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The Zygons were one of the several monster races which appeared in the BBC's longest-running and most popular sci-fi series, Doctor Who(1963-1989). They only featured in one story, but they were a unique and very memorable creation.

Who Were the Zygons?

Short, squat, slightly bulbous humanoids who resembled a human foetus, the Zygons came from a distant planet, the name of which was never revealed. They had bright reddish-orange reptilian skin with mushroom-shaped suckers running across the main parts of their bodies, such as the head, shoulders, limbs and chest. The Zygons relied on organic technology (as they were highly organic creatures themselves) and their distinctive crab-like spacecraft was 'grown', controlled by nodules instead of switches or levers, with thick leathery tissue for walls and muscular tendrils where cables might have been on other craft, reflected their organic technology. The Zygons themselves were imbued with biomorphic or shape-shifting abilities and could re-arrange their body molecules into an exact physical and vocal replica of any desired creature or individual. The subject only had to stand in one of the many booths on board a Zygon craft for a DNA sample (or 'body print') to be collected and transferred to the selected Zygon. Once in the form of the subject, the Zygons could move about undetected and gain the confidence of anyone. However, the sample would only last for a short while, meaning the Zygons had to return to their craft for a fresh sample. The Zygons also emitted a high-voltage electrical charge in their fingertips; when discharged, this electrical energy could either stun or kill other life forms.

'Terror of the Zygons' (1975)

The Zygons' home world was destroyed by a sudden increase in solar activity. Now exiles, the Zygons realised that they needed to find a new home. In similar fashion to the Ice Warriors, the Zygons sent dozens of their spacecrafts into space to find a new home planet. One such spacecraft, commanded by a Zygon warlord called Broton, crash-landed on Earth in Loch Ness, Scotland. There it remained undetected for hundreds of years. The Zygons seized the opportunity to take the forms of several of the locals of the nearby village of Tullock, including the man in charge of the region, the Duke of Forgill. Broton was instructed by his superiors to conquer Earth for the rest of the Zygon race to colonise once humanity had been completely enslaved or wiped out. Stored as an embryo in the Zygon spacecraft was a gigantic sea serpent-cum-cyborg called the Skarasen, who was reared and kept in the Loch and was occasionally spotted by humans - who called it the Loch Ness Monster. The Skarasen produced lactic fluid which the Zygons required to survive.

When his invasion attempt began, Broton commanded the Skarasen to destroy four huge oil rigs off the Scottish coast as a trial of strength. When the Fourth Doctor intervened - assisted by his friends Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan plus representatives of the paramilitary organisation UNIT - the Zygons revealed themselves in the basement of the Duke of Forgill's castle and flew off in their spacecraft to a quarry near London. The Doctor, imprisoned aboard the craft, escaped and freed the captive humans whom the Zygons had impersonated. He then caused the craft to self-destruct, and all the Zygons except Broton were destroyed in the resulting explosion. Broton, wearing the Duke of Forgill's form, went to a World Energy Conference in London, which he planned to destroy using the Skarasen, swimming up the Thames. The Doctor tracked Broton down, forcing him to return to his Zygon form. An intense battle between the Zygon warlord and the Doctor followed, but UNIT troops shot Broton and with his dying breath he condemned humanity to be eliminated by the Skarasen. The Doctor threw the Skarasen its homing device, which it promptly devoured. The hold over it severed, the beast returned to Loch Ness, the only home it knew.

But what of the other Zygon crafts cruising the galaxy?

Writing Credits

Created by writer Robert Banks Stewart for the opening story of the show's 13th season, the Zygons were included in his story about the Loch Ness Monster as a means of providing an explanation for the mythical Monster's existence. Robert Banks Stewart was himself a Scot who wrote just one other story for the series, 'The Seeds of Doom'. In the early 1980s, he created the popular detective series Bergerac, which ran for over ten years and featured Louise Jameson, who played the Fourth Doctor's companion Leela from 1977 to 1978. Robert Banks Stewart is still alive and writing today.