Zygon: When Being You Just Isn't Enough was a Doctor Who spin-off film released on 27 February 2008[1] by BBV Productions.
Publisher's summary[]
They've been stranded on Earth for 20 years, so Zygon commander Kritakh, and his second, Torlakh, have had plenty of time to re-create their world.
The trouble is that Kritakh, aka engineer Mike Kirkwood, has lost his sense of purpose. Can Torlakh, aka mass murderer Bob Calhoun, get him back on track.
Enter sexy Psychiatrist Lauren Anderson, first, to be tempted by her innermost desires and then to face her greatest challenge.
Can a violent heart really be tamed by love and what is the ultimate price to be paid?
Plot[]
Michael Kirkwood is seeing a medical doctor named Lauren Anderson over strange dreams that he has been having. He dreams that he is a monster, a shape-shifting alien called a "Zygon". She tries to help him discover what these dreams mean. One day, she encounters an old man, who tells her that she has to help him retain his real memories.
She tells Michael about this. A medical scan shows that he is not human, or at least not of recognisable DNA. All turns for the worst when, in the middle of her investigation on Kirkwood, she is put on leave by her boss and best friend. No longer in medical relations, Michael and Lauren decide to go on a date; followed by sex. Michael has another dream that night, and wakes up strangling Lauren, and leaves. Lauren gets comfort from who she thinks is her roommate Ray.
Lauren later finds Ray dead in his bedroom, his throat cut. His double appears alive behind her and turns into the old man who had met her before. He knocks her unconscious. When she awakes, Ray's dead body is still in the room with her and it is revealed that something strange is on the back of her neck. She walks down the hall to find the old man naked, unconscious, and sitting at the dinning room table. His double walks in and reveals that he is a Zygon named Torlakh, who was sent to Earth on a special mission. He offers her the chance to be like him and she accepts, metamorphosing into a shape-shifting Zygon.
The two go into public, where Lauren takes the body of a wealthy man. She uses his Visa cards to go shopping, and buys multiple sets of clothing, both for the wealthy man and her. Afterwards, she drives the man's Mercedes van back to his house, where his wife is waiting, worried about him being late. So worried, in fact, that she begins having sex with him. The next morning, Lauren is awoken by Torlakh, who takes her home.
Lauren goes to "Andrew"'s house, and tells him that she is now a Zygon. She soon realises that Torlakh has evil intentions, and calls the police. Torlakh, now able to hear Lauren's thoughts due to his helped metamorphosis of her, is one step ahead of her, and captures the police officer, taking his shape to try to capture the two. Before he can, Lauren knocks him out and the pair steal his van and drive off. Torlakh orders the police man out of his other car.
They go the the police headquarters, where Lauren is almost arrested for the death of her room mate by Officer Mcutcheon. She is able to knock him out and takes his form.
Lauren goes in as Mcutcheon and tells some of the workers about the man who had been stalking her, and then leaves, dumping his body by the road.
The two check into a hotel, where Michael begins to doubt if he can trust Laura anymore, and indeed who she really has become. He walks out on her, and thinks to himself on the rooftop. Torlakh comes to him and is able to convince him to work with him again.
Torlakh sneaks him into an electronics plant. There Torlakh explains. The two of them had been left on earth 18 years prior to complete a mission, to make the Earth warmer. They went around the world and opened the carbon in electronic plants, thus polluting the world. In about 150 years the Zygon fleet would pass by the Earth and the two would hand the planet over to it.
Laura arrives to tell Michael that he doesn't have to live like this, and that there is more to life. Reunited, the two find the bodies of the real Michael Kirkwood and Bob Calhoun. They remove the two's neck pieces, and move them to the van. In extreme pain from the removal of the pieces, Torlakh temporarily reverts to Zygon form, where he tries to kill Lauren as she puts the two bodies in the van.
Lauren and Michael/Kritakh escape to the hospital where Lauren worked, with the comatose bodies of the real Michael and Bob. Lauren offers to apply Kritakh's neck piece to the body of Bob, allowing Kritakh to live as Bob (who was a convicted killer) while setting the innocent Michael free. Kritakh, uneasy about the prospect of being affected by murderer Bob's mind but also about continuing to take advantage of the innocent Michael, agrees. He attaches his neck piece to Bob, metamorphoses into Bob's form, and they kiss. Lauren finds herself uneasy at kissing "Bob," so Kritakh retakes the shape of Michael and leaves with Bob's body.
