Terror of the Zygons
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VHS Video
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(Doctor Who Story No. 80, starring Tom Baker)
- written by Robert Banks Stewart
- directed by Douglas Camfield
- produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
- music by Geoffrey Burgon
- 4 episodes @ 25 minutes each
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Story: The Brigadier calls the Doctor,
Sarah, and Harry back to Earth to help U.N.I.T.
investigate the continuing destruction of sea-based
oil rigs near Scotland. As a web of extra-terrestrial
intrigue unfolds, many of the clues begin to point
towards Loch Ness and its legendary monster....
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At present, this story is only available on VHS video.
In-Depth Analysis Review
by Martin Izsak
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WARNING: This review contains "SPOILERS", and is intended for
those who have already seen the program. To avoid the spoilers,
read the Buyers' Guide version instead.
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The Myth of Season Thirteen
In my humble opinion, this season of Doctor Who stories has long
been over-rated by a majority of vocal Doctor Who fans. Quite
simply, it seems to want to rely on gothic horror elements a
little too heavily for my tastes, and my judgments of these
stories will look at how successfully each one
manages to offer something of a wider variety of appealing
elements.
Terror of the Zygons
It is perhaps telling that this, my favourite season thirteen story,
was actually shot during the previous year's recording block. It bridges
the two seasons well, completing the Harry Sullivan Nerva Beacon journey
story arc, and initiating a new "Return to UNIT" story arc for the
rest of Sarah's tenure on the program. It has a significant
adversarial alien race as most season twelve stories do, yet it
spends much time on scenes and sequences of creepy suspense to keep
the season thirteen horror fans happy. Most significantly, Douglas
Camfield is at the helm to direct this story, and being one of the
best in his field, he does not fail to make the story
something special.
The narrative is a bit rough at the beginning, where characters
need to be introduced. Sadly the scene of the TARDIS landing
got cut for technical reasons, lessening the impact of the Doctor's
arrival on the scene with his two friends. The Doctor hasn't
actually got very much to do in the first episode, so having
his introductory scene cut certainly didn't help matters much.
Many other problems
spring from another characteristic Camfield trait - the volume
on the soundtrack gets a bit out of hand at times. The destruction
of the rig in the opening scene suffers from a cacophony that drowns
the dialogue in addition to being unpleasant in itself, and this
trend continues into the Brigadier's first scene, in which the
audience is quite challenged to make out what he and Mr. Huckle
are saying over all the bagpipe doodling. Very dangerous, as they're
laying out important exposition for the plot; you can lose an audience
there. Yes, irritatingly loud bagpipes are actually written right
into the script, but if it was me, I wouldn't let them actually get
loud until the part of the conversation where Huckle and the Brig
stop talking about the plot and start complaining about the pipes.
Thankfully, once investigation of the main mystery gets
underway, Camfield's excellence takes over and begins to give
the story its special charm. The sequence with Harry and the Caber
on the shore is one of my favourites, very atmospheric and remaining
fresh on repeat viewings. Episode one also features one of the
all-time greatest cliffhangers, with a double-threat masterfully
revealing the Zygon form in the very last few seconds of the show.
The Zygons themselves are wonderfully unique in their design,
and quite a successfully interesting race. Camfield uses them
quite successfully, particularly in allowing the viewer nothing
but the barest glimpses of them in the early part of the story.
The Skarasen, aka the Loch Ness Monster, is also well done.
Quick glimpses from underwater or in fog serve to ignite viewers'
imaginations early on, while the chase across the moor delivers
some thoroughly enjoyable stop-motion work. Much criticism has
been leveled at the creature's final appearance in the Thames;
I think it's cute, and it has every right to be, once freed
from the Zygons' influences. The sequence gets full marks for
visual literacy, delivering the shots we need whether they're
scary enough for the horror fans or not. And one only has to
compare it with scenes from, say,
"The Web Planet" (story no. 13) or
"The Happiness Patrol" (story no. 153), or even
"The Sea Devils" (story no. 62) to find
creatures or strange characters that lack the ideal mood
even more so.
The story also delivers the UNIT atmosphere, and does a better
job of it than any other season thirteen story. It's more than
just having Sgt. Benton and the Brigadier in the cast, although
that is important, but it's also in letting their characters
come to grips with the story. In fact, at one point early in
episode two, everyone besides Benton is incapacitated in one
form or another, and Benton has to keep the ball rolling before
the villains get away with everything. The Brigadier generally
has a much better time of it here than in
"Robot" (story no. 75), and gets to
dent the Zygons' plans at many points, and deal with their
leader in the end.
The Doctor also gets more and more to do as the story
progresses. Even getting captured for the final episode
doesn't do the narrative much harm, for it is anything
but routine. Rather, it raises the stakes for a final
confrontation, which Tom Baker fills with wit and cunning,
and it proves to be the Zygons' final undoing. Interestingly
enough, this story may also be unique in that the Doctor screams
more than his female companion.
John Woodnutt playing Broton/The Duke of Forgill,
and Angus Lennie playing Angus the Innkeeper return to
bless the program with rich performances, while Sister
Lamont also contributes to making the drama riveting.
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Geoffrey Burgon delivers a fantastic score for the
program, his very memorable "A Landing in Scotland" cue
being one of my all time favourites. I'm also quite
fond of "The Secret of Forgill Castle" and "The Monster
Goes Home", in addition to the bit backing episode one's
cliffhanger.
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Music by Geoffrey Burgon
The original score features on:
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In the end, Zygons is simply a big winner, a very
enjoyable start to the season.
At present, this story is only available on VHS video.
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VHS Video
NTSC
A
in the U.S.
NTSC
B
in the U.S.
NTSC
in Canada
PAL
for the U.K.
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Comments on this article are welcome. You may contact
the author from this page:
Contact page
LYRATEK.COM
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Read the In-depth Analysis Review for the next story:
"Planet of Evil"
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