C+Q - The Zygon Invasion (2015)

And so we come to The Zygon Invasion, one of my favourite Capaldi era episodes. I mean really that's all I need to say. I might as well just end the review here. But, for the sake of being able to say I've written in detail about every Doctor Who episode (which is my eventual goal with these reviews) I suppose I should elaborate.

First of all, Peter Capaldi has never been better as the Doctor. Sometimes it takes me a while to really accept a new incarnation of the Doctor. They start off as being 'a' Doctor, but not 'the' Doctor. Not until a certain moment convinces me otherwise. It’s really hard to explain and it doesn't always make sense, but I know the moment when I see it. For Matt Smith, it wasn’t until the phone call midway through The Wedding of River Song that I really saw him as being the same character Hartnell played in 1963. Not to say that he wasn't good before then, but he just wasn't 'the' Doctor for me. But for Capaldi, I think he's already there. In this episode, I didn't just think of him as the Twelfth Doctor. In this episode he reminded me of Hartnell and Troughton and Pertwee and Baker and Davison and Baker and McCoy and McGann and Hurt and Eccleston and Tennant and Smith. Instead of being just one interpretation, Capaldi has started to embody the very essence of the character that transcends physical appearances or costumes or accents. He's just the Doctor now and I love it. From the way he titillated the fronds on the Zygon control panel (Ooh, Matron) to his poncing around on the plane, I think he's nailed it now. And not only has he nailed the performance, but the writers have nailed his personality. Peter Harness, writer of last year's Kill the Moon, has experience working with this incarnation and his dialogue definitely feels a lot more relaxed now and less of an attempt to create a harsh contrast between Capaldi and Smith. Actually, despite my comment about Capaldi now embodying the essence of the character, The Zygon Invasion does actually solidify some quirks of this specific portrayal, such as the electric guitar and general rock star vibe. I really hope he keeps the guitar around the TARDIS from now on, like his own version of Patrick Troughton's recorder.

The next major thing that stood out to me about this episode other than Peter Capaldi's acting was Daniel Nettheim's direction. From the very first shot after the opening titles, I knew we were in for a treat. A slow pan showing that we're in London, then showing that we're specifically in a play park in London, then showing that the TARDIS is parked near the play park, then showing the Doctor alone on a swing. Genius. I have so much to say about this shot alone. For example, I love how the TARDIS sits awkwardly and inconspicuously in the frame and that the camera never lingers on it, replicating the effect of the perception filter. And I love even more how we see the slow reveal of the TARDIS, an iconic image that is to the Doctor what smoke is to a flame, before we see the Doctor himself. It's basically the first five minutes of an average episode condensed into one shot: the location is established, then we focus in on a particular aspect or character in that location, then we see the TARDIS, then we see the Doctor. This director knows his shit, and I'd love to see him back in the future. Other great moments of visual storytelling include when we see the drone pilot looking in horror at the waving people on the monitor and then a photo of those same people on the side of the computer. The idea of having Zygons take the form of people's loved ones is one of this episode's best concepts and really demonstrates that the Zygons deserve to be a major recurring villain on the level of the Daleks and Cybermen. The scene on the church steps is absolutely incredible. Well written, well acted, well shot, and just overall good television. It's such a simple concept but I was on the edge of my seat the first time I saw this episode, genuinely gripped with excitement and anticipation and nervousness. It was that moment when I knew this episode was something special, and that Peter Harness is a writer to watch. I know it's a cliché at this point to say that every writer who produces a good script deserves to be the next showrunner but Peter Harness deserves to be the next showrunner.

Clara continues to be a walking talking advert for a female Doctor as she conducted her own investigation with Jac as her companion. Part of me is annoyed that Jac gets killed off at the end because I quite like the idea of having a UNIT family of permanent characters. The reveal of Clara as a Zygon is really well done and it's good to see Jenna Coleman getting a chance to act as a possessed villain, an art previously perfected by Elizabeth Sladen. Actually the whole cliffhanger is really well done, although it's fairly obvious that Kate Stewart hasn't actually been killed given that they establish she has a loaded gun but didn't show her fire it (a literal Chekhov's Gun). The only thing that could've made the ending better is exactly the same thing that would've made the ending to Dark Water better: the villain letting out an evil laugh. I mean the last shot of the episode is a close up of Zygella looking up at the plane instead of a shot of the plane itself, so I was really expecting her to do something like a good old fashioned Ainley cackle.

Other than that, this episode is just full of great little moments. I love the political subtext in this episode that knows exactly when to stay as subtext and when to boil over into plain old text ("You can't have the United Kingdom. There are already people living there and they all think you're going to pinch their benefits"). I love seeing the Doctor working with UNIT again, and how Capaldi is rapidly becoming as closely associated with the organisation as Pertwee was back in the day. I love the Doctor and Osgood's #banter (although Harness has done a really bad job of justifying her return. She's still as uninteresting and underdeveloped to me as she was when she was first introduced, as nothing more or less than a caricature of a modern Who fangirl, albeit a resourceful one). Really, I just love this episode. This is the standard that Doctor Who should always be aspiring to.