Doctor Who will return for a new season this autumn.
This news summary will be updated regularly as more details are revealed, with the latest updates at the top of each section. Rumours and unconfirmed reports will be marked with a *.
Episode 8: ‘Inversion of the Zygons’
Written by Peter Harness.
Directed by Daniel Nettheim (Filming block 4).
Guest cast: Jemma Redgrave as Kate Stewart, Ingrid Oliver as Osgood, Jaye Griffiths, Rebecca Front, Cleopatra Dickens, Sasha Dickens, Abhishek Singh, Todd Kramer, Jill Winternitz, Nicholas Asbury, Jack Parker, Aidan Cook, Shanaya Rafaat as newsreader Azi Kashani, Ben Nash as a police officer.
Official synopsis: “Shapeshifting Zygons are everywhere in the UK, and there is no way of knowing who to trust. With UNIT neutralised, only the Doctor stands in their way. But how do you stop a war? And what can the Doctor do to save his friends?”
Brian Minchin: “The UK has been taken over by shape-shifting Zygons, Clara is in a whole world of trouble… It’s a bit of an Invasion of the Bodysnatchers…”
Steven Moffat: “The future of planet Earth is sealed in a box in Unit’s back archive, and only the Doctor knows what’s inside. With Unit under Zygon control, and Clara lost, the Doctor and Osgood find themselves fugitives in a London where no one can be trusted – but the wily old Time Lord knows there is one last hope for peace. Because that box in the black archive isn’t any old box. It’s an Osgood Box!”
Peter Harness: “So. A sequel to ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘Terror of the Zygons’. Absolutely no pressure.”
Steven Moffat: “I think we have to be awfully careful here, but I would say within the terms of Doctor Who, which involves blobby monsters and action adventure, this is as close to addressing the modern world as we get. Now I’m not suggesting that it’s a political deconstruction of the way things are, but it’s a decent framework for discussing it in. Zygons live among us. What do we do about it? I think it’s good drama.”
Peter Harness: “A little secret. A discarded line from my S9 script: ‘You mean that time with the blobby fellahs and I was sitting in a television?'”
Peter Harness: “It’s also a partial sequel to ‘Mawdryn Undead’.”
Jenna Coleman: “There’s some really provoking episodes, actually … I suppose something that has a relevance to some stuff kind of happening today, really interesting … makes you think … provoking.”
Peter Harness: “[Steven Moffat] wanted to bring back the Zygons and Osgood. He gave me a starting point, basically, and I came up with the story elements around them.”
Peter Harness: “[Expect] consequences.”
Rebecca Front: “Work with Peter Capaldi again? In Doctor Who? Hell yeah…”
Continued on the next page…