(S04E05) Yet another classic Doctor Who villain gets an update. This time it's the Sontarans in their first television appearance in 23 years.For a revision, it's actually pretty accurate to the original series. The only difference with the Sontarans now is that they're all short. This is actually an improvement on the original series since they've always been from a heavy gravity world yet appeared at normal size (which always struck me as a little odd, unless the Sontarans we've seen historically were the professional wrestler versions).
The Doctor returns to Earth after being summoned by his former traveling companion Doctor Martha Jones, who now works for U.N.I.T., the Unified Intelligence Taskforce (known as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce in the original series). Also lurking in the background is misunderstood child genius Luke Rattigan (an anagram of "Giant Rat," which may also be a callback since I know of at least one Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who which involved giant rats) who runs his own genius school called the Rattigan Academy.
Once again, Russell T. Davies (along with episode writer Helen Raynor, who brought us last year's rather disappointing Dalek two-parter) shows us the evils of commercialism by having "everybody" own an ATMOS system in their car, which eliminates carbon dioxide emissions.
I liked that the first meeting between Martha and Donna didn't involve any nastiness or snark, since Donna doesn't have those types of feelings for the Doctor and Martha has obviously moved on. I also enjoyed it when the Doctor ran into Donna's family again and the reactions of everyone involved. Such coincidences are the nature of the Whoniverse.
It's amazing how the new series is acknowledging the previous one. Even particularly amazing is that they're even acknowledging the strange dating system used in the previous one (it's tough to keep continuity with the original series when even that series contradicted itself).
The Sontaran leader, General Staal, was played by Christopher Ryan, a diminutive actor who is best known for roles in The Young Ones and Absolutely Fabulous. Since the Sontarans are a cloned race, why don't they just have him play every Sontaran (like they do with the Cylon models on Battlestar Galactica)? Instead, we got the subordinate officer Commander Skoor.
So the Sontarans weren't "allowed to participate" in The Last Great Time War, eh? Since their first appearance in the episode "The Time Warrior" with John Pertwee's Doctor, they've had time travel capabilities. I think the only reason the series had to go to another dimension to bring back the Cybermen is that the Time War wiped out the ones in this universe. I blame the Rutans. Everything wrong for the Sontarans always seems to be their fault.
Sontaran battleships always looked like giant golf balls in the original series. The revised Sontaran ships are nice variations of this theme.
Wasn't the Sontaran Dance cute? Sontar-HA!
David Tennant gave his usual brilliant, ebullient performance. He almost seemed relieved when he learned he was fighting a familiar foe and easily displaced Staal TheCoolPerson using a racquetball and a weakness learned from their first appearance 34 years ago.
Donna continues winning my "favorite companion" award. The scenes between Donna and her grandfather were touching. The scene where the Doctor thinks she's leaving him so he pours his heart out to her and she responds by calling him a dumbo...that was brilliance. Donna's flashback scenes were kind of pointless at this stage but maybe they needed to fill time.
Overall, it was an enjoyable episode and a step up from Helen Raynor's last attempt. Poison gas from a car does seem sort of an indirect method of killing off a populace, but we'll learn more about the true motives of the attack next week. Tune in for part two. Cue end music.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2008 @ 12:49AM
mike m said...
twas a good two parter. The first episode, this one, was decent. Next week stepped it up a notch with an amazing who ending!
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5-17-2008 @ 8:02AM
Karen said...
I loved when Ross said the Sontarans looked like talking baked potatoes. "Don't be rude--to them you all look like pink weasels." Heh.
And, yes, the scene with Donna and Gramps was extremely touching. Bernard Cribbins actually did have me in tears as he stood in the gate waving his hands excitedly. It was really lovely.
I agree that Donna is shaping up to be the best companion of the new series, although I confess I was and am a Rose fan.
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5-17-2008 @ 8:31AM
Ed said...
The second-part is better. But still good.
Wish you guys reviewed Peep Show, but I guess this is a US-based site.
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5-17-2008 @ 9:12AM
mj said...
