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Electric hairballs make the laziest tumbleweeds

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UNIT’s zany comedy double act, Osgood and Osgood, have recorded one final short just in case, on the off chance, either a human or an undercover Zygon ever commits a murder and activates the one tiny loophole in the otherwise most perfect peace treaty of all time.

Left clutching her twin’s box after Missy’s murderous flight of fancy, the surviving Osgood goes mad with grief and heads to the whimsically named Truth or Consequences, where British immigrants are getting murdered in corkboard-sized rampages and treated no better than dogs.

Enter the President of the World, Kagels, and someone who looks very much like Clara to save the day. Splitting up, K-Stew reviews the Ts & Cs, Doctor Disco flies to Lightly Fictionali-stan, while Clara or Not-sequences tries to get to the bottom of a lift-shaft mystery.

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Here's what we think of N124 The Zygon Invasion

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

3.9

Drew | @drewbackwhen

3.6

Marie | @hammashandjelly

2.9

Featuring
The Twelfth Doctor
Clara Oswald
Kate Stewart
Petronella Osgood
U.N.I.T.
Zygons
Here's what we think of N124 The Zygon Invasion

We rate Doctor Who stories on a scale from 0.0 to 5.0. For context, very few are excellent enough to merit a 5.0 in our minds, and we'd take a 0.0 Doctor Who story over a lot of other, non-Whovian stuff out there.

Leon | @ponken

3.9

Drew | @drewbackwhen

3.6

Marie | @hammashandjelly

2.9

Here's what you think 2 Responses to “N124 The Zygon Invasion”
  1. Eddie Rock | @TheEddieRock

    Hey WhoBackWhen, Zygon clone Eddie here. I want to start by saying how much I understand and feel for the Zygons. They’re just innocent victims of oppression and persecution. Go Zygons!

    Sorry about that, he took my keyboard. Actual Eddie here now. This was a fantastic first part which managed to take a “silly” foe and turn them into a genuinely scary threat. The “invasion of the body snatchers” trope is a classic and finally uses the Zygons to their full potential. From a crying fake relative, to creepy little kids, to the fantastic Clara twist (though it was suspicious Clara would just leave a terrorized child to his fate). There was a shockingly high body count in this episode, which just further serves to separate it from previously goofy Zygon stories

    Kagels was unimpressive in this episode. The Doctor was a good mix of fun and serious. Osgood is always a blast and her fan-girling of The Doctor is consistently top notch. Her character has taken a much less playful tone here though with how passionate and serious she is about her “sister” and the cause. It added great depth to the character. So many classic Doctor references, including a portrait of Hartnell in the background!

    Overall a great episode. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 pulsing electric balls of hair. (Zygon Eddie gave it 5.0 but he’s not exactly impartial) We’ll see you for part two. Till then, Rock on!

    November 1, 2020 at 8:47 pm
    Reply
  2. Michael Ridgway | @bad_movie_club

    Likes:

    • Dark, so dark. Lovecraftian underworlds, X-Files weirdness, horrible honey-trap massacres, and creepy doppelgängers a-plenty.
    • Gutsy, hard-hitting political stuff. The ISIS imagery still shocks. This aired around the time Islamic State was at its peak. How the production crew didn’t receive threats I don’t know – that’s totally the ISIS flag if you cover your eyes in Vaseline. Plus striking racism references, from the ‘No British, No Dogs’ sign, to throwaway lines on benefit fraud.
    • Fantastic (under) world-building with rival Zygon sects. We could have a whole separate series exploring this.
    • Awesome twist (Coleman is killing it as evil Clara) and a shocking finale, utterly devoid of hope. How the bloody hell will they get out this? (How will part 2 live up to this?).
    • Is that the Seventh Doctor’s tank top I see Osgood wearing at the start? I do believe so!

    Beefs:

    • I love tumbleweed scenes, but that didn’t cut it for me. A good tumbleweed visual is an art form. That looked like someone haphazardly lobbed it on there and pulled it along with string.
    • Are they really the best UNIT soldiers they had? They were way too dumb.

    Summary: Chuck Forest, Girl who Died / Lived on the bonfire and salt the Earth. This is the (Os)good shit. This is the stuff aliens will dig up from the wreckage of our dead earth in 5 years time and stick in a museum (the ticketed special exhibition section). Bravo!

    Rating: 4.9/5 gullible UNIT soldiers, deservedly lured to horrible melty-deaths. IDIOTS!

    November 1, 2020 at 8:48 pm
    Reply

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