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 was among those not impressed with Helen Raynor's Dalek two-parter from Series 3, but "The Sontraran Stratagem", the opening part to her two-part story which sees the return of classic Doctor Who villains the Sontarans, is surprisingly effective and exciting.

The episode has a nice humorous tinge to its opening scenes and it is absolutely brilliant to see the Doctor's interaction with UNIT once again. The Sontarans themselves also look quite good and their storyline is handled reasonably well.

The trailer for next week's episode left me cold and a tad bit concerned rather than excited, with another really outlandish Earth invasion sort of thing apparently slated to happen. During Pertwee's era of Earth-bound stories at least everything happened under wraps. However, considering how surprised I was with this episode, next week's could be impressive as well.

I very much enjoyed Bernard Cribbins' character again. I think I like Donna's family more than Rose's or Martha's family, although I honestly could do without Sylvia Noble (Donna's mother's) cartoonish 'comic relief', which contrasted badly with the well-delivered and occasionally clever one-liners Raynor came up with.

I doubt this story will end up not being my least favorite Sontaran story, but it's already looking like it'll finish a not so distant loser, and considering the competition from classics like "The Time Warrior" and "The Sontaran Experiment", it's not really much of an insult.

7/10 for this first part, and what a cliffhanger (I sure do miss those).

General Staal is a Sontaran clone, quite short, although he is fully grown, bash his probic vent, to annoy and torment, making combative turtlehead groan.

Summoned back to Earth by Martha Jones after a spate of simultaneous deaths around the world in cars fitted with Atmos, the Doctor and Donna investigate a juvenile entrepreneur and the supposed genius behind the technology, while locking horns with a familiar enemy with plans to wipe out the human race.

This isn't my favorite episode of season 4 so far. The Sontaran, though being a classic monster of Dr.Who, don't really do much for me. Though being creatures of war and not really having much mercy they don't deliver the same umph that the Daleks and Cybermen do. But the episode wasn't a complete failure! Having two companions in this episode was very interesting and funny at times. It also helped to keep the story along because the Sontarans could not hold my attention for two whole episodes. It's also really suspenseful when you know something that none of the other characters know, but you can't warn them. I won't spoil what it is but it keeps the story moving along. Also this story would've been much better if it woudn't have neen for the American teenager who constantly whined over everything under the sun. Maybe if they would've cut him out and crammed it in to one episode it would've been better!

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