Terror of the Zygons

An oil rig! Wonder whereabouts this is...

"With tomorrow's supply trip, can you no send over a few haggis?" Nope, no idea.

50dw50 @50dw50 · Wales?

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke · Haggis! Not stereotypical at all. Guess they get away with it as Robert Banks Stewart is a Scot. Well, his name is. 

Alas, poor model, it's legs were clearly polystyrene, Horatio.

And now, a new "arrival" scene! Missed a trick - they should have dropped it into Day of the Doctor, like the Shada clips in the 5 Doctors!

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke · I can't help but smile along with Tom. He's infectious. Should be prescribed on the NHS to cheer people up. 

"A herd of Jabberwocks and Slithy Toves!"

The Doctor manages to make the TARDIS visible again, and indulges in a quick costume change while he's at it...

"We're in Scotland!"

This is absolutely lovely stuff from the cast. Harry's herd of Jabberwocks is probably just Pertwee singing in the distance.

Love this little scene. Anything extra with Tom, Lis & Ian is worth its weight in gold. 

UNIT are signalling on the psionic scale. I knew it.

Lovely stuff with Lis in the hat and Ian in the scarf. So comfortable with each other by now.

 50dw50 @50dw50 ·  which makes it such a shame that the wonderful Mr Dufflecoat leaves at the end of the story #HarryFan

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · Ah, but he comes back in Justin Richards' Missing Adventure books.

Ah yes, seem to remember enjoying System Shock; the technology of 1998 so futuristic to Sarah, probably all obsolete now! 

They hitch a lift with the Duke of Forgill - the always brilliant John Woodnut.

Those bagpipes are a bit manic!

The Brig orders Benton to make nice with the landlord; all in the line of duty. 

"Good lord!" The Brig nearly wets himself on seeing the Doctor's new get up.

The Duke sticks it to UNIT: "Official secrets and all that twaddle!"

"My name is Lethbridge-Stewart - of the clan Stewart!" I've heard worse excuses to wear a kilt.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke · I thought the was half Italian or summat? Or is that just on audio?

Oh yeah, in The Ghosts of N-Space he has an Italian uncle, played by the not at all Italian Harry Towb!

The radio man from the rig is the lone survivor to wash ashore.

Tom's still doing that season 12 thing of slouching around seats when being bored by UNIT.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·The Doc is on the nail about chemical slime. About time 'we' caught up!

Now the energising of hydrogen...

The gang pay a visit to the oil company's offices, where Harry checks out the post mortems...

...and the Brig checks out a super model, which reminds him of a spider in concrete wellington boots.

Tom revisits his Titanic gag from Robot, with the Bismarck this time out.

Sarah gets her journo on and goes off in hunt of a story.

Storr survived being shot by the Ice Warriors after all, and is now running a pub.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Shui Macfee from Crossroads! That's why he disappeared. Better than Benny, he was stuck up a ladder putting up Xmas decorations for years!

Sarah quizzes Storr about the second sight & manages to offend him by calling the Duke strange.

"He looks like he could see around a corner or two" is such a lovely line about the Doctor.

Ooh, a mysterious monstrous POV, whispering blobby aliens, a veiny viewscreen & a piercing gaze. Excellent direction, draws you in. 

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Love this scene. 1922 is recent. Shows the closeness of the villagers. Time at a standstill. 

EVIL SPIRITS DON'T DESTROY OIL RIGS claims out of town journalist! SCANDAL! 

50dw50 @50dw50 ·  my parents live in a Scottish village just like that, next time I visit I will look out for duplicates

"It's..." 

Beardy McBeard's shot Harry, the rotter! He was only trying to help the last survivor of the rig... 

Mark Walker ‏@Mark_Walker  nice to see Harry's military training kick in and he makes himself an easier target for a sniper!  

He's only qualified to work on sailors, to be fair. 

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Harry!! Nooooo!!!  More stereotypes, tall chap, ginger, called The Caber. Hmmm 

Surprised he didn't whack him over the head with a bottle of Irn Bru to be honest. 

