The Eternal Battle

Fourth Doctor Adventures #6.2

Released: 15 February 2017

Listened: 7/4/22

Who’s up for some Sontarans? We haven’t seen them in a while, and Romana never has, so that’s a good start. There’s an attempt here to do something both different and traditional with Sontarans, as we see a whole bunch of them engaged in a huge campaign, which we haven’t really seen them do on TV. In fact, this campaign has gone on for so long that even the Sontarans are getting tired of it, which is something that really doesn’t happen. Plus, the dead keep coming back as zombies, which is a bit tough on the usual “honorable death” trope. Clearly, something fishy is going on here, and it’s up to the Doctor to find out what. As usual, Dan Starkey plays a whole bunch of Sontarans, and as usual, he’s excellent. I’m a particular fan of Sergeant Major Stom, a Sontaran with an unfortunate habit of thinking, and a wonderful habit of snarking at the Doctor under his breath. Even the Doctor starts to like him. Romana is back to being fully exasperated again, although to be fair she has plenty of good reason. I just thought she’d be a bit more collected by now.