THE PLOT
The Brigadier's call for help brings the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry back to Earth. Specifically, to Scotland, where several oil rigs have been destroyed by an unknown force. Investigating the wreckage, the Doctor determines that the metal bears the unmistakeable impression of teeth - with a single tooth being roughly half the size of a man!
The attacks are the work of the Zygons, who crash landed on Earth centuries earlier. They have kept a low profile until now, content to await rescue. But now their home planet has been destroyed. With no home of their own to return to, the Zygon leader has decided to turn Earth into their new home world... with crushing the human race the first step in their plan of conquest.
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: In the face of yet another alien invasion in the UK, the Doctor seems not only unflappable, but positively... bored. I'm afraid this is the first Tom story (indeed, the first story I've thus far reviewed) in which the Doctor really doesn't work for me. There's no sense of personal threat, and the script doesn't provide enough wit or humor to compensate. Tom fills in some of the gaps by emphasizing his Doctor's eccentricities. But there really isn't much here for him to sink his teeth into, and by the end I got the sense that both Tom and the Doctor were a bit bored by the proceedings - which affected my own interest, as well.
Sarah Jane Smith: Sarah Jane actually has a better story here than the Doctor does. When the Brigadier briefs them on the situation, she instantly siezes on her area of specialty - interviewing the locals, finding out what they may know about strange occurrences. When Harry comes to her after a brief disappearance, she is of course overjoyed to see him. But she senses that he is behaving particularly strangely, leading her to stop him from getting away with a Zygon device the Doctor had discovered. Sure enough, this "Harry" proves to be a Zygon duplicate. Finally, her persistence in nosing around the Duke's estate allows her to find the entrance to the Zygon ship. Elisabeth Sladen throws herself in with typical enthusiasm, and seems to enjoy getting more to do than usual. Her rapport with Tom elevates several scenes in the first and final episodes, too, with Tom's performance noticeably elevated in the scenes he shares with Sladen.
Harry Sullivan: Gets the smallest slice of the action he has had since Robot, put out of action early on and kept to the periphery even after his recue. This may well have been a conscious decision: minimize Harry's involvement in his final regular story to emphasize the one-on-one bond between the Doctor and Sarah Jane. Harry still gets a few bright moments, particularly in Part Three when he saves the Doctor by plunging in and pushing down on random switches. Ian Marter remains as likable as ever, and will definitely be missed in future stories.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: After appearing at least once per season since Season Five, this was the his swansong as a regular character. It would be several years before he would appear again, and then only as an occasional special guest star. It was probably time for the Brig and UNIT to be given a rest, as they had certainly fallen far from the crisp, military competence exhibited in Season Seven. Here, we see the Brig perplexed at such a basic and obvious investigative technique as filling a cavity with a plaster of paris to gain an impression or investigating the Duke's abandoned estate for clues (both things the Season Seven Brig would have probably ordered done as a matter of course).
Nicholas Courtney still retains a stiff dignity, and the character gets some better material later in the story, such as in a rather well-planned mortar attack on the loch which has the exact effect intended, in that it forces the Zygon ship to surface. It is also appropriate that, in his final regular story, he gets to meet and deal with an alien menace that is not resistant to bullets. Nevertheless, the character has grown a bit stale by this point, and the spark Courtney had playing opposite Pertwee just isn't there opposite Tom. It's regrettable, but I'd have to agree with Hinchcliffe's decision to discontinue the character.
THOUGHTS
While I know Terror of the Zygons is a fan favorite, I have to admit that it's not a favorite of mine. On this viewing, it really struck me how often the serial feels like just a collection of scenes, rather than a full story. One thing doesn't necessarily seem to lead to the next. Scattered set pieces - Sarah and the false Harry, the Doctor and the Scarasen, the UNIT soldiers' hunt for the Zygon - often seem like they could have been inserted anywhere, in any order, along the loose skeleton that forms the plot.
Up until the final episode, which finally gets a bit of momentum going, everything is very laid back... too laid back, lacking any sense of urgency. We're told at the outset that many people have died, but it doesn't feel like anything important is happening. Episode One sets up the situation; Episode Four sees the Zygons put their plan into effect. The middle two episodes basically just fill screen time with rather mild set pieces. The Doctor never really seems concerned, and given the Zygons' rather thin plan could probably have been dealt with by humanity without the Doctor's help, albeit with a much higher body count, I can't say that I really blame him for his lack of interest. It all leads to Tom's least energetic performance yet.
Like a handful of other early Tom Baker stories, Terror of the Zygons feels in many ways a leftover Pertwee story. It has the Brigadier and UNIT investigating strange occurrences in a rural area, there's an energy conference whose specifics are vague but apparently important, the Doctor gets to climb on a soapbox about fossil fuels, and locals are portrayed as highly superstitious, simple folk, useful mainly for providing exaggerated "local color." Just to emphasize that we're in rural Scotland, the Scot in the opening scene is complaining that he can't get a decent haggis. Meanwhile, the bagpipe-playing innkeeper talks of having "The Sight." There's even a bit of dodgy model work and a painfully fake-looking loch ness monster. Replace Elisabeth Sladen with Katy Manning, and this would fit quite snugly in the middle of Seasons Nine or Ten.
All of this might make it sound like I'm slating Terror of the Zygons, and I really don't mean to. It's one of the weaker stories I've reviewed thus far, with a particularly poor Episode Three. Even so, it is a perfectly reasonable entertainment. The Scarasen may be infamously poor, but the Zygons themselves are extremely well-realized, one of the best-realized aliens the show has given us at this point. The interior of the Zygon ship is effective, with suitably dim and tinted lighting making it feel just enough like an alien atmosphere to create a fairly eerie overall effect for the Zygon scenes.
Finally, there is the TARDIS team - a team which, as I've mentioned before, is one of my favorites. The opening shot of the trio, walking merrily together through the Scottish countryside, is charming. With the Doctor at maximum eccentricity in his "Scottish garb," and the Doctor's scarf looped lazily about Harry's shoulders, while Sarah walks comfortably and happily between them, they feel almost as much like a family enjoying a holiday as a set of traveling companions preparing to face another alien onslaught. There's a genuine sense of chemistry and affection among the three, the sort of thing that can't necessarily be planned or made to happen. When onscreeen together, they just... plain... work. This, more than anything, makes me regret that Harry was written out so soon. If I were to cite one Philip Hinchcliffe decision that I strongly disagree with, it would be that one - I could have happily watched this trio stay together for another full season, at least.
I go back and forth between a "6" and a "7," here. The story is entertaining. But the plot is haphazard, Tom seems a bit too detached, and the middle episodes are mainly filler that often doesn't even do a good job of pretending to advance the plot. Apparently, this serial was one that underwent massive rewrites. In this particular case, it shows. On balance, it's probably better-made than Revenge of the Cybermen. Unfortunately, I found it to be not nearly as much fun.
Rating: 6/10.
Previous Story: Revenge of the Cybermen
Next Story: Planet of Evil
Search Amazon.com for Doctor Who
Review Index
No comments:
Post a Comment