Doctor Who, The Zygon Invasion, TV review: Doctor Disco gets his groove back in a topical, shape-shifting thriller

This is shaping up to be a very solid season indeed

The Zygons have returned, tensions have flared, and a splinter group of the sucker-covered monstrosities is plotting revolution (BBC)

It feels good to say Doctor Who is actually getting better and better each week. Even saying that last Saturday’s uneven highwayman romp is the weakest in the run so far doesn’t necessarily mean you’re saying it’s bad – it’s just that this year, Who seems to be consistently hitting the high notes.

The Zygon Invasion doesn’t buck this upwards trend. If anything it makes you wonder how things could feasibly get any more impressive. A global thriller that hops between suburban south London, New Mexico and Turmezistan, a name which I’m 90% sure was plucked from the eastern side of a Risk board. No other concessions were made to tiptoeing around topicality, however, with talk of radicalisation, drone strikes and an exploration of the anti-immigrant mindset. It’s an episode that’s very much of the moment and raises some interesting questions for what’s ostensibly a children’s show. The fact that it’s all wrapped around a tense and effective horror story with some genuinely chilling moments and you’re not just looking at some good Doctor Who, but some genuinely great TV.

The plot itself follows on from 2013’s 50th anniversary feature-length yarn The Day of the Doctor, in which a peace treaty was brokered between humans and the shape-shifting Zygons, who began to live among us in secrecy shortly after. Some two years later, tensions have flared and a splinter group of Zygons is plotting revolution and the right to strut about town as a sucker-covered monstrosity with a head like a Cornish pasty. The question that’s facing the white hats is this: when your enemy can adopt any shape they please, how do you know who to trust?

Much of the drama and tension of the episode was apparent when this particular thread was explored. Sure, nobody’s denying the whole shape-shifting idea has been done countless times in Who, let alone a few generation’s worth of books, comics and films. But The Zygon Invasion still manages to find something fresh in the idea, made particularly chilling by the scene outside the church, where self-doubting UNIT troops are lured to their death by insidious replicas of their loved ones. It’s the kind of scene you can imagine kids brushing off as routine alien villainy, but to be genuinely unnerving for the parents watching.

The nature of the invasion is a resonant one too – the idea that we may be infiltrated, that anyone could be one of them. Some alien plots are about brute force and some are just plain wacky (the Master once dressed up as a scarecrow for no discernible reason) but the Zygons end up being a credible and unsettling threat, with part of that thanks due to some impressive prosthetics. The Doctor, of course, is all about maintaining peace and not blowing everything up, but with the episode’s rampant escalation you wonder if peace is an actual possibility. One snag might be the Osgood Box, which may or may not turn out to be some sort of gigantic deus ex machina. Hopefully not, and if the standard of the writing holds up such shenanigans won’t be an issue.

The location filming – and indeed, the standard of the direction in general – is probably the best the show has ever done. From arid badlands to grotesque organic Zygon bases, it all looks grand and cinematic, and choosing to play the whole thing with deadly seriousness was a deft decision. The inevitably one-liners aside, it’s all played straight and it’s all the better for it. The Zygon Invasion is bound to provoke some debate due to its bold topicality, but by taking an even-handed tone and at one point turning the (albeit Zygon) British into those seeking asylum, it plays with the question more than offering any trite or overly political answers. And there’s always the moral touchstone of the Doctor to rely on, advocating peace for all and striving towards it.

The episode barreled along with pace and panache, with the stakes being continually raised until we got one absolute belter of a cliffhanger. I’ll be furious if we’ve seen the end of Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, but genuinely have no idea how it’s going to pan out. It seems like anyone’s game these days. With Peter Capaldi settled in the role and episodes like The Zygon Invasion, it feels like Who has got its groove back, as Doctor Disco might say. This is shaping up to be a very solid season indeed.