A Zygon in the shape of Lauren sets up a video camera in the hospital and murders Lauren's colleagues in view of it, framing her for the killing. The Zygon then shifts back into the shape of Bob and finds the real Lauren, throwing her the gun used in the murder. Lauren, now a wanted murderer, flees.
Lauren returns to her room surrounded by old photos, thinking about the life she's lost. "Bob" shows up, offering to join forces with her and hunt together as Zygons. Lauren doesn't know whether "Bob" is Torlakh or a now-corrupted Kritakh, and "Bob" proclaims it doesn't matter. As "Bob" tauntingly takes Lauren's own form, Lauren shoots and kills the Zygon.
Lauren later watches from a distance as the authorities collect "her" dead body from a park, and disappears down a crowded street.
Cast[]
- Lauren Anderson - Jo Castleton
- Michael Kirkwood / Kritakh - Daniel Harcourt
- Bob Calhoun / Torlakh - Keith Drinkel
- Ray - David Roecliffe
- Joanna - Becky Pennick
- Samms - Alistair Lock
- Officer Mcutcheon / Zygon - Nigel Peever
- Wealthy Man - Matt Montgomery
- Wealthy Wife - Lucy Lockly
- Doctor - Nathan Hamlett
- Inspector - Georgia Windsor
- Police officers - Blaine Coughlan, Richard Hookings, Nigel Fairs
- Patients - Marian Baggs, Joan Hewlett, Richard Hewlett, Chris Bell, Ralph Baggs, David Castleton
Crew[]
- Sound recordist - Darko Mocilnikar, Dave Edwards
- Assistant director - Ginny Rowson, Blaine Coughlan, Sue Hamblin
- Lighting cameraman - Richard Hookings
- Music / Sound design / Editing / Visual FX - Alistair Lock
- Zygons created by Robert Banks Stewart
- Directed and produced by Bill Baggs
Worldbuilding[]
- Lauren mentions Sigmund Freud and his polymorphous perversity theory.
- Joanna gives the Queen as an example of someone she would want to be for a day.
- Lauren buys clothing at Monsoon.
- While posing as William, Lauren gets a blowjob from his wife.
Story notes[]
- Due to adult content, this film is one of BBV's two productions to be released under an "18" certificate, with the other being the P.R.O.B.E. story Ghosts of Winterborne, though it was released on DVD with a "12" certificate as a Galaxy 4 exclusive since its original release in 1996.
- No writer is credited for the production. Early drafts of the script were written by Lance Parkin and Jonathan Blum. Parkin had written six drafts to fit changing remits from Bill Baggs, before they'd parted ways and Blum took over to write six more; during his draft, he was asked to remove Mike's wife (a major subplot being the dissolution of their marriage) and have him get together with Lauren.[2] After further modifications were made by Baggs, both writers requested their names be removed from the credits.[3][4]
- The adult violence and nudity had always been part of the remit, with Parkin and Blum both having different ideas on how to work the nudity into the story. However, Zygon, as filmed, would have more nudity than either man wrote. Plans had been made for another Zygon film to reuse the costumes, written by David A. McIntee, and he was also asked to put nudity and a sex scene into it. (REF: Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who)
- At an earlier stage in production, it had been planned for Blum to be interviewed for a DVD featurette about the story's multiple script drafts.[5]
- Most of this film was shot by 2003, but initially scrapped due to Bill Baggs' dissatisfaction with the results. Only after additional script changes and a day of new shooting in 2007 was the film completed and released.[6] The McIntee sequel was dropped due to the original never coming out. (REF: Downtime – The Lost Years of Doctor Who)
- A behind the scenes documentary was also released, titled Zygon: Behind the Changing Faces.
- This was BBV Productions' final release until 2015's When to Die.
Myths[]
- Reviewers have noted the influence of the 2006 spin-off Torchwood but this story's production actually predates it, having been filmed in 2003. Adding to this confusion is the fact that this movie was held unreleased until 2008.
Filming locations[]
to be added
Production errors[]
to be added
Continuity[]
- The Zygon home planet is called Zygor. (PROSE: The Bodysnatchers)
DVD, video, and other releases[]
- This film was released directly to DVD on 27 February 2008. The DVD was released under two different covers.
External links[]
- Official site (defunct; mirrored at the Internet Archive)
Footnotes[]
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