Sontaran

The Sontarans were a humanoid race of belligerent and militaristic clones from the planet Sontar, created by the Kaveetch. They waged an eternal war throughout Mutter's Spiral against the Rutans, though they made no effort to change this nor did they want peace.

Biology
The Sontarans were humanoids with large, bulbous heads and short stocky bodies; humans who met them, such as Sarah Jane Smith, Clyde Langer and Bea Nelson-Stanley, often compared them to "huge potatoes with ray guns". (TV: Eye of the Gorgon, The Last Sontaran) Alternatively, Mickey Smith described one as a "dumpling with a gun". (TV: The End of Time) They had grey-brown skin and deep set features. Sontarans generally had three digits on each hand (two fingers and a thumb), (TV: The Time Warrior, et al) though some had five fingers on each hand. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Some Sontarans also had vestigial hair, generally in the form of beards, which grew white with age. (PROSE: Shakedown, COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen) Sontaran blood was mostly green, (TV: The Two Doctors, The Last Sontaran) although it was occasionally red. (HOMEVID: Battlefield)

According to Strax, Sontarans' heights were "to precise warrior specifications". (AUDIO: A Photograph to Remember) Group Marshal Stike and Major Varl were noticeably taller than their Androgum associates Shockeye and Chessene. (TV: The Two Doctors)

The Sontarans reproduced by cloning, meaning every Sontaran was nearly identical to each other. There were some variations over time, such as the number of fingers, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) height, (TV: The Two Doctors) or skin colour. (PROSE: Shakedown) Variation was typical across Sontaran generations of clone replication. This sometimes led to "throwbacks" to past Sontarans. (AUDIO: A Photograph to Remember)

At least one Sontaran had been gene-spliced for nursing purposes, such as the ability to produce breast milk. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) They used mass cloning techniques that allowed their hatcheries to produce up to a million Sontarans in four minutes. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm)

Occasionally, genetic defects would crop up and the afflicted Sontarans would perform menial labour. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

Due to the high gravity of the moon of Sontar that they were first created on, the Sontarans had great strength and resilience in lower gravity environments like Earth or Gallifrey. (TV: The Two Doctors, AUDIO: The First Sontarans) However, Sontaran muscles were designed for load bearing rather than leverage, (TV: The Time Warrior) which could lead to unwieldiness. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

The Sontaran cardiovascular system was 210% more efficient than the human normal. (AUDIO: The Shadow Play)

They were vulnerable to coronic acid. (TV: The Two Doctors) If severely wounded, a Sontaran would enter an anabolic coma. They would usually die, but sometimes they would later wake. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Sontarans fed on pure energy through a probic vent in the back of the neck, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) which was also used as an access point to refill their armour with the chemicals of their native atmosphere. (TV: War of the Sontarans) This vent was also their crucial weakness, as any sudden blow to the vent would stun them. The penetration of a sharp object into the vent would kill them. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Invasion of Time, et al.) Tampering with the energy source could also lead to a reversal effect that could destroy a Sontaran from the inside out. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

Sontarans needed 7.5 minutes of sleep every 27 Earth hours. (TV: War of the Sontarans) While it was unknown if the rest cycle was a biological necessity, (PROSE: Shakedown) when they were occupying planets with a significantly different atmospheric composition to their homeworld the Sontarans would use the rest period as an opportunity to refill their suits with the chemicals and nutrients of Sontar's atmosphere. (TV: War of the Sontarans)

Sontarans could live into their eighties, but this was uncommon due to their military culture. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) In an alternate universe, all Sontarans appeared, roughly, the same age, with the exception of the older General Sontar. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Members of the Great Houses regarded the Sontarans as "goblins"; Larissa remembered the Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey as a "goblin infestation", (PROSE: Newtons Sleep) and in Mujun: The Ghost Kingdom the Seventy-Ninth Sontaran Assault Corps was represented by a "goblin-hoarde". (PROSE: The Book of the War, AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)

