The moment has gone down in Doctor Who history. <\/p>
It\u2019s a moment that will be remembered for years after it aired \u2013 Peter Capaldi\u2019s<\/a> iconic speech in the Doctor Who<\/a> two-parter The Zygon Invasion\/Inversion<\/a>.<\/p>\n The scene, which sees the Twelfth Doctor (Capaldi) attempting to talk Zygon leader Bonnie, who has taken the form of his companion Clara (Jenna Coleman) out of starting a war against humanity, has undoubtedly gone down in Doctor Who history \u2013 both for the writing and the performances.<\/p>\n Chatting to RadioTimes.com<\/a> ahead of his new novelisation The Zygon Invasion<\/a>, writer Peter Harness broke down that epic moment.<\/p>\n He explained: \u201cAt that time, whenever it was \u2013 I think it was about 2014 or 2015 \u2013 before it felt that the world had definitely taken a dramatic turn for the worse, I kind of thought, \u2018If you meet somebody like that, if you meet somebody who\u2019s intent on kind of disruption and tearing everything down, is it possible to talk them out of their mindset? Is it possible to talk somebody who\u2019s so deeply entrenched in something out of their mindset?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not entirely sure, six or seven years down the line, how easy that is anymore. But I thought that if somebody could actually do it, then the Doctor could.<\/p>\n \u201cAs it unfolds in that episode, [The Doctor] has been to the same place as Bonnie has. He\u2019s been in the same room and made that same decision. And he just doesn\u2019t want anybody else to have to live with that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt came from wanting to know whether it would be possible for the Doctor to talk somebody back from the edge, just using an emotional, intellectual appeal. Clara is also inside Bonnie\u2019s head so that definitely has something to do with it but rather than ending it in a series of explosions or machines or punch-ups, I just wanted it to come down to conversation in a room about whether this is the way we want to go or not.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cOf course, [Capaldi] sold that intensely well with his performance but it was a long scene on the page and I was very happy that it paid off. That\u2019s the speech that Steven Moffat and I batted between the two of us until it felt that it was just right and I think [Capaldi] delivered it just right.<\/p>\n \u201cWatching it as a viewer, it felt like one of the first moments from Peter Capaldi that you could define his Doctor by. I think it\u2019s one of the moments of that era that people remember and I\u2019m really proud to have been a part of making that.\u201d<\/p>\n As for whether there could ever have been a different ending to that episode? Harness doesn\u2019t think so.<\/p> \u201cI think [Bonnie] was always going to get talked back from the edge. Otherwise, we would have just had to shoot her and that would have been OK but it would have been a bit boring. It was always, can the Doctor talk someone round? Can he talk someone back from the brink?\u201d<\/p>\n The writer is also no stranger to criticism from fans. After all, he wrote the divisive episode Kill the Moon<\/a>. But he stands by everything the Doctor says in The Zygon Inversion.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t think of anything I would change about the Zygons,\u201d he reflected.<\/p>\n \u201cI know the Zygons also have some political aspects that are a little bit on the nose and a little bit uncomfortable but I still stand by, essentially, what the Doctor says \u2013 that whatever grievance you have with somebody else and whatever battles you\u2019re fighting, no matter how terrible somebody has been to you and how unjust things have been, that the only way to stop it destroying you completely is reach some form of accommodation or forgiveness about it.<\/p>\n