The Sontarans (audio story)

 was the fourth and final story of the third series of The Early Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Simon Guerrier, narrated by Peter Purves and Jean Marsh and featured the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom.

This was part of the series of stories which take place between Episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Master Plan, a narrative gap opened by The Mutation of Time and filled by The Little Drummer Boy, The Anachronauts, Home Truths, The Drowned World, The Guardian of the Solar System, and An Ordinary Life. While later stories would add to this series of adventures with the release of Men of War, The Sontarans is the final story to occur within this narrative gap from a chronological standpoint. The ending leads back into Episode 8 of The Daleks' Master Plan, 'Volcano', with another time machine pursuing the TARDIS, while the Daleks make a cameo appearance, preparing to test the Time Destructor back on Kembel.

Narratively, this is the Doctor's first encounter with the Sontarans, as both the Second and Third Doctors knew of them and the Rutan Host in their respective television adventures.

Publisher's summary
The TARDIS arrives on a moon-sized asteroid orbiting two gas giants. With an amazing view, it's a chance for the Doctor, Steven and Sara to unwind after their recent adventures.

But they quickly find themselves in the midst of battle — on one side: a familiar group of space-suited soldiers — members of the Space Security Service. On the other: strange, squat aliens in body armour.

Surviving the initial hostilities, the Doctor and his friends discover that the SSS squad is on a terrifying mission. With many lives at stake, they have to venture deep inside the asteroid in search of a hideous weapon. But who can they trust in the battle against these Sontarans?

The Sontarans (1)
The TARDIS lands on an asteroid whose soil is completely covered in flowers for miles. The Doctor, Steven, and Sara come out from the TARDIS and wonder at the view. Steven asks how it is possible that they can breathe and flowers can grow on an asteroid whose mass is insufficient to develop an atmosphere; the Doctor dismisses the question, but Sara suggests the air might be created artificially. She also recognises the asteroid as part of the Sulgrave Asteroid Belt, an asteroid loop of eight circles going around two giant gas planets. Excited at the discovery, she runs away to climb a nearby ridge, to see if she can have a better look at the two planets.

As the Doctor and Steven comment on how much Sara has changed from when they first met her, seven men dressed in black uniform (which the Doctor and Steven recognise as the ones from Space Security Service, the same one as Sara) surround them, and their leader, Captain Daphne Papas, orders one of them, Corporal Gage, to shoot them. Gage, however, questions the order, objecting they should at least ask them who they are. Papas orders another soldier, Ellis, to shoot them, but the Doctor points out to Papas that, if they do so, they won't be able to interrogate them, and the secret mission they are involved with (as the Doctor deduced by observing the way they act and talk) could be compromised as a result. On the contrary, if they keep them alive, the Doctor and Steven could help. Papas agrees to spare their life for the moment, as she is about to tell them about their mission, the group is attacked by a hostile alien force: the Sontarans.

As a fight ensues between the agents and the Sontarans, Steven and the Doctor crawl away undetected. Steven tells the Doctor about the Sontarans and their reputation of remorselessness and cruelty. The Doctor suggests they go back to the TARDIS and find a way to help Papas and her men; Steven points out that Sara is still out there, but the Doctor says there is nothing they can do about it. They then keep going towards the ship.

The Descent (2)
to be added

The Blind City (3)
to be added

The Rule of War (4)
to be added

Cast

 * Steven/The Doctor/Narrator - Peter Purves
 * Sara Kingdom - Jean Marsh
 * Corporal Ellis/Slite/Shrok/Stack/Commander - Dan Starkey
 * Captain Daphne Papas - Jemma Churchill
 * Corporal Gage - John Banks
 * Tinder/Human Soldier - Rosanna Miles

Continuity

 * Steven and the Doctor remember that when they first met Sara she was trying to shoot them. (TV: Counter Plot)
 * Upon being captured, the Doctor warns the Space Security agents that, if they shoot them, they will not retrieve the taranium core. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Steven mentions Natalie Lang. (AUDIO: The Anachronauts)
 * Steven explains how he was a prisoner of the Mechonoids (TV: The Chase) after he was shot down by the Krayt. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)
 * The Sontarans also made cameo appearances in The Empire of Glass, although it was not made entirely clear whether the Doctor or Steven were aware of or encountered them.
 * Sara recalls her time in 1950s London with Michael and Audrey Newman. (AUDIO: An Ordinary Life)
 * The Sontarans come across the Daleks when researching the history of the Mechonoids. (TV: The Chase, COMIC: Eve of War, Impasse, The World That Waits, PROSE: War of the Daleks, Birth of a Legend)
 * While interrogated, Steven tells Slite about his recent battle against the Daleks. He ends explaining how he ran into the TARDIS while protected from Dalek fire by a force field. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Sara tells Papas that in the future there will be peace "for a time." This period lasts from 3975 until 4000. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * The Doctor learns about the Sontarans, Rutans and their war. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Two Doctors)
 * While talking to the others about war, the First Doctor recalls his adventure to the year 100,000 BC. According to the Doctor, Ian Chesterton had stopped him from murdering a caveman that was slowing them down. (TV: An Unearthly Child) According to another source, it was in fact the Eighth Doctor who dissuaded him from doing so. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
 * An unidentified time machine, presumed to be a Dalek one, is detected by the TARDIS, while the Daleks prepare to test the Time Destructor. (TV: The Daleks' Master Plan)