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Jerusalem posted:Guess who only just figured this out right now You're welcome. 
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Nov 3, 2015 02:53
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I did like that Kate Stewart actually did things this episode. Usually she just stands around being an exposition dump. She didn't even mention her dad once! I wouldn't say it is a great episode, but it's probably my favorite Kate Stewart appearance. Osgood was also better than average. She's gone beyond solely an audience-insert Doctor fangirl and actually gotten a purpose in life. She's still a fangirl, but that's not all she is.
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Nov 3, 2015 03:11
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 The Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens, have been living in secret amongst us on Earth, unknown and unseen - until now! When Osgood is kidnapped by a rogue gang of Zygons, the Doctor, Clara and UNIT must scatter across the world in a bid to set her free. But will they reach her in time, and can they stop an uprising before it is too late? Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in The Zygon Invasion. X X X X X Cast The Doctor - Peter Capaldi Clara - Jenna Coleman Osgood - Ingrid Oliver Kate - Jemma Redgrave Jac - Jaye Griffiths Claudette - Cleopatra Dickens Jemina - Sasha Dickens Walsh - Rebecca Front Zygons - Aidan Cook, Tom Wilton Voice of the Zygons – Nicholas Briggs Written by: Peter Harness Directed by: Daniel Nettheim Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqCamHZXR_k Gifs by: J-Ru X X X X X  Doctor Who rarely ventures into politics, which makes The Zygon Invasion such a superb treat. By taking a major problem of contemporary times and pulling no punches with the storytelling, this episode shows how sometimes the Doctor's default policy of negotiation and diplomacy fall utterly flat. A peace treaty has been negotiated between humanity and the Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens whose home planet was destroyed during the Time War, thanks to the efforts of three Doctors, Kate Stewart, and Osgood. Twenty million Zygons now live in the United Kingdom shifted into human form. They work, play, learn, and love alongside humans who are unaware of the alien next to them. When a young Zygon accidentally loses control of its form and causes nearby humans to kill it out of fear, a splinter group of Zygons declare war on humanity. As training camps are formed in the mountains, loved ones are kidnapped out of lifts, and UNIT is once again proven utterly useless, the Doctor tries desperately to maintain the shaky cease fire. But how can peace be maintained when one side is utterly devoted to humanity's destruction and anyone on the other side, including the Doctor's trusted companion, could be a terrorist in disguise? Fresh off of last year's anti-abortion story Kill the Moon, writer Peter Harness dives head-first into a huge issue dominating the European headlines. With the collapse of democracy throughout the Middle East thanks to the efforts of radical Islam, refugees from these failed states are flooding southeastern Europe. Aside from the concerns with the wave of refugees overloading the social systems of the European Union, there is also the possibility of ISIS members using the crisis to infiltrate the Western democracies (possibly with the aid of human traffickers and slavers) in order to perform terrorist attacks against those countries. The possibility of terrorist infiltration is often lost amidst political discussions of resettlement and assimilation, but Harness blends these various topics together into a script that also throws in dashes of action and intrigue for flavor. The Zygons in this story are truly evil, killing innocent men, women, children, and even kidnapping the loved ones of UNIT soldiers for use as “human shields” that cause emotional conflict. They are no shades of gray in this story – the Zygons are villains, pure and simple, causing the deaths of innocents solely to advance their political agenda... X X X X X The above paragraphs do not represent the viewpoint of this writer. But that's the big problem with The Zygon Invasion. This is a story that attempts to make a political statement about a current event, but thanks to an incredibly poor script said political statement could be interpreted in a number of ways, from left-wing bleeding heart liberal compassion to right-wing nationalist xenophobia. The European migrant crisis has the potential to be a watershed moment in Western history, for better or for worse, and for an episode of Doctor Who to tackle a contemporary crisis at the moment of broadcast is a rare occasion. But if you're going to touch upon topic like this, the script HAS to be top-notch. Harness' script is NOT top-notch. His previous work, Kill the Moon, was one of the more divisive episodes of the revival series, not only for its scientific shortcomings but for the potential pro-life/pro-choice subtext that underlined its climax. But the story also had an old-school, Third Doctor style vibe to it as well as the scene where Clara has absolutely had enough of the Doctor's crap and chews into him. It's a story where, despite its flaws and dividing nature, the skill of noted playwright Harness peeks through. Which brings me to The Zygon Invasion, which simply does not have a good script. The main focus of the episode is the Zygon splinter group, which is seen throughout the episode kidnapping humans beings to serve as the “blueprint” that allows a Zygon to take their shape. They're also seen kidnapping the two Zygon leaders who negotiated the peace treaty and videotape their execution as a message to the world that they're serious. The fact that the two leaders were innocent looking blonde haired school children serves to drive home just how evil the Zygon splinter group is with all the subtlety of a brick to the groin. Now let's go one step further, with the Zygon group establishing “training camps” in the Middle-Eastern-sounding country of Turmezistan (which I have to point out looks a hell of a lot like Wales) and UNIT launching both drone strikes and special forces against the training camps, where the bad guys are hiding in a religious building, and the climax of the story involving an airplane exploding in mid-air. Oh, and let's go ahead and add the fact that the whole war kicks off because a group of Americans see an alien in their midst...in New Mexico, one of the more blended states in the Union...and kill her. Now, this is all done by a Zygon splinter group...a group who has somehow built tunnels under the Earth that connect Turmezistan to every single lift/elevator in the United Kingdom with such success that even the Silurians are going “that's pretty well done”...and we're told by the Doctor time and time again that they don't represent every Zygon. “If you bomb them, you'll radicalize the lot and that's what they want.” It's an argument heard time and time again, but if you're going to make that argument, where are the other Zygons? Every Zygon seen in The Zygon Invasion is an evil terrorist and there's no one to provide a counterbalance. Hell, even 24 and Spooks made an effort to provide examples of “good” people. You can't show us the bad guys and only tell us about the good guys. Otherwise, we're led to believe that EVERY guy is a bad guy with no exception. That ways lies xenophobia, and the script for this story gives the viewer no reason to think otherwise. The idea that anyone could be a Zygon – friend, spouse, partner, even members of your squad – could have established a deep level of tense paranoia that could have served to help this episode. This does not happen. In fact, the plot of The Zygon Invasion is only advanced by people firmly grabbing a hold of the Idiot Ball. I apologize for using something from TV Tropes, but drat it there is NO other way to describe the actions of some of this episode's characters. You're the head of UNIT, a highly skilled operative and administrator, going to the New Mexico town where everything began, and you're not the least bit suspicious or worried about the lone survivor possibly being a Zygon? You're a drone operator and been told that the enemy in the village you're attacking are shapeshifters, but you're surprised when your husband and son step outside of a building and stare at you forlornly just when you're about to launch an attack (and by the way, who the HELL keeps a picture of their family next to their attack drone operating station? It would be like having a photo of your parents right beside one of the keys used to launch a nuclear missile). You're a highly trained special forces squad who's been told that you're going to be going up against shapeshifting aliens you can take the form of your loved ones, and when confronted with your mother you ask her to tell you when your birthday is, she doesn't answer...and you don't repeat the question or consider the fact that she's actually, I don't know, an alien?!?  It's just all so incredibly frustrating. If you're going to tell a heavily political story, the quality of the script HAS to back it up, and when your characters are doing stupid things...and lets take it one step further that the characters doing stupid things are nearly all women (which I hope was unintentional – never attribute to malice what may have been done via incompetence)...it's very easy for someone to look at this script/story/episode and take the wrong conclusion. This isn't “death of the author,” this is “the author is speaking directly to me” no matter what the starting viewpoint of the viewer is. What DID work for this episode? The Zygons looked cool, almost as cool and scary as they did during their introduction way back in the 1970's. Zygon Clara (aka “Bonnie”) came as a surprise, and Jenna Coleman's brief moments of screen time as the revealed Bonnie contained a nice sense of menace. And the character of Osgood has advanced from a card-carrying fangirl into an actual character. Her discussion with the Doctor about not telling him whether or not she was Zygon Osgood or Human Osgood was incredibly well done, and hopefully that sense of “Zygon or Human, both lives are precious” (a cheese maker told me this mantra) will be played up in the next episode because THAT'S the message that should have been mentioned throughout this episode in terms that weren't coached in xenophobia. Look, I don't care if the next episode is the second coming of The Caves of Androzani or Father's Day. The next episode could come directly out of the playbook of Battlestar Galactica, a series that did politics and “the enemy among us” incredibly well. Hell, the episode could hit the Reset Button so drat hard that the writers of Star Trek Voyager would be incredibly impressed. The fact is that Doctor Who aired an episode called The Zygon Invasion in the Year Of Our Lord 2016 that could easily be perceived as xenophobic, racist, sexist, and most of all incredibly badly written. That last one just might be the biggest sin of all.  