A Fix with Sontarans

A Fix With Sontarans is an odd watch now due to the Jimmy Saville scandal. When it was initially broadcast in 1985, it would have been to an audience unaware of the vile behaviour the presenter was getting up to backstage. Yet weirdly, as though the writer Eric Saward had somehow boarded the Doctor's TARDIS and been shown the future where the sex scandal had come out, Tegan (Janet Fielding) actually refers to Jimmy Saville as 'monstrous'. Never could anything be more accurate than that.

With Tegan being present in the minisode, you would think the Doctor involved would be Peter Davison. Well no, it isn't. It's Colin Baker. This is explained by a contrived reason of a 'matter transporter', which feels more 'Star Trek' than 'Doctor Who'. The Doctor explains that there are a couple of Sontarans onboard and asks Tegan to help him. She agrees, but accidentally teleports a human kid called Gareth Jenkins onboard, who turns out to be a future military leader who defeats the Sontarans in 2001. Again, all very contrived (including the reason for Jimmy Saville's presence, which expectedly feels forced into the plot). Overall, it's a fun minisode though especially watching with the knowledge that Jimmy Saville is actually 'repulsive' (as the Doctor remarks).

Gareth Jenkins is a brilliant young actor too. He more than holds his own alongside Colin Baker and Janet Fielding. It doesn't feel like he's only there because he wrote in to Jim'll Fix It but he of course was. Colin Baker and Janet Fielding have great chemistry too, despite the pair not being a Doctor/companion combination before. It would have made more sense to use Nicola Bryant as Peri, although there is a theory going around that Janet Fielding was used because she knew Jimmy Saville was a dodgy character through her husband (who was a journalist and friends with Princess Diana) and could therefore protect Gareth against any strange behaviour.

Overall, A Fix With Sontarans is a harmless enough story but parts of it feel very contrived. Gareth Jenkins is brilliant though and it was right about Jimmy Saville being monstrous and repulsive. It's just odd that Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka was chosen as the companion and not Nicola Bryant as Peri.

Essentially a sketch for the Children's show [REDACTED]. While there is a cast of familiar faces, in retrospect that isn't a good thing. While overall, the sketch isn't terrible, the shadow of [REDACTED] presenter leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. For completists only, really.

Obviously this 9 minute adventure is now somewhat overshadowed by the deeply unsavoury revelations regarding Jimmy Savile (side note - look how creepy he is with Janet Fielding, kissing her hand - yuck!) but a completest is a completest so I will be giving my thoughts on this piece of children's TV from the mid-1980s with no regard for taste or decency.

This is a sweet, generous but insubstantial story for lucky fan Gareth Jenkins which features the brief return of a very different looking Tegan Jovanka who has seemingly gotten her job back at her old airline. It was nice to see her one last time, this time with Colin Baker who sits alongside her well and is extremely kind to the young boy who idolises him.

Random characters pop up in the TARDIS one by one whilst The Doctor and Gareth spout off some technical gibberish. This ends with some extremely tall Sontarans showing up, a preview for the next adventure, which was airing concurrently with this one. I fear in the next story these Sontarans will be very un-Sontaran like, which is tiresome after seeing the same thing happen to the Cybermen earlier in the season.

It all finishes off with that self-congratulatory creep popping up on the screen and fittingly being described as a monster.