Science Fiction Double Feature

♫Science Fiction
Double Feature
In the pit
There lurks a creature
Sepentine monsters
Like Sarff and Mara
The ultimate horror
Is an extra Clara
At the late night
Double feature
Picture show♫

It's funny really. Last week I was lamenting the fact that the show had given up on any pretence of actual Science Fiction, having descended into the sort of empty, meaningless fantasy that makes J.R.R. Tolkiens grave such an effective turbine.

Whenever the voltage drops they just get David Eddings to write another Belgariad sequel.

So imagine my joy when tuning in to The Zygon Invasion this week to discover that we may actually be getting back to something approaching "proper" Science Fiction. Specifically the way that you can use monsters, aliens and robots as a way to talk about real world problems. Because make no mistake, if this is a return to form, then it's a return to Form VF4A: Application for immigration.

Nobody said these metaphorical discussions had to be subtle.

So... Yeah. I don't think we've had anything this obviously topical since Aliens Of London / World War 3. And that caught an awful lot of flak for simply commenting that maybe making up excuses in order to declare war is a bit dodgy. Here we have a vast wave of immigrants, radicalization of youth, militant training camps in countries ending in -stan and the unfortunate implication that the main problem the evil faction has is that they don't want to integrate into our culture.

All very brave, but they're REALLY going to need to tread carefully on this one. I'm all for doing an Invasion Of The Body Snatchers thing. But if the alien menace in question is going to be so obviously thinly veiled brown people? There's significant potential for more than one angry letter to Points Of View.

And this is of course further complicated by the looming spectre of genocide in a box. When it's first mentioned that there's a super anti-zygon nerve gas floating around somewhere my first thought is, obviously, Warriors Of The Deep.

You KNOW how this works.

Deadly villain killing gas casually mentioned in the first episode? No way THAT'S ever getting used. Until obviously it does, because at this point it doesn't really matter which member of the bridge crew the gun belongs to. Then we're told WHERE exactly this ghastly, horrible weapon came from and I'm sure everyone watching at home had the same reaction:

So, after Terror Of The Zygons Harry retired to develop chemical weapons? He never really struck me as the war criminal type. But okay, whatever. At this point there are only 2 options. Either the gas turns up and does something metaphorical, but not fatal. Or it doesn't get used at all, hopefully because someone makes a moral decision not to. Because you're going to have problems justifying gassing all the muslims Zygons even in a full on right wing power fantasy, let alone Doctor Who.

Also, let's be honest. It would be nice if just for once trying the peaceful solution actually WORKED. This isn't a Silurian story after all.

Anyway, next we come to Osgood.

I know I'm not the only one coming to Osgood right now.

Yes, this is a character I actually like. Yes, I am aware that her Dr Who fangirl Schtick would probably wear thin extremely quickly if she was a regular companion. But as an occasional character it works ok. Apparently the Zygons also really like her, seeing as how they copied her personality so exactly. The opening info dump double act from the 2 Osgoods is, however, utterly charming. Big props to the actress for having such great chemistry with herself. Bringing her back in this fashion actually feels like a good idea. Throwing the mystery of which version of her actually got killed is kind of interesting.

Except, she kind of HAS to be a Zygon. Not for any particular in story nit picking about body prints and Zygon technology. Because of all that implied Racism I was talking about before. The reason all that stuff is currently so horribly problematic is that there aren't any GOOD muslims Zygons. It's not quite enough to just SAY that most of them are actually quite nice. You need to actually demonstrate that not all muslims Zygons are evil. Otherwise things really are getting a bit... Hitler. And of the shows where it's least appropriate to ever being that phrase Doctor Who should be pretty high up on the list.

Now, let's be SUPER clear. I'm quite sure that these qualms will be resolved in the following episode. No doubt various characters will be revealed to have secretly been muslims Zygons all along, working toward the greater good. But t's a bit odd that the big cliffhanger isn't "Is everyone going to die?", so much as "Was that actually massively racist?".

I'm looking foward to finding out. But I REALLY hope they don't fuck this one up. Until we find out though I'm not sure there's really much more that can be said, since this episode is mainly just setting up whatever it is that's kicking off next week.

Although having TWO Claras in a single episode? I know it was Halloween, but don't you think that was a bit much? Hopefully the experience will put the Doctor off having her around for good. It's probably too much to hope that they actually killed her off already.