And please note something. I made it through this entire review without really mentioning the Doctor. The Doctor was very much a passive observer in The Zygon Invasion. Aside from talking to the Zygon leaders in the playground and bouncing back and forth between “if you bomb them, you'll radicalize the lot” and “well, you can't have the United Kingdom. People live there and think you might pinch their benefits,” this might be the first episode in his run where Peter Capaldi kind of checked out during the proceedings. In an episode where the Doctor would have every right to go full blown “everyone just stop killing each other” as only he could...he didn't. Considering Kill the Moon also removed the Doctor for a good chunk of its runtime, I hope The Zygon Inversion truly does that and puts the Doctor (and a motivated Capaldi) on screen and makes him a much more active participant...  Random Thoughts - I'd like to think Harry Sullivan (the Royal Navy surgeon at Porton Down mentioned by Kate Stewart) realized he created a weapon that could be used to commit genocide and worked with the Seventh Doctor to steal the weapon from the Ministry of Defence. Otherwise, way to paint a former companion in a horrible light. - UNIT is once again gently caressing useless. - A talking point I've seen online has been “so what if The Zygon Invasion is racist? So was The Talons of Weng-Chiang!” The difference is, 40 years from now, television writers (and society as a whole) should really know better. (tm Cygnia) - The SFX update to both the Zygons and the Zygon bio-technology is really well done. Kudos to the behind-the-scenes crew! - For a moment of levity, as I'm writing this review my stepdaughter comes up the steps screaming in agony at the top of her lungs. She flops into the other chair and yells “DISNEY XD SUCKS!” Apparently, Gravity Falls ended on a huge cliffhanger and it really upset her. She's ranting about how “cliffhangers are horrible” and “not showing anything is torture! Who can wait an entire week to see what happens next?!?” I am not making this up.  Cobi's Synopsis – A bad script leads to some unfortunate implications as The Zygon Invasion wastes the the titular aliens with an incredibly xenophobic storyline. Next Up - Shapeshifting Zygons are everywhere in the UK, and there is no way of knowing who to trust... Peter Capaldi is the Doctor in The Zygon Inversion. CobiWann fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 04:15
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My headcanon has Harry (accidentally?) developing the gas to make it easier to perform Zygon surgery and another one to put them back the right way round.  Either way, I'm going to have have song from that one Simpsons Halloween special stuck in my head for the next week. Just... one... sniff of that fog...
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Nov 3, 2015 04:40
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After The War posted:My headcanon has Harry (accidentally?) developing the gas to make it easier to perform Zygon surgery and another one to put them back the right way round. But that'd be pure Harry. The best of intentions but the worst of cock-ups, old girl.
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Nov 3, 2015 05:08
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Even if the second Smith season is a lot more uneven than the first, I like his outfit way more. Its kind of an early Edwardian outfit. I see some people complaining about how Clara died in this episode, but she's just locked in a Zygon pod thingy, not straight up dead. I assume she'll live to at least the finale, if not the Christmas special. I was thinking about the next companion, it will be certainly some adorable woman who's spunky, but I'd love to see the next companion be another person of colour like Martha. Maybe even having a Hindu or Muslim companion. Oh wouldn't that make the nerds heads explode. twistedmentat fucked around with this message at 06:22 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 06:15
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The end of season climax will be Clara becoming a human time lord hybrid but her head doesn't explode because she's special, then she regenerates into the next actor and Steven Moffat never has to vary his writing ever again. Paul Cornell literally shits himself in amazement.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:25
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The end-of-season climax will be the Doctor revealing that he's half-human, on his mother's side  .
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Nov 3, 2015 07:27
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The end of season climax will be Donna coming back because the Doctor finally worked out a way to restore her memories so she can be Time Lord/human hybrid without dying and then they'll have adventures together forever. 
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Nov 3, 2015 08:11
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twistedmentat posted:Even if the second Smith season is a lot more uneven than the first, I like his outfit way more. Its kind of an early Edwardian outfit. Clara can't have died in this episode, for exactly the reason that kept being stated: Bonnie needs her alive to keep her form. It's a flimsy reason to be sure, since there's no reason Bonnie needs to keep that pretense up anymore, but there it is. Part of me does hope she'll die here, though, just because that'd gently caress with everybody. We've still got a few episodes left, and yet the companion's dead, what the gently caress.
