The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Sontaran Experiment
The Sontaran Experiment: Part One (22/02/15)
Well, that was just a little bit fantastic! The Doctor, Sarah and Harry have arrived on Earth ten thousand years after it was ravaged by solar flares and it's now a beautiful wilderness! The Doctor set about repairing the transmat and sent Sarah and Harry off to explore. Miraculously, Sarah was actually likable for the first time in an age, which is lucky because after about five minutes the three had been split up.
Harry fell down a subsidence which had been hidden as a trap, and the Doctor was captured by a group of Human Colonists (from Galsec, whatever that is; obviously a colony that didn't go to sleep!) who are wonderfully portrayed by a load of South African actors whose accents make the story really stand out.
Sarah, meanwhile, encountered another of the colonists, Roth, who's been tortured to the brink of madness by an alien in the rocks (yes, it's obviously a Sontaran given the title, and it's quite cool they've brought them back so soon). The Sontaran has a very cool, brilliantly realised robot with twitchy whiskers and spindly legs which eventually captured Sarah and Roth and took them to the Sontaran.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was being interrogated by Krans, Erak and their leader, Vural, who's wearing a micro-camera so that the Sontaran can spy on the colonists. Apparently, one of their freighters went missing and they followed the distress signal to Earth only to have their own ship destroyed. Originally nine, only four are now free (five until the robot chased one off a cliff).
Anyhow, Roth distracted them and Sarah freed the Doctor and they went to find Harry, but the Doctor fell down the subsidence and Sarah and Roth were caught; Harry had already found a way out of the crevasse and stumbled across the Sontaran's camp.
This has possibly been one of the best episodes in years! Tight, brilliant writing, economical characterisation, beautiful location filming, some laugh-out-loud moments with the regulars, incredible design - the robot is gorgeous and creepy at the same time - and faultless acting and directing. Poor Roth's madness and torture is one of the most brilliant performances the series has had! Really looking forward to next week!
The Sontaran Experiment: Part Two (01/03/15)
So, not only was that a Two-Parter (!) but it was possibly one of the best stories in several years. Certainly the best not to be set on contemporary Earth since possibly Troughton! Sarah was tortured, the Doctor got shot and Harry did lots of crawling about the rocks, watching, trying to save another captive (who died of dehydration), and saved the day by removing something from the Sontaran ship while the Doctor distracted it with hand to hand combat. Everyone was brilliant, even Sarah with her references back to her first story and shock at Styre (the Sontaran) shooting poor Roth when he tried to escape.
Vural, Krans and Erak were caught, and Vural was revealed as a spy but even when forced to hold a 'Gravity Bar' to stops Vural's rib cage from being crushed in one of Styre's nasty experiments, Krans and Erak tried to stop it. In the end, Vural died trying to help the Doctor and, after defeating Styre, Krans and Erak stayed behind to await Vira and the other survivors from the Ark, while the Doctor, Sarah and Harry transmatted back.
I assume we'll see more of Vira next week, then. It seems that the series has become much more of an ongoing serial, rather than separate adventures which is quite refreshing.
So, the Sontarans have been put off invading Earth as the Doctor made it look like they'd be wiped out by Humanity and, without Styre's field report, they didn't have the intelligence. Really enjoyed this story, and given it was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin that's quite a statement. Normally those two write absolutely terrible stories! I think that, since they only had two episodes, they had to be more structured and economical with their plotting which resulted in a much better script!
Tom Baker was excellent. Harry is brilliant and Sarah was pretty good, too! Plus some gorgeous location work - I think having it filmed entirely on Dartmoor helped tremendously. I hope the rest of the series continues to be as good as this! I know it's a lot to ask, but if the series continues in this vein, I may actually get over Pertwee leaving!
