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variousqueerthings · 4 months

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They were both Zygon and human at the same time / I spend an awful lot of time being kidnapped, tortured, shot at and exterminated, doesn't mean I like it

The Zygon Invasion/Inversion -- the Zygons are back and it's a direct continuation to the last Zygon episode, which I'm always a fan of. I think I'm probably slightly affected by not being a big fan of UNIT and this story is very UNIT heavy. I do like Osgood though, I think Osgood and to an extent Kate Stewart are indicators of different kinds of writing women that came around bit by bit in this era. I do think Osgood should be too smart not to doubt UNIT at this point, considering how flipping ineffectual at best they are! Anyway!

I continue down the lane of "not having taken notes for s9 RIP me"

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 4/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 6/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 6/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 6/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 8/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 9/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 6/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 7/10

FULL RATING: 72/100 (if I can count….)

I think these episodes are quite good -- they're not really for me and the things I enjoy about Doctor Who, but in order to have Osgood I have to watch big spy nonsense unfortunately. EDIT: I do enjoy them more now I've written a bit about them

OBJECTIFICATION: there is, once again, nothing that sticks out. in fact I'm not sure if anything sticks out for the rest of the season? genuinely think we're just good here?? correct me if I'm wrong, again, I really should've taken note RIP

PLOT-POINT: I think there's some interesting back and forth between Clara and her Zygon double, however I do notice that Clara is mostly there to forward her (their?) development, and isn't herself going through an emotional journey in this. there's this bit at the end where she's interacting with the Doctor and she's asking if there was a moment when he thought she was dead, and he says "longest month of my life" and again it's... it's good, but it's not Clara's feelings, it's Clara being there affecting someone else

Osgood, Kate, Zygella, they've all got some trajectory in this, some form of change or confirmation -- Osgood as someone who fundamentally resists violence and who bonded with her other self and continues to have these foundations making her able to work with the Doctor based around his way of doing things, Kate who initially doesn't do that/is very violence based just like in the previous Zygon episode, but is convinced to step away from the box, and Zygella who goes from wanting to destroy humanity to becoming the second Osgood

Clara does a few neat things in the plot, but it doesn't really revolve around her emotional complexity

COMPLEXITY: it's quite a simple plot on the whoooole, but I think there was some needless "now we're in America" stuff in it that I... I just don't enjoy Doctor Who in America, because it always uses America-as-place to piggyback off of genre-type TV that just doesn't feel like Doctor Who to me. the exception to this is Daleks in Manhatten to me, and no, I can't tell you why either. I'm sure if I thought about it I'd have a compelling reasoning, but it's a sleepy day on the whole

but yeah, otherwise. Zygons. they look like humans. they're trying to start a war by making humans lash out against the idea of aliens in their midst and the Doctor talks them out of it. actually I'm not 100% clear on how the Doctor talks them out of it, but the Doctor does talk very eloquently + I appreciate a plot that ultimately isn't solved with violence. I have some questions that may come up in the politics section around Zygon oppression and how the Doctor interacts with that as a scifi concept with very real life underpinnings, but that's not for this section

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Zygons are still here. uh, UNIT still kinda sucks and a whole bunch of its soldiers got zapped, but also sometimes you come across characters too stupid to live, and honestly at this point that's every soldier in UNIT

the Doctor had a teaser of the idea of Clara dying and wasn't happy about it

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara does more in this episode! this despite being in a pod for a lot of it! (she also has some great outfits, but that's an aside) (I have clearly got a whole bee in my bonnet about how Clara is dressed as a character, maybe I should make a separate post about it at some point) (but this was great)

Clara inapod! VS Zygon Clara! I quite enjoyed all of that, I enjoyed Clara saving the Doctor's life by using her own smarts, I enjoyed her finding ways to communicate with the Doctor that she was alive, I enjoyed her getting Zygon!Clara to the base. I wish she maybe had a bit more to do after that, but this is a whooole lot more than Clara usually gets in an episode

