TV Club: The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky

[Tian]

Fifty-two people across the world in eleven different time zones die at the exact same time. The only connection: they all have ATMOS installed in their vehicles. Martha Jones, now a UNIT medic, summons the Tenth Doctor back to modern-day Earth to help figure out why, but an old enemy lies in wait…

The Sontaran Stratagem · Doctor Who S4 • Episode 4

The Poison Sky · Doctor Who S4 • Episode 5

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[thirteenswife]

I love this episode but I couldn’t understand why the Doctor was being so annoying especially in the first part

[eightreece]

This one’s probably the weakest of the season for me. Saying a lot because this is a really strong season otherwise, and it REALLY picks up after this. I’m glad Martha came back even for a bit. But this one just didn’t really appeal to me. For my first sontaran story it’s alright I get why people like them but I was too focused on other things during it. The first half of s4 is regular who to me, alright but not perfect, but after this? We enter constant bangers.

3.5/10 I wish I liked it more

[eevee]

Solid and very fun stories, but unfortunately not the best reintroduction to the sontarans.

Honestly, their overall plot goes completely against what the sontarans are meant to stand for. We do get plenty of fighting between them and UNIT, but their main goal being to wipe out the planet with chemical warfare/terraforming just doesn’t work for me, and it’s a shame it took over a decade to get a solid characterisation of them from the main series.

That said, the characters here are great, Donna and The Doctor are always brilliant, it’s lovely to drop in on the Nobles again, a pretty interesting reintroduction to UNIT (from a working-with-the-doctor side of things), and bringing back Martha is just lovely.

Oh, and the best TV sontaran story came out of this too, just on a spinoff

[Mahan]

Man, Luke Rattigan hits different in recent years. Like if Elon Musk and Martin Shkreli did the fusion dance.

Decent NuWho debut for the Sontarans (even if I’m still weirded out by that soul patch), Martha’s chemistry with Tenth and especially Donna is quite good, and while it peaks a bit early with Poison Sky not being quite as good, it’s still nice seeing this team in a UNIT story. I agree with @eightreece that this is a weak point of the season (although, sadly, not the weakest…), but it’s alright.

[InterstellarCas]

I love Martha and Donna’s dynamic here, it’s fun to see companions not be adversarial. Additionally, Donna’s sleuthing and focus on people continues to be a positive for me. The Sontarans are alright, a little upstaged by Rattigan. Everything gets a little too action-y in the second part and some of the thematic threads about soldiers and the environment get lost. The ending is a little flimsy but serviceable for what it’s trying to do.

[monkeyshaver]

This was…fine. It is nice to see Martha but this NuWho trend of former companions becoming UNIT employees, it started here? Just let them rest up & live normal lives! As has been mentioned above, the basic plot doesn’t seem very Sontaran. Also I really never liked the redesign of their costumes, looks like cheap plastic. But Donna is yet again on great form, such a fantastic companion.

[Smallsey]

These episodes are solid. Nothing special but kind of fun.

I like having both Donna & Martha here together though. They make for a lovely pairing although this does make it more disappointing that the story then sidelines Martha for much of the actual story. Donna gets to stay great throughout though.

The Sontarans are pretty fun, but not intimidating enough really. UNIT have their most prominent role so far in NuWho, but they’re kinda bad for a lot of this as well. They call the Doctor in to investigate but spend so much of the story arguing with or dismissing him. They just seem a little incompetent to me until the ending with the Valiant.

Lots of things I kind of like, but nothing I really love here. It’s a very easy watch at least.

Review of The Sontaran Stratagem by Smallsey

Review of The Poison Sky by Smallsey

[Tlotoxl]

@monkeyshaver

Also I really never liked the redesign of their costumes, looks like cheap plastic.

I always hated the baby blue – that didn’t help. It’s a shame that the Judoon stole elements of what could’ve made a great Sontaran costume the year before.

[joerack]

This is pretty good. I agree that the Sontaran suit looks a bit cheap but the prosthetics are quite good and a real step up from classic who.

[TeamTARDISRacing]

Has the Monk been messing with the Doctor’s timeline again? This feels like a Three story displaced to 2009, and with Ten and Donna the heroes instead. It’s solid and fun, if Martha isn’t involved as much as I’d prefer, and the resolution to the incredibly tense cliffhanger is dumb. Guess that’s era-accurate.

