Live Review: S9.E8 - The Zygon Inversion

So the Zygons are back and the adventure is taking a darker, more grown up route than normal. The pre-titles recap reminds viewers that Osgood has been captured, Kate Stewart met her fate with a Zygon and Clara is dead and replaced by a Zygon firing a rocket at an aeroplane. It falls of reminding us that the Doctor and Osgood are on that plane or that Kate's fate was to be killed along with the rest of the UNIT troops and replaced. It also stops short of the rocket impact that was apparently heard (but not seen) in the last episode. New action begins with a close up of Clara's pod then suddenly cuts to her waking up in bed with panic. She looks at her clock which shows the time as 9:29, only the numbers are all back to front. She's confused, then we see the clock again and it now says 6:26, so the numbers were in fact mirrored vertically. She gets up and goes to the bathroom, has a brief flicker as she sees herself in the mirror then takes out the toothpaste... a plain white tube with "This is toothpaste" printed on it! She squeezes some out and it's a dark oily brown. She hears the Doctor calling from the living room but it's the TV with a snowy picture and the sound of her last conversation with him. Only it's not her conversation it's her Zygon replacement Bonnie's. Her front door is blocked up, the windows are just walls and she realises this must be a dream... flickers back to her pod tell the viewer that she may well be right. Clara carries out some 'dream checks', the newspaper is written in gibberish apart from the phrases "It's your decision Doctor" and "Truth Or Consequences" spoken by Bonnie. The TV flickers back to life to show Bonnie's gun-sight targeting the plane and Clara jumps to action and shakes the TV as if it might help. But it does! The rocket misses and the Bonnie's second attempt, Clara finds that she can influence her aim by tilting the TV, but she's not strong enough to hold it off. She tries something smaller, holds her hand out as if holding the rocket launcher and tries to hold Bonnie's finger off the trigger but again is not strong enough. The rocket is launched and this time it hits its target, the plane is in pieces... Roll titles.

Live Review: S9.E7 - The Zygon Invasion

Woefully over-due, but that's what happens when employment takes a hold. Anyway, catching up ahead of this year's Christmas special...

Terror Of The Zygons was, and still is a well loved serial from the classic era that was for a long time scheduled as the last complete story to be released on DVD (until the recovery of The Enemy Of The World and The Web Of Fear) so it was quite exciting when they were announced for the 50^th Anniversary special The Day Of The Doctor that same year. A clever piece of cross marketing perhaps but actually a bit of a let down when the anniversary episode finally aired. The Zygon presence flt somewhat fleeting in a busy narrative. Sure there was the duplicate Queen Elizabeth and Unit's Kate Stewart and Osgood, but the menace and tension wasn't quite there. In fact it was almost entirely booted out by the bubbly comedic nature of the celebrations. All that was about to be put to right when they returned for their own story. Or as the opening sequence of flashbacks put it "Once upon a time... there were three Doctors, two Osgoods and one Peace Treaty"

Revisiting the TV Movie - 20 years on

It seems impossible, but the evidence is all there. Twenty years have passed since Paul McGann gurned his way into Doctor Who. It shouldn't come as that big a surprise since we've passed the revived show's tenth anniversary, the first episode's fiftieth anniversary and the classic series only ran for 26 years ("only" he says as if it were a blink of an eye!). What I have actually found all the more surprising are the other factors that put the TV Movie into context by also being twenty years old, things that I have just casually come across recently by coincidence. Alisha's Attic for instance. I knew the TV Movie was some time ago but I was shocked to discover "I Am, I Feel" was also from 1996, as was the Ford Ka, the original "Three Lions" single, Take That split up and Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" all over the album chart. In a television context, "The X Files" had already been on air for three years!

So here we are on 27^th May 2016 looking back twenty years and celebrating what was a pivotal moment for Doctor Who. The show had been off air for just over six years and the quoted word "indefinitely" was really starting to make itself felt with an emphasis on "ongoing with no sign of ending". We'd been treated, teased and pacified with repeats of classic episodes (which was great, by the way) but it all just reminded us that we were lacking what we really wanted. Continuation. Then suddenly it was promised, almost, with a pilot, so-called, for a new series boosted by American money. The Doctor was returning with what would either secure the show's future or condemn it once and for all...

Paying the Bill with a Pearl

Trying to be clever with blog post titles can be tricky so I apologise now for this one... But I couldn't let this moment pass without posting it. On Thursday, it was announced that the new companion would be revealed during half-time in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final match. Well there's an odd thing to do! The tabloid and gossip press were already ahead of the game as it turns out, which is why I hate them. If something is supposed to be a surprise when it's announced then keep it to yourself until then. But I digress. There seemed to be no connection between football and Doctor Who so why had they chosen this moment to make the announcement? It would be approximately 6pm and possibly the biggest audience of the evening but apart from that it risked being missed by those who don't care about football (I'm sorry, but that includes me) and being overshadowed by the football. It would be an odd juxtaposition when the pundits wanted to talk about the match and it could easily have been missed by viewers taking a toilet break or putting the kettle on! The only connection I could come up with, other than a former footballer taking the role, was that Doctor Who traditionally followed the Final Score so they were kind of broadcast neighbours.

Moff is Off

It was officially announced yesterday that Seven Moffat will be stepping down as show runner at the end of the next series! That's perhaps not a shock or barely even a surprise since his departure had been hinted at over the last year or two, one way or another with general, vague comments that he won't be there forever and that he was closer to the end of his time than the beginning. The inclusion of River Song in the Christmas episode was explained by Steven as maybe his last chance to write for the character, as well as being an inappropriate time to introduce a new companion. So now it all adds up to one final series for him and hopes and prayers that Peter Capaldi will stay on with the new Exec Producer (Chris Chibnall, by the way) as that has not yet been mentioned. Also confirmed however, is the fact that 2016 will not see a new a full series. The full story there is that the only Doctor Who we will have in 2016 is the Christmas special and that Series 10 won't air until spring 2017! The reason for this is, no doubt, money saving. The official line is that 2016 already has some big event television (Football and Olympics) and BBC One controller Charlotte Moore wanted to "hold something big back for 2017 - I promise it will be worth the wait!" well it better had.

Chris Chibnall, for those who don't know, is the man behind the hugely successful "Broadchurch" and its American flavour "Gracepoint". He was also Co-Producer and effective lead writer for the original series of Torchwood, as well as writer of Doctor Who episodes 42, The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship, and The Power Of Three... that's one featuring David Tennant, four with Matt Smith, but nothing since Clara was introduced.

It is unclear at this point when Chibnall will actually take over. Whether it will be for the expected Christmas special in 2017, an odd starting point, or the start of the new series in 2018, remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, I need to get back to my reviews! Again! Some things [i]never[/i] change!