The Sontaran Stratagem

Infobox Doctor Who episode
number = 196a
serial_name = The Sontaran Stratagem


caption = A Sontaran introduces himself to the Doctor as General Staal, "the undefeated".
show = DW
type = episode
doctor = David Tennant (Tenth Doctor)
companion = Catherine Tate (Donna Noble)
companion2 = Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones)
guests =
*Christopher Ryan – General Staal
*Rupert Holliday Evans – Colonel Mace
*Dan Starkey – Commander Skorr
*Bernard Cribbins – Wilfred Mott
*Jacqueline King – Sylvia Noble
*Eleanor Matsuura – Jo Nakashima
*Ryan Sampson – Luke Rattigan
*Christian Cooke – Ross Jenkins
*Clive Standen – Private Harris
*Wesley Theobald – Private Gray
*Ruari Mears – Clone
writer = Helen Raynor
director = Douglas Mackinnon
script_editor = Nikki Smith
producer = Susie Liggat
executive_producer = Russell T Davies
Julie Gardner
Phil Collinson
production_code = 4.4
date = 26 April 2008
length= 1st of 2-part story, 45 minutes
preceding = "Planet of the Ood"
following = "The Poison Sky"
imdb_id = 1159992
series = Series 4
series_link = Series 4 (2008)"The Sontaran Stratagem" is the fourth episode of the fourth series of British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". It was broadcast on BBC One on 26 April 2008. The episode features the return of former companion Martha Jones, as well as the return of the alien Sontarans to the series. It is the first of a two part story, followed by "The Poison Sky". This is the Sontarans' first appearance since the 1985 Colin Baker story "The Two Doctors".

Plot

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) calls the Doctor (David Tennant) to ask for assistance during an investigation by UNIT. Minutes after the TARDIS materialises in contemporary Britain, Martha authorises the raid of an ATMOS (Atmospheric Omission System) factory. The Doctor introduces his companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) to Martha and UNIT; Donna instantly befriends Martha, but is concerned about UNIT's ethics and asks the Doctor why he is associated with them; the Doctor ambiguously replies he used to work for them in the late twentieth century.

ATMOS is marketing a satellite navigation system developed by child prodigy Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson). The system also reduces carbon dioxide emissions to zero; UNIT requested the Doctor's help because the technology is not contemporary and potentially alien. UNIT are also concerned about fifty-two deaths occurring spontaneously and contemporaneously several days before the narrative. The Doctor travels to Rattigan's private school to investigate the system, and discovers that the episode's events are being influenced by the Sontarans.

The Sontarans depicted in the episode are part of a battlegroup led by General Staal, "the undefeated" (Christopher Ryan). Instead of an instant invasion, they are tactically approaching an invasion with a combination of human clones, mind control, and ATMOS; Martha is captured by two of the controlled humans and cloned to provide a tactical advantage against UNIT.

A subplot depicts Donna returning to her home to warn her mother Sylvia (Jacqueline King) and grandfather Wilfred Mott (Bernard Cribbins) about the Doctor, having been advised to do so by Martha. Concerned about the implications of telling the truth, Donna reneges from warning her mother. At the end of the episode, the Doctor investigates the ATMOS device attached to Donna's car and discovers a secondary function: the device can emit a poisonous gas. Wilfred attempts to take the car off the road, but is trapped when Staal activates all 400 million ATMOS devices installed in cars worldwide. The episode's cliffhanger depicts Donna shouting for help while the Doctor stares helplessly at a street full of cars emitting the gas, while on their ship orbiting the planet, the Sontarans prepare themselves for battle.

Production

The episode features the return of the Sontarans, who last appeared in the 1985 serial "The Two Doctors", a centric appearance by UNIT, and Martha Jones, who had last appeared in "Last of the Time Lords" and made special guest appearances in the "Torchwood" episodes "Reset", "Dead Man Walking", and "A Day in the Death"; the brief executive producer Russell T Davies gave to writer Helen Raynor included the terms "Sontarans", "military", and "Martha's back".cite episode
title = Send in the Clones
series = Doctor Who Confidential
serieslink = Doctor Who Confidential
network = BBC
station = BBC Three
airdate = 2008-04-26
season = 4
number = 4] cite video
people = Agyeman, Freema; Raynor, Helen; Mears, Ruari
date2 = 2008
month2 = 04
year2 = 26
title = The Sontaran Stratagem
format = Podcast
accessdate = 2008
accessmonth= 05
accessyear = 01]

Martha's departure allowed Davies to change the character's personality. In her reappearance, she is more mature and equal to the Doctor in comparison to falling in love in the third series. Several aspects of her character were debated: in particular, her status and reaction to Donna. Raynor elected to emphasise Martha's medical career over her military career, and avoided a "handbags at dawn" scenario because she felt it would rehash Rose Tyler's (Billie Piper) initial opinion of Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) from the second series episode "School Reunion".