Liquid-y vats which make duplicates, though? The Zygons called—they want their gimmick back… /hj

[PuddingBrainMummy]

This story I really enjoy it. I like the Martha Donna dynamic. I think 10s and units little mods to the Brig are nice touches. Luke is a little shit but plays it so well and OTT at the same time perfect blend of mad spoiled scientist baby. Although his breeding plan Uber cringe. I really liked that the sontarans did something different and actually tried to turn the world into a breeding farm rather than strategic conquest. Dopplerganger Martha was really awesome and the fact the doctor knew but was like you’re actually helping by not launching nukes so keep it up

[turlough]

You know what they say, there’s no better villain than a slightly annoying teenager
Kind of underrated episodes I reckon, but maybe I just love the Sontarans
7 and 8/10 respectively

[ItsR0b0tNinja]

I don’t mind this one at all, even Martha is fine. This is the version o her that I like. No pining, just friendship. Donna showing how “street/office smart” she is more confirmation how good of a companion she is. Ross is great too.

I like the Sontarans, and prefer this iteration to all others. They look slick, and hearing Dan Starkey makes me smile.

Rattigan was annoying, but in the best way. I just wanted to slap him. But he does get a great way out line.

My gripe with this serial is generally the same one I have with most two-parters; it’s too long. It’s 1 1/2 episodes worth of material stretched to 2. The first episode drags while they find the clone tank, and the second part drags while they show the devastation around the world, and when the Valient arrives. While I don’t mind slow, this just feels like padding for runtime.

3/5 for both parts.

Bonus: Go back to Partners in Crime to see a Atmos sticker in a taxi window. I love details like that.

[Buck]

I like this story, but it feels like this is the story that started the “bring a monster back but have them be working alongside the “real” enemy/villain”, like Missy + the Cybermen, etc.

[Shayleen]

I think this is a pretty good, solid story. Watched it a week ago and appreciated it more than when I was younger. It’s wonderful to have Martha back and see her having a solid life after deciding to leave the Doctor. Also a proper UNIT story! Refreshing to see New Who Sontarans not simply be the comic relief they become. The Noble family dynamic here with the Doctor is great.

[TARDIS32]

This is this post’s final destination

@TARDIS32

The Sontaran Stratagem. So GPS and car pollution was a big thing back in the latter 2000s, so I think it’s a neat idea to make a story revolving around both of those topics. Doctor Who often excels at taking the ordinary every day stuff and making it scary, dangerous, or a threat of some kind, and this is no exception. And I’m guessing “this is your final destination,” had to be a little reference to that film franchise which is known for its vehicular deaths.

The Doctor gets a call from the phone who only one person knows the number for, and yet he still acts like he doesn’t know who’s calling. Didn’t even seem to be happy to hear from Martha at first. I do like Martha’s return for the most part, but some things just don’t quite work. So she had her M.D. rushed through to get her as a UNIT doctor because she knows the Doctor. Rushing someone through an M.D. sounds like a bad idea, given how much study and experience is needed to learn and do the job right. And I also don’t like how it’s very much the “you know the Doctor, so welcome to UNIT regardless of your qualifications” sort of special treatment we often see with RTD’s UNIT in both of his eras. Also, they paired her off with Tom Milligan? The doctor guy she only actually knew in an aborted timeline, and she just I guess shows up and says “hey, I know you, but you don’t know that.” It just feels weird. I did like how we see that what happened to her family the previous season has had an effect on her. I’m glad that she’s come to understand it wasn’t the Doctor’s fault like she said it was in the moment (I know she didn’t really mean it, but just from a character development standpoint), and even that maybe if she hadn’t kept it all secret from them, it could have gone differently. It’s good that she’s trying to make sure Donna doesn’t make the same mistakes. Companions looking out for each other, nice to see. And the Doctor thought they would fight, smh.

I also like the proper return of UNIT, again, for the most part. And a lot of the other part is the way the Doctor acts towards them. Remember that UNIT is the same people that gave the Doctor a home and essentially a family during his exile. Three and UNIT would disagree at times, yes, but he grew to like and appreciate them all, something that seemed to continue all the way through the rest of the classic series, and even to the way 9 talked about them in Aliens of London. Seeing Ten just completely treat them with disrespect, as idiots, and going at them with the holier-than-thou “you guys have guns, therefore you’re the bad guys,” attitude. Not even allowing them to express their gratitude for all the help he’s given them over the years with a salute. It feels very similar to the early 12th Doctor’s anti-soldier crap which I also don’t care for, but this irritates me more considering this is UNIT itself and all of the Doctor’s history with them, rather than it just being generic soldiers.

