Doctor Who: 10 Biggest "OMG!" Moments In New Who
8. THAT Incredible Speech - The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion
If there’s one thing Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor was known for it was his fantastic speeches. These often took the form of him lecturing somebody, protesting injustice and even begging on occasion. The Twelfth Doctor really grows out of the events of Day of The Doctor and felt like a whole new start for the character (seeing as he is technically the first in a new regeneration cycle). The Twelfth Doctor is more vehemently opposed to soldiers, guns and war in general than those that came before him. He is a man haunted by his mistakes in the Time War which, whilst his decision to use The Moment to end the war was undone in the Day of The Doctor – to him it still happened. There was a point in time when he went through with it and had to live with that decision. Not since Ecclestone’s Ninth Doctor has an incarnation worn so openly the scars left on them by the time war.
In this excellent two partner, a sequel of sorts to Day of The Doctor, the Zygon-Human peace treaty is collapsing as a rebel group of Zygons decree that all Zygons who agreed to hide as humans are traitors and that Zygons should overthrow humanity to become the dominant species on the planet.
This culminates in a tense stand off between the Zygon leader Bonnie (dubbed Zygella by The Doctor) and Kate Stewart, current leader of U.N.I.T. each has a box with two buttons in it, both buttons trigger doomsday scenarios including exposing every Zygon on earth or releasing a gas that will kill them all. The only man stopping these scenarios from being triggered is The Doctor who launches into an eloquent, emotional and very raw speech on the futility and horror of war to convince both sides to stand down.
Capaldi’s acting is breath taking in this scene, he delivers an absolute masterclass on emotional expression, transitioning seamlessly from idle mocking to pleading to anger and finally to the raw pain he feels from having lived through the Time War. “No one else, will ever have to live like this. No one else will ever have to feel this pain!” he proclaims. It’s a speech that could have been boring or clumsy in the hands of a lesser actor but with Capaldi it is a powerful and moving symphony that will hold you enraptured from the moment he begins talking.