OK, so its time for Part 3 of my review of Season 12 of the original Doctor Who series, which was Tom Baker's debut season as the fourth doctor. And this post will be on the third story of the season, The Sontaran Experiment.
So, how does The Sontaran Experiment fair??? Well, let's find out.
Oh and the usual warning is coming up....
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
Right, so the story takes place just after the events of the previous
one "The Ark in Space" and it begins with the Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah
(Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry (Ian Marter) beaming down to Earth, which
appears to be uninhabited. The Doctor then starts to work on the
transmat receptors for the space station above (from the previous story
also) and tells Harry and Sarah to go off and have a wander. However as
Harry and Sarah wander about, Harry slips and falls down a crevasse,
leaving Sarah to go back and find the Doctor, but he is nowhere to be
seen.
Sarah, however soon finds an astronaut called Roth (Peter Rutherford)
who is distressed and tells her that he was tortured by an alien that
lives up in the rocks along with its patrolling robot. Roth then takes
Sarah toward the astronauts campsite but he is reluctant to meet with
them as he had seen the leader of his team, Vural (Donald Douglas)
apparently collaborating with the alien.
Meanwhile, the Doctor is taken captive by the other astronauts, who on
the Doctor telling them he came from the space station Nerva, don't
believe him as they heard that Nerva was a myth. Vural, the leader,
tells the Doctor that they arrived on Earth in answer to a distress
signal and they came to investigate but they were soon stranded as their
ship was vapourised and their crew of nine vanished one by one. The
Doctor however is soon rescued by Sarah when she arrives with Roth, who
Vural and his men chase after, making a distraction for the Doctor and
Sarah to leave.
As the Doctor and Sarah try to escape and find Harry, the Doctor soon
also falls down a crevasse and Sarah is captured by the patrolling robot
along with Roth and they are taken to the alien creature, which turns
out to be a Sontaran warrior named Styre (Kevin Lindsay). Roth tries to
escape but Styre shoots him dead and then takes Sarah for interrogation
and subjects her to his torture methods. And we soon learn that Styre
has been capturing the astronauts to learn about their weaknesses so
that the Sontarans can launch an invasion on Earth.
And its from here that the Doctor and his companions must try and find a way to stop Styre from carrying out his evil plans....
THOUGHTS
I think its safe to say that The Sontaran Experiment isn't really a
classic story, given that its just two parts it doesn't have the
scope to be one and its more like a filler story for the season.
However that being said its still an entertaining story with some good
moments in it and it also makes good use of its external locations as it
was filmed up at Dartmoor (well actually it was shot all on videotape
and was the first ever story to be recorded that way).
The story also makes a welcome return for the Sontarans as the villains
as they make for one of the more memorable aliens in the show outside
the regulars that we are so used to in the Daleks or Cybermen. This was
also the 2nd story to feature the actor Kevin Lindsay in the role, who
apparently said that the suit he wore was so heavy he could not leave
the Dartmoor location for breaks and had to say there as well as use a
stunt double for his fight scene with the Doctor. The story's
production was also notable for Tom Baker sustaining an injury during
filming as he broke his collarbone and he had to wear a neck brace,
which was disguised under his costume's long scarf.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: may contain spoilers)
Moving onto the performances, well they are mainly good here with one or two exceptions.
Starting with Tom Baker who is excellent as ever here as the
fourth Doctor and even though this was only his 3rd story (but it was
the second one recorded and first to be produced by the show's then
producer, Philip Hinchcliffe) he is starting to become quite comfortable in the role already.
Tom naturally has some great moments in the story that include the
opening scene where the Doctor tries to repair the transmat receptors
and he tells Sarah and Harry to go off and do a recce. And the Doctor
says to them "Ah, Sarah. You're looking well. Look, er, it's going to
take some time to do the whole lot. Why don't you two make the most of
it?". And Sarah puzzled says "Make the most of what?" and the Doctor
says "Glorious day. Beautiful un-spoilt countryside. No one's
set foot here for thousands of years". And Sarah sharply says to the
Doctor "What you're trying to say is that you're busy and you'd
like us to push off!" and the Doctor says to her without looking "I'd
phrase it more elegantly myself, of course. Yes". And as they are
about to set off the Doctor says to them "Trafalgar square is that way!
Mind the traffic!".
Then there is the scene where the Doctor, after narrowly avoiding being
killed by Styre, who shot at him later on in the story, meets up with
Harry. And Harry says to the Doctor "Doctor, I thought you were dead"
and the Doctor tells Harry "Not me. Piece of the synestic locking
mechanism from
Nerva's rocket. Popped it in my pocket" and he produces a piece of metal
from his pocket and Harry says "Fortuitous" and the Doctor corrects him
"Foresight. You never know when these bits and pieces will
come in handy!" and he throws it away! And then the Doctor says to
Harry "Never throw anything away, Harry. Where's my five hundred
year diary? I remember jotting some notes on the Sontarans. It's a
mistake to
clutter one's pockets, Harry!".
