Why Let Zygons Be Bygones?

Terror of the Zygons strikes me as a pretty average yarn, enlivened by some above-average moody direction by Douglas Camfield and... probably the best-designed aliens never to have made a return appearance in Doctor Who.

It's easy to forget how hard it is to create a truly iconic race of monsters for a show like Who. The Daleks and Cybermen came out of opposite ends of the Hartnell era. Troughton's tenure added only the Ice Warriors, not that they've been seen since the early 70s themselves. With Pertwee came nearly-classic foes the Silurians and the Sea Devils, and then the Sontarans... who are possibly the last great recurring baddie in 36 years.

When a monster is any kind of a hit with the general public, the tendency is to bring it back as quickly as possible. The Slitheen and Judoon are Russell T Davies' big attempts at "icon" rubber-suited aliens, and both have been modest successes, although their main comebacks have been in the Sarah Jane Adventures. The Ood were an even bigger success, and seem to be writing themselves firmly into the mythology of the modern show, even if they have a big drawback in the form of not being remotely villainous unless possessed by Satan himself. I've already hinted that I'd like to see more of the Flood, and Steven Moffat would be missing a trick if he didn't bring back his own scariest creations, the Weeping Angels, before too long.

So why has the Doctor never had a rematch with the Zygons? In terms of design, the whispering, bodysnatching octopoids were hit straight out of the park. The organic technology inside their spacecraft, all slimy nodules and veined, eyeball-like viewscreens, is a high watermark for the series. James Acheson, the costume designer, would go on to win three Oscars. Perhaps we have to blame the Skarasen, that deeply unconvincing refugee from Invasion of the Dinosaurs, for letting the side down - the Zygons do subsist on Skarasen milk, after all, so maybe it was contractual that one could not return without the other.

Or perhaps Who is already at saturation point for eternally returning villains with the Daleks, the Cybermen, and at a pinch the Sontarans. Once you get any more obscure than The Big Three, you run a big risk of alienating the non-fan audience and losing viewers; in the mid-80s, it was Eric Saward's obsession with arcane continuity (see Attack of the Cybermen et al) that almost scuttled the show for all time.

Which is very sad for the Zygons, the Ice Warriors, the Yeti and other great monster concepts that never quite made it into the Dalek and Cybermen's league. But I guess there's always Big Finish. And sometimes, just sometimes, against all the odds, they do get one more hour in the primetime sun - just ask the Macra.