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| Sontaran Field Major Styre (Kevin Lindsay) menaces Sarah. |
2 episodes. Written by: Bob Baker & Dave Martin. Directed by: Rodney Bennett. Produced by: Philip Hinchcliffe.
THE PLOT
The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry have transmatted down from Space Station Nerva to repair the transmat system, so that the waking survivors can recolonize the Earth... but Earth is not as lifeless as they had believed.
A group of astronauts were lured by a false distress signal, and their group has been growing smaller. Out of a crew of nine, only three remain. When they find the Doctor, they decide that he is responsible. While they interrogate him, Sarah befriends one of their missing colleagues, Roth (Peter Rutherford), who is half-crazed after escaping from an "alien in the rocks."
That alien is Styre (Kevin Lindsay), a Sontaran Field Major and scientist who is studying the humans in preparation for an invasion. The Sontaran battle fleet is already preparing to secure Earth as a foothold in the endless war against the Rutans - which leaves very bleak prospects for both the astronauts and the humans on Nerva.
The Doctor has a more immediate problem: Sarah has been taken prisoner, and she is about to be subjected to the Sontaran's latest experiments!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: This was the first recorded story of the production block, and writers Baker & Martin would only have had Robot to go on in their characterization. This may explain why the Doctor doesn't come across as strongly here as in The Ark in Space. Tom Baker remains in fine form, but the script makes the Doctor useless and even borderline stupid for much of the first part, notably when he falls down the same trap that entangled Harry through willful recklessness. The climax feels like a leftover of the Pertwee years, relying on physical combat, which leaves only major "Doctorish" moment at the end, when he attempts to bluff the leader of the Sontaran fleet.
Sarah Jane Smith: With the Doctor having an unusually weak outing, Sarah ends up practically taking on his role in the first episode. She befriends Roth, rescues the Doctor from the astronauts, and asks all of the key questions about Roth's fear of his shipmates and about the alien in the rocks. Yes, the second episode falls back on the tried and true formula of her being captured and needing rescued, but this still emerges as a strong story for her.
Harry Sullivan: A nice character beat sees him enjoying the tranquility of an Earth with no people, half-regretting that the people on Nerva will change this idyllic countryside all too quickly. Once it becomes clear he is not going to be rescued from his trap anytime soon, he finds his own way out, just in time to witness Sarah being kidnapped by Styre. He wisely doesn't attempt to rush in, instead doing what he can to try to help where he can while retaining his own freedom.
Villain of the Week: Styre may be the only Sontaran in a televised story to be genuinely menacing. The Time Warrior is a better story, but Lynx was more amusing than frightening, while later stories would tend to play them more for comic relief. Styre is anything but amusing. The dispassionate, meticulous way he goes about his "experiments" is quite chilling. "You are nothing," he tells Sarah, and he means it. His victims are mere data points, with him neither enjoying nor bothered by their cries as he tortures them.
THOUGHTS
Classic Who had very few two-part, 50-minute serials, and that was mostly for good reason. The series tended to be at its best when it had time to explore settings and characters. Lacking that breathing space, most Classic Series two-parters tended to come across as rushed.
The Sontaran Experiment is one of the better 50-minute stories. The Doctor's weak role aside, the first episode is genuinely good. Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin establish the base situation quickly, and they give each of the regulars something to do. The problems are small at first: Harry's fall, the Doctor's capture by the astronauts. In working to solve these problems, Sarah Jane encounters larger ones - "the alien in the rocks," the tortured Roth. This progression fuels the first episode, building to the effective reveal of Styre, with Sarah recognizing him as a Sontaran with genuine fear.
Unfortunately, in Part Two, the action becomes a bit too rushed, and the resolution comes a bit too easily. The Doctor defeats Styre by challenging him to single combat and just avoiding the Sontaran until he gets conveniently tired. Meanwhile, Harry yanks a Thingamajigee out of the ship, which conveniently is enough to resolve the situation with minimal effort. In short, a lot of things suddenly happen with a lot of convenience for the regulars, with even the Doctor's grand bluff at the end - a scene with the potential to be great - going by too quickly to be particularly dramatically effective.
This isn't to say that Part Two is bad. Styre himself is well-written and wonderfully portrayed by Kevin Lindsay. The scenes involving his experiments evoke the "scientific research" of Dr. Josef Mengele during the Second World War, as the alien methodically tests humans' reaction to lack of fluids and to "immersion in liquid." He tests Sarah's responses to fear, and he begins a rather gruesome experiment that involves the resistance of the human ribcage to extreme pressure. Realization is variable, particularly if you've read Ian Marter's much, much better novelization, but his clinical reactions to each test makes it effective.
OVERALL:
I honestly think that part of the reason this story is a fan favorite is its novelization, which takes the ideas of this story and develops them to far more memorable effect. In its televised form, Part One is mostly excellent, but Part Two rushes through the plot and finishes with a rather limp conclusion.
It's never bad, and I would rate it as one of the Classic Series' better 50 minute stories. Still, given how well it starts, the weak conclusion is a definite disappointment.
Rating: 6/10.
Previous Story: The Ark in Space
Next Story: Genesis of the Daleks
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