Day 403: Terror of the Zygons Part 2

The Zygons are shape-changing aliens, able to take the forms of any human that they have stored with their body-print. This is nothing new, it's a classic idea that we've seen tonnes of times before in various pieces of media, even in Doctor Who with The Faceless Ones. This time, however, the story is being produced by Philip Hinchcliffe, script edited by Robert Holmes and directed by Douglas Camfield all of whom have shown that they can make things truly terrifying. This is no exception, as a Zygon takes the form of Harry, one of the Doctor's companions. Sarah Jane, his other companion, sees that he is acting oddly and chases after him. He ambushes her in a barn, and we get a frightening sequence as Harry, the character whom we have grown to trust over the past series, becomes a figurative monster as he attacks her with a pitchfork. All of this horror comes from the writing of the story, by Robert Banks Stewart, however it gains an extra dimension on screen, thanks to the direction of Camfield.

The scene is set up such that we have two camera angles, one focussing on Harry and the other focussing on Sarah Jane. We cut back and forth from Harry menacing her with the pitchfork and Sarah Jane's reaction. This creates a strong amount of tension, particularly as the two are rarely in the same shot and so we see the action of the pitchfork stab before we see the reaction of Sarah Jane. It also means that the viewer gets to gain the perspective of Sarah Jane in the situation and feel her fear as Harry attacks the (from that camera's perspective) unseen figure. This comes to a head as the sequence ends and Harry lunges towards her. For a split second, it appears that he has actually hit her, due to the pitchfork moving towards the camera with some force, before we swap to a third camera angle where we see Sarah Jane dodge the attack and Harry fall off the platform that they were fighting on. The scene is frightening, tense and well created by all involved from the writing to acting to direction, showing that this team can and have produced great things.