The episode is the first centric appearance of UNIT since the show's revival. Their name has changed from United Nations Intelligence Taskforce to Unified Intelligence Taskforce at the request of the United Nations, who cited the political climate and potential "brand confusion" as reasons for disassociation. The new acronym was coined by Davies after several meetings among the scriptwriters. The UNIT privates Gray and Wilson were specifically written as "alien fodder".cite journal|title=Calling UNIT!|first=Russell T|last=Davies|pages=p. 47|journal=SFX|date=April 2008] The episode refers to inconsistencies in dating UNIT stories when the Doctor is unsure whether he worked for UNIT in the 70s or 80s.cite web
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/episodes/?episode=s4_04&action=factfile
title = The Sontaran Stratagem: Fact File
date = 2008-04-26
publisher = BBC
accessdate = 2008-04-26]

This episode continues the pattern of having monsters from the classic series return in the new one. Davies commented that the Sontarans were "always on his list" of villains to resurrect.cite journal|last=Arnopp|first=Jason|coauthors=Spilsbury, Tom|date=April 2008|title=Gallifrey Guardian: Series Four Episode 4/5: The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky: War on Earth!|journal=Doctor Who Magazine|publisher=Panini Comics|location=Tunbridge Wells, Kent|volume=394|pages=12–13|accessdate=2008-05-01] The time and location of the episode was deliberately chosen because every Sontaran story except for "The Invasion of Time" was set on Earth.

When interviewed on "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross", Catherine Tate stated that she had been filming alongside ten actors playing Sontarans for two weeks before she realised that there were actors inside the Sontaran costumes. She had assumed the Sontarans "ran on electricity". It was not until an actor removed his helmet to reveal his real face that she realised her mistake. She stated she was "freaked out" by this and said she "nearly died". [cite web
title = "When Catherine Tate met the Sontarans" (UK only)
url = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3WgyAqDbE "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross", episode broadcast Friday 4th April 2008]

Raynor initially envisioned the poisonous gas would be emitted by factories, but changed it in later drafts to cars for several reasons: the episode would provide social commentary and the idea of an "evil satnav system" was "much more engageable" and "irresistible"; Davies thought the concept was "so very "Doctor Who". Because the series was produced out of order, the "ATMOS" subplot was seeded in the episode "Partners in Crime".cite video
people = Tennant, David; Tate, Catherine; Collinson, Phil
date2 = 2008-04-05
title = Partners In Crime
format = Podcast; MP3
publisher = BBC
accessdate = 2008-04-05] The "fifteenth broken moon" of the Medusa Cascade is also mentioned. The Medusa Cascade was previously mentioned in "Last of the Time Lords", "Partners in Crime", and in "The Fires of Pompeii". In the episode, a system installed in a UNIT jeep undramatically explodes; originally, Raynor wanted it to be a large explosion, but reduced the explosion to several sparks to reduce costs and to lampoon an action movie cliché. The opening scene, which depicts the system driving its occupant into a canal, was filmed at Cardiff's docks. The scene was the first time a car-cannon had been used since 2005, and was required to be completed in one shot. The car fired into the canal was removed immediately afterwards to clear the shipping route.

The episode, like "Aliens of London" and "The Lazarus Experiment", properly introduces the lead companion's family. Unlike the Tyler or Jones families, both Sylvia Noble and Wilfred Mott had met the Doctor before (in "The Runaway Bride" and "Voyage of the Damned", respectively), providing Raynor with an additional subplot. Expository dialogue explains Mott's absence from "The Runaway Bride" as the character having Spanish flu. Wilfred's positive opinion of the Doctor is different to Sylvia, who "joined a long line of mothers that don't get the Doctor"; Davies had wanted a family member who trusted the Doctor since the show's revival.

Despite the Sontaran's clone culture being asserted in the classic series, "The Sontaran Strategem" is the first episode to depict cloning. Originally, all of the factory workers were to be clones, but Raynor reduced it to only Martha to solve continuity problems with the second part. The template clone was portrayed by Ruari Mears, who wore a prosthetic mask which took longer to apply than any mask he had worn. The scenes involving the cloning tank were filmed in a Welsh shampoo factory and reused a prop from "The Fires of Pompeii" as the tank which contained the clone. Davies and Agyeman enjoyed scenes set in the cloning room; Agyeman enjoyed playing an "evil companion", who she and Davies felt made the real Martha "warmer", and Davies thought Privates Gray and Harris discovering the tank in a darkened room was "classic "Doctor Who".

Broadcast and reception

"The Sontaran Strategem" was the most watched programme in its timeslot, with 7.06 million viewers. The episode was the second most-watched programme of the day, beaten by "Britain's Got Talent", and was the seventeenth most watched programme of the week. The episode's Appreciation Index was 87 (considered Excellent), the highest figure recorded on its airdate. [cite web|url=http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EkEpElAVEZvJgRaZRz&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle|title=Sontaran Stratagem - Final Ratings|first=Marcus|date=2008-05-07|publisher=Outpost Gallifrey|accessdate=2008-05-09] [cite web|url=http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EkpAupkAVktZwOcqfO&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle|title=Sontaran Stratagem - AI and Digital Ratings|first=Marcus|date=2008-04-28|publisher=Outpost Gallifrey|accessdate=2008-05-09] [cite web|url=http://www.gallifreyone.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?id=EkpAklyZEpEnDiDmyy&tmpl=newsrss&style=feedstyle|title=Sontaran Stratagem - Overnight Ratings|first=Marcus|date=2008-04-27|publisher=Outpost Gallifrey|accessdate=2008-05-09]

References

External links

*BBCDWnew | year=2008 | id=S4_04 | title=The Sontaran Stratagem
*Brief|id=2008de|title=The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky|quotes=y
*Doctor Who RG|id=who_tv36|title=The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky|quotes=y

Reviews

*DWRG| id=sontaransky | title=The Sontaran Stratagem" / "The Poison Sky | quotes=y