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Nov 3, 2015 09:20
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The big reveal will be that evil not-Jews were behind every single plot. Alternatively, the Doctor was just a fictional character and the show was basically scripts rejected by BBC that the author goes through contemplating suicide. Paladinus fucked around with this message at 12:45 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 09:25
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DoctorWhat, paging DoctorWhat. Please pick up the white courtesy phone. No, the white phone.
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Nov 3, 2015 11:53
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The_Doctor posted:DoctorWhat, paging DoctorWhat. Please pick up the white courtesy phone. Wonder how much extra embarrassment money they had to pay the model to get her to wear that... thing.
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Nov 3, 2015 14:11
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marktheando posted:Wonder how much extra embarrassment money they had to pay the model to get her to wear that... thing. Look at this sweet innocent that doesn't know the depths of "sexy" halloween costumes  .
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Nov 3, 2015 14:15
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quote:Model is wearing size Extra Small
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Nov 3, 2015 14:23
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Look at this sweet innocent that doesn't know the depths of "sexy" halloween costumes Look, sexy murder victim or sexy Jimmy Saville outfits might be in appalling taste, but they are definitely less embarrassing than any variant of 'the coat'. Lol marktheando fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 14:25
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Echoplex, you hack.BBC DW page posted:When Kate examines documentation around the cases concerning ‘Brits’ in T or C, locations on the paperwork include ‘Made Up Crescent’ and ‘Fictional Close’! I was wondering if there's a house style guide for Gallifreyan?
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Nov 3, 2015 15:30
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The_Doctor posted:Echoplex, you hack. I'm... not sorry, actually, because someone put real effort into this, DeviantArt or not.
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Nov 3, 2015 15:39
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The_Doctor posted:Echoplex, you hack. Galifreyan is just fancy looking circular symbols that mean literally nothing most if not all of the time.
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Nov 3, 2015 15:41
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Jerusalem posted:the idea that it has a perfect score of 100% from critics is just baffling. Everyone I know IRL who watches Doctor Who that has voiced an opinion on it basically says the same thing as the "episode is bad" consensus. It's really loving confusing.
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Nov 3, 2015 18:21
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Everyone I know IRL who watches Doctor Who that has voiced an opinion on it basically says the same thing as the "episode is bad" consensus. It's really loving confusing. Red Kang best Kang!
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Nov 3, 2015 18:58
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Cleretic posted:Clara can't have died in this episode, for exactly the reason that kept being stated: Bonnie needs her alive to keep her form. It's a flimsy reason to be sure, since there's no reason Bonnie needs to keep that pretense up anymore, but there it is. Yea, exactly. Bonnie was telling the Doctor that Clara was dead to twist the knife a bit more before she killed him. Though as I said, threatening companions is the worst thing a villain can do because the Doctor drops the gloves and you're in for a bad time.
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Nov 3, 2015 19:10
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The_Doctor posted:Echoplex, you hack. That was the work experience kids, I didn't catch it before it went out. I did actually hide all that stuff away on set but the standbys (or even the actors) will root through and take what they want for the close-ups. (my injoke stuff is much, much smaller) Can you give me the link to that? echoplex fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 19:20
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Re: Galifreyan - no-one in house could tell me the 'proper' usage for it and looking online wasn't much help, so I apologise in advance for any wookiepedia rage I cause with how it's used. The Doctor getting an off-the-shelf smartphone (I thought that would ire people here but no-one seems to have mentioned it) was quite late on in the episode which caused a bit of a tizz because I had to design a Gallifreyan OS for it which could also link visually to the TARDIS. The first version I did was actually for Clara's phone when she was in the Viking hall (rationalising that the Doctor would jailbreak her phone to work with the TARDIS), but you never saw that. I think the Osgood alert coming in on the TARDIS screen is the first you've seen of it, and it's pretty much just spinning/flashing Galifreyan symbols. I've done tonnes and tonnes of screen for his phone but you'll never see any of them. I did notice that the UNIT OS I put on Osgood's phone got a load of nice closeups, including the actress accidentally opening up the photo viewer menu as she went... not sure how that made the cut. I didn't think I'd be doing so many mobile phones when I started DW. echoplex fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 19:29
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echoplex posted:That was the work experience kids, I didn't catch it before it went out. I did actually hide all that stuff away on set but the standbys (or even the actors) will root through and take what they want for the close-ups. (my injoke stuff is much, much smaller) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/57p333pq3KZh8q4vzNwGn8z/the-zygon-invasion-the-fact-file
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Nov 3, 2015 19:36
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MrL_JaKiri posted:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/57p333pq3KZh8q4vzNwGn8z/the-zygon-invasion-the-fact-file FFS. (thanks)
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Nov 3, 2015 19:36
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The_Doctor posted:DoctorWhat, paging DoctorWhat. Please pick up the white courtesy phone. I would wear this Throw my black knitted bolero cardigan over it, and bam, instant conference-wear.