Luke Rattigan reminds me so much of Adric it’s not even funny. He even kinda looks like him. He’s got that same genius but just generally annoying, thinking he’s better than everyone else kind of behavior but even more so. But I think that works better for someone who’s actually one of the bad guys instead of a companion that you’re supposed to like. He does not pass for an American character, and the biggest reason is the way he uses the word “clever.” Americans don’t generally say “clever” in the context of just being smart. In US English, clever has more of a crafty, manipulative, devious connotation. Luke would say “I’m smarter than you,” or “[she’s] intelligent by the sound of it, but not as smart as me,” rather than “clever” or “cleverer.” It worked very well when the Doctor intentionally wound him up just to see what he was up against (and it was really easy too). Good facial acting from the guy in those scenes though, you can just tell by his expression that he’s trying so hard to contain himself when angered.

The Sontarans. Honestly, of the major returns so far, I think the Sontarans are among the best done in this episode. I’d say the Daleks were done better in Dalek, but the Sontarans definitely better done here than the Cybermen were in their first one in the modern series. They essentially hit all the beats, they’re tactical to a fault, evaluating everything in terms of their military significance. The encounter Staal has with the two soldiers that become their puppets highlights this nicely. There’s even that little bit of misogyny that we caught glimpses of back all the way with Linx criticizing the “binary reproductive cycle,” and thinking of Sarah as lesser, or more fragile. Probic vent, they always face their enemy, their enjoyment of combat, compared to potatoes, all of the things they were known for before come back. And this strategy they’re going with isn’t their usual MO, but that’s even acknowledged by the Doctor, and in doing so I think highlights how Sontarans usually are by that contrast. I don’t know exactly where the new series gets the “Sontarans are short” thing though. Sure, Kevin Lindsay wasn’t exactly tall in the first two appearances, but I wouldn’t say they were particularly short in The Invasion of Time or The Two Doctors. I’m guessing they’re going for a sort of Napoleon complex thing, but them being short feels like a modern series invention. Also, the lighting and their costumes makes them look really purple, which for me has always undercut how threatening they look on screen. “Sontar Ha!” as a chant, as much as I don’t like the Cybermen getting a catchphrase like the Daleks have, I think the Sontaran chant works. They’re soldiers, a chant can be part of the discipline, it makes sense. Rattigan looks like such a tool when he does it though.

Donna, her interactions with Martha, and her trip to visit her family is all good stuff. I liked how she just checked personnel records, using what she knows to help out. Supertemp, as she says. I don’t really get why Donna wound the Doctor up to think that she was leaving for good, it just felt out of place. Even as a joke it doesn’t feel typical of Donna. Felt more like they wanted the audience to go “is Donna leaving?” Wilf is great as ever, Sylvia is as Sylvia as ever, both rather filling the same roles as they had before. More of Donna’s stuff to do in this is in the second half, but she’s still good in this one.

Some random thoughts here. So when they first storm the Atmos facility, Martha says something about how they’re looking for “illegal aliens.” Does that feel on the nose to anyone else as well, like they were just trying to shoehorn in a buzzword to make it seem “topical?” “70s or 80s” was a funny joke referring to the UNIT dating controversy. Lazy on the Sontarans’ part and not tactically sound when they didn’t confirm the kill when they thought they got rid of the Doctor there. 7/10 this one overall, pretty good episode.

[TARDIS32]

This isn’t war! This is a review!

@TARDIS32

The Poison Sky quite a bit ago now that I’ve fallen behind on this. Holy crap, Sylvia Noble can actually do something other than nag people, she’s the only one with enough common sense to just smash the window and get Wilf out of there. So I have to give her some credit. Sometimes the Doctor can be too smart to think of the simple solution in the moment. I wish when Jenkins showed up with “the only thing he could find without Atmos,” that it was Bessie. I think that would have been awesome.

I again just love Wilf encouraging Donna to go with the Doctor and save the world rather than staying with them where she can’t be useful. I’ll probably keep saying it, but he’s always a delight whenever he’s on screen.

So, UNIT should know about the Sontarans, that’s why the Doctor told them Code Red Sontaran. So why do they then still need the Doctor to tell them not to engage them in battle and such when they should already know that? Yes, easy answer is that it the audience may not know this, but I think they can infer the Sontarans’ superior military strength from what we’ve seen so far. Also, Mace says “what war” when the Doctor mentions the Sontarans are losing it. The Sontaran-Rutan War should be in their report, I’m sure Three gave them all this information after The Time Warrior at some point. Feels a bit clunky to me.

The Sontarans take the Doctor’s TARDIS and go on about how they’re the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS. Which is funny because some Sontarans took over Gallifrey itself in The Invaison of Time for a brief period. That was wiped from existence by the demat gun, so they either remembered that fact, or just got lucky in writing this. The Doctor signals to Donna since he knows that she’s up there in the TARDIS, but how does he know she’s actually watching the Doctor’s conversation with the Sontarans to get his signal? Just hoping she is and gets the message? I think it’s funny how Mace keeps saying that maybe this diplomatic discussion should be handled by an Earth professional. I’m sure Mace was one who’d have voted against the whole “President of Earth” thing. And I agree with the Doctor, he’s saved this planet enough times, lived here long enough, I think he does get some authority as a result. He’s earned it.

