Producer Philip Hinchcliffe often bemoaned the fact that some of his favourite stories were let down by one particularly bad special effect. There are a couple of things he probably had in mind when he said this - the giant rat in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, and the Skarasen in Terror of the Zygons.
If you're going to do a story about the Loch Ness Monster, you have to show the Loch Ness Monster. Despite all the problems the previous production team had with dinosaurs in Season 11, "Nessie" was to appear.
Two versions were built - a model to be animated using stop-motion photography and a more basic glove puppet. Unfortunately there was insufficient time and money to produce enough material using stop-motion. We get a small amount as the Skarasen chases the Doctor over the moors, which looks okay. For the story's conclusion, however, we get the glove puppet - looking just like a glove puppet - badly superimposed against some film of the Thames by Millbank.
Director Douglas Camfield was so unhappy with the animation that he elected to only use the small amount - meaning he had to add the material about the Brigadier and his men being gassed at the inn to make up the running time.
How long have the Zygons been lurking at the bottom of the loch? The first recorded sighting of the monster was in early medieval times. St Columba, founder of the community on Iona, is said to have encountered a great water beast in the River Ness (not the loch itself). Modern sightings of "Nessie" only go back to the early 1930's when a new road was opened that gave relatively uninterrupted views of the loch.
If the Zygon ship has been down there for centuries, why does it take so long for the Zygons to repair it? Even if only there for decades, it is very clear that they aren't quick workers.
However long the ship has been there, when did Broton start impersonating the Duke? It appears to be only a very recent thing, with the current Duke, yet there has been a tunnel between ship and castle for a long time.
The chronology is further confused by the fact that it will take centuries for the Zygon refugee fleet to reach Earth. How many inhabitable planets will they pass to get here? Earth isn't even suitable as it stands - it will need to be totally terraformed to make it fit for Zygons.
What exactly is Broton's plan? How does destroying a conference allow him to take over the planet and enslave its population? The Skarasen might be virtually indestructible - but Zygons aren't, and there are only three of them. The Skarasen needs the Zygons to direct it. Look what happens at the end of the story. Once Broton is dead, it simply swims off back to Loch Ness.
The Doctor whispers to the Brigadier that the inn might be bugged - clearly not wanting whoever is listening to know that he is on to them. What does the Brigadier do in response? He loudly orders Benton to search for bugs...
There's no explanation on screen why the Zygons change back to their natural form when they are going to attack people. The novelisation at least gives them a deadly sting. Why does the Zygon copying the nurse kill Angus, but only shut Sarah in the decompression chamber?
Benton claims never to have seen a death like that of the soldier stepped on by the Skarasen - despite having seen at least one of his troops trodden on by a Giant Robot not that long ago.
Why does everyone traipse back up to Scotland at the end? The Brigadier might want to go and clear things up, and the Doctor is returning to the TARDIS, but why are Sarah and Harry there? The latter is planning on staying in London anyway, and Sarah hasn't committed to continuing in the TARDIS at this point - the Doctor has to talk her into it, and she only appears to agree on the condition that they go to the very place that she's just travelled away from.
The Zygon costumes are very good, but we do get to see the top half of John Woodnutt's costume come unstuck from the bottom half when he gets killed. You can also see the microphone hidden in one of the nodules in his chest.
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