10 Years Ago, Doctor Who Dropped A Speech That We Can Never Forget
A moment for the ages, in any genre.
One of the greatest things about Doctor Who is that the Doctor often wins the day by yelling at people. As signature action hero moves go, this is one of the most thrilling and, oddly, pacifist. Ten years ago, on November 7, 2015, Doctor Who aired “The Zygon Inversion,” the conclusion of a Season 9 two-parter which gave us one of the best Doctor Who speeches ever. Not only has this moment gone down as one of the greatest speeches in the show, ever, but it’s also demonstrative of how Who is capable of turning a goofy concept into something profound and unforgettable.
Spoilers ahead.
As a direct sequel to “The Day of the Doctor,” the story of this two-parter took a throwaway subplot and took a much more serious direction. From their introduction in the 1975 serial “Terror of the Zygons,” these sucker-covered shapeshifters were terrifying, though perhaps not the finest example of a serious Who monster. In 2013’s “The Day of the Doctor,” writer Steven Moffat took plenty of opportunities to have fun with the Zygons, including lots of jokes about their suckers, and plenty of doppelganger shennigans. Only when the 10th Doctor (David Tennant), 11th Doctor (Matt Smith), and War Doctor (John Hurt) joined forces to erase the memories of humans and Zygons alike, was a peace treaty worked out.
Kate Stewart considers the worst possible options.
Again, it was a great moment in “The Day of the Doctor,” and created some questions about how many duplicates of Osgood (Ingrid Oliver) there were following her apparent demise in the Season 8 finale in 2014. But, bottom line, Moffat’s use of the Zygons in “The Day of the Doctor” was mostly lighthearted, which is what makes Moffat’s writing (along with co-writer Peter Harness) on “The Zygon Invasion” and “The Zygon Inversion” so notable. Because, while the Doctor created a ceasefire between humans and Zygons, he didn’t think about how an entirely new immigrant population of space aliens living on Earth might have a rough time in the ensuing years.
The topic of immigration and radicalization is clear throughout these two Zygon episodes, but the true thematic power of the episode comes down to the climax of “The Zygon Inversion.” Despite everything, humanity and Zygon kind are right back where they were in “The Day of the Doctor”: on the brink of global annihilation. As a safeguard, the Doctor created two boxes, each with two buttons, labeled “truth” or “consequences.” Kate Stewart (Jemma Redgrave) can press one button or the other, and either destroy all humanity or all the Zygons. Meanwhile, a Zygon who has taken Clara’s (Jenna Coleman’s) form can press her own buttons to either reveal all the hidden Zygons on Earth or make them human permanently.
The Doctor doesn’t present these options as fair. Instead, he posits that any group taking revenge over cruelty becomes, in effect, a whole bunch of “new cruel people.” This leads to the famous speech in which the Doctor makes it clear that this standoff has become: “a scale mode of war... every war, ever fought, right there in front of you... whenever you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who’s going to die!”
The Doctor’s point here seems simple: that violence begets more violence, and the victims of that violence don’t know nor care whose fault it might have been originally. And, in fact, the Doctor points out that tolerance in the present is key. “Nobody wins for long,” the Doctor says grimly.
In terms of world affairs and the study of human history, the Doctor’s warning is a powerful one, a message of consequence and conscience that extends far beyond science fiction.
