Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment by: Ian Marter

 

Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment was written by Ian Marter, based on the story The Sontaran Experiment by Bob Baker and Dave Martin.  It was the 45^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

The Sontaran Experiment is the odd one out for Season 12, only written because Robert Holmes and Philip Hinchcliffe decided to only use one six-episode serial per season so a two episode gap was created and filled by Bob Baker and Dave Martin writing a story meant to be made cheap and on vacation.  The story is a simple runaround on Earth with a Sontaran called Styre performing experiments on humans to continue their war with the Rutans and enter the Milky Way, made less interesting by Kevin Lindsay’s ill health and Tom Baker injuring himself so the battle at the climax is underwhelming.  It was also a choice for novelization that apparently nobody would take except for Ian Marter who of course starred in the story as Harry Sullivan, which should tell you all you need to know about The Sontaran Experiment.  Because of this you would expect Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment to not work as a novel, but interestingly it's a lot better in prose form than it ever was on television.  Ian Marter certainly understands that a lot of the ideas for Sontaran technology has potential and that potential is grown, the robot scout is an actual threat and not just a really flimsy prop that trundles on wheels, but hovers above the ground to stalk its prey which creates this great tension.  The pit that Harry falls in is actually a pit, though there is some humor added as the Doctor berates him for falling into something that’s essentially out in the open.  Styre, renamed Styr, himself is upgraded to an almost cyborg-esque creature where Marter uses the prose to make him sound more terrifying than any Sontaran has ever been, which in turn makes the danger actually feel real.  Sarah Jane’s torture in particular goes to some dark places as her psyche is explored and deconstructed so her fears can create a genuinely chilling chapter.  This is still done in the Target novelization format, and Marter also doesn’t let the story overstay its welcome as this isn’t like other two-part story novelizations which somehow find ways to stretch the format to its limits, the prose is only about 120 pages and the audiobook is 3 hours and 6 minutes.

 

Overall, Doctor Who and the Sontaran Experiment is a great example of the Target novelization format being used to take a story that on television is incredibly bland and make it into something genuinely engaging.  Sure it’s not going to be one of the absolute best Fourth Doctor stories, but it makes the story worth engaging with and experiencing in this way at least once.  7/10.