Line #4 Recap/DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons


1	[[WMG:[[center:[-''[[Series/DoctorWho Doctor Who]]'' [[Recap/DoctorWho recap index]]\
2	'''Fourth Doctor Era'''\
3	'''Season 13:''' '''1''' \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E2PlanetOfEvil 2]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars 3]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion 4]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius 5]] \| [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E6TheSeedsOfDoom 6]]\
4	'''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot <<< Season 12]]''' \| '''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E1TheMasqueOfMandragora Season 14 >>>]]''']]-]]]
5	!Terror of the Zygons
6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zygons_3776.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:[[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer DISCLAIMER: This is a screenshot of the serial which guest stars the Loch Ness Monster.]]]]
8	->Written by Robert Banks Stewart\
9	Directed by Creator/DouglasCamfield\
10	'''Production code:''' 4F\
11	'''Air dates:''' 30 August - 20 September 1975\
12	'''Number of episodes:''' 4
13
14	->''"Oil? An emergency? Ha! It's about time the people who run this planet of yours realised that to be dependent on a mineral slime just doesn't make sense."''
15	-->-- '''The Doctor''' doesn't agree with the Brigadier's assessment while simultaneously taking a jab at the real-world [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis oil crisis]] from two years prior.
16
17	JustForFun/{{The one w\|ith}}here the Brig wears a kilt.
18	----
19	After getting a distress call from the Brigadier, the TARDIS team leaves [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E5RevengeOfTheCybermen the Nerva Beacon]] and heads for Earth -- Scotland, to be precise. The Doctor decides to wear a Tam o' Shanter for the occasion, decorating Harry and Sarah Jane with his scarf and hat respectively. The Brigadier is sporting a fancy kilt. Once he and the Doctor are done making fun of each other, they get down to business: UNIT are investigating a series of attacks on North Sea oil rigs from a temporary base in the Scottish village of Tulloch.
20
21	The Doctor discovers that the attacks are the work of a giant lactating cyborg dinosaur in Loch Ness, controlled by an alien race called the Zygons from their ship beneath Loch Ness. The Zygons can imitate the form of other life-forms whom they have imprisoned on their ship, and are currently impersonating many of the village locals in order to infiltrate the UNIT base. When Harry gets shot in the head, the Zygons kidnap him from the hospital, copy his body and attack Sarah Jane wirth a pitchfork in order to get to the Doctor.
22
23	The Zygons plan to use their shapeshifting abilities to take over the world as a substitute for their own dead planet, but the Doctor releases the prisoners and destroys the ship, single-handedly killing all but one of the Zygons. The survivor, Broton, makes his way to London disguised as the Duke of Forgill. He plans to destroy a World Energy Conference using the cyborg, known as the Skarasen, and use this show of strength to persuade the world to give in to his demands. However, before he can do so, he's shot by UNIT in the middle of London, and the Doctor feeds the tracking device to the Skarasen. With no more control, the Skarasen returns to the only home it knows -- Loch Ness. Harry decides he's had enough of this time-travel lark and remains on Earth while the Doctor and Sarah depart for adventures new.
24	----
25	The serial was actually filmed as the final instalment of the previous season, which is why it wraps up that one's story arc and provides one last hurrah for the Doctor-Sarah-Harry team and Season 12's transitional style. This was the last script that had been originally greenlit by Creator/BarryLetts and Creator/TerranceDicks, and the next would complete the shift into the Gothic style Creator/RobertHolmes and Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe would become famous for.
26
27	!!Tropes:
28
29	* AdaptationTitleChange: [[NoveliZation Novelized]] as ''Doctor Who & the Loch Ness Monster''.
30	* AlmostDeadGuy: Munro, before being rendered totally dead by the Zygon Caber.
31	* AristocratsAreEvil: The Duke. However, only because it's Zygon leader Broton having taken his form. The real Duke is imprisoned elsewhere. When freed, the trope is averted as he proves to be quite friendly.
32	* BalconySpeech: Lampshaded by the Doctor.
33	-->"But you can't rule a world in hiding. You've got to come out onto the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle."
