Hm, seems to be a recurring thing this week, the majority of an episode is meh but then the final 10 minutes come along and blow me out of the water. This is the Zygon Invasion/Inversion, the Zygons who were hidden amongst Earth 2 years ago are now at risk of being revealed which will cause mass hysteria worldwide and result in a war that the Zygon's are most certainly going to lose. In the end The Doctor is able to talk Bonnie (The leader of the Zygon rebellion) out of starting a war.
So yeah, took em 2 years to actually come back to this plotline that was set up in the 50th anniversary, no idea why it took so long but better late than never i guess. Frankly I don't care for the Zygons, their powers are cool but everything from the designs to their personalities to their plan here, i don't care for, i think it's generic and dull. I will say the specific details of the plan are interesting, the 20 million living on Earth are seen as traitors and revealing them will cleanse the pallet and leave room for Bonnie's Zygons to take their place. I will admit this makes the domesticated Zygon's quite sympathetic, forcing them into a war they have no choice in and don't want to be a part of. But at the same time, looking at the bigger picture, it's still the set up for a generic invasion story with cliched aliens and all of these points we've heard before; and I still don't get the motivation for Bonnie behind why she's revealing all of the Zygons.
By the way, Bonnie is played by Jenna Coleman, who doesn't love a good dual role character? As much as i've expressed my dislike for Clara as a character something I will never say is Jenna Coleman is a bad actress, i solely blame how she is written, acting wise she is top notch and she is giving her A Game this episode. Even when Clara and Bonnie are on screen together I feel like i'm watching different people, the change in body language, subtle accent changes and personality make for a very well done dual-role, so brave absolute to Jenna Coleman here.
But then we get to the real kicker of this episode, The Doctor trying to convince Kate and Bonnie to not start a war. Both of them have a box in front of them, for Kate, one button kills the Zygons, the other kills the humans, for Bonnie, one kills the Zygons, the other releases them, each has a 50/50 chance of getting what they want, but either way they'll be starting a war. Frankly this 10 minute scene of these people standing in a room had me glued to the screen, i didn't want to look away, i didn't want to blink, just in case i missed anything.
"It's not a game, Kate. This is a scale model of war. Every war ever fought right there in front of you. Because it's always the same. When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who's going to die. You don't know who's children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken!? How many lives shattered!? How much blood will spill until everybody does what they're always going to have to do from the very beginning -- sit down and talk!"
"I don't understand? Are you kidding? Me? Of course I understand. I mean, do you call this a war, this funny little thing? This is not a war. I fought in a bigger war than you will ever know. I did worse things than you could ever imagine, and when I close my eyes... I hear more screams than anyone could ever be able to count! And do you know what you do with all that pain? Shall I tell you where you put it? You hold it tight... Til it burns your hand. And you say this -- no one else will ever have to live like this. No one else will ever have to feel this pain"
Doctor Who has had a lot of epic scenes, they've had a lot of emotional scenes, but very few scenes that I would describe as poignant. This one scene held more tension, weight and drama than anything from Doctor Who for a while, it will go down as one of the best moments in Doctor Who history. Peter Capaldi's performance is breathtaking, the lack of music adds to the drama and as i'm writing this i am still getting goosebumps from it. This scene is so good that i want to rate it entirely on it's own, and you know something? I'm gonna do that!
The majority of this two parter is generic, uninteresting, plenty of funny lines as always and a great performance from Jenna Coleman but man i don't feel like watching it again. 6/10.
But that climactic scene with The Doctor's speech about war is perfection in a nutshell. 10/10.
-Danny
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