Day 405: Terror of the Zygons Part 4

December 31st and January 1st are traditionally times when we can look back on the past and look forward to the future. It's particularly apt then, that we come to to the end of Terror of the Zygons as this marks the beginning of a turning point in the history of the series.

Doctor Who, since Spearhead from Space, has been mainly based around modern day Earth. We have had alien invasions of several different types, mad scientists trying to take over the world, et cetera. All of this has been prevented by the Doctor, with the help of the Brigadier and UNIT. But over the past few series we have slowly moved away from this concept, to the point where the last series only had one story on modern day Earth (Robot). The series is going to become more about space adventures, and travelling back in time than it is about alien invasions.

So this story marks the beginning of the end for UNIT. The Brigadier makes his final appearance for quite some time in this episode, with Benton and Harry (who leaves the TARDIS crew without much fanfare in this story, a shame as he has been a delightful companion and will be greatly missed) due to make their final appearances in a little while and UNIT itself in a little while longer. It is a shame to lose this part of the series, as it allowed for an awful lot of things. Shorthand could be developed such that the Doctor wouldn't have to explain himself to the people in charge, as he was already in charge. Similarly, these people aren't going to be skeptic of alien invaders and will instantly believe the Doctor or his companion (as seen in Part 2 of this story where a Zygon disintegrates leaving no trace of a body yet the UNIT soldiers recognise that Sarah Jane is in the right and continue to help her). Add on top of this a splendid cast of regulars who provide consistency and comfort to the programme and you have a recipe for some solid stories.

But, it has to be said that there have been constraints to the format, and that it might be more beneficial to have the Doctor and his companion(s) go free to explore the cosmos without having to worry about Earth. So it's with a heavy heart that we must recognise the need to say goodbye to UNT and we thank it for all that it has done to make the series what it is today.