I liked how the Doctor was able to very quickly know something was up with the Martha clone, and she really failed it when he tested her. He asked her about her family and she hadn’t even considered them. Very unlike Martha. I’m surprised he didn’t bring it up later when he eventually explained how he knew she was a clone. Good work letting the audience just figure that one out on their own without spelling it out.

Rattigan. Guy’s really a fool isn’t he? He seems to think all his people share his misanthropy, that they all wouldn’t care that the rest of humanity, including their families dying to the gas. The smartest people around often have just a complete lack of understanding of people, especially those they feel are lesser, and Rattigan is no exception. As much as I think he’s incredibly irritating, I think he is actually a rather interesting character. How he can be so intelligent and yet so clueless at the same time. Some of it could be that I don’t have to deal with him as long as Adric, who I compared him to previously. It’s rather pathetic the way he pulls a gun on his students, and they just walk out, not even perceiving him as a threat, all knowing he doesn’t have the guts to actually kill someone himself, despite it being easy when it’s more indirect. And he even has some amount of growth, saving the Doctor in the end, destroying the Sontarans. Though I’m not sure how much of that is a desire for revenge and not letting the Sontarans get the satisfaction of their enemy taken out with them after he was betrayed, versus an actual seeing of the error of his ways.

Donna up in the Sontaran ship is good. The bit with her mispronouncing them is pretty funny, and she’s able to get the teleport working and was crucial in saving the day. There’s more of her thinking she’s not important, and the Doctor trying to convince her otherwise, which of course ties into the finale. Not a lot for her otherwise in this one, but what she does do is important at least.

So UNIT’s counter-attack against the Sontarans. It’s rather funny how if they had been able to launch the nuclear missiles, they’d have stopped the Sontarans’ plan by igniting the clone feed gas, completely by accident. Granted, combustion consumes oxygen, so they’d probably do some damage to humanity at the same time. The UN just having access to everyone’s nuclear weapons is of course ridiculous and not remotely how that works. Why did they say North America online when all the others were individual countries. And North Korea, with actual long range nuclear capability in 2009? Don’t make me laugh. I do like UNIT sort of fighting back not just against the Sontarans but also against the Doctor acting like they’re so useless. They used the Valiant to clear some air, found a way around the cordelaine signal all on their own, and pretty much got rid of the Sontaran ground troops. Good work UNIT. Nice to hear that the Brig is now Sir Alistair, and pretty funny how they made some excuse for why he couldn’t be there like they’d often do in the classic series. On a less positive note, we see potential inappropriate UNIT relationships long before Kate and Ibrahim with Captain Price kissing the Colonel when they won. Hopefully that was just a heat of the moment break of discipline and not an ongoing thing.

It was cool to actually see the Sontarans fighting as an army. Throughout the classic series, we only saw one or a small number of Sontarans at once, so this is pretty new for this story. I’m not sure the clone thing was entirely necessary though. All the clone really did was gather some intel and stop the launches, and I don’t think they adequately explained why the two soldiers they’d controlled couldn’t somehow do that, or easily allow the Sontarans to do it from their ship or something. I think I’d have rather just had the real Martha be major part of the story as herself.

Well, I think I’ve said enough about this one. Another 7/10

[apocryphalCottontail]

Overall rating: 5/10

The Sontaran Stratagem

6/10

A decent set-up for this two parter, though weighed down by production decisions.

The Poison Sky

4/10

A not fantastic end to the story, and a shame Martha doesn’t get to do much.

My reviews below.

Review of The Sontaran Stratagem by apocryphalCottontail

Review of The Poison Sky by apocryphalCottontail

[realdoctor]

Oh, but it was a joy to see the Sontarans back (even if their strategy doesn’t seem very … well, Sontaran). I enjoy this two parter, which makes excellent use of Donna and has some lovely moments. It’s not my favourite Sontaran story, and we have far better to come (War of the Sontarans shows what can be done with them, and is up there with my favourite classic Sontaran story - The Time Warrior, but that’s a story for another day).

I remember, with sadness, the vitriol and abuse directed towards Helen Raynor for this and for the previous season’s Dalek two parter. It’s easy to forget just how toxic fandom could be back then as well. Thankfully, we do not often see anything like that on TARDIS Guide. I enjoyed both of her stories. They may not be classics, but both have their merits. Thank you, Helen.