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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, short mid-season filler, 21 May 2007
"The Sontaran Experiment", by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve: to provide a diverting two-part filler story to plug the gap between "The Ark in Space" and "Genesis of the Daleks".
Fifty minutes really isn't a lot of time for the classic series to work with, and as such the plot (and resolution) is fairly straightforward. Of much more interest is the fact that "The Sontaran Experiment" was shot entirely on location, in cold weather on the windswept expanses of Dartmoor. There are, therefore, no corridors for once, and good use is made of the natural environment, with its dramatic vistas and all its concomitant hazards.
In his first performance as the Doctor under new producer Philip Hinchcliffe ("The Sontaran Experiment" was made before "The Ark in Space"), Tom Baker nails the part right away, delivering just the right mixture of madness and intensity. Companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are their usual likeable (if hopeless) selves and there's nothing really to object to, except perhaps for the rather cheesy robot. The Sontaran makes a good, if one-dimensionasl villain, and his eventual demise is fairly gratifying.
The DVD presentation in this likeable slice of filler is the first of the BBC's cut-price "vanilla plus" presentations of classic series stories. The DVD therefore features a commentary (with actress Elisabeth Sladen, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and writer Bob Baker) and a decent documentary on the role of the Sontarans in Doctor Who, but not all that much else. A decent purchase for Who fans none the less.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice little story, 17 May 2007
Though not a classic, this story holds a special place on my shelf.
The plot is nice and easy to follow despite the seriousness of the Sontaran plot.
Tom Baker is on top form and gets a chance to show the audience that like Jon Pertwee his doctor is capable of using physical strength to overcome an enemy when required to.
This was my first Sontaran story and I have to say they instantly became one of my fave monsters in the series.
Overall this story is a welcome addition to Tom's first season and shows just how violent and sadistic a Sontaran can be.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Experiments in time and space, 1 Mar 2007
We are informed in the entertaining commentary to The Sontaran Experiment that this rare two-parter came about because Ark in Space, originally envisaged as a six-parter, was cut to four episodes - leaving a two episode gap in the schedule. Having already spent most of the production budget for the six episides on filming Ark in Space, the Sontaran Experiment was written in a hurry and shot entirely on location on Dartmoor in order to keep costs down. Writer Bob Baker recalls that money was so tight that the prop department coundn't even knock up a plaster of paris model of the top of Nelson's Column to indicate that this barren wasteland was once central London. Luckily, in age old fashion, clever use of dialogue establishes the location instead.
The lack of budget may also explain why the 'alien' and associated props are for the most part shamelessly recycled from Time Warrior. Once again though, the high quality of scripting and acting prevents this from being a problem. Australian Kevin Lindsay returns to the Sontaran mask to play Styre, a Sonaran scout sent to a largely uninhabited Earth in order to conduct field tests on the tactical weakness of humans. Unfortunately for Styre, most humans left Earth centuries earlier to avoid dangerous solar activity. Undeterred, Styre has tricked a shipful of colonists into crash landing on the planet and is conducting a series of unspeakable tests on them in the name of Sontaran military supremacy. Into this heated mix stumble the Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry.
The acting is uniformly excellent. Kevin Lindsay is, if possible, even more creepy as Styre than he was as Linx and acts with his whole body - from tongue to toes - to make the (rather good) costume look very convincing. Tom Baker and Ian Marter, both still settling into new roles, manage to give coherent and pithy performances despite the brevity of the story and the speed of the scene changes. Elisabeth Sladen, the most established actor on the show at the time, is wonderful as Sarah Jane, showing the mixture of pluck and high pitched screams that the audience loved, but stepping back to let her new colleagues become established. This episode is notable as the first instance in which the wardrobe department let Sladen chose her own costume. Snakes or no snakes, they should have recognised that head to toe yellow could only be the start of a slippery slope...
Despite the speed with which it was written the script is well constructed, driving the action forward and providing quirky attention to detail. The future colonial humans, for example, have colonial accents - a mix of South African, Australian and Cockney by the sound of it.
The DVD is not as heavy on extras as some of the other recent releases, but what's there is high quality. The commentary is lively and entertaining with Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane), Philip Hinchcliffe (producer) and Bob Baker (writer) providing a balanced and interesting perspective on the story. A photo gallery provides rather extensive behind-the-scenes images of filming whilst 40 minute documentary 'Built for War' charts the history of the Sontarans in Doctor Who history and features talking heads from across the canon.
Is it worth your money? These two episodes provide more entertainment than quite a few four-parters I could name. I certainly dont regret the purchase!
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