And lastly there is the scene where the Doctor (SPOILER!!) having
defeated Styre goes and contacts Styre's commanding field Marshal. And
the Marshal looks outraged at seeing the Doctor and says "What is
this?!" and the Doctor says "Your Waterloo, Marshal. Your intelligence
mission has
been destroyed and your invasion plans are in our hands. One move across
the
buffer zone, Marshal, and your entire fleet will be destroyed!". And
the Marshal says to the Doctor "We will destroy your planet!" and the
Doctor mockingly says to him "What, without Styre's report?!" and the
Marshal threatens the Doc saying "Next time, Earthling, we shall utterly
destroy you!" and he signs off, leaving the Doctor to smile saying "Not
today, thank you!" and he cheerily turns to Sarah and Harry and says "Brinkmanship I think they call it!".
Elisabeth Sladen is great as usual as Sarah-Jane Smith and here
her character had already met a Sontaran in her debut story "The Time
Warrior" so when she sees Styre for the first time, she mistakes him for
Linx.
And this makes for a good moment when Sarah looks at Styre wearing his
mask and she utters in surprise "Linx!" and Styre then moves towards her
and says "The female of the species!" and roughly examines her faces
and let's her go. And Sarah looks surprised and says "Linx. A Sontaran.
Can't be. You were destroyed in the
thirteenth century. You were blown to smithereens!" and Styre says to
her "You may have seen one of us" and Sarah says "But you're identical!
The same ugly...." and Styre cuts her off saying "Identical, yes, the
same, no. I am Styre. Field Major
Styre, as you will address me, of the Sontaran G3 Military Assessment
Survey.
And your opinion of my looks is of no interest to my programme!".
Roth then looks on terrified as he sees Styre and says in fear "You wont get me again!" and he tries to run off but Styre shoots him with his ray gun and Sarah screams. Styre then looks at Sarah and asks "Why did you make that disagreeable noise?" and Sarah, shocked, says "You killed him!" and Styre tells her "I am a warrior, that is my purpose!" but Sarah angrily shouts "Murderer! Murderer!" and Styre shouts at her "Silence! He was of no further use to me but you as a female are far more interesting".
Ian Marter is also excellent again as Harry Sullivan, and here he
gets to do a bit of scouting on his own as Harry is separated from the
Doctor and Sarah for most of the story.
Ian also has one or two good scenes and one that comes to mind is when
the trio arrive on Earth at the start of the story and Ian helps Sarah
who has fallen head first into the heather in the fields. And Harry
helps her up and says "Okay, old thing?" and Sarah says "Harry, I am not
a thing!" and as the Doctor tells them go and have a look around, Harry
says To Sarah "Oh well, might as well have a recce while we're here.
Coming old thing?" and he quickly corrects himself "Coming, Sarah?!".
And then there is the scene where Harry attempts to rescue Sarah, who
has been chained by Styre and an invisible force barrier placed infront
of her, which Harry can't get through. And Sarah tells Harry "He's
locked me inside a force field, Harry, its no good!" and Harry tries to
reassure and says "Well, don't you worry, old thing. I'll find a way.
I'll
get you out of there if I have to knock his bally head off and grab his
keys! Just don't you worry, Sarah!".
Kevin Lindsay makes a welcome return here to the show as he plays
another Sontaran, Styre and he is once again excellent in the part.
Lindsay sadly however had a heart condition at the time of filming and
not long after the story was made he died the following year in 1975.
Lindsay naturally has his share of good scenes that include his first
main introduction where Styre has captured Sarah and Roth and in the
scene, Roth tries to escape so Styre shoots him dead. And as Sarah
screams in shock, Styre asks her "Why did you make that disagreeable
noise?!" and Sarah yells "You killed him!" and Styre says "That is my
function. I am a warrior!" and Sarah, appalled shouts "Murderer!
MURDERER!!". And Styre silences her saying "Silence! The
moron was of no further use to me. I had already tested him. You, as a female,
are far more interesting. And soon I will have the rest of your companions!".
Then
there is the scene where the Doctor finds Sarah, who has been chained
up by Styre and subjected to a form of mental torture as Styre uses a
device to project fear into her mind but the Doctor destroys it and the
shock renders Sarah unconscious. Then Styre appears and says "Very
touching!" and the Doctor looks outraged and shouts at him "You
unspeakable abomination!!" and charges at Styre who knocks him back.
And Styre arrogantly says "Words, Earthing, will never prevail against Sontaran might!" and the Doctor asks "Why did you do it to her?!" and Styre says "I did nothing. I merely resurrected those things which
lay buried in the depths of her pathetic little mind. She was a victim
of her
own fear. And now, your turn!". And Styre takes aim at the Doctor with
his ray gun, but the Doctor distracts him and runs off only for Styre to
eventually shoot the Doctor, who slumps over apparently dead, leaving
Styre to says with contempt "Worm!".
