Production Code: 4F
First Transmitted
1 - 30/08/1975 17:45
2 - 06/09/1975 17:45
3 - 13/09/1975 17:45
4 - 20/09/1975 18:20
Plot
The Doctor, Sarah and Harry return to Earth in response to the Brigadier's summons. UNIT are investigating a series of attacks on North Sea oil rigs and have set up a temporary HQ in the Scottish village of Tullock. The attacks are the work of a huge cyborg, the Skarasen, controlled by a group of aliens called Zygons whose spaceship lies at the bottom of Loch Ness.
The Zygons plan to take over the Earth as a substitute for their own planet, which has been devastated by solar flares. They are using their shape-shifting abilities to take on the identities of locals whose inert bodies are held aboard their ship.
The Doctor releases the Zygons' prisoners and causes their ship, which has now emerged from the Loch, to self-destruct. Only their leader, Broton, survives. He has assumed the identity of the Duke of Forgill and travelled to London. There he plans to give a show of strength by destroying a World Energy Conference with the Skarasen, which is now approaching up the Thames.
Broton is shot by UNIT troops and the Doctor throws the Skarasen its homing device, which it devours. Without a controlling influence, the creature makes its way back to Loch Ness.
Episode Endings
Sarah telephones the Doctor from the infirmary where Harry has been taken to recover from a head wound sustained when he was shot by the Duke of Forgill's retainer, the Caber. Their conversation is interrupted as Sarah is attacked by a Zygon and lets out a terrified scream.
The Doctor races across the moors to try to escape from the pursuing Skarasen but eventually trips and falls to the ground. Broton, watching on a screen in the Zygon ship, gives the order to kill, and the Skarasen bears down on its victim.
As the UNIT team look on, the Zygon spaceship rises from Loch Ness and takes to the air.
The TARDIS dematerialises and the Duke of Forgill expresses astonishment that the Brigadier, a Scot, did not think to ask the Doctor and Sarah for their return rail tickets to get a refund on them.
Roots
Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
I Married a Monster from Outer Space.
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
The Beast from 20000 Fathoms.
Brigadoon.
Dr Finlay's Casebook.
Burns' Tam O'Shanter.
The Kraken Wakes.
The Midwich Cuckoos.
Dialogue Triumphs
The Doctor : "When I left that psionic beam with you, Brigadier, I said that it was only to be used in an emergency!"
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart : "This is an emergency!"
The Doctor : "Oil? An emergency? Ha! It's about time the people who run this planet of yours realised that to be dependent on a mineral slime just doesn't make sense."
The Doctor : [To Broton] "You can't rule the world in hiding. You've got to come out on to the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle."
Double Entendre
The Doctor : [Blows up the Zygon spacecraft] "Was that bang big enough for you, Brigadier?"
Continuity
The Doctor mesmerises Sarah to prevent her from suffocating when they are locked in the decompression chamber: 'A trick I picked up from a Tibetan monk'. [This may refer to a visit to the Det sen monastery (The Abominable Snowmen) or even to K'Anpo (Planet of the Spiders).
The Brigadier indiactes that UNIT was formed before he joined it.
The Zygons arrived on Earth 'centuries ago' in a crashed spaceship. Having sent out for a rescue mission, they then heard that their home planet had been destroyed in a stellar explosion. Broton decided that Earth would make a perfect new home. A large Zygon fleet left before the disaster and is presently making its way to Earth. [Broton states that it will be 'centuries before they arrive'. Presumably they never arrived.]
The Skarasen is a cyborg, grown from an embryo. It is the Zygon's life source, providing them with the lactic fluid they need to survive. It is also, clearly, the Loch Ness Monster. [The Borad is said in Timelash to also be swimming about in Loch Ness, but this is probably just a joke on the Doctor's part, as the Borad is unlikely to survive his trip.]
QV
Location
Tulloch Moor, near Loch Ness, Scotland; Brentford; Westminster, [May/June 1973].
Trivia
The model shots of the Zygon spaceship are excellent.
John Woodnutt - previously seen in the series as Hibbert in season seven's Spearhead from Space and as the Draconian Emperor in season ten's Frontier in Space - plays both the Duke of Forgill and Broton.
Angus Lennie, who had previously appeared as Storr in season five's The Ice Warriors but was better known for his role as Shughie McFee in the soap opera Crossroads, plays landlord Angus McRanald.
Myth
The village in which much of the action takes place is called Tulloch. (It is called Tullock, according to a sign board seen on screen.)
Technobabble
The 'space time telegraph' that summoned the Doctor at the end of the previous story is renamed psionic beam. The Zygon ship operates on a 'dynacron thrust'. 'You underestimated the power of organic crystalography.'
Goofs
The Doctor states that he has been dragged '270 million miles' by the Brigadier (The distance from Jupiter's furthermost satellite to Earth is closer to 370 million miles).
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Tom Baker
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Harry Sullivan - Ian Marter
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
Angus - Angus Lennie
Corporal - Bernard G High
Duke of Forgill - John Woodnutt John Woodnutt also played Broton in all four episodes, but was uncredited for this on screen.
Huckle - Tony Sibbald
Munro - Hugh Martin
Radio Operator - Bruce Wightman
RSM Benton - John Levene
Sister Lamont - Lillias Walker
Soldier - Peter Symonds
The Caber - Robert Russell
Zygon - Keith Ashley
Zygon - Ronald Gough
Crew
Director - Douglas Camfield
Terror of the Zygons