50dw50 ‏@50dw50 but can he toss it?

Can he toss it? Yes he can! Ah, "Can he toss it" by a Tribe Called MacRanulph. Tune.

Tom's so alien, and revels in the "flowers for the dead".

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · for me, this is the most 'alien' we ever see Tom's Doctor. He seems to be consciously apart from the humans in this story. 

Sarah gets the call that Harry's been shot...

...while the watching creatures summon something very large from out at sea...

Another rig's about to buy it.

The Doctor and Sarah are visiting Harry in hospital when the Brig brings the news that the wreckage from the first rig has been recovered...

The Doctor suspects that the rig was attacked by something with very large teeth!

Teeth are very serious things!

The Zygons mark the Doctor for death.

That nurse's bedside manner is the worst imagineable.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·except the one I had for my appendectomy. Not even kidding :(

50dw50 ‏@50dw50 I am a nurse and mines far worse!

Mark Walker ‏@Mark_Walker have met a few like that!

Crikey, everyone's got a nasty nurse story except me!

Sarah rings the Doctor to give him the good news that Harry's awake.

As Harry starts to fully come to, he hears a weird wibbly noise before he's attacked...

Sarah's phonecall to the Doctor is rudely interrupted...

By a spectacular blobby orange monster!

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek ·Sackboy the Zygon?

"Come on, love, other people want to use the phone, you know!"

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Just off to change me undertroosers! #great_cliffhanger!


Mark Walker ‏@Mark_Walker fantastic first episode, one of the best ever. Very atmospheric and draws you in. 

Kosmic Kris @KosmicKris · also, has there been a better all-round cast for a Who story? Every actor, even the smaller parts, are perfectly judged.

The Hinchcliffe era is in full swing. After warning shots like Ark in Space & Genesis, this is the start of a more consistent tone, more grown up and "real" drama. That's not to denigrate the Pertwee era, but the show hasn't felt this grounded in reality since season 7.

The Doctor gets himself down to the scene of the crime sharpish.

The Zygon traps the Doctor and Sarah in a decompression chamber...

 ...while headache Harry meets the warlord of the Zygons. What an absolutely amazing design.

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · I always liked how the Zygon ship was all modernist on the outside but looked like an explosion in a pizza factory inside.

You can't not spot it once you know, but I think it's really crafty that they place Broton's mic in one of the suckers!

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·I love how all the zygons look different. Not often that happens with aliens, even now

Broton shows Harry his aquarium, where his pet, the Skarasen AKA Nessie, is having a nice swim.  

The air's getting a bit stale round the Doctor and Sarah.

Lovely shot of the Zygon spacecraft in the Loch here...

Broton claims nuclear missiles would be mere pinpricks to the Skarasen.

The Doctor's hypnotised Sarah to stop her suffocating. Well, to stop her panicking, anyway. He has a moan about it anyway.

The pub the Brig is in has a rather unique way of calling time; they're all being gassed.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Looks more like smoke; Bob Holmes must be behind there!

Benton to the rescue! He's saved the Doctor and Sarah. Good old Benton.

Out on the misty moors, a UNIT soldier is being stalked by a mooing Dougie Camfield... 

Bek Hobbes @Greebobek · Nessie's secret weapon, shooting milky liquid to blind humans.

50dw50 ‏@50dw50
sometimes a milk squirting alien is just a cigar

MAW Holmes @MAW_H · "Out on the winding, windy moors..."

I thought it was Kinda that Kate Bush wrote... ;-P

Now the Zygons decide to let Harry in on their big secret...

The Zygons are shapeshifters! 

Love the way Ian Marter has Harry rub his sore head in disbelief!

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·We can see who all the zygons are in those booths. Nice transformation though.

Yeah, shame they give that away, though it's the bunch that have already been acting oddly, I guess.

