Much like the opening two-parter to this series, The Zygon Invasion takes risks with the casual viewer by drawing heavily on continuity. It works as a sequel to The Day of the Doctor which drew a massive 12.8 million viewers in 2013. The small minority of viewers who missed that special episode may have been baffled by the flashbacks to scenes with the Tenth, Eleventh and War Doctors in the pre-titles sequence. Although it is rewarding for long-term fans, this level of continuity may be one reason why audience numbers for Doctor Who has dropped off this year.
The episode focuses heavily on the character of Osgood who was introduced in The Day of the Doctor before being killed by Missy in last year's finale Death in Heaven. Osgood's double however lives on although it is never confirmed whether this is the human original or the Zygon who took her form. There is a good message behind this secret: that the race someone belongs to should not affect whether or not we trust them. It is also made clear that the majority of the 20 million Zygons that have assimilated into the Earth population live peacefully and only a small splinter group are threatening war.
The use of the term "radicalised" to describe the Zygon splinter group makes it clear that the story is partly a metaphor for the Islamic terrorism. Immigration is also addressed when the Doctor later jokes to a Zygon that the rebels can't have the UK as a home because the people think they will "pinch their benefits". The script is little heavy in signposting these subtexts but it is good to see Doctor Who return to addressing contemporary social themes.
The Zygons have apparently evolved since their previous appearances now being able to create human duplicates from human memories. This enables them to play mind games with the UNIT troops sent to attack their base in "Turmezistan". We cut between this location, London and New Mexico where Kate Stewart goes to investigate the disappearance of Osgood. This gives an impressive epic scope to the episode; something that was often lacking in the Russell T.Davies era when alien invasions tended to centre on the UK and other locations were only seen through TV news bulletins.
The Doctor rescues Osgood and she becomes his companion for the rest of the story. Interesting, Clara has only performed the traditional Doctor's companion role in three of the first eight episodes of the series and has been largely separated from him in the other five. The Doctor describes Osgood as a "hybrid" and this is the third time in the series this term has arose this year, suggesting a possible theme for the series finale.
Meanwhile Clara and a group of UNIT troops undercover a Zygon base under London. The set design and lighting of this is very consistent with the inside of the spaceship in 1975's The Terror of the Zygons. It turns out that Clara had already been replaced by an alien duplicate and she has led the soldiers into a trap. Such a twist was to be expected in a story about a race of shapeshifters but Jenna Coleman performs the role of the Zygon "Bonnie" very well, not overdoing the "evil acting". A further twist reveals when an American cop reveals herself to be a Zygon to Kate Stewart and apparently kills her. However, this is doubtful because we don't see Kate's death and it seems unlikely that the Brigadier's daughter would be killed off.
The cliffhanger sees Bonnie apparently shooting down the plane bringing the Doctor and Osgood back to the UK with a rocket launcher. This is an exciting end to another solid entertaining episode. The consistent quality of Series 9 continues only The Witch's Familiar matches the excellence of the best episodes from last year.
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