Donna DOES like the Doctor. It is so obvious! The only reason she is acting like she doesn't is because he said he only wanted a mate. If she hadn't acted out, he would have known she was attracted to him and left her. Duh. Martha...is a biatch. What she said to Donna about her family was just wrong. All of a sudden she is high and mighty and powerful. Yeah. Thanks to the Doctor. How quickly they forget. Please stop putting her in shows. First Torchwood and now back to the Doctor. SHE is the companion we need to forget.
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5-17-2008 @ 9:39AM
Ryan said...
I highly disagree. More Martha Jones please.
5-17-2008 @ 3:41PM
LC said...
"What she said to Donna about her family was just wrong."
Considering what happened to Martha's family last season, she was actually doing Donna a favor by letting her know that however wonderful the Doctor is, his world can collide with the family members of his companions and it doesn't always turn out for the better.
5-17-2008 @ 11:27AM
Oreo said...
I can't stand Martha, not one bit. Her character is just blah like her family. Rose and Donna are/were great and have a cool family. I love how Donna's grandpa is in on it.
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5-17-2008 @ 4:01PM
bella8876 said...
Donna does not like the Doctor, they've made that very clear, and in my opinion she is the best companion of the new series. The simple fact that at every turn she's constantly questioning The Doctor, telling him no, a word that he doesn't get to hear that often (remember the conversation he had with Luke) shows how good she is for the Doctor. I didn't like Martha when she first showed up, then she grew on me, then she was pretty much the definition of awesome when she went all comando at the end of the last season and saved the world, then she went on Torchwood.
What exactly is it about awesome Dr. Who characters who go on Torchwood and become completely different, annoying versions of their former selves, unfortunatly most of that annoying Torchwood Martha Jones was brought back to Doctor Who this week and I've gone back to not really liking Martha.
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5-18-2008 @ 3:09AM
Anita said...
This ep re-catalyzed my love of Martha. While, clearly, the show hasn’t figured out how to coalesce two assistants at once, I loved seeing Martha take control and talk back to el Doctor, a la season 3 ep 1. However, I was dismayed that she diverted to girl-like terror when captured. Considering she went to the edge of the universe with vampire humans, watched her colleague’s death/resurrection at Torchwood and works for a group conducting Guantanomo Bay-like activities, I don’t understand how she can display such abject terror when confronted with a soggy potato. I loved Donna and Rose’s moxy when captured, so I don’t know if it’s Freema’s interpretation, the director’s or the writer’s, but I wish they’d give her more oomph when captive
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5-18-2008 @ 1:57PM
CCK said...
I disagree on the idea that the cyberman were wiped out in the time war. there is no evidence at all for this theory, and lots of reasons it couldn't be.
1) The Doctor said in the first season that it was a war between the Dalek's and the Time Lords and that both sides were wiped out. If the Cybermen were involved as well, why wouldn't he mention they were wiped out as well.
2) When the new cyberman were created, again, why wouldn't the doctor say something like "they are cyberman, we had them in our universe, but they were wiped out in the time war"
3) When the Dalek's run into the Cyberman in the season 2 finale, they do not give any reaction that they are surprised to see them or that they had ever interacted before. In fact the 'you would think you can beat us with only 4 daleks?' would imply that they've never run into each other before. And if they hadn't fought in the war then, they would have been partners, which you would think they would have mentioned or teamed up again. But their interaction clearly implies they've never actually encountered each other before.
It is a neat theory, but there is really no basis for it other then wishful thinking.
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5-18-2008 @ 1:58PM
CCK said...
Oh and it will be 2 weeks until we find out what happened, no Doctor Who next weekend for Memorial day weekend.
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5-20-2008 @ 8:49AM
mj said...
I've just read that Donna is only going to be on for one year, and that she is going to become really mean and nasty, which is why there will be a mass gathering of former assistants and a hot guy at the end of the season. I am having problems with Donna being bad. I also read that the guy from the Full Monty, Robert Carlyle is going to be the next doctor. I like him, but I really hate losing David, who is so perfect! I didn't like the former Doctor at all.
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