'The Zygon Invasion' (Story Code 9.07) by Peter Harness

“Operation Double is a covert operation, outside of normal UNIT strictures, to resettle and rehouse an alien race, in secrecy, on planet Earth.” – Osgood

Once upon a time there were three Doctors, two Osgoods and one peace treaty…

The two Osgoods make a recording concerning Operation Double: when the Doctor was instrumental in negotiating a peace treaty that allowed twenty million Zygons to be rehoused and resettled amongst Earth’s population. The two races should be able to live in peace and harmony, but the cease-fire could be destabilised if a rogue faction were to take action – so the Doctor left behind an ‘Osgood Box’ as a last resort…

In Turmezistan, New Mexico, the surviving Osgood runs through heavy fighting towards the safety of the Sherriff’s office. Hiding under a desk, Osgood manages to use her phone to send a message to the Doctor, before she is captured by a Zygon and electrocuted to unconsciousness…

In the TARDIS, the Doctor receives Osgood’s simple text: ‘Nightmare Scenario’. He immediately heads for Brockwell Park in London, where he tries unsuccessfully to contact Clara and then meets with two young girls, Jemima and Claudette, who are in fact two Zygon High Commanders in disguise. The Doctor offers to help deal with the rogue Zygon faction, but the ‘girls’ declare that they will deal with the situation on their own. Before the Doctor can learn more the two ‘girls’ are kidnapped by Zygons, who drive them away in a parks van… At a UNIT safe house in South London, Kate Stewart and her associate Jac are working on the Zygon crisis when they receive footage showing two aliens and their captive, Osgood. Jac reports that UNIT’s systems have been hacked: records of every Zygon on Earth have been stolen and the system now only displays three words ‘Truth or Consequences’. While the Doctor joins Kate and Jac at UNIT, Clara arrives on her motorbike at her tower block, and finds a hundred and twenty-seven missed calls from the Doctor on her phone. Rushing up the stairs to her flat Clara meets a young boy named Sandeep, whose parents have apparently gone missing; Clara offers to check his flat, only to find his parents are there – albeit behaving very oddly. Assured that the boy’s screams are nothing, Clara leaves the flat and calls the Doctor… Later that night, the Doctor, Clara, Kate and Jac arrive at Drakeman Junior School in Dulwich, former site of the Zygon High Command’s base. Making their way inside and through a hole in the wall, the team find the aliens’ control room. As the Doctor manipulates the biomorphic computer polyp that controls all Zygons on Earth, Kate explains that when Missy murdered one of the Osgoods the other went mad with grief: she went undercover somewhere in the United States, and now the rebels have her. Jac receives another video recording, this one showing the execution of Jemima and Claudette by the rebels, whose leader declares himself as the new Zygon High Commander and then vows to destroy all traitorous members of his race. Kate resolves to bomb the rebels’ headquarters, but the Doctor orders her to stop – killing the splinter group will only radicalise them, making matters worse. When Clara identifies ‘Truth or Consequences’ as a town in New Mexico, the Doctor offers to travel there to try and negotiate peace. Knowing that UNIT protocol for the world-wide crisis has made him President of the World, the Doctor happily departs in the presidential plane, leaving Clara behind with Kate and Jac; unfortunately for them, they have no trustworthy military back-up, and the only weapon that could combat a Zygon was confiscated years ago by the Doctor. Returning to her flat with Jac, Clara witnesses Sandeep’s parents dragging a struggling bundle into the lift; she and Jac take the stairs to intercept them, but when the lift doors open the occupants have inexplicably vanished. Noticing slime oozing out of the lift’s control box, Clara finds Zygon bioware connected to the electrics; she activates it and the lift shudders violently – and then opens onto a dark underground tunnel. Stepping out to investigate, Clara and Jac see the boy’s parents meeting with several Zygons; the two women wisely decide to get reinforcements…

The Doctor arrives at the UNIT base in Turmezistan, where he finds Colonel Walsh overseeing drone bombing of the Zygon-infiltrated town. However, the remote-plane’s operator sees her husband and son waving from the target zone, and she aborts the strike…