Society
The Sontarans were a martial species, obsessed with war. They hated the idea of a great war going on without them. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem) Sontaran civilisation relied on war, and the continuing war effort of the Sontaran Empire relied upon its civilisation. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) Sontarans trained for war in the Sontaran Greater Military Academy. (PROSE: Devil in the Smoke) Jingo Linx claimed that hatchings of a million cadets occurred at each Academy muster parade. (TV: The Time Warrior) The body of power in the empire was the Grand Strategic Council. (AUDIO: Conduct Unbecoming)

The highest honour for a Sontaran was to serve in the Imperial Sontaran Fleet; conversely, to be disallowed soldiering was the most dishonourable fate for a Sontaran. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar) Taking care of the sick and wounded was a humiliating concept. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Fighting for other species was an equally dishonourable fate. (TV: Enemy of the Bane) Sontarans did not fear death and they would rather be court-martialled than show pain. They considered it honourable to face battle "open skinned", without a helmet on. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

Though they would ally with other species (PROSE: Shakedown, TV: The Pandorica Opens), they felt no need to keep these alliances, (PROSE: Shakedown) with Stike insisting that the Sontarans did not need allies. (TV: The Two Doctors) Sontarans would only ally themselves with other species, take prisoners, or allow enemies to live, if it served the greater good of the empire. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) The Sixth Doctor claimed that the Sontarans lacked allies because they were untrustworthy. (TV: The Two Doctors) Indeed, General Staal deceived Luke Rattigan and his academy into assisting the Sontaran invasion of Earth while intending to kill them when their usefulness was at an end. (TV: The Poison Sky) The Thirteenth Doctor noted that she had seen a lot of species make alliances with Sontarans, warning the Grand Serpent that it never ended well. (TV: The Vanquishers) During the Last Great Time War, both the Time Lords and the Daleks refused to ally with the Sontarans, (AUDIO: The Eternity Cage) excluding them from the conflict. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)

Sontarans who possessed five digits on their hands were generally placed as intelligence operatives. However, these agents had a tendency to be paranoid. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm)

The Sontarans marched to a tune titled the Sontaran Anthem. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Despite being a clone race, the Sontarans still retained the concept of betrothal, which was roughly analogous to ending hostilities by killing one's enemy. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar) Within their society, there was a rigid clan structure, with clans having different genetic markers. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) The clans vied for power. Some had great influence, such as the Gunnar Clan. (PROSE: Shakedown) Sontarans were known for Quicksand Wrestling. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)

Sontarans used a counting system. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

Sontarans generally held a chauvinistic attitude towards females, considering them unfit for warfare. They would sometimes insult their enemies by comparing them to women. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) They also considered their reproductive systems inferior. (TV: The Time Warrior) Some Sontarans, however, had trouble figuring out which gender humans were. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Snowmen) They referred to Earth-born children as "half forms". (TV: The Last Sontaran, Enemy of the Bane)

Some Sontarans bore eponyms, relating to past victories and events that had occurred in their lives. Sontarans would often introduce themselves by their full name ' rank ' and/or title. The Tenth Doctor pointed out that a title such as Staal's ("General Staal the Undefeated") would no longer be accurate if he did get defeated, joking, that, that would make him "General Staal the Not-Quite-So-Undefeated-But-Never-Mind." (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, The Last Sontaran)

If a Sontaran opposed the decision of their commanding officer, they could duel to the death to decide which would be the leader. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

Sontarans considered informing a person that they looked forward to someday killing them on the battlefield a compliment. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Due to their dedication to warfare and short lifespan, Strax considered a twelve-year life to be a long one amongst his species. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Incinerators were kept on Sontaran ships to dispose of dead Sontaran soldiers. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal)

The Eighth Doctor believed that the word "overkill" was made for the Sontarans. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal)

Commander Kaagh followed the Laws of Battle. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

Ranks
The ranks of individual Sontarans were generally not prominently displayed on the uniform. The Marshal above Styre sported two large spiky disks on the front of his collar. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Commander Stor wore a larger collar than his troops and had a white, three-pointed, crown imprinted on his helmet. (TV: The Invasion of Time) Group Marshal Stike had white braiding on his shoulders, akin to epaulettes. (TV: The Two Doctors)