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor gets shit wrong in this episode, Osgood notices things (like Clara being alive) that the Doctor doesn't, there's a whole bit of trial and error, I enjoyed that. it gets a bit more high and mighty at the end with the speech -- full disclosure I'm reading transcripts of the episodes as I go along, because I was silly enough to not take notes in the moment! (always take notes!)

and I do remember watching and going "oh is there something I missed" because the Doctor gets them there, declares that this is wrong, and the Zygon!Clara goes "oh yeah, you're right" and steps back <- it's more complicated speeching than that, but I'm not sure I quite understand the shift that happens in this moment. as a sleight of hand it doesn't quuiiiite work for me, even though I enjoy it

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: there's a whole bunch of references, as is standard with UNIT episodes -- lotta things I don't know yet, because I haven't reached it on my classic!who watch. that's the thing about UNIT. I may not like them much in the writing, but they are a great way to get a treasure trove of past lore references into a story. now make them villains cowards!

“SEXINESS”: again, I cannot recall anything on this front in this episode, and indeed, for the rest of the season. we may. be cured.

INTERNAL WORLD: I know, I know, the Doctor is "president of the world" so they can just fly a jet to New Mexico and then back to London in a jiffy, but I often think DW stretches itself waaay too thin when it tries these "big" spy drama type setups (I feel, btw, similarly unconvinced by that big UNIT avengers tower in the new special, but at least the action isn't actually led by them)

DW just doesn't do this kind of idk. American Action Drama type thing well, nor is that what I watch it for anyway. my suspension of disbelief is ohhhh so close to snapping!

POLITICS: okok so there's a few contrasting thoughts I have here. first of course, we love a story about non-violence, and we love a DW that's about peoplehood, in fact those are amongst some of my favourite. everyone is People. howeeever, this is where we get to the parts of the speechifying I'm not quite onboard with, which is that Zygon!Clara says "we've been treated like cattle"

and the Doctor basically says "so what" not because the episode is saying they should be second-class citizens, but because the Zygons currently have the power to start a war and have a revolution and it'll be bloody and awful and beget more violence, this is something I agree with. where I think there's a bit of a blip, is that I don't think the episode fully deals with the fact that Zygons are second-class citizens in the first place

I mean, firstly, it's not something I actually had much of a sense of was the driving force behind this want for war, but then I'd question the ideas of "Zygons need to stay undercover for the sake of peace" as a sort of "as long as you pass you're welcome" type situation and that is... I mean it's not quite so deep in this episode, but that's the thing, I think it should be that deep or else it comes off a bit weak

if you're dealing with a story about a people who have been oppressed, then the focus of that story can be "Do Not Try To Oppress Others In Turn," but I personally think it also needs to be more cognizant of the oppression in the first place

I think Osgood once again is a great addition to the story, in that she represents a future of co-existence that appears to be based in equality and non-violence -- if it were someone like Kate I would be waaay more wary of what this episode were trying to say at the end, but Kate gets her memory wiped, so we know what the Doctor -- at the end of the day -- thinks about her way of thinking and handling situations (Kate Stewart villain arc When)

but this is still a relatively highly rated point, I think a lot of its heart is in the right place, and although I don't like how UNIT is portrayed, it does seem to be saying "yeah they got it wrong" -- the fact that they continuously choose violence and it's continuously wrong throughout nu!who and the Doctor still works with them, is why I'm scratching my head

FULL RATING: 71/100 (if I can count….)

we're over halfway through the season now and it has been a consistently quite highly rated season. Clara still fails to take a centre stage, which as you know is my main Thing that I'll probably continue to gripe about, but while it did occasionally go a bit too hard on the soldiers and American Location Where We Can Conveniently Situate The Violence at the end of the day UNIT were not in the right

is it just me or is Osgood way more of a Companion type than Clara a lot of the time? I mean I get that she's not a Companion, because she seems to prefer being on earth and helping out there and she's very well-grounded in herself, but she's just so efficient. maybe a bit too fanboy and meta for me to ever have wanted to see her as a full-on Companion, but certainly enjoyable to me every time she's there

#im watching nu!who #im watching capaldi who #the zygon invasion #the zygon inversion #the measurement

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