The Sontarans

A decent story held back by its location and unclear rules about Sontaran behaviour and honor.

It’s pretty rare for the first Doctor to interact with newer aspects of the show. Yet as someone who is doing the TV show and Big Finish together, I really enjoy these types of stories. They push the Doctor more towards the hero narrative his later incarnations enjoy, which is an open door for character development.

The party arrives on asteroid in a time close to Sara’s. She recognizes the location as a historic battleground between humans and Sontarans. When they meet the human SSS agents on the asteroid, it becomes painfully obvious that they are completely outmatched. Can the party make sure their historic victory comes to pass?

Let’s talk about main attraction first. In my experience, Sontarans are often inconsistent in their characterization. Their general concept is solid: a simple clone species who enjoy nothing more than battle in every form it takes. But often stories seem unsure and inconsistent in their further characterization. Sometimes there are funny, sometimes they are serious, sometimes they are ruthless killers, sometimes they fail a mission because of chocolate.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with using monsters or characters for comedy. But with Sontarans it seems to have slowly seeped into their DNA, and I feel this sometimes makes it tough for writers to get back to their general concept as war-lovers.

And I think that’s why the Sontarans in this story feel slightly unnatural. As an unofficial first story, this should present the base for future Sontaran encounters. Yet it feels like it doesn’t completely know what the base for a Sontaran is. Some things are done right, some things feel off. Let’s narrow it down.

The first traits they show are done well. The Sontarans in this story are very much part of their “scientific” endeavors. They try to gain knowledge about the different behaviors of other species, so they can use that knowledge on the battlefield. This involves studying culture, bodily functions, torturing subjects in interrogation. The works. This strikes the balance between the morbidly funny and the seriously threatening and also leads to some really interesting interactions between Steven and the Sontarans. Allowing for both to shine. For example, Steven mentions that it’s hard for Sontarans to understand humans because of ‘different cultures’, but the Sontaran dismisses this because he doesn’t know what culture is. This is great for their character and leads to new insights for the listener.

What doesn’t work is their strange obsession with honor. The Sontarans will basically drop their weapons in this story if someone asks “Yeah but is this really HONORABLE?”. Party stuck in a cave? Shooting them would be too easy! No honor! Instead, let’s take turns shooting each other! This could maybe work if it was presented as Sontarans playing with their prey, but in the current story they immediately give the others an easy out at every opportunity. It diminishes the stakes.

And besides the Sontarans, there’s not much going on in this story. The setting isn’t all that strong, since it mostly consists of caves and caverns. The same goes for the side cast, which are generic planks of wood with not much to set them apart. So your enjoyment of this story will depend on how much you like “Doctor vs. Sontarans” stories. If you like those, you’ll have an okay time. If you want something deeper, look elsewhere.

I myself am in the middle. I like a good fun romp with a famous villain, but they are very hit or miss in this. And although the hits are fun, I can’t ignore those constant misses that happen in between.

The Sontarans should be a story that establishes a base for the species, and you can really see some examples of that in this story. But at the same time it also has plenty of weird, illogical moments with a weak setting and side cast. If this had aired as their actual first story, I don’t think we would’ve ever seen the Sontarans again. Not because it is bad, but because it is completely unremarkable in totality.

someone teach peter purves how to scream properly because wtf 😭😭😭 again how much torture do you want to put steven taylor through big finish writers? also what is up with them constantly getting threatened with a gun???? but it was a very enjoyable story i was very surprised when gage turned out to be a sontaran, wasn't a twist i expected. it gave us nice moments between the doctor and his two companions towards the end, the doctor immediately giving up the information when they started to torture sara because he "can't lose them both" followed by tinder (who names a child that) killing the sontarans in the room saving the day. this is unfortunately the last time we hear of sara before she ultimately get's killed off in dalek's masterplan :(((

'The Sontarans' is unfortunate in the sense that, timeline wise, it has the bad luck of being the act to follow up the absolute powerhouses of the Sara Kingdom companion chronicles, 'An Ordinary Life', and 'The Anachronauts'. It still manages to hold its' own, but the fact that to me it feels like a relatively generic sontaran story does let it down when compared to those more gripping, more original plots.

In my opinion, what really saves 'The Sontarans' is just one small part, and that's the conversation between Captain Daphne Papas, and Sara. Sara had a rough start in terms of garnering viewer sympathy, considering when introduced, she shoots her brother in cold blood. Throughout 'The Dalek's Masterplan', she's given some development that leads the viewer to see why she chose to act in the way she did. However, this is built on even more here, adding more tragedy to the events of 'The Destruction of Time'. Here, she gets to talk about her past with someone who has far more shared experience than Steven or the Doctor, which leads to the reveal that she joined the Space Security Service at eight. It's a really lovely well-written moment, and by far the thing that has stuck with me from this audio.