The Zygons are a shape-shifting squid-like race from the planet Zygor. The Zygons lost their home world during the Time War, so now they seek out new planets to colonise. In order to maintain the copied image of a particular individual, the original person is kept prisoner by the Zygons. The Zygons also have a giant pet sea monster called the Skarasen, from which they depend on its lactic fluid. The Zygons have tried to invade the Earth a number of times in Doctor Who. But thankfully the Doctor has always been around to try and find a peaceful solution.
Terror of the Zygons
★★★★★
TX: 30/08/1975 – 20/09/1975
Written by Robert Banks Stewart Directed by Douglas Camfield
The Zygons, a shapeshifting alien race, have been wrecking oil rigs off the coast of Scotland with the help of their gigantic lizard pet, the Skarasen (locally mistaken for the Loch Ness Monster). The Brigadier contacts the TARDIS through the Space Time Telegraph, later used in The Day of the Doctor. The Fourth Doctor, Sarah-Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan and U.N.I.T investigate these strange occurrences. Harry is kidnapped and copied by the Zygons, who also set the Skarasen on the Doctor. The Zygons intend to take over the Earth, having discovered that their home world has been destroyed. To achieve this goal, the Zygons have captured several humans to use as “body prints” to infiltrate key leadership positions, including the influential Duke of Forgill who serves as head of the Scotland Energy Commission. Sarah-Jane discovers a secret passageway to the Zygons’ submerged spacecraft from the Duke of Forgill’s mansion. She rescues Harry who reveals the Zygon plan to her.
With their presence discovered, the Zygon leader Broton accelerates the Zygons’ plan. He takes the Duke’s form and leaves for London, while the remaining Zygons fly their ship to a nearby quarry. Once there, the Zygons use reactors to convert the Earth’s atmosphere to one hospitable to Zygons, but poisonous to humans. The Doctor sneaks aboard the ship, frees the remaining humans and sets the ship to self-destruct, killing the Zygon crew. Among the rescued humans, the Duke warns that he was scheduled to attend the first international energy conference in London that day, at which several high-level dignitaries will be in attendance. With the conference located in a building near the River Thames, the Doctor fears that Broton will lure the Skarasen to attack the conference. U.N.I.T. races them to London but, before the Doctor can stop him, Broton activates the signalling device. The Brigadier kills Broton, and the Doctor recovers the device just as the Skarasen surfaces. The Doctor throws the device into the Thames, the creature eats it and, no longer a threat, returns to Loch Ness…
The Day of the Doctor
★★★★★
TX: 23/11/2013
Written by Steven Moffat Directed by Nick Hurran
Having previously encountered the shapeshifting monsters in Sting of the Zygons, the Tenth Doctor accidentally elopes with one that is disguised as Queen Elizabeth I! The Tenth Doctor discovers that the Zygons have invaded Elizabethan England through paintings in London’s National Gallery in the present day. The Eleventh Doctor comes through a time fissure from the present day and the War Doctor arrives through another from Gallifrey on the Last Day of the Time War. The Eleventh Doctor and the Tenth Doctor banter and make innuendos to each other using their sonic screwdrivers… I have a long and thick penis and I have been told by several girlfriends that I am “well endowed”! I have sent a few dick pics in my time, although none of them were unsolicited. The three Doctors are incarcerated in the Tower of London by Elizabeth I before being rescued by Clara Oswald (who has arrived there through the use of Captain Jack Harkness’ vortex manipulator from the U.N.I.T Black Archive). Elizabeth I reveals that the Zygons intend to resettle on Earth, having lost their home world during the Time War. The Doctor contacts Kate using the Space Time Telegraph, a gift from the Doctor to her father Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (previously used in Terror of the Zygons). The three Doctors and Clara return to the Black Archive in the TARDIS and help Kate Stewart, Osgood (an allegory for cosplaying Doctor Who fans) and the Zygons to negotiate a peace settlement. Inspired by this, the War Doctor returns to Gallifrey in order to confront his own actions during the Time War. He reverses the outcome of the conflict by saving the Time Lords and Gallifrey from the Daleks with the help of his other 12 incarnations.