Kate drives to Truth or Consequences, finding the town deserted, Zygon graffiti signs sprayed everywhere. Searching the Sheriff’s office, Kate is confronted by a terrified police woman, Norlander, who holds her at gunpoint; the woman explains how British immigrants became alien monsters, turning everyone against each other and devastating the town in a blaze of violent paranoia…

Back at the UNIT safe house, Jac informs Clara that reports are coming in from all over London detailing strange activity in lifts, as people drag bodies inside and then disappear…

In Turmezistan, the Doctor accompanies Colonel Walsh on an assault on the Zygon-occupied village to rescue Osgood. Making their way through the empty streets, the soldiers surround the church and address the aliens hiding inside, but falter when their family and friends emerge and encourage them to drop their weapons; Colonel Walsh tries to warn her men of the obvious trap, but to her frustration the soldiers contravene orders and follow everyone inside the church… Walsh and the Doctor break into the back of the church, finding the building deserted apart from the burnt remains of the soldiers. While Colonel Walsh leaves to organise the bombing of the village, the Doctor searches the church and finds Osgood tied up in the cellar; as he frees her he is attacked by a Zygon, but the creature is knocked out when UNIT’s bombing causes the roof to collapse. After UNIT soldiers have taken the captive Zygon aboard the Presidential plane, the Doctor questions Osgood on whether she is human or Zygon; but his friend refuses to answer: for the sake of peace she sees herself as both human and Zygon – a hybrid. When the Doctor observes that if the human Osgood was killed the Zygon one would have reverted back to her alien self, Osgood explains that the invaders have surpassed the need to keep originals for their copies – they can now take images from people’s minds…

Clara and Jac lead a squad of UNIT troops into the tunnels, where they discover a Zygon nest full of pods hanging from the ceiling. Clara is all for destroying the pods before they hatch, but Jac believes they could be something else. Seeing a duplicate of Clara inside one of the pods Jac realises she has made a mistake: the original Clara is imprisoned in the pod, while the Clara she has been working with is the alien copy (replaced back at the tower block) and has lead them into a trap. As a hoard of Zygons surround Jac and the soldiers, the Zygon ‘Clara’ smiles evilly and gives the order for the humans to be killed...

Aboard the presidential plane, the Doctor questions his Zygon prisoner. But the alien just gloats: its race wants to take over the world, and they already have the United Kingdom under their control…

In Truth or Consequences, Norlander shows Kate a row of dumpsters which contain all that remains of the human townsfolk. Learning that Kate has come without back-up, the police woman reveals herself to be a Zygon too…

At the London UNIT safe house, the evil Clara copy (now calling herself Bonnie) calls Norlander, and is pleased to hear that Kate has been neutralised and her form copied. With the UK now under her control, Bonnie takes a heavy briefcase from the UNIT weaponry store and then motorbikes to the coast, arriving just in time to see the presidential plane approaching. Bonnie calls the Doctor and informs him that Clara, Kate and everyone else is dead; she then takes out a rocket launcher and opens fire on the Doctor’s plane…


Peter Capaldi (The Doctor), Jenna Coleman (Clara), Ingrid Oliver (Osgood / Double Osgood), Jemma Redgrave (Kate Stewart), Jaye Griffiths (Jac), Cleopatra Dickens (Claudette), Sasha Dickens (Jemima), Rebecca Front (Colonel Walsh), Abhishek Singh (Little Boy [Sandeep]), Samila Kularatne (Little Boy's Mum), Todd Kramer (Hitchley), Jill Winternitz (Lisa [Drone Op]), Gretchen Egolf (Norlander), Karen Mann (Hitchley's Mom), James Bailey (Walsh’s Son), Aidan Cook (Zygon), Tom Wilton (Zygon), Nicholas Briggs (Voice of the Zygons)

Directed by Daniel Nettheim
Produced by Peter Bennett
Executive Producers Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin
A BBC Wales production

TX (BBC 1 & BBC 1 HD):
31st October 2015 @ 8.15 pm


Notes:
*Featuring the Twelfth Doctor, Clara, Kate Stewart, Osgood, Osgood and UNIT

*Part one of a two-part story