Watching Classic Who: The Sontaran Experiment
I managed to find the time, despite hours of writing at the weekend, to catch up on the Fourth Doctor serial "The Sontaran Experiment".
Ever since I knew that Martha would be meeting the Sontarans in her Season 4 opening episodes, I've wanted to catch up on the other Sontaran stories from Classic Who (I watched "The Time Warrior" last year). I managed to get hold of both "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Two Doctors" (which I've yet to watch as I'm trying to watch the Sontaran stories in order and I need to get hold of "The Invasion of Time" first).
"The Sontaran Experiment" stars the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and it's a bit bonkers, but still interesting.
The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry arrive on a deserted Earth via a transmat/teleport (No TARDIS !!). The serial was actually filmed on Dartmoor and entirely without interiors - which is pretty unusual (Spearhead from Space is the only other location-only serial) but works quite well. What doesn't work so well is the whole plotline of one lone Sontaran who's carrying out experiments on a bunch of human astronauts whom he's enticed to land on the abandoned Earth (the story's set in the far future after a time when the Earth had been depopulated following devastating solar flares). If the Sontarans are as methodical as Styre insists, why is there only one of them here doing these experiments (especially given the Sontarans are a cloned race, and therefore numbers are not an issue) ?
Poor Tom Baker broke his collarbone during filming so the crucial hand-to-hand fight between Four and Styre required the use of a stunt double, meaning you only ever see Four's face in a close-up during the fight.
Sarah Jane is caputred and tortured by Styre, who uses a device he attaches to her forehead to give her hallucinations, making her think she's being menaced by a snake, about to fall over a cliff and being swallowed by quicksand. I found this whole sequence rather unconvincing and, together with her comedy arrival (when she arrives by transmat she lands on her back with her legs waving in the air), made this, for me, the most disappointing serial featuring Sarah Jane that I've seen so far. (I must find time to watch "The Masque of Mandragora" !)
Harry Sullivan (this is only the second time I've seen him since I started re-watching Classic Who - the first time being in "Robot") is lovely: he gets very fierce when he discovers that Styre has been torturing another of the astronauts by chaining him up and depriving him of water, and he's also very brave, being prepared to attack Styre armed with nothing more than a large tree branch after he thinks Styre has killed both Sarah Jane and the Doctor.
Hopefully "The Invasion of Time" (which is set on Gallifrey, yay!) is a more satisfying story !
Ever since I knew that Martha would be meeting the Sontarans in her Season 4 opening episodes, I've wanted to catch up on the other Sontaran stories from Classic Who (I watched "The Time Warrior" last year). I managed to get hold of both "The Sontaran Experiment" and "The Two Doctors" (which I've yet to watch as I'm trying to watch the Sontaran stories in order and I need to get hold of "The Invasion of Time" first).
"The Sontaran Experiment" stars the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and it's a bit bonkers, but still interesting.
The Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry arrive on a deserted Earth via a transmat/teleport (No TARDIS !!). The serial was actually filmed on Dartmoor and entirely without interiors - which is pretty unusual (Spearhead from Space is the only other location-only serial) but works quite well. What doesn't work so well is the whole plotline of one lone Sontaran who's carrying out experiments on a bunch of human astronauts whom he's enticed to land on the abandoned Earth (the story's set in the far future after a time when the Earth had been depopulated following devastating solar flares). If the Sontarans are as methodical as Styre insists, why is there only one of them here doing these experiments (especially given the Sontarans are a cloned race, and therefore numbers are not an issue) ?
Poor Tom Baker broke his collarbone during filming so the crucial hand-to-hand fight between Four and Styre required the use of a stunt double, meaning you only ever see Four's face in a close-up during the fight.
Sarah Jane is caputred and tortured by Styre, who uses a device he attaches to her forehead to give her hallucinations, making her think she's being menaced by a snake, about to fall over a cliff and being swallowed by quicksand. I found this whole sequence rather unconvincing and, together with her comedy arrival (when she arrives by transmat she lands on her back with her legs waving in the air), made this, for me, the most disappointing serial featuring Sarah Jane that I've seen so far. (I must find time to watch "The Masque of Mandragora" !)
Harry Sullivan (this is only the second time I've seen him since I started re-watching Classic Who - the first time being in "Robot") is lovely: he gets very fierce when he discovers that Styre has been torturing another of the astronauts by chaining him up and depriving him of water, and he's also very brave, being prepared to attack Styre armed with nothing more than a large tree branch after he thinks Styre has killed both Sarah Jane and the Doctor.
Hopefully "The Invasion of Time" (which is set on Gallifrey, yay!) is a more satisfying story !