In the early 21st century, badges of rank were more clearly visible and consisted of various symbols set into the right-hand side of the front of the collar. General Staal wore five diamonds in a crown-shaped pattern, and also had a crest made up of four diamond shapes on his helmet, a little similar in design to the crown on Stor's helmet. Commanders, such as Skorr and Kaagh, sported three diamonds in a similar pattern. The lowest rank of this badge design was Lieutenant, displayed by a single diamond in the middle of the badge, shown on Lieutenant Skree, an operations officer. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, The Last Sontaran, Enemy of the Bane) In the 24th century, Commander Steg wore a gold helmet while his troops wore red ones. (HOMEVID: Return of the Sontarans)

Forces
The Sontaran military was divided into several different units, regiments, and fleets. These included the Fifth Sontaran Army Space Fleet, (TV: The Time Warrior) the G3 Military Assessment Survey, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) the Sontaran Special Space Service, (TV: The Invasion of Time) the Eighth Battle Fleet, (COMIC: The Instruments of War) the Ninth Sontaran Battle Group, (TV: The Two Doctors) the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) the Twelfth Sontaran Battle Fleet, (PROSE: The Sontaran Games) the Special Assault Squad attached to other units - such as the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, (TV: The Last Sontaran) the Koda, (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) the First Assault Battalion (HOMEVID: Mindgame), the Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426), and, in one universe, the Three Millionth Fleet. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) In an alternate timeline, the Last Great Sontaran War Fleet was the last surviving Sontaran fleet following the near-complete eradication of the Sontaran Empire by the Cybermen. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Sontaran units identified themselves using holo-standards. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee)

Culture
Early Sontarans believed in the Furies. (AUDIO: The Furies)

A school of Sontaran painters specialised in apocalyptic landscapes. They were executed for artistic tendencies. (COMIC: The Weeping Angels of Mons)

Historically, they had a clan structure and the clan background continued to be unofficially important into the 26th century. (PROSE: ''Shakedown (novel)

Sontarans were known to enjoy beverages, including a particularly potent Sontaran alcohol known as Vragg. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Technology
The Sontarans were reasonably advanced, though all their technology was designed for use in the war with the Rutans. They often used spherical spaceships and could make advanced robots for various purposes.

Weaponry
The Sontarans could use and make a wide variety of hand-held weapons, though they usually used the rheon carbine, a thin, metallic weapon, which was designed to optimally fit the Sontaran hand. The weapons were used for energy projection and hypnotism. (TV: The Time Warrior, PROSE: Shakedown, Lords of the Storm) The Sontarans also utilised laser rifle weapons during the assault of 2009, which fired bright beams of red light that could kill a human without any exterior damage. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) They also had the Stenk 11 pistol. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)

They also used melee weapons such as swords (PROSE: What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow) including cutlasses (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar), machetes (TV: The Sontaran Experiment), spears (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar), and staffs. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

They also made use of fragmentation grenades, which could destroy everything in a certain area. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, Legacy)

They bought weapons designed by the Vess, who also supplied the Cybermen and Daleks. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)

The Sontarans utilised battle computers. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal)

In an alternate universe, the Sontarans began plans to develop a device capable of snuffing out entire stars in response to the development by the Rutans to create a planet-killing weapon that was able to destroy a world by converting it from matter to anti-matter. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Transportation
The Sontarans used spherical vessels, which were covered in square plates. They were generally only large enough for one Sontaran. (TV: The Time Warrior, et al) Some had cloaking capabilities. (TV: The Last Sontaran) The Sontaran motherships were similar in shape to the scoutship, but had four claw like appendages coming out of the top and bottom. The scout ships were attached to the mothership and could be released when needed. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)

War-Wheels were combat vessels shaped roughly like a bow tie, with two rotating 'wheels' either side of a central spherical core. They were capable of planetary landings. (PROSE: Shakedown, COMIC: Unnatural Born Killers) Assault ships were also used for planetary invasions. Sontaran fleets had a typical arrow formation, with ships composing the head and the shaft. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

