An Hour of Who a Day: July 21: Terror of the Zygons Parts One & Two

July 21: Terror of the Zygons Parts One & Two

Full disclosure: this is the story I wrote a piece on for Outside In (which you can purchase here if you're interested (shameless plug over)). This will try to not be a repeat of that piece, though I may touch on a couple of those points again.

It is rather nice to see UNIT back in action again, even if we're outside the usual stomping grounds and hanging around Loch Ness instead. (Not exactly convinced about the Brigadier in a kilt though.) But what's more striking is how irritated the Doctor seems to be about being summoned back by the Brigadier, even though he's the one who gave him the space-time telegraph in the first place. "When I left the psionic beam with you, Brigadier, I said it was only to be used in an emergency," the Doctor grumbles. "Oil an emergency? Huh! It's about time the people who run this planet of yours realised that to be dependent upon a mineral slime just doesn't make sense." He does allow himself to be persuaded to help after the Brigadier mentions the loss of life, though.

Given that this is a UNIT story during Philip Hinchcliffe's producership, we get an interesting blend of that cozy UNIT feel and the more intense air of season 12. It clearly suits director Douglas Camfield fine (back in the Who fold after 1970's Inferno), and he does a fabulous job with the material, but that blend is still present -- perhaps no more obviously than the sequence in part one where Harry is shot with a sniper rifle out on the beach while trying to help an oil rig worker who's stumbling in from the sea. So while the Brigadier is setting up a base of operations in the local pub, Harry is lying on the ground with blood on his forehead (and Ian Marter does a good job of selling being struck by a bullet as well). It's to Camfield's credit that this juxtaposition of styles works so well. And he also does a good job with the titular aliens, showing us a hand here, a pair of eyes there, so that the first cliffhanger, showing one in its full glory menacing Sarah, has a strong impact.

Of course, once we've seen a Zygon, part two gives us lots of shots of them inside their organic spaceship. They really are a masterpiece of design and still maintain their creepy impact even today. Their ship is also just as unpleasant, looking like a pizza gone amok. It's very impressive. But the other thing we learn is that Zygons have the ability, given a suitable bodyprint, to take on the appearance of human beings -- which therefore allows Ian Marter to play a baddie, as a Zygon assuming Harry's form. Marter is very sinister in this role, and he's aided by some striking direction -- one shot in particular (as shown to the right), with him half-hidden in shadow, is superbly framed and lit to make Harry seem very sinister. The sequence doesn't last long, but its impact is long-lasting.

But shapeshifting isn't the only weapon the Zygons have: they also have control of a giant monster living in Loch Ness, which has been chewing up the oil rigs and caused the problem that brought the Doctor to Scotland in the first place. Yep, it's the Loch Ness Monster, and it honestly doesn't look that bad -- it's a hell of a lot better than the dinosaurs from season 11, and there's something wonderful about the stop-motion animation used to make it chase the Doctor across the moorland -- a welcome touch of Harryhausen added to the proceedings. It is a bit silly that the Zygons have to resort to gassing an entire town in order to let it pass unseen, but the monster does make for another effective cliffhanger, as it bears down on the Doctor and the tracking device that he can't get unstuck from his hand...