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Nov 3, 2015 20:12
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Ms Boods posted:I would wear this The classical historian of my heart 
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Nov 3, 2015 20:15
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Just don’t ask about the Peri get-up for the fellas…
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Nov 3, 2015 20:19
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echoplex posted:I made her a nice laser-engraved ID badge full of TTOI refs which APPARENTLY SHE DOESN'T WEAR Can you say what was on it? If you can't that's fine, I understand  It's always cool to hear about the behind the scenes stuff, espcially poo poo the viewer doesn't even consider, but would notice the absence of.
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Nov 3, 2015 20:28
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MrL_JaKiri posted:The classical historian of my heart Oooh, they have a Fifth Doctor dress, too...decisions, decisions. I do have a big classics conference coming up in January. Lemme see if I can figure out the size chart...
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Nov 3, 2015 20:34
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Pesky Splinter posted:Can you say what was on it? If you can't that's fine, I understand I'll post it next weekend, it's nothing very interesting, mostly to amuse myself. I can't complain too much - usually only about 30% of what I make gets seen, this episode has been better so far.
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Nov 3, 2015 20:53
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Astroman posted:I remember to this day the moment I found out a couple years ago that the "Celestial" Toymaker wasn't referring to some sort of Space Toymaker, but the Al Swearingen style name for Chinese, and that his Mandarin costume wasn't just a random costuming choice and I was like i do like this last line on this bit in the tardis wiki. as close as you can fly to criticism on there quote:Within his realm, the Celestial Toyroom, the Toymaker commanded immense powers, but they were limited by the rules he set for any particular game, although he could bend these rules or "forget" to mention them to his opponents if he so chose. He himself was immortal and invulnerable, and appeared capable of space and time travel at will. For some reason he chose to appear in the guise of a middle-aged Caucasian human dressed as a Chinese mandarin. Cerv fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 21:23
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"Wow, that is incredibly racist." 
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I'm watching the Three Doctors, and it's really good, yo. I'd love to see the TARDIS phone stuff, I'm a sucker for stuff like that.
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Nov 3, 2015 21:40
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The_Doctor posted:I'm watching the Three Doctors, and it's really good, yo. "Are you sure that you and he are of the same intelligence?"
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Nov 3, 2015 22:24
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CLARA OSWALD IS A ZYGON That's about all I've got to say about that; it was so utterly unengaging and disjointed as a story that I almost missed whatever the hell point it was trying to make. Except that Peter Capaldi should get more scenes where he delivers passionate speeches in a children's playground. Oh, you know what we need now? The overnight ratings! I'm sure these will be a welcome and improving addition to the ongoing discussion! We are looking at 3.87 million, a 19.4% share, and 5th for Saturday. AI was 82, so at least those who are watching are apparently still enjoying it, but we've dipped back under 4 million/20%. That's a loss of a million on the overnights since The Girl Who Died, at 4.85 million. (That then put on over a million and a half after timeshifting to finish at 6.56 million; The Woman Who Lived went from 4.34 million to 6.11 million. It's going to be very interesting to see next week's overnight and this week's timeshifted number.)
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Nov 3, 2015 22:44
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The_Doctor posted:I'm watching the Three Doctors, and it's really good, yo. It's quite good - Stephen Thorne is always excellent value - but it's also really the tipping point where the Brig just becomes a comedy character rather than just veering that way.
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Nov 3, 2015 23:35
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The Three Doctors is the best multi doctor serial the show has ever put out in my opinion.
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Nov 3, 2015 23:58
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CobiWann posted:Just don’t ask about the Peri get-up for the fellas… 
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Nov 4, 2015 00:03
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Dr. Gene Dango MD posted:The Three Doctors is the best multi doctor serial the show has ever put out in my opinion. Faint praise
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Nov 4, 2015 00:15
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