**Spoilers** Series 9, Episode 8 - "The Zygon Inversion"

pixelburp

Well with last weeks debatable on-the-nose parallels with migrants and the hot topic of integration, I wonder if the second part will continue that theme, or if it'll be all dropped in favour of the more immediate threat. Either way, I hope it's a bit better than last weeks as I found it all a bit too flat by half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3LMOcIDTSU

Penn

Well that was just a damn lot better!

NyOmnishambles

Penn wrote: »

Well that was just a damn lot better!

Huge improvement over last week

They gave Capaldi a great load of dialogue to churn through, I though he got across the horror of war making decisions brilliantly

And who doesn't love Evil Clara

flazio

Yeah, pretty good. And that Big rant about the Osgood boxes, only Capaldi could pull that one off.

The_Valeyard

I enjoyed it



Loved the Doctors speech / rant.

tritium

Goog episode. Can't help but feel a foreboding around that 'longest month of my life' line to Clara at the end, doesn't seem like good things are in store for her. Can't help wondering too about the ongoing hybrid thing.

T-Bird

Pagh, hate stupid left out details. Glasses different at end and TARDIS looked like it came from IKEA :P. No comment on series itself, dont like it...

the_barfly1

Jaysus. I got "the feels" quite bad during the big speech towards the end. I'm blaming it on the beer.
Really brilliant episode (after a hape of pints, at least).

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Bugger me! That was excellent.

I really didn't like last week's episode so I wasn't expecting much this week. How wrong I was.

I know they have to try to balance the more mature elements of the show with the flashy fun bits but I do much prefer these kinds of episodes, with scenes that last for more than a few seconds and are essentially just people talking to one another.

tritium wrote: »

Can't help but feel a foreboding around that 'longest month of my life' line to Clara at the end, doesn't seem like good things are in store for her. .

I've been a nervous wreck every week since I realised we were half way through the series a few episodes ago. They haven't exactly been subtle about it either so I keep expecting her to just drop dead at any second. Last series they had her a bit conflicted about travelling with the Doctor so it seemed likely she would decide to leave, but this series she's showing no signs of that. It won't end well

NyOmnishambles wrote: »

And who doesn't love Evil Clara

I thought she was brilliant, so cold compared to regular Clara, and even at the end when she was a little emotional she didn't have the big Puss in Boots eyes that Clara usually has. Nice to see a little more of what Coleman is capable of doing. I'd love a whole series of Evil Clara... maybe if her post Who career doesn't take off?

Also, I found it pretty hilarious that she probably spent most of her filming time for that episode talking to herself.... literally if she was actually watching herself on the telly.

Wibbs

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I've been a nervous wreck every week since I realised we were half way through the series a few episodes ago. They haven't exactly been subtle about it either so I keep expecting her to just drop dead at any second.

Yeah TmE, but doesn't one of her direct descendants exist in the future, so where does he come from if she ends up meeting with a sticky demise?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wibbs wrote: »

Yeah TmE, but doesn't one of her direct descendants exist in the future, so where does he come from if she ends up meeting with a sticky demise?

I don't know about that one.

I assume you mean the astronaut guy?

That may have been written when Clara was originally supposed to leave last series, there was some speculation from little bits and pieces that she was pregnant when Danny died... the fact she decided to stay on, and then leave, and then stay again.... and now leave... may have made that future guy irrelevant now... I don't know.

Wibbs

Timey wimey

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wibbs wrote: »

Timey wimey

Wibbly wobbly.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

bluewolf wrote: »

Cardiff isn't that big a city, bound to get a few location repeats.

I was fairly sure that location was the one from last year where the flat guys were killing people?