34	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: Not in space, but when Sarah and the Doctor are trapped in a hyperbaric chamber being drained of oxygen, he puts her and then himself in a trance to keep them from needing to breathe.
35	* BattleaxeNurse: Sister Lamont, who is actually a Zygon.
36	* BeingWatched: Sarah expresses this feeling to the Doctor after recovering the control gadget. The Doctor and the Brigadier take this very seriously and start sweeping for bugs, which accelerates the Zygons' plans somewhat.
37	* BBCQuarry: The location the Zygon ship lands at in the final episode is explicitly stated to be a disused quarry.
38	* BermudaTriangle: Gets a mention in Sarah Jane's news dispatch.
39	* BigBad: Broton, Warlord of the Zygons.
40	* BondVillainStupidity: Despite constantly assessing the Doctor as "too clever" and "dangerous," Broton and his cronies make only halfhearted attempts to kill him, and never stick around long enough to be certain. After the mook who locked the Doctor and Sarah in the decompression chamber reports that they've escaped, Broton even yells at him that he left too early.
41	* BookcasePassage: Sarah Jane Smith finds a passage behind a bookcase leading to the alien spacecraft under Loch Ness. She activates the opening mechanism by pulling out a book.
42	* BriefAccentImitation: Sarah answers a phone call in a silly Scottish accent to amuse herself, fed up with what she sees as Angus' superstition - which causes some MoodWhiplash as the call was to tell her Harry has been shot. The Doctor also imitates a Scottish accent when mocking Forgill (not a very good one).
43	* BulletproofHumanShield: While not actively using him as a shield, the man Harry tends to in the first episode is shot with a sniper rifle, without Harry getting hit. At least, until the rifle is aimed at him... (In his defense, the other man was mostly lying down.)
44	* CaptureAndReplicate: Zygon ''modus operandi''. Poor Harry.
45	* ChekhovsGun: The Duke being president of the Scottish Energy Commission is crucial to Broton's plan to have the monster attack the energy conference.
46	* CryptidEpisode: The Doctor meets the Loch Ness Monster. Kind of.
47	* DistressedDude: Both Harry Sullivan and the Doctor end up being kidnapped in this story, and for once, it's not the girl companion -- Sarah Jane even rescues Harry Sullivan at one point!
48	* DissonantSerenity: Sarah Jane notices something's wrong with Harry when he strolls in unbothered by his seeming escape or recent head wound. Even when he's stabbing at her with a pitchfork, he's got an emotionless KubrickStare and his mouth is hanging open.
49	* DramaticSitDown: Implied. Sarah Jane is sitting down and has her feet up on the table during the discussion about BeingWatched, shoes and all: her shock earlier at seeing Zygon!Harry impale himself and general muted attitude in the scene implies that this happened.
50	* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Angus the landlord plays "Flowers of the Forest" on the bagpipes. It turns out to be an omen (of sorts), as it's a lament for the dead.
51	* FacialDialogue: Sarah Jane takes a call while faking a Scottish accent to amuse herself, but her happy face drops into horror fast when she hears that Harry's been shot.
52	* FalseReassurance: Sister Lamont tells the injured Harry, "Your worries are over now. You're going to be very well looked after." immediately before her Zygon colleagues disappear him.
53	* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: The Zygon Harry's attack on Sarah with a pitchfork and accidental impalement with it is one of the most disturbingly violent scenes in the history of the series, approaching a SlasherMovie in atmosphere.
54	* ForcedPerspective: Used to achieve shots of characters leaving the Zygon spaceship in the final episode.
55	* GoryDiscretionShot: We don't actually see Zygon!Harry impale himself on the pitchfork, only a reaction shot from Sarah Jane and the aftermath when the Zygon has reverted into its true form. (Presumably showing Ian Marter screaming in pain after being fatally impaled would have been a bit much, even for this episode.)
56	* HandPuppet: How the Loch Ness Monster was realised.
57	* HeKnowsTooMuch: The first reason why the Zygons want to kill the Doctor. Also why they kill Munro and try to kill Harry.
