Trivia / Doctor Who S35 E7 "The Zygon Invasion"

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• Author's Saving Throw:
  • As well-received as "The Day of the Doctor" was, plenty of fans were upset that the Zygon subplot was rather abruptly abandoned midway and never revisited. Here we see exactly what UNIT did with the Zygons. Steven Moffat has stated that he had planned this larger Zygon story for years, and 'borrowed' a bit of the 50th anniversary story to set things up for it.
  • It's revealed that there's a spare Osgood after her horrendously received death the previous season. There's some debate over exactly how much Moffat had planned ahead here, especially with his statement right after it happened that she needed to be killed off to prove how dangerous Missy was.
• California Doubling: New Mexico scenes were filmed in Italy. There are some bits of Fuerteventura in New Mexico as well.
• Completely Different Title: The French title is "Vérité ou Conséquences, première partie" (Truth or Consequences, Part 1).
• Deleted Scene:
  • A rather significant scene was cut, but later included as a DVD extra: Clara receiving a voicemail (heard by her imposter, Bonnie, and Jac) revealing that her father has been replaced by a Zygon (and, therefore, possibly killed).
  • This episode was disturbing enough from a violence perspective as the UNIT troops consider shooting down what looks like unarmed civilians. A deleted scene would have put this up to eleven as the female commander was originally scripted to shoot dead a Zygon that had taken the form of her own son. (This scene was filmed, and the actor playing Walsh's son still receives a credit despite not appearing in the finished programme.)
  • Another deleted scene would have established that Clara's own father had been replaced by a Zygon. No deleted scene resolving this plot thread has been released, so it's unclear whether Dave Oswald would have remained a Zygon had it been kept.
• Recycled Set: The village in "Turmezistan" where Zygon rebels are holed up is also Christmas town from "The Time of the Doctor", with the church having formerly portrayed the clock tower.
• Throw It In!: Look closely at the sequence where the Doctor boards the presidential plane. After his mock-Nixon we see Clara giving a little salute. At this point it is obvious that Jenna Coleman sneezes but the scene keeps moving without missing a beat. Either no one noticed (and Jenna didn't let it throw her) or it was thought that perhaps the viewer might think Clara/Bonnie was laughing.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, the Doctor would've forgot about the previous Zygon debacle, and when told it involved multiple versions of him, he'd bring up the Black Hole with Omega, the Death Zone with the Rashton Robot and Big Ron, before realising what they were talking about.
  • In an early draft, Brigadier Bambera from "Battlefield" played a major role, at one point mercilessly killing a Zygon who resembled her son. Her role was given to Col. Walsh.

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