And
lastly there is the scene where the Doctor confronts Styre for the last
time and he goads him into fighting him in hand to hand combat. So the
Doctor taunts Styre, who levels his gun at the Doctor and the Doctor
says "Is that the Sontaran way? The mighty warrior sheltering
behind his gun? I challenge you, Styre. Single combat. Or are you
afraid?!". So this really pisses off Styre who is enraged by the
Doctor's comment "Afraid?!!! A SONATARAN AFRAID???!!" and he then picks
up a machette and yells "Alright then, come to your death!!". And as
their fight is about to end, the Doctor struggles with a tired Styre and
says to him "You're weakening, Styre! You're weakening!" and Styre
shouts "AM I?!" and he grabs the Doctor and flips him over onto the
ground!
As for the rest of the cast well they are a bit of a mixed bag particularly the astronauts as Donald Douglas is
not too bad as Vural although his accent is somewhat hard to place and
sounds a bit South African (as does the rest of the astronaut crew).
However, Douglas still has some good moments in the story that include the one where, Vural angrily grabs the Doctor as he interrogates him. So, Vural angrily says to him "Listen. If you are one of the Old People, we're not taking orders from your lot. While you were dozing away, our people kept going and they made it. We've got bases all across the galaxy now. You've done nothing for ten thousand years while we made an Empire. You understand?!!".
WARNING: BIG SPOILER COMING UP!
And later there is the scene where its revealed that Vural betrayed his men as he was taken captive by Styre and let go later. So, in the scene, Styre has Vural and his men captured by Styre's robot and Styre says to them "Good! The final batch of material!". Vural then pleads with Styre "But not me! Not me!" and Styre says "All of you!" and Vural panics and says "But I helped you! I did everything you said!" and his crew member, Krans outraged shouts "WHAT?!!" and Vural pleads with Styre "You said you would save me if I..." and Styre dismissively says "Oh, why would I save you! A traitor to your own miserable kind!". Erak then in disgust says "You stinking lousy swine, Vural! You tried to do a deal with this thing?!" and Vural pleads "Its all I could do. It gave us more time!".
Peter Rutherford does
fair better though as the distressed astronaut, Roth, who was
previously captured by Styre and he conveys his character's fear and
anxiety well. And lastly of course there is Glyn Jones, who
actually wrote a previous Doctor Who story from the William Hartnell
era, "The Space Museum" but his acting chops are not worth writing home
about, well not here anyway so maybe he'd be better at sticking to the
writing!
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the director for the story, Rodney Bennett, who directed
the previous story "The Ark in Space" does a fine job here with this one
and he uses the location of Dartmoor very well and also does well at
building the suspense throughout the first episode before he reveals
Styre. Bennett then went on to direct another Tom Baker era story, "The
Masque of Mandragora" so it showed that his contribution to the show
was valuable one and its a pity that he didn't direct anymore after
that.
As for the music score, Dudley Simpson, the show's regular
composer does another fine score as he was starting to hit his stride in
this period of the show as he regularly churned out fine dramatic
scores that were well suited to its era and it was a good departure from
the cheesy electronic synth stuff he did during the Pertwee era.
FLAWS
As for the story's flaws....yes well The Sontaran Experiement isn't
quite perfect and for starters I think its main problem is that being
just a two parter, there isn't much time to develop anything much in the
way of the supporting characters, who Styre uses as just fodder for his
cruel experiments. And yes because it is also only a two part story,
it does feel like just filler and a stop gap between the two great
classic stories of "The Ark in Space" and "Genesis of the Daleks".
Another issue I had with the story is why did the astronauts have South
African accents??? It just seems a bit weird that they should have been
cast that way! Although apparently the writers of the story, Bob Baker
& Dave Martin requested a change of accent for the parts anyway and
indeed most of the actors who played the astronauts were indeed South
African. I guess I may have just answered my own question here!
I also felt that the Doctor's way of suddenly preventing the Sontaran
fleet from invading Earth was pretty daft in that all he had to say to
the threatening Sontaran Marshal (also played by Kevin Lindsay) "What
invade us without Styre's report???" and that's it! I mean the Marshal
could easily have gone ahead and said "To hell with you, Doctor! Let's
invade!" but of course nope! All it takes is just one taunt from the
Doctor and that sorts it out!
And lastly there is of course Styre's stupid looking patrol robot, which
is hardly that menacing and in the end the Doctor defeats very easily
by just zapping it with his sonic screwdriver! So in the end, the robot
was both not intimidating and also useless into the bargain aswell!
Yep, the show it had to be said excelled at dishing out crappy robots up
to this point (well Michael Kilgarriff's robot in Tom Baker's debut
story "Robot" is something of an exception).
So that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, "The Sontaran Experiment" is an enjoyable story if not a classic from the Tom Baker era but it still fits its
purpose, which is bridge the gap between two classic stories in Baker's
opening season. And it is helped along by good performances by the
leads and also an excellent performance once again from Kevin Lindsay as another Sontaran warrior, Styre. So while its not a classic, its still an
entertaining way to spend 50 minutes of your time if you are a fan of
the show.
So, I will give The Sontaran Experiment:
8 out of 10
So, that's it for Part 3 and I will be back soon with Part 4, which will cover the classic story, Genesis of the Daleks.
Until then, bye for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment