effect is cheaply done we never doubt the danger thanks to some excellent acting and directing.

I am still undecided about the Zygons themselves. They are a typical Doctor Who rubber suited monster, but they do have a certain creepiness about them. “You admire our technology, human?” the Zygon leader Broton asks the Doctor. “Well, I’m not human and I’ve seen better,” the Doctor replies. “Better than this?” an incredulous Broton enquires. “Very good, very good,” the Doctor responds, “Almost impressive.” I’m with the Doctor here, I’ve seen better aliens, but I will admit that the Zygons are good, almost impressive.

And the actors portraying the human Zygon counterparts are equally eerie. I find the nurse especially sinister, and it is all that more effective when we meet the real humans. We only get a few scenes with these original copies as they work with the Doctor to escape the Zygon ship, but the contrast between the real and the fake is striking, with just the subtlest of acting and directing.

Acting and directing. Toss in writing. All the things that make Doctor Who a success. Never mind a cheap budget; the acting, directing, and writing are almost always top notch making us forget the rubber suits.

Not to get soap-boxy, Gary, but one can argue that much of the trouble with modern movies and television is the increase in budget. So much goes into making the effects perfect that the acting, directing, and writing suffer. We believe the danger because it is exploding in our face; we don’t feel the danger with the characters. (I would make a similar argument for the absence of censorship—profanity replacing emotion—but then I would really be getting soap-boxy.)

Speaking of soap boxes, I notice that Terror of the Zygons doesn’t pass up the opportunity to slip in some Doctor Who environmentalism. I think the monster attacking the oil rigs was added to the script simply so this little speech could be included: “It’s about time the people who run this planet of yours realized that to be dependent upon a mineral slime just doesn’t make sense. Now the energizing of hydrogen . . .”

The oil rigs are also a convenient excuse for the monster to come ashore, having to make a detour from its usual underwater path to the sea. Rather than revealing the monster for the entire world to see, the Zygons somehow manage to release a gas putting everyone to sleep, including the Brigadier, while Nessie traverses the village. This leads to another one of those nice little moments as the Brigadier awakens: “Asleep? Impossible. I was on duty. There are times, Doctor, when you do talk absolute nonsense.”

But we know, Gary, that the Doctor’s nonsense has more sense in it than not. “You like asking questions,” the Duke says to the Doctor. “Well,” the Doctor replies, “it’s the only way to learn.” This fourth Doctor is always asking questions, always making observations, always playing detective. And then: “Right, let’s see what other damage we can do.”

The damage the Doctor manages is to find the inexplicable sci-fi/horror self-destruct mechanism on the Zygon ship to blow it up. “Was that bang big enough for you Brigadier?”

Of course, he still has to face the escaped Broton and the cyborg Nessie. The Brigadier kills Broton (I am a bit disappointed in the hopelessly hopping Sarah in the background as the Doctor wrestles with the Zygon), and the Doctor feeds Nessie the Zygon homing device that was sending her into fits of frenzy and so she wanders off back to her home in Loch Ness.

It’s the Doctor’s turn now to wander off in the TARDIS. This time Harry declines a lift, and I am rather sad to see him go. Sarah, however, accepts the Doctor’s invitation to adventure. She hesitates at first. Here she is home on her own planet, her reporter job waiting for her (she even has started a story about the strange happenings at the Loch), but the lure of the Doctor and the TARDIS win out. She is fully on board now. She initially stumbled into TARDIS life with the third Doctor; she willing follows the fourth.

The Doctor’s claim to be able to control the destination of the TARDIS might have helped in her decision. “Just a minute, Doctor,” she says disbelievingly, “I thought you couldn’t do that.” “Of course I can. Coming?” the Doctor replies.

And of course she does. I, too, will continue on this wondrous ride with the Doctor; and I hope that somewhere out there you are as well, Gary . . .