Terror of the Sontarans

Main Range #203

Released: 14 September 2015

Listened: 11/1/20

The TARDIS lands in an abandoned base, a former mine being used as a prison. There were Sontarans here, carrying out experiments on the inmates, in “Sontaran Experiment” style, but they got a lot more than they bargained for. The Sontarans who come to investigate know about the Doctor, and plan accordingly. Although Sontarans had spent a while as the butt of jokes, both on TV and in Big Finish, here they’re portrayed straight, and fairly fearsome. John Dorney co-wrote this one with Dan Starkey, who’s at least 50% responsible for the humorous Sontaran reputation, since he plays Strax, and he plays three different Sontarans here, none of whom are silly at all. The characters, both Sontaran and human(ish) are all very distinct and colorful, with their own manners of speaking that derive from their backstories. As often is the case with Dan Starkey stories, the characters tend to be hyperverbal and possessed of large vocabularies. Basically no one in this story passes up a chance to speak, which makes it a fairly wordy affair. It’s a psychological thriller, with several characters slowly going insane, which tracks with John Dorney stories, but unlike his recent ones, there isn’t a giant mystery or twist. Mel gets to show off her programmer skills again, and some of her empathy, but it’s hard to empathize with a Sontaran. Given the writers, you could be forgiven for expecting a bit more from this story than you actually get.