4 episodes
Aired between 30th August 1975 and 20th September 1975
Written by Robert Banks Stewart
Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Douglas Camfield
Synopsis
On an off-shore oil rig, a worker radio's in reporting a strange bleeping sound. Not long afterwards, the oil rig is destroyed, almost as if the sound broke it apart,
The next day, the TARDIS arrives in Scotland. The Doctor emerges wearing a Tartan Tam 'o Shanter and leads Harry and Sarah Jane off to find the Brigadier and find out the source of his distress.
It's not long before they get a lift into a nearby village from the Duke of Forgill, a Scottish Laird.
When they arrive, they see that UNIT have set up in the small village. The Brigadier has been talking to Mr Huckle, a representative from Hibernian Oil, the company looking after a ring of oil rigs just off the coast. Huckle has been complaining that three rigs have been destroyed in the last month, with no clue as to how or why. The Brigadier assures him they're doing what they can and sends him packing.
When the Duke of Forgill arrives in the village, he goes to the local inn and takes the opportunity to complain to Huckle about all the Hibernian men trespassing on his land. He warns him that any found trespassing from this point on will be shot. The Duke questions the Brigadier as to UNIT's presence, but the Brigadier gives him the "it's classified" rebuke. He has no other option but to storm off, leaving the Doctor, Harry and Sarah time to get filled in as to what's happening.
On the shore, a lone survivor of the latest destroyed rig washes up on shore and is found to be alive. The Brigadier takes the Doctor etc. to Hibernian Oil with Huckle so they can be appraised of the details. Huckle is baffled by it all, stating that the rigs were made to be unsinkable and the sea was calm and empty before the destruction of each. The Doctor quips that so was the Titanic and the sea is never empty.
Harry decides to look at the dead men's injuries in the sick bay, whilst Sarah Jane goes to speak to the locals, hoping to maybe sell the story to her newspaper. She goes back to the inn and speaks to the landlord, Angus. Making small talk, she admires the Stag's head that is mounted on the wall. Angus tells her it was a gift from the Duke of Forgill, given to him just this past week. Sarah Jane can't believe it as he seems so brusque, but Angus said he's really a nice bloke, but admits that he's changed a little since the oil companies came. His castle was once thriving but many of his servants have since left to work for the companies, leaving it cold and empty. As they speak, they are being watched from a distant, alien control room, unknown to them,
Harry meanwhile is driving back and notices the man who washed up, staggering from the beach. He goes to help him, and finds out its a survivor. He's about to tell Harry something important, a shot rings out from the Duke's ranger, Caber. The shot kills the oil worker. Harry looks around a second shot skims Harry's head, knocking him unconscious.
Being filled in about the strange sounds before the oil rigs are destroyed, the Doctor returns to the inn and starts working on a device to jam radio signals. They are told about Harry's attack and both he and Sarah rush to the hospital where Harry's been taken.
Meanwhile, another rig is attacked after a series of bleeps that summons a deep sea monster, caused by the same alien presence that was watching Sarah.
The Doctor and Sarah arrive and briefly speak to the nurse, Sister Lamont who tells them that Harry's stable but unconscious. It's not long after that the Brigadier turns up and tells them of the next rig attack. The Doctor goes to investigate, leaving Sarah with Harry.
Once near the shore, the Doctor spots some of the wreckage with holes in it and orders a plaster cast to be made. It's not long before he comes back with a mould of some very large teeth. The aliens watch him from a monitor screen and determine that he knows too much.
In the meantime, Harry wakes up, and Sarah rushes off to call the Doctor at the inn. Unluckily for Harry, it turns out that Sister Lamont is one of the aliens in disguise.
She attacks Harry whilst Sarah is gone and then moves onto her, grabbing Sarah as she is on the line to the Doctor.
