Villordsutch reviews Doctor Who Series 9 Episode 8 – ‘The Zygon Inversion’…
Doctor- Don’t look at my browser history.
Osgood- Woah!
Doctor- Yeah, I said don’t.
In last week’s “The Zygon Invasion” [read our review here] we were left with UNIT all but gone with Bonnie (nee Zygon Clara) disabling the UK branch of UNIT and Kate Stewart being eliminated in New Mexico, and we also witnessed the Doctor’s Presidential Jet being blown out of the sky by Bonnie. Our concluding episode “The Zygon Inversion” will either see an all-out Earth / Zygon war or peace will live on – it all depends on the outcome of the Osgood Box.
Clara awakens in a what is first thought to be a dream state, discovering via the television set that she is currently the sub-conscious of Bonnie. She is able to initially manoeuvre the first rocket fired at the Doctor’s plane away giving Osgood and the Doctor the time to prepare for the second, which destroys the plane.
Upon a housing estate we see a terrified man running as fast as he can, trying to escape from Bonnie, who eventually corners him in his flat. Letting him know that she’s going to set him free, she destabilises the Zygon camouflage ability within him, and as he runs outside begging for help she films his pleas for help on her phone before informing an unknown source that she’s going to UNIT to retrieve the Osgood box.
With both the Doctor and Osgood appearing on a wreckage strewn beach (attached to parachutes – the Doctor’s is a Union Flag for camouflage reasons), he loans Osgood his Sonic Shades as her glasses are currently broken. Osgood questions the Doctor on why the Zygon didn’t kill the him instantly; bringing up Clara the Doctor falls quiet, asking Osgood to talk about something else. Clara then sends a text to the Doctor saying, “Awake”, without Bonnie knowing, and Osgood summarises that this is Clara as the Zygons will need Clara alive to access her memories. We arrive at UNIT HQ to see Bonnie open a hidden safe and retrieve a laptop. Briefly looking inside the safe, she then plays the laptop here the Osgood’s mention they lied about the location on the Osgood box during their interrogation; a furious Bonnie destroys the laptop under her boot. The Doctor and Osgood now need to get back to London to rescue Clara, however attempting to speak with the Police it seems the Officers may be Zygon renegades. Osgood rings Bonnie, the Doctor begins to call her Ziggela, and notices that Clara is forcing Bonnie to blink. He gives Bonnie a reason not to kill Clara by letting her know that her master copy knows about the Osgood Box. Hastily they steal a van and head to London.
Bonnie arrives at Clara’s pod questioning her directly in an attempt to exert control over her. It soon becomes apparent that Clara too has a certain amount of power over her copy and it looks like a stalemate is due to be reached. That is until Bonnie reveals she will be able to know exactly when Clara is lying due to them sharing the same heartbeat – if she lies she will kill her. She then proceeds to ask her questions on the Osgood box. We discover it’s located below the Tower of London in the Black Archive, that it can only be accessed by UNIT, the Doctor and Clara’s body print. Above ground we discover the Zygon that Bonnie had altered, distraught for he wanted to live in peace and didn’t want to be part of the war. Refusing any help from Osgood and the Doctor he commits suicide in front of them. Returning to Bonnie and Clara, Bonnie is pressing for more information on the Osgood box, but Clara is refusing to give anymore details upon it. All she’ll say is that you’ll have to keep her alive for when you see it, and she’ll understand why it’s called the Osgood box.
Kate Stewart arrives back in London, flanked by two UNIT guards, to take the Doctor down to Clara’s pod. Over at the Black archive Bonnie has just opened the door and has discovered there are two Osgood’s boxes. Contacting the Doctor we discover that one box destroys all Zygons the other normalizes them. With the threat of killing Clara forced at him, he tells Bonnie the blue Osgood box is the correct one, however upon pressing the button the lid opens to reveal two further buttons. Bonnie then opens the second box to reveal the same buttons there too. It’s at this moment Kate Stewart reveals that she wasn’t duplicated in New Mexico by killing the two Zygon guards holding them hostage. She informs the Doctor back in New Mexico she got away by firing, “Five rounds rapid” into her captor.
With all players converging upon the Black Archive, both Kate and Bonnie seize a box and demand the Doctor tell them which button is THE button. It’s then up to the Doctor to persuade Bonnie that her way is the wrong way, to show her that the path she is taking to war will lead to never-ending suffering for her people. Eventually after some honest truths from the Doctor she does and the uprising is calmed. The Doctor then wipes the memories of Kate and the two Zygon guards, but leaves Bonnie and the others awake, protecting her and allowing her to see he meant everything he said.
Later outside the TARDIS the Doctor again asks Osgood which race she is Human or Zygon, for this she refuses to answer, offering her the chance to travel with him in the TARDIS, she declines for she needs to look after the Osgood box; with this a second Osgood walks around the corner as Bonnie has now taken on the role of her sister.
This week’s episode came in again similar to last week, enjoyable but again if you’re not a Doctor Who fan I don’t think you would have been hanging around to stay and watch the end. For myself I enjoyed it a lot, with nods and winks to episodes of the past and a streak of intelligence in our Saturday evening television I’m eternally gratefully; that and to hear Kate Lethbridge-Stewart say, “Five rounds rapid” was truly fantastic.
The Osgood box for anyone that knows Doctor Who was clearly not going to be a weapon of mass destruction, however I did again like the call back to the box with a button, for which the Doctor had left for others to make a final decision upon, as he had once also.
Next week’s episode “Sleep No More” is written by Mark Gatiss and guest stars Reece Shearsmith. You can watch a trailer for it here.
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Villordsutch likes his sci-fi and looks like a tubby Viking according to his children. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=qXJL6jGfZhg
