Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans

This is one of my all-time favourite DOCTOR WHO spin-off from Reeltime Pictures. It's quite low budget (being released straight-to-video in 1996) but stars famous actors from BLAKE'S 7, EASTENDERS and DOCTOR WHO. I'm sure many of you will remember the Sontarans from DOCTOR WHO, they appeared in four stories over two decades (the '70s and '80s) and even in an episode of JIM'LL FIX IT in 1986. The film also (of course) features the Sontarans arch-enemies - the Rutans! The plot is thus: a space yacht called 'Tiger Moth' has a stowaway on board - a Rutan spy who knows the Sontaran's secrets. A Sontaran battle group board the yacht, hold it's crew prisoners and search the ship for the Rutan. Captain Lisa Deranne (Jan Chappell) doesn't trust them, and so with some of the rest of her crew seek a way to get both the Sontarans and the Rutan off their ship... Some very good model work/FX of the spaceships from DREAMWATCH and REELTIME and some amazing costumes and masks add a lot of great atmosphere to the story. The entire movie was filmed on board a boat in London's docklands (the H.M.S Belfast), making a suitable location for the inside of a spaceship. Perhaps one of the best scenes for me is where the crew are fixing the ship's solar sales through the use of a holographic operating system - interesting idea, it's hard to describe but you'll see what I mean. More science fiction script writers should invent that kind of stuff in their stories - heck, even George Lucas couldn't come up with that kind of brilliant idea! (Well done, Terrance Dicks!) I think this film is now very hard to find, I got mine on VHS (PAL) back when it was released in 1996, but who knows, maybe Reeltime Pictures will release it on DVD one day...?? Summary: An amazing, flawless, low-budget British science fiction drama - hey, it's got Sontarans in it, so what could be wrong? Acting not quite in-line sometimes, but still an amazing film...

I must applaud those at Reeltime Pictures, the nineties were a bleak time for Dr Who fans like myself. The absolute joy I can remember by the releases of Wartime, Downtime and Shakedown. Plenty of familiar faces, Carol Ann Ford and Sophie Alfred from Dr Who, the most prolific performer being Jan Chappell, who is a very good actress. It's a great story, very imaginative, pure science fiction, some nice special effects for the time and budget. It's nice always to see actors from Dr Who, but this is one of the best uses of The Sontarans, I like them, but never feel they've had a great story on Dr Who, at least here they get to battle The Rutans, first mentioned in Horror of Fang Rock. I only wish they'd made more like these. Thanks to all involved. 9/10