- To be honest, I like Osgood well enough, but I’m not such a big fan that I was particularly bothered by her apparent death last series. However, explaining her apparent death with the fact that there have been two Osgoods since The Day of the Doctor feels explicable and not contrived, while the headstone that just says ‘My Sister’ is more than a little heartbreaking.
- Quite appropriate for the Doctor to be playing ‘Amazing Grace’ on his guitar when he gets a call from Osgood – at first, I thought it was a ringtone assigned to her.
- The scenario of trying to maintain a peaceful co-habitation between humans and Zygons – and how it’s an ‘impossible situation’ – gives off vibes of Silurian/Sea Devil stories, with the obvious difference being that the Zygons have already been introduced into the populace. Also, it’s more the Zygons’ actions which are upsetting the balance, rather than things falling apart just because the humans are unreasonable, paranoid assholes (e.g. ‘It’s not paranoia when it’s real.’)
- “New Mexico, USA” – just in case you confused it with “New Mexico, Kazakhstan”. Ding.
- Part of me would like to call those soldiers extremely stupid for falling for the Zygon trick, particularly how they do go inside rather than demanding that the ‘proof’ is brought to them. But then, I’ve never had to shoot an alien which is disguised as my mother and telling me that she loves and forgives me – I imagine it wouldn’t be easy.
- In fact, despite knowing they’re up against shapeshifting aliens and talking about the problems that entails, none of the good guys appear to be especially careful in practice.
- OMG, Clara is a Zygon! Genuinely didn’t see that coming.
- No ‘next time’ clip – because they want us to think that the Doctor might actually die?
This episode wasn’t as good as what we’ve had so far this series – apart from some good use of the Zygons’ shapeshifting and the confusion it causes, it felt quite generic with not a lot really happening. Rating: 3/5.
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