58	* ImmuneToBullets: Averted. Although Broton brags about the invincibility of the Skarasen, it turns out that the Zygons themselves are ''not'' immune to Earth weaponry. Madra impales himself on a pitchfork, Benton wounds Orla (the Sister Lamont one) and the Brigadier even puts down Broton at the end.
59	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: The Zygon impersonating Harry tumbles off the haystack after lunging at Sarah and is promptly skewered with his own pitchfork.
60	* ItWasHereISwear: Sarah discovers a bookcase leading to a secret passageway in the castle. When she returns with Harry, they find the incriminating evidence removed.
61	** An even more blatant example when Sarah takes a group of UNIT soldiers to where she left a dead Zygon only to find the body has been dispersed remotely.
62	* KubrickStare: Zygon!Harry, constantly. In the barn scene, this is combined with several shots of him staring out of his hiding place in the haystack for maximum creepiness.
63	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: Bagpipe music in the first establishing shot of the village turns out to be Angus the pub landlord deliberately trying to irritate the [=UNIT=] types who've taken over his establishment.
64	* LetsSplitUpGang: When chasing after Zygon!Harry, Sarah Jane tells the UNIT soldiers she's gathered to split up and find him, which of course leads to him going after her with a pitchfork in an abandoned barn; it ends up working out all right for her, though.
65	* LockedOutOfTheLoop: No one bothered to inform the UNIT rank-and-file that the Zygons could shapeshift, so when a soldier finds the one disguised as Sister Lamont (which he had been shooting at earlier with his fellows), he's confused as to why she's injured, which gives it the opportunity to hit him with a rock and escape.
66	** In a more minor example, when Harry exclaims that he'll go mad if he can't find the switch to open the bookcase passage, Sarah Jane replies that at least he won't become a Zygon, which confuses him, implying she hasn't told him about the barn scene. In fairness, she was already pretty upset from watching him impale himself, and he already knows they can shapeshift.
67	* MagicalSeventhSon: Angus [=MacRanold=] is apparently the seventh son of a seventh son. Sarah says there's talk in the village that he has second sight, and that he had a vision of disaster coming to the oil company. It's unclear if he's legit, but he does say that the Doctor might be able to "see around a few corners himself".
68	* MaliciousMisnaming: The Duke (actually Broton) deliberately calls the oil company manager Huckle "Hickle".
69	* ManInAKilt:
70	** The Brigadier, embracing his Stewart heritage for the occasion.
71	** Also the Caber, the Duke's "Highland Games Champion" manservant.
72	* MoodWhiplash: Sarah, fed up with the landlord, answers the phone in a mock Scottish accent only to hear that Harry's been shot.
73	* MyCarHatesMe: Whilst going to find the Skarasen, the Doctor's UNIT Land Rover breaks down. To his credit, he jumps out and starts running immediately when he realizes that it's not working.
74	* NationalStereotypes: The very first line of the story mentions haggis. The last line is a joke about [[ThriftyScot Scots being stingy]]. In between we have kilts, beards, bagpipes, second sight, and the Loch Ness Monster.
75	* NonMaliciousMonster: The Skarasen is simply an animal, and peacefully returns to Loch Ness once freed from the Zygons' control.
76	* ObscuredSpecialEffects: The Skarasen was obscured as much as it possibly could be due to the awful prop used, shown only in quick flashes of its scales or head closeups.
77	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "The Caber." The Duke (actually Broton in disguise) tells Sarah that the Caber's real name is "very Gaelic" and she probably couldn't pronounce it.
78	* OrganicTechnology: The Zygons' spaceship. Only the interior appears organic; the exterior seems to be a metal hull, and there are a couple mentions of "the power" and the ship's thrusters.
79	* OutOfCharacterAlert: Sarah Jane immediately notices something's wrong with the supposedly miraculously-returned Harry when he fails to give any details about how he escaped or why the Doctor supposedly wants him to collect the gadget the Zygons have been attaching to the oil rigs.
80	* PetTheDog: After the Brigadier and company are knocked out by the sleeping gas, when Huckle comes he checks if they're alive. He asks if the Doctor if he can help: when he's rebuffed he tells him and Sarah to be careful and asks after the UNIT soldiers before leaving.
