Zygon

Doctor Who is a long-running British science-fiction television series that began in 1963. It stars its protagonist, the Doctor, an alien who travels through time and space in a ship known as the TARDIS, as well as their travelling companions. When the Doctor dies, they are able to undergo a process known as "regeneration", completely changing the Doctor's appearance and personality. Throughout their travels, the Doctor often comes into conflict with various alien species and antagonists. The Zygons are a race of shapeshifters who hail from the planet Zygor. Their homeworld was destroyed during the Time War, which resulted in the species seeking out new planets to occupy as their home. The Zygons usually need to keep their victims alive in order to mimic their form, keeping them in stasis elsewhere, though later appearances would have the Zygons be capable of shapeshifting via reading their targets' memories. Television The Zygons first appeared in the 1975 serial Terror of the Zygons, in which a Zygon ship crash lands in Loch Ness alongside their Skarasen. The Skarasen ends up becoming known as the Loch Ness Monster over the centuries the ship remains buried. The Zygons, led by their leader Broton (John Woodnutt), reawaken in the twentieth century and prepare a plan to melt the polar ice caps and breed Skarasen on the planet, but are foiled by the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and military organisation UNIT. The Zygons subsequently return in 2013 in "The Day of the Doctor". A group of Zygons places themselves in suspended animation in Elizabethan England, planning to awaken in 2013 to infiltrate the Tower of London's Black Archive, where alien technology is housed that the Zygons plan to use to invade the planet. Three incarnations of the Doctor are eventually successfully able to negotiate a truce between the Zygons and the humans, who are led by UNIT. Spin-offs The Zygons appear in comic story "Skywatch-7," which depicts a UNIT team encountering a single Zygon at a remote base. The Eighth Doctor encounters the Zygons in the Eighth Doctor Adventures spin-off range novel The Bodysnatchers, which depicts the Zygons' home plant as being destroyed by an arachnid alien race called the Xaranti. The Doctor is able to defeat the invading Zygons by poisoning their milk supply. The Zygons appear again in the New Series Adventures novel Sting of the Zygons, which depicts the Zygons attempting to set up a royal funeral in order to shapeshift into various royals. They are stopped by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones. They later appear in several Big Finish audio dramas, including The Zygon Who Fell to Earth, Death in Blackpool, and Zygon Hunt. They also appear in the BBV Productions audio dramas Homeland, Absolution, and The Barnacled Baby. An unofficial erotic spin-off film produced by BBV Productions, known as ''Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough,'' was produced in 2005. == Development ==

" (2013) as seen on display at the Doctor Who Experience The Zygons were created by writer Robert Banks Stewart for the 1975 serial Terror of the Zygons. Originally intending to write a serial about the Loch Ness Monster, script editor Robert Holmes had Banks Stewart refocus the story on the alien species associated with the Monster (Which in-universe was made into an alien creature named the Skarasen), resulting in the Zygons taking the center stage of their debut serial. Originally characterised as scaly creatures in keeping in line with the Loch Ness Monster idea, designer James Acheson came up with the idea of the Zygons being embryo-like in physical appearance due to the fact they fed on the Skarasen's lactic fluid. Acheson and designer John Friedlander collaborated to create the final Zygon design. The Zygons were given the ability to "sting" their victims, akin to jellyfish, but this concept was not elaborated on in the episode and hard to notice in the final story. The story was largely based on Moffat's original idea, and Moffat worked closely with Harness as a result. Looking at situations in the Middle East in the real world, Moffat and Harness decided to focus the Zygon conflict on a smaller group, discussing why wars began when the bulk of a group's people did not desire one. While writing the story, Harness elected to introduce the concept of Zygons being able to electrocute their victims and turn them into balls of hair with their "sting," which he felt would be entertaining for younger viewers. == Reception ==

Mark Braxton, writing in a retrospective review of Terror of the Zygons for Radio Times, praised the design of the Zygons, stating that "the Zygon is exquisitely horrible." Literary critic John Kenneth Muir also praised the Zygon's design in his retrospective review of Terror of the Zygons, citing the Zygon costumes as "...incredible to behold," further stating that they were "so interesting and effective as an extraterrestrial design." Den of Geek's Andrew Blair highlighted the costume work for the Zygons in their debut, particularly that of their leader, Broton. He stated that while Broton was not a well-written character, the performance of his actor, coupled with the effective design of the Zygons, helped to make Broton a memorable villain. Radio Times's Patrick Mulkern praised the Zygons as an inventive concept, and also highlighted how later changes to how their shapeshifting works (By plucking their forms from people's memories) helped make them unique compared to other shapeshifting aliens in science-fiction shows. Mark Rozeman, in a review of "The Zygon Invasion" for Paste, stated that while the Zygons were an inventive concept, he felt the Zygons often played "second fiddle" to other major elements, such as the reveal of the Loch Ness Monster being an alien and the conflict of the Time War, that led to them not appearing as a major element in their stories. Simon Brew, writing for Den of Geek, responded positively to the usage of the species in "The Zygon Invasion", believing the Zygons were an effective return given their lack of usage in prior years, as well as for their effective design. The Zygons' role in "The Zygon Invasion" and "The Zygon Inversion" has been the subject of discussion for its real-world allegories. The Zygons were considered by Rozeman to be considered an allegory for the Muslim population in Britain, with many aspects of the Zygons' role in the story paralleling them; Rozeman considered this "an instantly effective way of contemporizing the Zygons", though was worried about the show handling such serious subject matter. Steven Cooper of Slate also noted this allegory, comparing the splinter group to the real-world radicalisation of young Muslims. Writing in a review for The A.V Club, Alasdair Wilkins highlighted the desires the Zygon splinter group expresses in the story to want to live in their original form above all else, which Wilkins stated helped the audience understand their goals in a more relatable manner than the Zygons' previous desires for world domination. The book Aliens in Popular Culture stated that the Zygons represented British anxieties over refugees, with the species' differing goals (Some desiring to live in peace while others desire world domination) and their shapeshifting abilities being stated to reflect "mixed feelings regarding the treatment of refugees as aggressors or victims" in Britain. The book Doctor Who: Twelfth Night similarly stated that the Zygon conflict represented British views towards migrants, particularly via the story's usage of allegories to real-world events. The book also stated that the splinter group is allegorical of various real-world Islamist terrorist groups, with many cues in the story being used to draw audience attention to the similarities between the splinter group and contemporary events involving these groups. Magdalena Stonawska, writing in the paper Loving the Alien: How Fictional Alien Invasions Are Helping Us To Be Better Humans, characterised the multiple interpretations of the various Zygon groups in the story as showing how Doctor Who as a whole uses various narrative tropes to convey discussion about multiple current issues. A new species of parasitic wasp, first described in 2019, was named Choeras zygon in reference to the Zygons. == External links ==