Doctor Who 9x8 'The Zygon Inversion': The Consequence of War (and Truncated Storytelling)

Doctor Who 9x8 makes a defining stance on war in a powerful climax to the Zygon Invasion, but only somewhat earns its message.

Reviewed while trying to figure out how to review this difficult episode. And while my laptop was dying waiting for a family reunion to end in my cafe.

Even with Gallifrey saved in 'The Day of the Doctor,' the Doctor still feels the weight of committing genocide and war. He is still a PTSD veteran traveler trying desperately to cope with what he did. If we needed any confirmation of that, the crux of his speech towards the end of 'Zygon Inversion' solidifies it. This is crucial, because it's far and away the freshest and most intriguing thread in the series reboot, ever since Christopher Eccleston's introduction in 2005. And I truly felt a sense of loss when Moffat found a loophole to bring Gallifrey back and revert the primary experience that defines the Doctor as traumatic peacekeeper. I feared we would no longer have that sense of urgency, the chip on the Doctor's shoulders as we watch him trying to escape it all.

Now we know that he hasn't escaped. It doesn't matter that the Time Lords were saved in the end, that the Doctor didn't actually use the Moment in reality. The point is that the Doctor still experienced doing it, still remembers the screams. The weight of two gargantuan races clashing in the heavens and then suddenly, abruptly, viscerally silenced. He's still the mass killer. What matters is not the result. What matters is the impact on the individual who can make a difference. That's why the fact that the Osgood Boxes were only a bluff in the end doesn't change the significance of the Doctor's plea for peace to Kate and Zigella. The point was never to convince them to make a false choice. The point was to change their very nature, to ensure that they would no longer pursue the art of war. Zigella's eyes are now the Doctor's, those of ones with unfathomable blood on their hands and the determination to stop this from happening again. Some surely are lost on the fact that Zigella comes out of senselessly killing scores of people and almost destroying the world unpunished, and feel blindsided by it. Where's the consequence for all this bloodshed?

But therein lies the true purpose of the Doctor's speech. Zigella is the consequence. Her continued existence is forever cursed with the knowledge of what she's done, the pain of it that will burn her hand when she holds it tight. She doesn't comprehend it until the Doctor lays the 'scale model of war' in front of her with the power of his own experiences. Only then can she truly see what it was she was trying to do. War is brutal and ultimately pointless. we know this, and countless stories tell it, but the message takes on a new tone in the words of someone we're meant to believe was always good, when in fact he knows he was anything but. Zigella must cope with it. And that consequence is what makes her a new peacekeeper. It's not a life anyone would envy. Even if we claim to want what the Doctor has, freedom to travel all of existence, as we've no doubt been reminding the past month, the truth is none of us could bear the weight of it. The Doctor, and Zigella, are consequences of war, plagued by the truth of what war really is.

This idea works with Zigella up to a point, but not the point 'Zygon' decided to end her with, as she takes the role of Osgood 2, the prime peacekeeper. For most part of the Zygon plot, Zigella was a singularly-focused war mongerer. It's the rush of blood that soldiers feel in the heat of battle. Zigella will torment Clara, and kill human and Zygon alike to achieve her ultimate goal of 'liberation' for the Zygons. And Jenna Coleman played her, and Clara perfectly in what is easily my favorite episode of her. It is literally an inversion of how we had come to know and understand Clara. To see her as the warlord was brilliant. But you can't simply peel away at that in short order and have her become the keeper of the peace just because the Doctor called her a child. The speech establishes her sense of guilt and pain over what she'd caused, and she would have to live with that and learn. One can't help but look at Zigella as Osgood and just entirely disregard that fact. That's not Zigella. That's Osgood, who in no way was responsible for almost starting an apocalyptic war. Doctor Who is a never-ending story, and there must always be room for more story and more possibility of things returning.

This unfortunately is both Doctor Who's greatest strength and greatest weakness. While this methodology underlines the primary premise of the show, which is to always have hope and to always explore new realms, always moving forward, it also leads to heavily contrived plotting as a result of having to end plots quickly to make room for new plots, and having to ensure there's the loophole to bring something back. Urgency and resonance are often lost here. The Zygon episodes are about a much grander dialogue of war than can be fit in 110 or so minutes. And no matter what others are saying, the Doctor's speech is certainly not perfect or purely transcendent. Its power comes from the personal experiences of the people involved, the Doctor and Zigella. But it's also a forced hand wave over the grave calamities of mass violence. By default of the show, we can't spend too much time on them, so 'Inversion' ends with one feeling a bit empty, lost on if the violence and death actually amounted to anything in the end. They did, in the case of Zigella, but the speech is not enough, and 10 minutes are certainly not enough, to sell us on the idea of her turning a new leaf completely and being a pacifist.

Nor is the speech half as effective with Kate when in the end her memory is wiped anyway and we know she's just gonna go on the war path again, something she's apparently done 15+ times. The show earned a lot in the weight of that sanctimonious speech for peace. Just not as much as it could have, and we're left uncertain on how this Zygon vs. Humans conflict can be averted again. The speech is undoubtedly wonderfully performed, and for the most part well-written. Staging the showdown in a war-room like scenario is about the best you can do to explore nuances of war in a truncated plot, and to hone in on the Doctor and Zigella highlights the strength of the show's writing when it's at its best (Harking back to John Simm's rendition of the Master when he said in only a few words how deeply traumatized he was by the Time War). It's just a bit sad that the speech is tainted by the rush of Zigella's character development and not adequately addressing what specifically happened in this war. And it regresses the episode as a whole. As does the Doctor taking a back seat more or less until the speech scene, because there were too many subplots occurring in this arc. Clara vs. Clara was brilliantly poised, and the one poor Zygon that Zigella uses as an example is a heart-wrenching thread (I'm gonna brush over the underlying themes of immigration sentiments in the UK because that was a bit too on the nose here and also oversimplified). But the most fascinating aspects of Capaldi's tenure are when we see the Doctor wear and tear get even more wear and tear, and there wasn't enough screentime for that here. And it reduces the earning power of the speech, since it's the Doctor's enormous presence almost coming out of left field.

Still, though, the message is there, and strong enough for 'Inversion' to be a compelling examination of war on the personal level of an ageless Time Traveler and ex-warrior. It's another layer peeled, another understanding of why the Doctor tries so hard to save every single life he encounters, and uses a screwdriver instead of, like, an actual gun. Because it's about consequence, the aspect of war the belligerents always fail to truly grasp. Zigella is a believable reforming killer. she's just not believable as reformed, she's no Osgood. But it's Doctor Who. For better and for worse, the show must go on. To the next adventure. The next war.

Grade: B

I didn't get sidetracked

-This review really was that tiring to do. It took all of my focus away from that family who were reuniting.

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