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Did THIS Episode Make the Fourth Doctor a LEGEND?

The Watcher On Who

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Did THIS Episode Make the Fourth Doctor a LEGEND?

Before the scarf became iconic, before the gothic horror era was fully underway, and before the Fourth Doctor truly felt like the Fourth Doctor… there was Terror of the Zygons.

In this deep dive, we explore how this chilling 1975 story marks a turning point for Doctor Who. Picking up where Season 12 left off, Terror of the Zygons wasn’t just another UNIT adventure — it was a statement. With Tom Baker’s Doctor now fully formed, the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era hits its stride, blending folklore, horror, and sci-fi into one unforgettable tale.

This story introduced one of the show’s most memorable monsters, bid farewell to familiar faces, and paved the way for Doctor Who's most stylistically daring era.

👽 When did the 4th Doctor become the Fourth Doctor to you? Was Terror of the Zygons a game-changer or just another classic?

👇 Let me know in the comments — and don’t forget to like and subscribe for more Doctor Who retrospectives and breakdowns.

00:00 - Intro and the 4th Doctor era so far
03:14 - How Terror Of The Zygons brought the character together
06:13 - Setting the tone
11:09 - Legacy

20 Comments

@TheWatcherOnWho Creator 1 year ago Pinned

Thanks for watching. Check out some of my other videos here:

Why WAS the 6th Doctor era SO BAD?!- https://youtu.be/Vzu4KwH5Owg
The DOWNFALL Of The CYBERMEN In The 1970s- https://youtu.be/Z45TuTusRAo
Was Doctor Who CANCELLED at the WRONG TIME!?- https://youtu.be/_UrtSqZRQro
The 4th Doctor's SHOCKING GOODBYE!!!- https://youtu.be/kueQhXQ50AY
The FORGOTTEN Episode That INFLUENCED Doctor Who!!!- https://youtu.be/3z0RsK3QR9g

@dogfleetgallifrey5455 1 year ago

Very nicely done! Tom Baker had definitely mastered his role as The Doctor with this story. He realized the weight that was on his shoulders and he always stepped up in the end to do whatever he could to save the day. The Fourth Doctor was the first Doctor that I saw, so Tom Baker will always have a special place in my heart.

@johntaylor8817 1 year ago

Baker is Dr Who and always will be.👍

@ponchoman49 1 year ago

Doctor Who has never topped this time era in its history. Baker knocked it well out of the park with Sarah and Harry perfectly complimenting his Doctor. The suspense, music and horror aspect of Terror Of The Zygons was never bettered with the barn scene perfectly appropriate in a Friday the 13th horror movie along with some of the killings. The Lock Ness Monster is the one fly in the ointment on an otherwise flawless story. As a 10 year old the Zygons terrified me silly and this was real behind the sofa stuff going on here. There are no bad stories from season 12 to 14 and this was indeed the golden era of the program!

@NeilTheHippy 1 year ago

This is the golden age of doctor who! And time and time again you are going to watch it. For me Tom was the best.

@Eltonlaleham 1 year ago

I grew up with Tom Bakers, doctor and he was well awesome,

@jordanrowland6269 1 year ago

Thanks - I’ll put in a word for Geoffrey Burgon’s incidental music which really adds to the unsettling atmosphere on this story - and on the Seeds of Doom too.

@Wstarlights 6 months ago

ALL the Drs were AWESOME, but Tom Baker seems to wrap up all the personalities of all the Drs, even the one's to come later, into a definitive peronality. But I like them all the same because they are one person!

@garethmurtagh2814 1 year ago

It’s one of my favourites, the Zygons are so brilliantly realised, in that first partial reveal when you see their hands grasping the controls you can almost hear them go “SQUELCH!” That does make the naffness of the Skarasen more bearable!

I also think it’s Ian Marter’s best story, he’s chilling as the doppelgänger, I think he could have had a big role in the following stories had he been kept on.

Something that others have said over the years about Mrs Whitehouse’s campaign against Who but ITV shows of the time like The Tomorrow People, Space:1999 and Sapphire and Steel regularly featured more graphic and disturbing content than anything Who did but she never seemed to attack them. At the risk of veering into politics it really seems that the BBC gets held to a different standard to other broadcasters and no matter what it does someone is always going to be cross with it. 🤷‍♂️

@TheQuiet1 1 year ago

Excellent video. I always thought Predator was essentially The Sontaran Experiment with a bigger budget.

@michaelwebster8666 1 year ago

Excellent analysis!
Had this ended season 12 UNIT would have bookended the season and we know originally this was the intention, Harry doing one full season 👍

@Vanguard521 8 months ago

Ark in Space for me. First Hinch story. Great speech about humanity. Epic hook for me

@Stuff_And_Things 6 months ago

I'm American and PBS was where I was introduced to Doctor Who. Tom Baker was The Doctor as far as I was concerned. I'm not even sure I ever knew of another actor in the role other than the Peter Cushing movies, until I happened to catch the Tenant episode where Rose gets sucked into the other dimension's Earth when I was visiting my sister.

@gingerfreak01 6 months ago

That first episode is my favourite in all of Who. Absolutely birlliant, all the characters are perfect, and it has an amazing cliffhanger.

@mutineer2639 6 months ago

The fourth Doctor has always been my Doctor!

@gregsmith7949 11 months ago

Episode one is a master class in setting an eerie tone for the story. Fans also get, in my opinion, the greatest jump scare ending in Classic Who when we finally get the Zygon reveal. It looses some momentum in Episode 4, but still an excellent story and alien overall. It's also the last proper UNIT story.

@mikelee4062 5 months ago

I grew up with tom baker, he will always be the doctor. The definite article you might say.

@normanby100 1 year ago (edited)

This Doctor can certainly be more ruthless, if not brutal, compared to his predecessor. Terrance Dicks makes him almost Pertwee-lite in the Traget books. In Pyramids of Mars, when Lawrence Scarman's corpse is found, Dicks has Sarah pass off the Doctor's offhand manner as him feeling the pressure of the moment and "he's not really as callous as this." In my opinion, this is an incorrect reading. The fourth Doctor means every word. He gave Scarman fair warning about the nature of the evil possessing his brother's corpse, and the idiot got everything he deserved.