Well, that was just a little bit fantastic! The Doctor, Sarah and Harry have arrived on Earth ten thousand years after it was ravaged by solar flares and it's now a beautiful wilderness! The Doctor set about repairing the transmat and sent Sarah and Harry off to explore. Miraculously, Sarah was actually likable for the first time in an age, which is lucky because after about five minutes the three had been split up.
Harry fell down a subsidence which had been hidden as a trap, and the Doctor was captured by a group of Human Colonists (from Galsec, whatever that is; obviously a colony that didn't go to sleep!) who are wonderfully portrayed by a load of South African actors whose accents make the story really stand out.
Sarah, meanwhile, encountered another of the colonists, Roth, who's been tortured to the brink of madness by an alien in the rocks (yes, it's obviously a Sontaran given the title, and it's quite cool they've brought them back so soon). The Sontaran has a very cool, brilliantly realised robot with twitchy whiskers and spindly legs which eventually captured Sarah and Roth and took them to the Sontaran.
Meanwhile, the Doctor was being interrogated by Krans, Erak and their leader, Vural, who's wearing a micro-camera so that the Sontaran can spy on the colonists. Apparently, one of their freighters went missing and they followed the distress signal to Earth only to have their own ship destroyed. Originally nine, only four are now free (five until the robot chased one off a cliff).
Anyhow, Roth distracted them and Sarah freed the Doctor and they went to find Harry, but the Doctor fell down the subsidence and Sarah and Roth were caught; Harry had already found a way out of the crevasse and stumbled across the Sontaran's camp.
This has possibly been one of the best episodes in years! Tight, brilliant writing, economical characterisation, beautiful location filming, some laugh-out-loud moments with the regulars, incredible design - the robot is gorgeous and creepy at the same time - and faultless acting and directing. Poor Roth's madness and torture is one of the most brilliant performances the series has had! Really looking forward to next week!
The Sontaran Experiment: Part Two (01/03/15)
So, not only was that a Two-Parter (!) but it was possibly one of the best stories in several years. Certainly the best not to be set on contemporary Earth since possibly Troughton! Sarah was tortured, the Doctor got shot and Harry did lots of crawling about the rocks, watching, trying to save another captive (who died of dehydration), and saved the day by removing something from the Sontaran ship while the Doctor distracted it with hand to hand combat. Everyone was brilliant, even Sarah with her references back to her first story and shock at Styre (the Sontaran) shooting poor Roth when he tried to escape.
Vural, Krans and Erak were caught, and Vural was revealed as a spy but even when forced to hold a 'Gravity Bar' to stops Vural's rib cage from being crushed in one of Styre's nasty experiments, Krans and Erak tried to stop it. In the end, Vural died trying to help the Doctor and, after defeating Styre, Krans and Erak stayed behind to await Vira and the other survivors from the Ark, while the Doctor, Sarah and Harry transmatted back.
I assume we'll see more of Vira next week, then. It seems that the series has become much more of an ongoing serial, rather than separate adventures which is quite refreshing.
So, the Sontarans have been put off invading Earth as the Doctor made it look like they'd be wiped out by Humanity and, without Styre's field report, they didn't have the intelligence. Really enjoyed this story, and given it was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin that's quite a statement. Normally those two write absolutely terrible stories! I think that, since they only had two episodes, they had to be more structured and economical with their plotting which resulted in a much better script!
Tom Baker was excellent. Harry is brilliant and Sarah was pretty good, too! Plus some gorgeous location work - I think having it filmed entirely on Dartmoor helped tremendously. I hope the rest of the series continues to be as good as this! I know it's a lot to ask, but if the series continues in this vein, I may actually get over Pertwee leaving!
The plot here relies on you not thinking about it too much. Would a galaxy-wide invasion really be reliant on, and thwarted by, one report being submitted or not? Would only one Sontaran be tasked with undertaking the experiment? Why has no one discovered Nerva when it's clearly orbiting the planet and has been all along? Et cetera. But for all that, it's a nice little two-parter with some good character work, action sequences and direction, and the location filming is an absolute boon.
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