Wibbs

I thought that looked very familiar!

the_barfly1

Watched it again, still excellent. Some fantastic pieces of dialogue in this episode (apart from the amazing speech by Doctor Disco towards the end, of course). One that stood out for me was when the Doc told Bonnie that she was starting to think like him, and nobody should ever have to think like him. I'm guessing this in reference to what Clara has become this season, quite Doctorish in ways. The Zygon, after all, is a carbon copy of Clara. I think the Doctor can see that Clara has been travelling with him for far too long and is struggling to bite the bullet and cut her loose, which may lead to her death.
Also intrigued at "longest month of my life", perhaps something has happened off-screen that has yet to be revealed?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

the_barfly1 wrote: »

Also intrigued at "longest month of my life", perhaps something has happened off-screen that has yet to be revealed?

I was wondering about that too.

Was it just supposed to show how important Clara is to the Doctor, even the briefest of time thinking she was dead felt like much longer?

Or has Clara actually died and the Doctor has been travelling back to times before she died to have adventures with her?

Or.... after they decided not to press the buttons and Kate said you can't wipe our minds again the Doctor said something like "that's what you said the first 15 times..."

Was that just a throwaway line or was it meant to imply he'd tried to talk them out of it a few times already but one of them pressed the button each time? Or was it just in reference to the multiple times he wiped her memory in setting up the ceasefire in the first place?

Antar Bolaeisk

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Was that just a throwaway line or was it meant to imply he'd tried to talk them out of it a few times already but one of them pressed the button each time? Or was it just in reference to the multiple times he wiped her memory in setting up the ceasefire in the first place?

Or it really was the first time and he was just messing with them

flazio

You pick up on that but not on the cavewith the lift being the Torchwood firing range, The Doctors Daughter birth place and the place where Sherlock confronted the Chinese circus and rescues Watsons girlfriend.

ixoy

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Or has Clara actually died and the Doctor has been travelling back to times before she died to have adventures with her?

This is what I've thought since the second episode of this season. When the Doctor saw Clara trapped in the Dalek he said something like "Oh Clara" with a world of sorrow in his voice.
Then suddenly we've cut to a perfectly happy Clara, out of the Dalek with no word of how she got out. I'm guessing she didn't.

Oh that exactly the kind of thing they'd do

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

ixoy wrote: »

This is what I've thought since the second episode of this season. When the Doctor saw Clara trapped in the Dalek he said something like "Oh Clara" with a world of sorrow in his voice.
Then suddenly we've cut to a perfectly happy Clara, out of the Dalek with no word of how she got out. I'm guessing she didn't.

Awww man! I thought my theory couldn't work because I couldn't think of a time where she might have actually died. I forgot about the Dalek bit.

There was also a theory about Clara's first appearance where she was inside a Dalek but didn't know it and how that might be tied in to the Dalek episode this year and how she leaves.

Wibbs

Yeah, maybe she gets stuck in the Dalek and much later on ends up meeting his previous incarnation making soufflés with non existent eggs.

Tzar Chasm

Another river song loop, where the first time she meets the doctor is her death

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Wibbs wrote: »

Yeah, maybe she gets stuck in the Dalek and much later on ends up meeting his previous incarnation making soufflés with non existent eggs.

Is it harder to make soufflé with non existent eggs or none existent arms?

Or an Amy Pond thing where she was actually one of those blob things for ages and the real one was locked up
Not that I'm saying clara is but you know the same idea

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I just hope whatever they do with Clara it's not overly complicated and confusing. I still don't understand what happened to Amy and Rory. I don't really care what happened to them. .... but it definitely didn't make sense.

I think they lived happily ever after in a book

FunLover18

Anyone else notice helmet in the room behind the doctor when he was making that big speech? Looked like the same kind of helmet used to save Masie Williams right? I can't help but feel they wanted us to notice

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

FunLover18 wrote: »

Anyone else notice helmet in the room behind the doctor when he was making that big speech? Looked like the same kind of helmet used to save Masie Williams right? I can't help but feel they wanted us to notice

Yeah... I noticed that.

It could just be that Clara, who seems to have some sort of working relationship with UNIT, brings stuff back there after they've been on adventures?

You have a theory?