"Asleep? Impossible, I was on duty. There are times, Doctor, when you do talk absolute nonsense!" A1 Brigadier-ing there.

"Excellent! Now the female human is alone!" Broton's ready to make his move on Sarah. 

Sarah on a typewriter! Doing some actual journalist-ing! 

Lovely stuff from Marter as Zygon Harry. So sinister with just tiny touches. Seriously creepy.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·Harry pushes Sarah. The blighter! Summats up... 

Great location this. No reason why you can't believe this is Scotland.

Is the Silurian still in that barn?

Marter's psycho look as Zygon Harry attempts to pitchfork Sarah is terrifying.

Zygon Harry's forked now. 

The shot of the dying skewered Zygon's horrible.

Mark Walker ‏@Mark_Walker  love the noise the dying Zygon makes though!

Ruthless, these Zygons - they remotely dissolve the corpse of their dead comrade.

Just as the Doctor's figured out that Nessie is summoned by a beacon attached to the rigs, the signal starts again! 

Paul Cooke ‏@paulpcooke   Electronic bug? It shoud've been a Zygon as the pub dog. Scarier to kids... 

Usual excellence from Sir Adrian of Salmon. What's this actually from?

Paul Cooke ‏@paulpcooke   Its a commission. I wrote the 'story', Ade drew it for me. Wondered how the zygons might have got their human bodyprints.

That's so cool. Lucky devil. Cracking idea, too!

Paul Cooke ‏@paulpcooke   You should see the colour version! It's on his blog. [www.adriansalmonart.blogspot.co.uk] Hopefully this will see print in a fan mag soon

Oh no, engine trouble! 

And here comes the Loch Ness monster! Always the way.

Don't mind the stop-motion Skarasen. Quite charming. I know it's going for scary, but works for a cliffhanger. 

Some last minute sabotage by Harry saves him, and the Skarasen trundles off. 

Benton starts searching the pub. Looks like thirsty work, eh, landlord? Eh?

Sarah cadges a lift off the Brig to drive out to pick the Doctor up. He tells them Nessie's a cyborg!

Then it's round the Duke's gaff for a spot of Tom-foolery. "Shop!"

Al Dewar @TheFab14 · "Well, my family have served this country for seven centuries, but that doesn't seem to count these days, does it?" 

Paul Cooke ‏@paulpcooke   Doc totally unbothered when caught taking the mick, there.

Yep, no Pertwee-esque embarrassed neck-rub, just breeze past it and lay on the stare. Cracking.

The Duke seems skeptical when they claim to have found the monster. He'd been hoping it had found them.

The Brig wants to depth charge the loch. Needs a way to drive the monster out, too.

Storr finds he's been the star of Zygon TV for quite some time.

"I'm not a party to any kind of nonsense. Well, until Hinchcliffe goes, anyway."

 

Nurse Ratchet shows up to see Storr fiddling with Stag-cam...

...so she shows him her party trick.

Oh, boo. The nasty nurse has killed poor old Storr the landlord.

Benton gets to shoot a gun and do some soldier stuff. Can't hit a tree in the woods, mind. 

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  That's because Mike Yates kept on nicking his sandwiches... a chap needs to build himself up, you know...

Don't trust her, she's the Zygon!  

She clonks the hapless squaddie with a rock. Hartnell would be proud.

WHY didn't UNIT warn their troops they were shapeshifters? Clown outfit sometimes, aren't they, UNIT? They couldn't find a Zygon fugitive if their lives depended on it.

Found it!

Two vital elements of this story that I've not mentioned till now...

Douglas Camfield's direction is peerless, from the action/chase scenes to the creepy, tension filled atmosphere-building.

Geoffrey Burgon's soundtrack is equally beautiful, whistful, mournful, joyful, creepy & dramatic. 1 of the very best. So glad Deadly Dudley pissed Dougie Camfield off - we reap the benefits!

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·  The Duke/Broton doesn't seem at all bothered that one of his crew are in trouble. Just gets steps and stuff. 

