Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion

In this weeks episode the Doctor faces Zygons and not so subtle political allegories.

Now don't get me wrong I do like and enjoy programmes/episodes that have allegories/social commentary, political or not, but despite making me laugh with a couple of lines about todays society they were definitely in your face. Despite that though the episode still contained a decent enough slow build to the possible upcoming invasion of the episodes title.

This is the good thing about this series being two-parters with them being able to tell a story that can move along at a slower pace and really build up what is happening instead of just a single episode. If it was just the one episode I imagine that it would start with the Zygons already invading and then have the Doctor wrap it all up five minutes from the end. Here we get to build up the plan of the invasion and what the Zygons are doing to make sure that it goes off without a hitch.

The first thing they do is to split up the Doctor, Clara and Kate Stewart/Unit across the globe effectively leading them in to traps to take them off the grid. They do this by leaving clues to various places that house at least one human who may or not be the enemy. It's this unknown that plays through out the episode feeds into the paranoia and fear of the humans. Is the lone policewoman human or alien? Are the families of the Unit soliders who they make out to be and which Osgood is still alive? Does it even matter which one if they have good in them?

On a quick side note, the Unit soldiers were a bit pants when their families appeared outside the church. Let's ask the mother a couple of questions and when she cannot answer follow her into a building no questions asked. I mean at least keep a couple of people outside to guard against possible scenarios like that.

It was good to see Clara back in full force after being sidelined during last weeks episode. It was also good that she really was in the thick of the story, well at least Bonnie was. Her section of the episode was tense, slightly disturbing (kids in bags being dragged into elevators!) and of course contained that shape shifting twist. Another good thing was to see the aforementioned Osgood return, especially with her homages to previous Doctors with her attire. Though question mark underwear is not something that I really want to think about on the Doctor though I imagine that the BBC will have them produced in time for Christmas.

The Zygon Invasion, despite the hit you in the face allegories, was a decent and paceful build up to what will hopefully be an interesting second and possibly action packed part.