Revisiting Old Doctor Who: The Sontaran Experiment

[Broomstick]

The Sontaran Experiment
(There's not a lot to talk about here....)

This is the third story with Tom Baker, and a rare (for Old Who) two-parter. You know, I don't particularly care much for this one. With just two episodes, and part of the second needing to recap the end of the first, this just didn't allow for a heck of a lot of character development. Unfortunately, I think it was also the first Who I ever watched - I wonder how I stuck it out for another story.

Don't get me wrong, I sort of like the Sontarans as a villians, they have a mono-mania that's amusing although you can't be Nurse Strax for Sontaran hilarity at its best, and at this point the potato head masks had obvious eye and mouth holes and they were still as tall as everyone else. No, the problem here was that everyone was so damn stiff and, well, limited. Sarah Jane's contribution seemed mainly to be falling down and some yelling at rock formations (yes, I know the fear was being induced). Sullivan's contribution was mainly falling down a hole and sneaking about. Tom Baker seemed to be grimacing more than grinning - scratch that, he certainly was, as he broke a collarbone during filming and I'm sure it hurt like hell and he spent the rest of the shoot in pain. He was pretty damn stiff, too, but that's probably because of having to have his arm braced/in a cast or whatever they did with it, hidden by strategic draping of costume and scarf. Apparently, the guy who played Styre was a bit infirm due to a heart problem, and thus while he could strut about in the costume action scenes weren't within his capabilities. This meant that the Big Climatic Battle was done with stand-in's for BOTH main characters. That said, it was done pretty damn well and was arguably one of the better parts of the story.

Really, I get the sense this was one of those things that seemed like a really good idea on paper but turned into a nightmare on location. The fact no one was having fun came through, though equally clearly everyone was still trying to make it work. I'm sure everyone involved looks back on this as bad days at the office. Except they weren't at the office, this was a location shoot. I gather there was some famous chilly/rainy English weather involved, too. Salt in the wound. Yep, not the best episode.

[Patrick Degan]

I think Kevin Lindsey (FM Styre, FM Lynx, Cho-Je) died two years after the airing of this episode. Fatal heart attack.

[mr friendly guy]

I actually enjoyed the Sontaran experiment, but then in DW I am more focus in on plot than character development aspects. That is not to say that I tolerate one dimensional characters, but simply that to me plot is more important. Its just one of those things, like in a murder mystery story the plot twists are more important than character development, while in other types of stories, character development plays a more important role. Shrug.

That being said I did like this episode. Tom Baker's verbal riposte to Stye that those captured humans were just the "slave caste" of the dominant human kind, and hence by implication Stye's experiment to assess human resistance to a Sontaran invasion was just a waste of time, since he failed to assess how the strong humans would fight. It sounded like bluff which the Doctor pulls out of his arse, and it actually works.