Doctor Who: 15 Cool Details Peter Harness Just Revealed About The Zygon Invasion

11. The Doctor Sat On A Swing Is Another Nod To Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

Doctor Who The Zygon Invasion swing Invasion of the Body Snatchers
BBC/Twitter: @mrpeterharness

After the opening titles, the episode cuts to Brockwell Park, London, where the Doctor is sitting on a swing. Somehow, he has the willpower to not ride it. Mad skills.

Another nod to 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers, this one is in reference to the creepy image of Robert Duvall's priest character silently sitting on a swing in the opening moments of the film.

Robert Duvall in Invasion of the Body Snatchers
United Artists

According to the movie's director, Philip Kaufman, Duvall is the first "pod person" (an alien in a snatched human body) we see in the film.

With this swing parallel, maybe Harness was trying to say something similar about the Doctor: the fact that he looks like a human and often tries to act like one... but he's actually an alien. He's pretty much a "pod person" himself.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.