The Sontaran Stratagem

The Sontaran Strategem / The Poison Sky

This is maybe not quite an all time classic amazing story but it is a strong and entertaining two parter of very good standard.

The first part features the Doctor and Donna meeting up with former companion Martha and UNIT, who she now works for, to look into ATMOS, a company whose widespread satellite navigation systems have been causing deaths. They are correct to suspect alien interference as the Doctor's old adversaries the Sontarans are using ATMOS as a way to effect the atmosphere and invade the Earth.

There is excellent comedy, plenty of action and smart dialogue. Tennant, Tate and Agyeman as the returning Martha are all as great as ever and the wonderful Bernard Cribbins gets involved as the fantastic Wilf. The character development for Martha is superb as she moves on from her crush and her inexperience when she was first with the Doctor. She is now a strong, independent leader as well as an intelligent, brave and capable young woman.

UNIT are less impressively portrayed I feel with officers who are just a little bit cliche daft army people but there are a few convincing and well written young soldier characters.

The young genius and his team behind ATMOS are not fully convincing to me at times but they are perfectly adequate, especially in the 2nd episode.

The Sontarans manage to bring amusement and enjoyable alien threat and their new incarnation is very good I think.

Martha's clone works well and gives an extra side for Freema Agyeman to show us. Meanwhile Donna is funny and has great humanity.

The cliffhanger between episodes is great.

Not perfect perhaps but a very fun adventure.

My Ratings: The Sontaran Strategem - 8.5/10 The Poison Sky - 9/10 Overall rating for both parts - 8.75/10.

I've noticed that with Nu Who, the dodgy episodes come in threes, and here's the start. Series 4 is still my favourite it is so full and rich, it has it all, sadly this was the dip.

Having only watched this the once it was interesting to see it again.

Cars are being controlled by 'Atmos' devices, a sat nav device that reduces co2 emissions to zero. Martha has summoned the Doctor back (with Donna) to help explain 52 deaths, all of which occurred simultaneously around the world, all of whom were poisoned in their cars. Atmos employees are arrested and UNIT take over the base, but an old foe lay in wait, and have the means of getting to millions of people on earth, through their cars.

Someone's feeling guilty about getting shot of Freema so they've brought her back, whilst I did really like Martha, in comparison to Donna she's just so bland. She's still looking longingly at the Doctor, but toughened up a bit.

Oh Donna, please come back......I digress, had there been no Donna this would have been a total disaster, her reaction to seeing Wilf was just glorious. I'm hooked on her, and her family, Wilf is class obviously, but I really like Sylvia too. The domestic scene was fun.

What's with this 'unified' intelligence task force? Don't like it. Should be United.

That child genius Luke Rattigan makes we want to throw things at the screen, it's like having a super powered Adric, and that institution, I wish for the Drashigs to visit them.

Standout scene belongs to the guards discovery of the monster in the vat and the subsequent Sontaran appearance, scary and fantastically done. The scene of Martha's cloning is also a good one too, she looks pretty good in that vat.

Would the Sontarans really use tomtom to invade the Earth? For their return it all seems a bit small scale somehow. Rattigan is hideous. Donna is its saving grace. Sadly Helen Raynor's writing is off the mark again. 6/10

I remember these guys from the days of classic Who, however I have noticed they are a fair bit different to the Sontarans of those days. Anyway it is worth watching the whole episode for the cliffhanger, they defiantly did a good job there

There's something missing from "The Sontaran Stratagem". While the use of sat-nav devices to evil effect is inspired and reminiscent of something like "Terror of the Autons", the episode somehow fails to inspire.

There's something very un-Sontaran about the whole affair. The menace here is Sontaran-lite, just as I was bitterly disappointed with the return of The Doctor's silver nemesis in Season 2. Perhaps it's me but while the make-up is wonderful (the early close-up of the Sontaran is excellent), the costume looks like something from a '90s Action Man.

Donna remains the strongest companion to-date, making Martha look rather lightweight in comparison.

7 out of 10. Only the first part of this double-header so things may improve but this is a very average tale so far. At the end of the day, Helen Raynor just doesn't deliver the quality of scripts that you expect from this series. It's missing fizz and pop and, overall, disappoints.

Donna is appalling, Martha is ok, and of course David Tennant shines, but it is wonderful to see a veteran proper actor, Bernard Cribbins, being so effortlessly natural. I do like Sontarans, however, so they and Martha push up the rating.