Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 8 – “The Zygon Inversion” (2015)

Still not sure overall.  I like “The Zygon Inversion” – definitely more than last week’s episode – but I’m shaky on the story as a whole.  My chief complaint from part one wasn’t really addressed in a satisfying way here, and there’s some pretty inattentive plotting going on.  That said, there’s still good stuff to be had, in some cases incredibly good stuff.  I think this is a story where the whole is actually less than the sum of its parts.  (A few unavoidable spoilers.)

Not much I can say about the plot.  The rebel Zygon leader is hell-bent on obtaining the “Osgood box,” which purportedly has the ability to end the human-Zygon ceasefire and start an open war between the two species.  The Doctor, meanwhile, is determined to prevent that war at all costs.

I’ll start with the gripes, because I want to end on a high note.  First, I mentioned last week that it’s problematic to portray Earth’s 20 million Zygon refugees as mostly peaceful while only showing the small splinter group of terrorists (actions speak louder than words and all.)  Well, here we get one peaceful Zygon, an innocent caught in the crossfire of the rebel agenda, but even that one is shown to have killed humans in self-defense – in extreme circumstances, to be fair, but still.  It’s hard for your refugee-sympathetic message to land when your mouthpiece for it is literally shooting sparks at the Doctor while he says it. 

Other than that, there are some wildly illogical plot developments and a little too much of a penchant for Twists! or Cool Hooks! instead well-thought-out storytelling.  The resolution is altogether too pat without much thought for any consequences of what happens.  That does the story a disservice, especially considering the real-world issues it’s exploring.  There’s a character-in-a-creepy-situation scenario that, while creepy, is a little too textbook-Moffat character-in-a-creepy-situation to be really effective, and one of the twists near the end isn’t worth the implications of what it means in context.

But this episode is uneven, not bad, and it earns its good will in spades.  Its chief merit is that it offers the main cast tremendous material to work with.  Jenna Coleman is allowed to showcase a much larger-than-usual slice of her acting range, and she doesn’t waste the opportunity.  Plus, Clara again displays her knack for remaining cool under pressure when she goes toe-to-toe with the Big Bad.  For this version of her, that’s probably my favorite quality of hers, and I always enjoy seeing it in action.

Best of all, though, is the Doctor.  Besides getting some great lines peppered throughout the episode and a fine screen partner in Osgood, the final act of the episode is the to-date highlight of a season that’s already had a number of excellent standout acting moments for the Doctor.  I feel like I need to see this speech at least once or twice more before I can even talk about it properly, but it’s up there with the great Acting Master Class scenes we’ve seen on Who.  This episode could be for Peter Capaldi what “Dalek” is from Christopher Eccleston, what “The Fires of Pompeii” is for David Tennant, what “The Rings of Akhaten” is for Matt Smith.  Capaldi is so amazing here that I didn’t even stop to think about it until the episode was over – I was so wrapped up in the character.  Absolutely gorgeous.  Do I wish that this incredible scene was in an episode more on-par with it in terms of quality?  Of course, but in my opinion, the unevenness of “The Zygon Invasion / Inversion” can’t touch the perfection of that moment.