January 06, 2010

The Zygon Who Fell to Earth (2008)

When the Autons returned in Brave New Town it was a surprise because Big Finish didn’t put the word Auton in the title. In The Zygon Who Fell to Earth, can you guess which classic monster returned in this one?. You’ve got it! The Zygons. The Zygons made their one and only appearance in 1975 in Terror of the Zygons. Its becoming a good habit for Big Finish of bringing back aliens that made only one appearance and giving them a fresh angle and making people ask “Why didn’t the TV producers do more stories with these aliens?”. Paul Magrs has written some interesting stories such as The Stones of Venice (2001), The Wishing Beast/Vanity Box (2007) and from the first series of Eighth Doctor and Lucie adventures Horror of Glam Rock.

The thing that we have in this story is one lone Zygon who has hidden himself as a human. He’s not a normal Zygon but a nice one and he’s shacked up with Lucie’s Aunt Pat. It was nice that she came back as it adds a bit of continuity to Lucie’s story. Unlike the Rose Tyler family we only have one relative of Lucie’s not the whole bloody litter.

The story is essentially the fact that there are people after the Zygon. There is a an obvious sense that the person pretending to be Trevor is in fact a Zygon but there is a surprise when Pat says she knew that Trevor is a Zygon. There was a shocking twist towards the end with the sudden death of Aunt Pat. This lead to a moral dilemma for the Doctor. Trevor decides to take the place of Aunt Pat using the last of the Zygon ship energy. This is a good dilemma because even though Lucie knows that her Aunt Pat is dead but not at this time .

Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are brilliant in this story. In particular Smith who has some nice scenes at the end. Lynsey Hardwick was very good as Pat. This is only her second story but it feels like she’s been in more. She’s a well acted character. Steven Pacey is also very good as Trevor who give some good scenes.

This story is perhaps the most emotional story of the series and also the best. Paul Magrs has done a grand job with the characters and story. I think it will take a lot for this story to be beaten but there is a two parter coming up so who knows!!!

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