Sarah thinks the Caber is a tosser. 

Sarah finds the secret entrance to the Zygon ship by pulling out a copy of Scooby Doo's Big Book of Cliches. 

She sets off down the mystery passage, nabbing the torch its owners have left there for their own use. 

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·  Love Sarah's reaction to the rising door. Bet that was Sladen. 

Sarah's not too sure about Harry at first but he calls her old girl so she trusts him. Note that down, aliens. 

You can see the Doctor itching to get into the Zygon ship. But he's too hasty - they've nabbed him! Grabbed by the Zygons. No wonder he screams.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker · and yet a few regenerations down the line he'll be snogging them! What he gets up to in the privacy of his own regeneration... stays on tour? Or something?

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke ·  looked like a duck got caught in the top of that explosion!

BOOOOOOOM!!!! "Sounds like the Brigadier!"

Love the realism of the rising pitch of the ascending spacecraft as it prepares to go supersonic...

Lovely model work & great design for the Zygon ship. Off it goes, you've had it now!

Bit of an odd cliffhanger: the Zygons have done a runner!

Not too much of a reprise there. Good.

These scenes on film look sumptuous, lovely restoration work.

Paul Cooke @paulpcooke · Why didn't they transmit the jamming signal BEFORE takeoff?

Sarah goes through the Duke's post. Pretty sure that's illegal. Bad journo - it's the phonehacking of its day.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  The trials of Sarah Jane Smith...

Now picturing Rebekah Brooks as SJS' version of the Valeyard...

Trustee of the golden haggis lucky dip! YOU WHAT!

"Everyone remember where we parked."
"All these quarries look the same to me."

Love the Zygon klaxon, actually. Dunno why.

Tom's really in his stride now. "Social call?"

"You've got to come out onto the balcony & wave a tentacle, if you'll pardon the expression."

The Zygons' shapeshifting is a technological achievement rather than an actual ability.

So they're not genuinely shapeshifters themselves. Hence needing the body prints.

Duke Broton is off to terraform the planet to make it more suitable for the Zygon race.

MAW Holmes @MAW_H ·  I can see him now, walking around B&Q with a disappointed look on someone else's face...

"It's for you, sir, the Prime Minister."

At the time it would have been intended that the female MP would be someone like Shirley Williams, I guess. With the hindsight of history, it makes it seem like it was that woman. *spits*. UNIT-dating wise, if this was the 80s as per Sarah's line in Pyramids then her being PM would explain the empty quarry.

The Doctor manages to plug himself into the ship's power source to send a signal to UNIT.

Overconfident, Broton leaves the stunned Doctor unguarded, which allows him to free the humans from the body print machines.

"Let's see what other damage we can do!" The Doctor's on a right vandalism spree.

He's managed to activate the self-destruct. Leg it!

Harry's response to "Was that bang big enough for you Brigadier?" is "Nicely done, Doctor". Class.

Mark Walker @Mark_Walker ·  'would need a pass to get in' - being UNIT and trying to save the world not good enough then? 

And they're off to London! (I don't say "that London" as I'm not a silly arse. Not all the time.)

Broton's looking for somewhere with a good view of the Commons so he can watch Nessie chow down on the government.

You can see quite clearly here how the great chemistry between Tom and Lis sidelined the character of Harry.

The roar of the Zygon is quite terrifying.

Why does the Brig just wait, let Broton strangle that guy, and *then* shoot him?

Broton stuck the homing device in Tom's pocket. Cheeky beggar.

Oh dear, *glove puppet klaxon*

So Broton's dead and the Skarasen's swum off home to Loch Ness. Job's a good 'un.

Back in Scotland: "...but you know what politicians are like!" Brig, you genius.

The Duke is not impressed with the Doctor's mode of transport.

Harry opts to stay on Earth! Boo!

But Sarah's staying with the Doctor! Yay!

Ah, and a comedy punchline about Scots being tight with money. UNIT dating solved: definitely 70s.

TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... The Visitation