Reaktion Round-Up: What You Thought of The Zygon Invasion

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Reaktion Round-Up: What You Thought of The Zygon Invasion

David Power is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

I wish I hadn’t used the “let zygons be zygons” joke in last week’s Reaktion Round-Up, as I’ve been sitting here for quite awhile now trying and failing to come up with a joke with “Zygor” in it. Anyway, it’s time to hear what you all thought of the first part of Peter Harness’ zy-gore filled episode! (I tried, okay?)

Best of Series 9 – so far at least 22.78% (64 votes)

Accept no imitations: brilliant stuff! 41.99% (118 votes)

Undecided until The Zygon Inversion 24.91% (70 votes)

What was all the fuss about? 6.76% (19 votes)

Actually worse than Kill the Moon. How is that possible?! 3.56% (10 votes)

I think we’ve come to realise that we’ve given Peter Harness a bit off a harsh time. I don’t know about you guys, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled when it was announced Peter Harness was returning to write for Series 9. 2014’s Kill the Moon did not leave a good taste in my mouth, so I was apprehensive about this one. And yet I thought this episode was actually really enjoyable.

I realised recently that what UNIT was missing during Series 1-6 was a face. We never really had anyone to look forward to when UNIT arrived, just a random general inevitably saying they’ve read the Doctor’s file. But as of 2012 onwards, we now don’t just have a face, we have a whole new UNIT family! Returning faces for this episode includes Kate Stewart, Osgood(s), and Jac. (Anyone know what happened to that McGillop fellow from The Day of the Doctor?)

This was quite a different episode of Who than normal eh? I felt like it wouldn’t be out of place as a 6 part Pertwee serial. Very politically fuelled, but still enough goofiness to make it still feel like Who. Only Doctor Who would have an intense chase scene in a playground. That being said, not all of it hit fully for me. That scene with the soliders outside the chapel? I got what it was trying to do, but it was written so poorly and without common sense that I spent most of the time arguing with the tv.

Yet again this season the ratings weren’t great. The overnights dropped from 4.34m to 3.87m, but I think it’s fair to say that Halloween parties may have taken priority away from Who (I know it did for me!). Overalls decreased from 6.11m for The Woman Who Lived to 5.76m for The Zygon Invasion. At 6.49m for L+7 (people who watched live and all repeats, including iPlayer, within seven days following broadcast), it’s the lowest L+7 so far this season. The Appreciation Index score rose one from the preceding week, from 81 to 82.

What did the K-readers think?