81	* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: Averted. We actually see Sarah typing out a few words of a news dispatch, for once.
82	* PrettyLittleHeadshots: The man that is sniped down by the Zygons gets shot in the head and only has a small wound to show it.
83	* PutOnABus: Harry Sullivan decides he'll take the train back to London.
84	** This would also be the Brigadier's last appearance for seven years until "Mawdryn Undead".
85	** In a real-world context, the Zygons, despite occasional dialogue references and enduring popularity with fans, would not appear in another official ''Doctor Who'' episode until [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]] aired more than 38 years later.
86	* RoarBeforeBeating: The Skarasen roars almost constantly.
87	* ShownTheirWork: The Brigadier is wearing the appropriate tartan for his clan (the hunting Stewart tartan).
88	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Aside from Sarah, Sister Lamont is the only female character in the story.
89	* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: When Sarah goes to save Harry and sees him on the other side of the door, she's hesitant to believe that it's really him until he calls her "old girl" - quite understandable, given that the last time she saw "him" he was trying to stab her with a pitchfork. To a lesser degree, the Doctor asks both of them if they're the real thing: when they react in confusion, he nods and rushes off to the spaceship.
90	* StockNessMonster: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion "THE Loch Ness Monster!"]]
91	* StuffBlowingUp: UNIT tries to blow up the Zygon ship before it can escape - with the Doctor aboard, to the distress of not only Sarah and Harry, but also Benton and the Brigadier. Later, the ship does blow up, but thanks to a self-destruct sequence.
92	* StopMotion: Used to portray the Skarasen in motion during shots that require more than a puppet head or arm.
93	* {{Synchronization}}: The method the Zygons use to replicate people requires the subject to still be alive, and Harry convulses at the same time Madra (the Zygon currently impersonating him) dies. Broton is disturbed by this and has his lackey test for a "synchron response": the lack of one is good enough for him to declare Madra dead on the spot and order him disintegrated.
94	* TapOnTheHead: The Zygon disguised as Sister Lamont rather savagely bonks a UNIT soldier over the head with a rock. Somehow he just crumples to the ground and survives without getting his skull split open.
95	* ThisWasHisTrueForm: Madra, the Zygon that had been impersonating Harry, reverts to his more alien appearance as he lies dying.
96	* ThriftyScot: At the end of the story, after the Doctor and Sarah leave, the local duke whom they had rescued then berates the Brigadier (who had been earlier wearing a kilt) for calling himself a Scotsman yet not getting the Doctor and Sarah to give him their unused return tickets to London so he could get a refund.
97	* TisOnlyABulletInTheBrain: Harry gets shot in the head, but he survives because the bullet only grazed his skull. He does go into shock, though.
98	* VillainBall: Sarah activates the BookcasePassage by reaching for a book, which she could only reach via portable steps fetched for her by one of the Zygons in human disguise.
99	** It's even multi-layered - she complains that the stairs are in the wrong place, presumably because EvilIsPetty, and has to climb onto the shelves a little to get the book. If he'd put the stairs in the right place, it's entirely possible that she wouldn't have gotten that book at all.
100	* VoluntaryShapeshifting: The Zygons have the ability to transform themselves to resemble humans they've abducted. If they need to maintain the "body print", however, they need to transform into it from their alien forms every few hours, or else they can't use it again.
101	* WeirdnessCensor
102	-->'''Duke:''' Tell me, I imagine the whole business caused quite a stir.\
103	'''Brigadier:''' No, the Cabinet's accepted my report and the whole affair's now completely closed.\
104	'''Duke:''' You mean it never happened.\
105	'''Brigadier:''' Well, a fifty foot monster can't swim up the Thames and attack a large building without some people noticing, but you know what politicians are like.
106	* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Sarah Jane only agrees to get back into the TARDIS this time if the Doctor promises they'll go straight to London, five minutes before he left, as he confidently stated it could. He guarantees it. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E2PlanetOfEvil We all know this can't possibly go awry...]]
107	* TheXOfY

Context Recap / DoctorWhoS13E1TerrorOfTheZygons