Doctor Who- Series Four- Episode Four
The Sontaran Stratagem
Regarded as one of the more memorable of the Classic Series Doctor Who monsters, the Sontarans appeared in four stories battling four different incarnations of the Doctor. A race bred for battle, it was always more than a little disappointing when it was revealed that due to programming constraints and logistic issues with any given script, they were inevitably unable to kill much of anyone or even make it over a beach chair in some occasions.
In any case, the Sontarans were created by Robert Holmes (writer of classics such as Brain of Morbius, Talons of Weng Chiang, Deadly Assassin and Caves of Androzani to name just a few) and Bob was a genius of Who.
Rumored to return as early as Chris Eccleston’s first series where he referenced the monsters in an interview, fans have been anxious for the inclusion of these monsters into the New Doctor Who mythos, high budget and all. Well… they look great. It’s a shame they appear in such a lousy story full of lost opportunities and bad plot ideas.
Essentially, this is another ‘Rise of the Cybermen’ situation, a story that featured the creation of the Cybermen, an alternate reality and the near death of the TARDIS all pushed aside so that we could concentrate on Rose’s mum’s 40th birthday and a duplicate Mickey. This time around we are introduced to UNIT for the first time in decades and they make very little impact on anyone, the Doctor included. He is of course far more interested in reuniting with Martha Jones who now works for UNIT as a specialist.
The episode mainly shows us Sontarans floating in their spaceship talking to each other, UNIT doing nothing that Donna Noble cannot figure out for herself (thanks to the fact that she temped and therefore has unique knowledge of filing) and a painfully long segue involving Donna feinting a return to her family that was so drawn out (and in slow motion) that I thought I was hallucinating.
Despite the fact that The Young One’s Chris Ryan does a great job of delivering the character of Sontaran leader Staal, the episode has very little to do with him or the Sontarans at all. It’s all about Donna. It is this insistence of Davies‘ that the companions play such a large role in the program coupled with his inability to do anything of interest with them that is slowly killing the momentum of this program.
Well… that’s one of the problems, in any case.
The major plot involves a GPS system that removes all harmful emissions from all cars. What does GPS have to do with emissions control? Nothing, but never mind. The evil GPS system is systematically killing people by giving them bad directions… much like director Douglas Mackinnon killed my interest in this episode. The GPS MacGuffin leads the plot to a boy genius MacGuffin where the Doctor discovers that a fey and nubile brilliant boy has betrayed the human race to the Sontarans for no clear reason.
The kicker involves a finale where Donna’s granddad is stuck in his car as it somehow emits toxic gas inside the locked vehicle while the Doctor does nothing at all useful. It’s actually a brilliant visual, the Doctor standing in the street dumbstruck as fumes whisp around him… but it’s also one of the stupidest ideas I’ve ever seen in Doctor Who.
Almost as dumb as the Daleks using game shows to destroy the human race, the threat of killer cars is much more at home in Monty Python than Doctor Who. This kind of twist was described by Davies as “irresistible” and “so very Doctor Who“. This idea of the commonplace being a threat as being quintessential to Doctor Who was probably caused by another Bob Holmes story, ‘Terror of the Autons’ featuring killer dolls, telephone cords and plastic chairs. However… that story is actually very good and unique in its depiction of seemingly harmless things turning out to be deadly and… it’s quite campy even by Doctor Who’s standards.
A dreadful waste of a decent enough monster and very well done visual effects, this episode is another dud in a season of duds. I wonder what it could be building towards?
Doctor Who and the Sontaran Stratagem premieres in the US on the Sci-Fi Channel tonight
