The Sontaran Experiment by: Bob Baker and Dave Martin directed by: Rodney Bennett

The Sontaran Experiment stars Tom Baker as the Doctor, Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, and Ian Marter as Harry Sullivan with Kevin Lindsay as Styre and the Marshal.  It was written by: Bob Baker and Dave Martin and directed by: Rodney Bennett with Robert Holmes as Script Editor and Philip Hinchcliffe as Producer.  It was originally broadcast on Saturdays from 22 February to 1 March 1975 on BBC1.

 

When the decision was made to split Serial 4B in two, it came upon Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes to find a writer willing to fill in the shorter slot, doing something which hadn’t been seen since The Rescue in 1965, ten years previous.  Holmes’ predecessor, Terrance Dicks, recommended Bob Baker and Dave Martin as potential writers due to their ability to write under constraint and writing such classic serials as The Claws of Axos and The Three Doctors.  Holmes also requested the return of the Sontarans, last seen the previous year in his own serial, The Time Warrior.  Baker and Martin got to work on The Destructors which would have reflected many of the things that Hinchcliffe’s era would be known for, mainly gothic horror and homages.  The Destructors would have seen a ruined Nelson’s Column rising out of the rubble and a ruined priory to add gothic flair, but as these would both involve models in the studio and The Destructors, by that point retitled The Sontaran Experiment, was reworked to only imply in the script the Planet of the Apes like setting.  Filming came upon two major problems: first Kevin Lindsay playing the Sontaran, Styre, was quite ill and indeed would die soon after this serial was produced, and second Tom Baker broke his collarbone meaning for many of the action shots stuntman Terry Walsh would have to step in.

 

As this story is only two episodes in length, the plot is simple: the Sontaran Empire has sent Styre to assess the remnants of humanity once again as Earth seems to have strategic value in their war against the Rutans.  To do so Styre is assessing humanity’s ability to deal with fear and pain, though the reasons as to why these are chosen are never explained to the audience.  In fact, Styre initially appears at the cliffhanger to Part One, meaning that he really is only in half the story and his robot and the location on Earth are more threats for half of the story.  This would be fine if the initial title was kept, but having the title be The Sontaran Experiment means the audience is expecting an experiment which does not appear until over halfway through the story.  The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are also really only on the periphery of the story for the first episode and while their chemistry is impeccable, especially Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen, it really doesn’t do much to give the story a lot of weight until the end.  The final action sequence between the Doctor and Styre is also underwhelming as while director Rodney Bennett does a good job in hiding the fact that both performers are stuntmen for much of the actual action, it is less clever a solution than The Time Warrior and honestly quite a bit too simplistic, even for the shorter runtime.

 

Overall, The Sontaran Experiment is perhaps the first weak link in Season 12.  Of course the Blu-ray release is restored and full of bonus features which are excellent, but this story is one which will leave the viewer wishing something and beginning a three story run of returning villains which would turn producer Philip Hinchcliffe off from featuring any more returning enemies until after his run of stories was over.  It’s by no means a bad story, but it is one of those stories which are painfully average which really only is brought up by some nice direction and chemistry between the trio of leads.  5/10.