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.