The Doctor hears Sarah's screams and rushes to the hospital. When he gets there, Sister Lamont tells him that she also heard Sarah's screams, but she only found Harry's bed empty and Sarah gone. The Doctor finds her monotone manner a little curious and decides to snoop around the place, rather than taking her word for it. He's proven right to do so as he soon finds Sarah Jane unconscious in a decompression chamber. When he opens the door to check on her, the alien closes it behind him, sealing them both in and begins to pump the air out. Incapable of escaping, the Doctor uses hypnosis to slow down both of their breathing and waits for help.
Harry meanwhile is taken by the alien to their base. He soon learns that they're in a spaceship underwater. The Aliens are a race called the Zygons, and they crashed on Earth centuries ago. They were waiting rescue when they found out that their home planet had been destroyed in a stellar explosion.
Homeless, they now intend to claim Earth as their own. When asked how, they explain that they've cybernetically altered a sea monster to obey their commands . They will use said monster to force the leaders of the world to give them control. Harry ponders the simple answer of just destroying the monster, but the Zygon leader, Broton boasts that nothing can kill their monster, the Skarasen.
Sgt. Benton and his team are sent by the Brigadier to find the Doctor. They manage to do so just in the nick of time. The Doctor revives quickly, but warns them not to touch Sarah. He brings her round gradually and then thanks Benton. He smiles and says it was a trick he picked up from a Tibetan Monk.
When they return to the inn, they're surprised to find that the entire village (including the UNIT troops) have been knocked unconscious by some kind of gas. The Doctor suspects that this happened so something could pass by them, unseen. Huckle arrives and gives the doctor a strange organic device that he found in the latest wreckage.
The Zygons see this on their monitor and identify it as the source of the beacon they use to summon the Skarasen.
Broton knows that if the Doctor is allowed to study it, he'll eventually figure out what's going on, so he orders it recovered at all costs. Harry is taken away to another part of the ship, where he sees the Duke of Forgill, Caber, and Sister Lamont all hooked up to strange alien capsules. It becomes clear that these are the real humans. They're hooked up to the ship so they can provide the Zygon's with "body prints" so that the aliens can shape shift into them.
Back at the inn, the Doctor has already worked out that the device mimics a mating call for whatever beast was used to destroy the oil rigs. As they discuss things, a report comes in of a UNIT solider being attacked on the moors. They go to see what's happened and leave Sarah Jane behind, just in case Harry turns up.
As it happens, "Harry" does turn up, but it's actually the Zygon named Madra using his form now he's hooked up to the ship. He callously retrieves the beacon and storms off into the village. A confused Sarah gives chase, getting some help from Benton and his crew.
As they search the village, Sarah finds "Harry" in the hay loft of a nearby barn. Harry jabs at her with a pitch fork, but Sarah steps aside at the last moment, sending him falling from the rafters and ultimately impaling himself and turning back to a Zygon.
Sarah rushes off to get Benton.
Back at the Zygon ship, Broton realises that Madra has failed and quickly presses a self destruct button on the console, destroying Madra's body before the UNIT soldiers can see it. As he does this, Harry is freed from the capsule.
In the aftermath, Sarah ponders how the aliens knew that they even had the beacon. The Brigadier orders a search on the inn.
Broton meanwhile reverts to plan B and activates the beacon, causing it to bleep continuously. The Doctor returns from examining the dead UNIT guy and warns them that the monster will be summoned by the bleeping. He takes the beacon and says he;ll draw the monster off if they can trace the signal back to its source. He jumps into a UNIT Landrover and sets off onto the moors.
It's not long before the Skarasen finds the Doctor and chases him across the land.
The UNIT landrover breaks down and the Doctor is forced to flee on foot. To his horror, the Doctor discovers that the beacon has attached itself to his hand like a barnacle.
The Brigadier gets a firm fix on the source of the signal....Loch Ness. This means that the Skarasen is in actual fact, the Loch Ness Monster!
The Doctor trips and falls to the ground as the Skarasen catches up with him. Broton in his base orders the Skarasen to destroy him. Luckily, Harry manages to find his way back to the Zygon control room. He rushes in and starts slapping the organic buttons on the control console. His actions cause the device to pop off the Doctor's palm, allowing the Doctor to roll away in time.
