User Reviews

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.

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

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.

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).

Having taken a little break from our rewatch run, in order to concentrate on the latest series, we return to rebooted Doctor's fourth season, for it's first two-part story. Oddly, that meant that I watched the Sontaran's return to the series, having just watched them successfully invade Earth some 13 years later.

Martha Jones, (Freema Agyeman) now a UNIT agent, recalls The Doctor (David Tennant) to Earth to help investigate a string of deaths linked to ATMOS, a newly released device that lowers car emissions to zero. Though the device is invented by teenage genius Luke Rattigan (Ryan Sampson) the Doctor firmly believes that the technology is too far advanced and must be alien in origin.

The Sontaran's are amongst the strangest of the Doctor's pantheon of villains. They do, as the show points out, look like a baked potato in a space suit. This is not to say that the effect isn't reasonably well realised here. Christopher Ryan and Dan Starkey, who play the principle two in this episode would go on to play various Sontarans whenever the characters appeared.

This episode is really the one to watch for actors who would make it in other shows. Ryan Sampson is now on "Brassic", Clive Standen would play a key role in "Vikings". The pre-credits scene even has an early death for "The Walking Dead's" Eleanor Matsuura. It's selling point though is probably the return of Martha, who gets to meet another companion, though she and Donna get on well - presumably as Donna hasn't any romantic feelings for The Doctor.

It's a two-part episode, so this is mostly set up for aspects to be paid off next time. There are some funny moments and a few other bits of silliness that let the episode down a little. It's not awful though.

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.

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

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 wasn't expecting much from this episode down to two reasons

1 ) It was written by Helen Raynor who was responsible for last season's Dalekrubbish

2 ) It contains Sontarans who to be honest don't deserve to be regarded as " Classic monsters "

I'll give Raynor some credit because she doesn't disappoint with this episode . I was expecting rubbish and I got rubbish so thank you for that Helen .If you'd been very ambitious you could have written an episode that could have lived down to my expectations but I think that would have been nigh on impossible

You get a feeling that Raynor is trying to market the show for an American teen audience . Daleks in New York with a subplot about a doomed romance would possibly appeal to an American market but the story lacked any sort of drama or indeed vermisilitude and Raynor does it again here . American boy genius Luke Rattigan might appeal to an American audience but I'm sure the average Brit would like to smack his smug face

As the story continues a die hard fan like myself finds himself questioning the continuity. Why is UNIT no longer a United Nations force ? while non fans are asking themselves if the Sontarans are a cloned race then why do they all look and sound different ? Perhaps the most important question is if DOCTOR WHO isn't a children's' show then why make 45 minutes of childish rubbish like this ?

The script is so poorly written by making the doctor an alien idiot with only a wee bit knowledge.