Rearguard

Short Trips #11.1

Released: 15 February 2018

Listened: 1/2/23

This Short Trip isn’t really short, nor does it follow the usual formula. There’s no narration, and two actors: Jacob Dudman playing the Doctor, and Dan Starkey playing a Sontaran trooper, because nobody does it better. Trooper Stron has been left behind on an abandoned planet as a “rearguard” for the Empire…unless they just forgot about him. Like any good Sontaran, he goes about his business until the Doctor turns up and offers to rescue him. Make no mistake, Stron is a good soldier by Sontaran standards, even excellent. The Doctor hopes he can get another Sontaran to make the same choice Strax has, but it’s looking like Strax was a one-off. The whole story is kind of sad, and if you didn’t think that a Sontaran could make you feel sympathetic, you have Alfie Shaw to thank.