Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (Episode 77)
Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian MarterStudio: BBC Warner
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Restored, Widescreen, NTSC
Running Time: 50 minutes
DVD Release: March 6th 2007
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DVD Review
One of the more suspenseful stories of the Tom Baker-era Doctor Who, 1975's The Sontaran Experiment pits the Time Lord and his companions against a ruthless alien carrying out experiments on the survivors of a decimated Earth. The first Doctor Who serial to be shot entirely on location (in Dartmoor) and solely with video cameras, The Sontaran Experiment picks up where the previous serial, The Ark in Space, left off, with Baker's Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter, who also wrote the serial's novelization) visiting a future Earth abandoned by its inhabitants save for a small band of space colonists who are being hunted by an unseen force and its robot servant. The alien - a Sontaran warrior (the race was previously encountered in the Jon Pertwee serial The Time Warrior) - is capturing the colonists and subjecting them to horrifying medical and psychological experiments, and the Doctor and friends soon find themselves among its new test subjects. A short (only two episodes) but gripping and effective story, The Sontaran Experiment has received its share of positive and negative reviews from the fan community, but remains an entertaining entry from the Baker years. The single-disc DVD of The Sontaran Experiment offers surprisingly fewer extras than other recent Doctor Who releases; commentary is provided by Sladen, producer Philip Hinchcliffe, and co-writer Bob Baker, while a featurette, "Built for War," traces the history of the Sontarans via interviews with Sladen, Baker, sixth Doctor Colin Baker, writer Terrance Dicks, and others. A brief photo gallery and the by-now standard production notes subtitle option round out the extras. -- Paul Gaita
User Reviews
Sontarin Experiment - OK - Rating: 3/5
This is another better-than-average story in the 1st year of Tom Baker's 7 year tenure.
I felt this story to be OK, but not great. The story wasn't great and I didn't thing the original content had been that well acted. The story isn't a key story either, (unlike it's successor) which may explain the lower budget input.
Simple implausable plot, but good dialog. - Rating: 4/5
"The Sontaran Experiment" is shorter than most Doctor Who episodes and is missing a few hallmarks of the series, but has some excellent dialog. If you like Tom Baker's humor this is a good budget title for you, but if you want a more in depth plot look elsewhere. I suggest "Genesis of the Daleks" and "The Robots of Death". "The Sontaran Experiment" is only about 50 minutes long, but the DVD includes a 39 minute "Built for War" documentary on the Sontaran race for those interested the series' background as told by actors (not Tom Baker) and some production team.
The Doctor is in - Rating: 5/5
Tom Baker is back as Doctor Who. Watch as his hat and scarf solve yet another space story. See the Tardis disapear and reapear somewhere in space and time.
The Sontaran Experiment was a Success - Rating: 4/5
In short, I loved this episode of classic Doctor Who. Tom Baker is proabably my favorite Doctor, including the new series actors - you can say what you want about the classic series sets or special effects, but the scripts were, for the most part, superior in Baker's Era (there are exceptions, not saying that). And Tom Baker was an excellent Doctor. This story is a 2 part story that is short and sweet. It revived the Sontarans as villians, and gave an additional tie-in to the Ark In Space story line (the previous story). Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan were good companions for the Doctor, and I have come to appreciate their performances much more in my more mature years for differing aspects to my original veiwing back when I was a kid. Very well played. And Tom Baker plays the Doctor very well, soldiering through half the episode with a broken arm.
Anyway, if you like Doctor Who, you'll enjoy this one. The extras on the DVD were good too.
That's all for now.
Maybe not the best place to start viewing the series, but Ok story with some OK extras - Rating: 4/5
This short story arc was part of 3 connected arc, infact the VHS version combined this one with "Genesis of the Daleks" for a two cassette set. If you are new to Dr. Who this could be a weak place to start, for example:
--no TARDIS, the Doctor and companions Sarah & Harry are Transmatted to the surface of a nearly uninhabited future Earth leaving the TARDIS behind on a spacestation, then transmatt again at the end. The story maybe historical in the fact the the famous Police Call-Box never appears This is followed by the second and last time that this happens in Genesis, in which they are intercepted by the Timelords, then leave with a Timering, catching up with the TARDIS in the final story Revenge of the Cyber-men.
--Another omission that may confuse the unintiated in viewing this story arc is that upon the climax the Doctor claims to be the Human "warrior class" to confuse the Sontaran advanced scout, but there is no referance that would establish otherwise if you are just starting out. In fact in the 70's when alot of American was just meeting the Timelord for the first time this may have been their first encounter with the series. I was one of those people, but it was "Revenge" that hooked me with the Cyber-men and eventually the arrival of the TARDIS.
Inspite of this it is a fun story, some pretty location, no quarries and the retrospective extra with the Sontarans is well done.
