Doctor Who Subtly Gives The Zygons A Happy Ending After Their Last Appearance In Peter Capaldi’s Era
Although they’ve only appeared in four serials, the Zygons are actually one of the most commonly recurring Doctor Who villains. That said, they don’t often present the same kind of threat as other monsters within the franchise. The conflict that Twelve was forced to resolve between the Zygons and humanity stemmed from the former having nowhere else to go after the loss of their homeworld. Although other subplots, such as Carole Ann Ford’s surprise return as Susan, understandably draw focus from the Zygons’ happy ending in “The Interstellar Song Contest,” it’s still a nice detail.
Doctor Who Season 15 Hints There’s A New Zygon Homeworld
The Zygons can finally be themselves away from Earth
The songwriting contest in Doctor Who season 15, episode 6, has its origin in a real-world event called the Eurovision Song Contest. Beginning in 1956, Eurovision has become incredibly popular since its inception, and has even expanded to allow some non-European nations, like Australia, to compete. At an unknown point in the Doctor Who universe, Eurovision became so popular that it either inspired its interstellar counterpart or rebranded to include the galactic community. The Interstellar Song Contest, instead of pitting Earth’s nations against each other, allows just one performer from each planet involved.
Although the contest’s co-hosts don’t reveal whether the Zygons are competing (how great would that be?), they do name a few of the planets tuning in to watch the event. As well as Doctor Who‘s Alpha Centaurans getting a shoutout after so long away from the franchise, the hosts also reveal that the “Zygon New Habitat” is watching. Due to the destruction of the Earth in May 2025, the habitat in question can’t be the homeworld, which is where the Zygons had settled the last time they were in Doctor Who. So, the Zygons presumably found somewhere else to go.
Calling the Zygons’ new home a “habitat” rather than naming a planet suggests that the race didn’t settle on a new homeworld, but instead constructed their own artificial structure so they no longer had to stay in human form on Earth. Given what happened to Earth, either option is a decidedly smart move. I’m also suspicious about the show’s choice to mention the Zygons now, as it makes me think they could be about to come back in the near future.
Doctor Who’s New Zygon Habitat Means Earth’s Zygons May Have Left
Earth’s Zygon population has probably been drastically reduced
One of the biggest twists regarding the Zygons in Doctor Who‘s modern era is that they’re far more numerous on Earth than people think. Their ability to flawlessly imitate a human’s physical appearance means no one ever looks at them twice while they’re disguised. “The Interstellar Song Contest” is set centuries after the Zygons’ last Doctor Who appearance, so it’s not surprising they have since managed to fix their own problem with finding somewhere else to live. So, while it would be pretty much impossible to tell, Earth may very well be free of alien impostors.
I can’t see a version of Doctor Who season 15’s finale where Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor fails to save the Earth.
Of course, there’s the matter of Earth’s current fate, which is to blow up on March 24, 2025. If so many Zygons were on the planet at the time, their numbers would have been vastly reduced. However, I can’t see a version of Doctor Who season 15’s finale where Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor fails to save the Earth. It would be one of the Doctor’s biggest ever failures. So, what I think is more likely is that Earth and humanity are saved before Doctor Who season 15 ends, along with the throng of hidden Zygons.