The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
★★★★★
TX: 31/10/2015 – 07/11/2015
Written by Peter Harness and Steven Moffat Directed by Daniel Nettheim
A Zygon-Human peace treaty exists following the events of The Day of the Doctor. One of the terms of the ceasefire is that twenty million Zygons live on Earth disguised as humans. However, a rogue group of Zygons (which are an allegory for ISIS) wants to disrupt the peace treaty by unmasking all of the Zygons so they can live as their true selves rather than in hiding. This story highlights the issues of multiculturalism, deterrents, war, terrorism, conflating whole religions with terrorist cells, Islamophobia, radicalisation, prejudice, integration and immigration. I lived with two Muslim flatmates when I was at university (one of which was circumcised at birth) and my friend Ammar from Glasgow is a Muslim. I have many Arab friends! The Doctor warns Kate Stewart of the dangers of bombing the rogue Zygon encampments, as this may lead to further radicalisation of peaceful Zygons to the terrorist cell’s cause. Terrorism is evil and wrong and all attempts by terrorists to scare us will ultimately fail. After 9/11, America declared a war on terror. The US went into Afghanistan in 2001 after 9/11 in order to find Osama Bin Laden although unfortunately it took ten years to track him down and kill him. The US should have withdrawn from Afghanistan after Bin Laden was killed and sadly the inevitable outcome of the Taliban reclaiming control of Afghanistan would have been the same back then as it was in 2021. I did not support the Iraq War or the military intervention in Libya and Syria, however there is no denying that Saddam Hussein, Colonel Gaddafi and Bashar al-Assad were very evil men. The US Democrats need to work on foreign policy, but nevertheless I am planning to meet Barack Obama. The Stop the War Coalition (StWC) has campaigned against the 2011 military intervention in Libya and it has opposed UK involvement in the War against the Islamic State, similarly stating that airstrikes would only fuel extremism. Although I am not religious, I respect all religions and I think that everyone should have the right to religious freedom. Islam is a religion of peace! There are many liberal; moderate Muslims in the West who have no issue with gay people or abortion that right-wing media tends to overlook or downplay. And I have Muslim friends that hold pro-choice and pro-gay marriage views. This is the most pro-Islam, most anti-Islamophobia website ever! Islamophobia is evil and wrong and it needs to be stamped out! And a key step towards that is to throw Tommy Robinson back in jail (where he belongs) and throw away the key! Tommy Robinson brings only Islamophobia! Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson should all be in prison and everyone should just ignore them! In order to unmask all the Zygons on Earth, rogue Zygon Bonnie (disguised as the Twelfth Doctor’s companion Clara Oswald) gains access to the Osgood Boxes in U.N.I.T’s Black Archive. One of them unmasks the Zygons and the other destroys them all. This story guest stars Rebecca Front as a U.N.I.T captain, who became one of a few co-stars from The Thick of It that appeared during the Peter Capaldi era of Doctor Who.
The Doctor makes an impassioned plea to Bonnie/Zygella and Kate Stewart not to use the Osgood boxes to provoke a war between the Zygons and Humans. The Doctor has seen the horrors of war first hand and does not want to witness any further atrocities. It transpires that there is nothing in either of the two boxes and that the whole thing has been a trap by the Doctor into luring Kate into having her memories wiped again and again. The ceasefire remains in place and the Zygon rogue group disbands as per Bonnie’s orders. Bonnie disguises herself as Osgood (an allegory for cosplaying Doctor Who fans) and the two Osgoods walk off together to a peaceful world of coexistence between the humans and the Zygons. The replacement headmistress of Coal Hill School, Dorothea Ames mentions to Miss Quill that Zygons are protected on Earth (Class: The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did). I applied to study for a PhD in international law at Edinburgh University, but unfortunately I was rejected. The Thirteenth Doctor’s granny 5 told her that her granny 2 was a secret agent for the Zygons (It Takes You Away).
Chris Olsen's TARDIS 
