Doctor Who (1963) 13.01.04

Terror of the Zygons - Part Four

The Zygons lock up the Doctor within their spaceship. They turn off all external communications and jam all radar in the UK. The Skarasen leaves Loch Ness and heads south, to London. The Doctor figures out how (from the room in which he is locked up) to cause the Zygon ship to emit a signal. UNIT picks up the signal and pinpoints the location of the Zygon ship.

The Doctor escapes from the Zygon space ship with the Duke of Forgill, the Caber, and Sister Lamont. Just before he departs the space shup he sets it to self-destruct. The Brigadier, Sarah, Harry, and Sgt Benton show up just in time to see the spaceship explode.

Broton, disguised as the Duke of Forgill, left minutes ahead of the explosion and headed to London. He went there to place a homing device for the Skarasen to find, at the first International Energy Conference. The Doctor catches up to Broton, who by then has reverted to his natural appearance, in the basement of Stanbridge House where the conference is taking place. The Brigadier shoots and kills Broton. The Doctor throws the homing device into the mouth of the Skarasen just as it is approaching Stanbridge House. The monster promptly leaves and heads back to Loch Ness.

The Doctor, Sarah, Harry, the Brigadier, and the Duke return to Scotland and find the TARDIS. The Doctor offers them all a ride back to London in the TARDIS but only Sarah accepts his offer.

Thoughts

This is the last Fourth Doctor story in which the Brigadier appears but UNIT will be back later this season. The commentary track for this episode was recorded after Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen died so neither of them is on it.

The look of the Skarasen reminded a bit of some of the creatures from Invasion of the Dinosaurs.

This was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it very much. I wouldn't say it was great but it was a solidly good story. Some elements of the plot felt a bit rushed. The Zygons felt a bit generic but I loved the serious tone with which they were played.

Notes

John Woodnutt played the Duke of Forgill and Broton. This is the third of four Doctor Who stories in which he appeared. The first two were third Doctor stories that I have yet to watch. The fourth is The Keeper of Traken which I have not watched recently. He was also in one episode of The Avengers. 

Robert Bank Stewart wrote this story. It is the first of two stories that he wrote for this series. He wrote two episodes of The Avengers.

Douglas Camfield directed this story. It is the 10th of 11 stories that he directed in whole or in part. Most of the episodes he directed (6/11) were from First Doctor stories. He only directed two Second Doctor, one Third Doctor, and two Fourth Doctor stories. This is the first of the two Fourth Doctor stories. This is at least the fourth story he directed that I have seen including The Time Meddler and Inferno.