Harry is subdued and taken away again. Since the device is crushed, Broton believes that the Doctor must be crushed also and orders the Skarasen back to base. The Doctor retrieves the crushed beacon and makes his way back to UNIT.
When he catches up with the Brigadier and Sarah, they tell him that the signal came from Loch Ness. Armed with this info, the Doctor decides to visit the Duke of Forgill as his castle's situated right next to the Loch.
When they meet with the Duke, they get a bit of a harsh reception as the Duke dismisses the Monster as a myth, and certainly doesn't approve of UNIT dropping depth charges in the Loch!
Back at the Inn, Angus the landlord discovers the Zygon surveillance device in the eye of the stag head that the Duke gifted him with. As he tries to pluck it out, Sister Lamont arrives at the Inn and as expected, turns into a Zygon, attacking Angus. Benton and his men hear Angus' death screams and pursue the Zygon into some nearby woods. They manage to wound the creature and Benton calls it in to the Brigadier,
Once they have word of the cornered Zygon, the Doctor and the Brigadier leave Sarah-Jane at Forgill castle to do some research on the monster in the extensive library there, whilst they go to help Benton. When they get back to the Inn however, they realise that the stag's eye is missing and therefore, the Doctor works out that the Duke of Forgill could be a Zygon.
Back at the castle, Sarah finds a hidden passage activated by a switch in the bookcase. The passage leads underground to the Zygon ship.
The Zygon in the woods is wounded by UNIT fire, but manages to knock one of the soldiers out and escape in their Landrover. The Zygon goes to Forgill castle where the Duke and his assistant, Caber take the Zygon to the library, discovering the open passageway.
On the ship, Sarah finds her way to the capsules, and sees Harry and the rest imprisoned there.
She frees Harry and they do make it back down the tunnel to the castle, where they meet the Doctor and the Brigadier. They explain everything to them and the Doctor decides to go down to the ship on his own. He doesn't get far before being captured by the Zygon's who appear at the passageway entrance.
Broton says they're leaving with the Doctor as their prisoner and leaves them with a warning that they're going to take over the world and that the "big event" is still to come. They seal the tunnel and set off in their ship, flying away into the sky.
Once airborne, Broton jams UNIT's radar so they can't be tracked.
The Brigadier is at a loss and prepares to ship out and track the ship. Sarah and Harry however suggest searching Forgill castle for clue first. Sure enough, Sarah finds papers that suggest the Duke of Forgill is the President of the Scottish Energy Commission but it doesn't really get them anywhere.
Forlorn, they return to London with the Brigadier.
The Zygon ship lands in a quarry undetected, but UNIT do manage to track the large underwater object that's making its way south along the British coast.
Broton appears to the Doctor as the Duke and once again explains that they intend to conquer the earth. This is just the end of phase I. A great refugee ship is on it's way to Earth carrying the remainder of the Zygon race, but it will take some centuries, in the meantime, Broton will work to turn Earth's atmosphere into something more like the Zygon homeworld.
The Doctor is placed in a cell, but manages to rig a way of using the organic technology to send the Brigadier a message to help them locate the ship, but electrocutes himself as he does so. He falls unconscious, and Broton mistakenly assumes he's human so hasn't survived the current.
When the Zygon's leave the room, he comes to and makes his way to the capsules, once again freeing the Duke, Sister Lamont and Caber.
Broton ignorant of the Doctor's escape, goes off to plant another beacon on his next target, reveling in the fact that the Skarasen will destroy it. Once it's destroyed, he intends to hold the world to ransom or get the Skarasen to destroy more and more places of importance until they submit.
As Broton goes off, the Doctor sets off the Zygon's fire alarm in the body print room. As the remaining Zygons rush to find the cause of the fire, the Doctor seals the doors and sets the ship to self destruct before ushering all the humans back out into the quarry to the safety of UNIT who have just arrived in time to see the ship explode, taking all the Zygons with it except Broton.
Knowing Broton is still at large, the group hypothesize that the Skarasen's target must be close to the Thames. Sarah's discovery comes back into play as they realise that the Prime Minister and delegates from all over the world will be at an energy conference held nearby.
At the conference, Broton, still disguised as the Duke slips the beacon into the basement of the building. The effect of the body print wears off however and the newly arrived Doctor manages to find the alien relatively easily. Broton attacks the Doctor himself and ultimately gets shot by the Brigadier. With the Skarasen approaching mere seconds away, the Doctor and friends frantically search the basement for the beacon, ultimately finding that Broton had slipped it into the Doctor's pocket during the fight.
With no time to lose, the Doctor rushes to the balcony of the building and throws the beacon into the jaws of the Loch Ness monster as it rises out of the Thames.
With the beacon destroyed, the monster sinks underwater once more and heads back to the Loch.
Returning to Scotland, the Brigadier tells the Duke that this incident will be kept quiet even though loads saw the monster, as they prefer to believe things are hoaxes.
The Doctor leads them all into the woods, back to the TARDIS and offers them all a lift.
The Brigadier refuses, and to his surprise, so does Harry. The Duke of Forgill doesn't believe the TARDIS is a machine so doesn't indulge the Doctor, leaving only Sarah-Jane, who agrees but only if they go straight back to London. The Doctor promises that they'll be there before they've even arrived in Scotland.
They enter the TARDIS and the rest watch in astonishment as it disappears.
Trivia
- This story was actually filmed to be the end of Season 12, but the way scheduling changes occurred, it was eventually pushed back to the start of the next season.
- This marks the return of a very successful director, Douglas Camfield, who hadn't touched Doctor Who since Inferno. His wife was still unhappy about him taking on another Doctor Who story as it was clearly stressful and his heart complaint was still present, but he threw caution to the wind and did it anyway.
- Although this wasn't to be the end of UNIT, this is sadly the last story to feature the Brigadier until 1983. It showed the end of an era, and the beginning of a new approach to Doctor Who
What worked?
- The Zygons look great
- The organic technology is pretty good too
- The banter between the characters
- Sister Lamont is very good at doing menacing
- The way cultural differences are worked into the aliens e.g. calling the monster a Skarasen
- The Skarasen puppet
- Why didn't the Zygons try to copy the Doctor's body?
- Why does the beacon work at the end when the ship's been destroyed?
- Why does the Duke give the Doctor and friends a lift at the beginning when he's the bad guy?
- In fact, why does he let Sarah inspect the books, knowing there's a chance she could find the passage?
Overall Feelings
This story could be viewed fondly because it's nostalgic even in 1975. Most of the tropes from Jon Pertwee's run are here, to the point where this feels very much like a Silurians / Daemons mashup with a dash of Sea Devils put in for good measure.
When looked as a whole, this story isn't half bad, especially the costumes and the creepy nature of Sister Lamont. Indeed, if this had been shown in 1972 or even 1973, it would have been phenomenal. What let's this story down is the same thing that highlights it to us. What I mean by that is this story has taken all the tropes from the Third Doctor's run and diluted them into an improbable mashup.
We have the local myths of the Scottish highlands with ghosts in the mists, but that never comes to anything more than a half and episode romp with nerve gas. We get the doppelgangers pursued by UNIT but it ends with the Zygon's randomly self-destructing a member of their own species. We get the underwater base and cool aliens but they resort to a conquer the world plot, almost as if it's just to have something to do.
I like this story, and others must have too, given that the Zygons would remain an iconic villain throughout all the subsequent years, but if you take the Sea Devil / Silurian / Daemnons elements apart, each of these stories do better individually compared to this.
Worth a watch, but I'm sure you wont be rushing back to watch it again anytime soon.
Rating
7 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Doctor Who and the Silurians
- The Sea Devils
- The Daemons
- Day of the Doctor (Doctor Who, 50th Anniversary Special)
- The Zygon Invasion (Doctor Who, Series 9)
- The Zygon Incursion (Doctor Who, Series 9)
Consulting the Matrix
Do you think the Zygons should have made a return sooner?
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