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TARDIS Guide

Overview

First aired

Saturday, February 22, 1975

Production Code

4B

Written by

Bob Baker, Dave Martin

Directed by

Rodney Bennett

Runtime

50 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Lost the TARDIS

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Nerva Beacon

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth

Synopsis

Arriving on a seemingly deserted Earth, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry soon discover a crew of shipwrecked astronauts from a distant Earth colony. Lured there by a fake distress call, the astronauts are being experimented on by the deadly Sontarans in preparation of a full-scale invasion of the planet. Can the Doctor defeat Sontaran Field-Major Styre and save the world?

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2 Episodes

Part One

First aired

Saturday, February 22, 1975

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Bob Baker Dave Martin

Directed by

Rodney Bennett

UK Viewers

11 million

Synopsis

The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry teleport to Earth to ensure the planet is safe for the survivors on board Nerva Beacon to return and reinhabit their world. A Sontaran named Styre has captured a group of humans and is conducting experiments on them to discover the human body's weaknesses, as part of the Sontaran's goal for domination of the galaxy.


Part Two

First aired

Saturday, March 1, 1975

Runtime

25 minutes

Written by

Bob Baker Dave Martin

Directed by

Rodney Bennett

UK Viewers

10.5 million

Appreciation Index

55

Synopsis

The Doctor learns that Styre has been experimenting on the Galsec crewmembers to pave the way for a Sontaran invasion of Earth and decides the only way to halt his plans is to challenge him to a duel.



Characters

How to watch The Sontaran Experiment:

Reviews

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7 reviews

Tom getting hurt in this episode and breaking his collar bone is probs the only bit I can’t remember


An all on location story. What's not to love!


There's so bad it's good, so bad it's bad, and the greatest sin of all, so bad it's boring. I don't hate this story. It had a decently interesting premise, the main cast were on form... but the whole thing felt so utterly uninspired in terms of script and direction. The most remarkable thing about it is the fact that it's only two episodes long and it still feels padded.


This review contains spoilers!

I love the playfulness between the show's main trio. This is playtime for adults. Whilst the characters are top notch and there is still plenty of momentum in this new series, this was a pretty average story and did feel like filler.

The Sontarans are excellent fun but I don't think they have quite had their stand out story yet. I'm hoping their fourth appearance will provide that. Whilst they are visually striking in The Sontaran Experiment it is notable that they actually look worse than in The Time Warrior. I wish they had the original detail around the eyes in particular. None of this is a huge shame as the final product is fine. The torture scenes were quite ingenious and not nearly as gruesome as they sound. I liked the idea of the Sontaran testing human's capabilities.

It was quite strange to see a story completely based on location, there is a lot of potential in this - but as it was set exclusively in a field this was a visually weak couple of episodes. One or two sets it would have added some variety alongside the grassy knolls. I don't imagine the visitors to Earth were just sleeping on the ground, they must have been staying somewhere off screen.

I complained about Sarah Jane being patronised in The Ark in Space and we get a little more of the same here, but in fairness to Robert Holmes I am finding she typically ends up being presented as being correct when her counterparts are wrongly dismissive.

There is some more brilliant dialogue, but given how exceptional these characters are it does feel like an odd placeholder story which wastes our casts great abilities. Its certainly not a bad one though!


Fun two episode runaround. I liked how it linked in to the previous story and the extra information we got aboout Nerva, plus it's refreshing to see a Sontaran not played for laughs. Probably not enough happening for me to give it more than three stars but a solid enough story.


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Statistics

AVG. Rating348 members
3.17 / 5

Trakt.tv

AVG. Rating214 votes
3.85 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating197 votes
3.40 / 5

Member Statistics

Watched

655

Favourited

16

Reviewed

7

Saved

2

Skipped

0

Owned

10

Quotes

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SARAH: Linx.

— Sarah Jane Smith, The Sontaran Experiment

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Transcript Needs checking

Part One

[Transmat station]

(A number of globes nestle amongst the heather of Headland Warren, Dartmoor, just north of Widecombe. They buzz, then the Doctor appears. He has just transported down from Space Station Nerva, the Ark in Space. After a few moments, Harry appears, disappears, and appears in another place.)

HARRY: Ah, Doctor.

(Harry disappears again, then finally reappears.)


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