When on a planet, the Sontarans would travel by the means of aircraft. These aircraft looked like the bottom half of a Sontaran ship, with seats and controls on the top half. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

In the 13th century, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Sontarans utilised an osmic projector for time travel. (TV: The Time Warrior) Thousands of years earlier, their time travel technology, which was developed by the Kaveetch, was only capable of sending individuals into the future. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans) In the 20th century, they made other attempts to obtain more effective time travel technology such as the Kartz-Reimer module developed by Kartz and Reimer. (TV: The Two Doctors)

Sontarans adapted teleportation technology using generators situated at the area of materialisation. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

Armour
Sontarans wore distinctive battle armour, identified by Jingo Linx as Sontaran space armour, which resembled a thick and bulky grey space suit. Their helmets were dome-shaped and almost featureless except for two eye holes and a small, flat crest running from the forehead to the back of the neck. They generally carried around their rod-like weapon and a translating device. (TV: The Time Warrior)

During a period in the early 17th and early 21st century Sontarans had blue, less flexible, armour in a similar design (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, GAME: The Gunpowder Plot) although those Sontarans may have been solely ship crews, since crew armour was blue. Sontarans of the medical and environmental divisions wore green armour, (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) though in 4037, the nurse Strax wore an outfit similar to that of the blue 17th/21st century armour. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Other technology
Sontarans used two methods of controlling other individuals. They could take over their minds through hypnosis, (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem) or control them with devices attached to the neck. (TV: The Last Sontaran) They also used psy-snares for the same purpose. (COMIC: Black Sun Rising)

Sontaran clones were fed using the probic vent, which was the Sontaran's only weak spot. These clones were grown in vats and were nourished by Caesofine gas. (TV: The Poison Sky)

The Sontarans could heal their wounds with a device called a tissue rectifier, which was a stubby, tubular device. (PROSE: Blind Terror)

Styre used a miniature camera and a force field while studying humans. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

During the mission to make Earth a breeding planet, the Sontarans made a Cordolaine field around themselves that caused metallic copper to expand; when the copper was in the jacket of a bullet, it became jammed in the gun's barrel, rendering it useless. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

Early history
The Kaveetch were the original natives of Sontar, and also considered themselves "Sontarans" (just like Humans could be called "Earthlings"). They appeared more like humans. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)

The Sontaran colony that became the home of the Pureblood Sontarans was settled at some point before the Rutan-Sontaran War. (COMIC: Pureblood)

After a war with the Rutans had reached a stalemate, Meredith Roath proposed the creation of a clone army, namely the Sontaran clones. Within weeks, the clones were not only fighting on the front lines but had turned the tide of the war firmly in the Kaveetch's favour. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans) However, the Sontarans turned on their creators due to their supposedly inferior nature and unique knowledge of Sontaran physiology. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans, COMIC: Pureblood)

Even the existence of the Kaveetch was eventually erased from the Sontarans' official history. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans) According to the Sontarans themselves, before encountering the Rutans, they were split into clans, which would fight amongst themselves. The survivors of these civil wars joined forces and set their aggression on aliens instead. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Distant past
The cloned Sontarans were engaged in a war with the Rutans. During the Millennium War, though, Sontarans and Rutans briefly joined forces. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)

According to one source, a lone Sontaran was present during a "terrible war" found on the Hyffons home world, these events taking place during the Dark Times. (COMIC: The Continuity Cap)

During the dying days of the Fifty-first Star Fall Campaign, the Sontarans suffered heavy losses against the Rutans. Sontaran scientists created the world engine weapon Warsong to change the course of the war. The Sontarans were unable to deploy the weapon, and the "brave warrior" Surnat Gaq escaped the Rutans, and while mortally wounded, he took the Warsong to primitive Earth, where it lay dormant and undetected. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

In Earth's prehistory, a Sontaran went to Egypt, where he was worshipped as a god. Eventually, the humans learned of his plan to destroy Earth for the war, and they buried him alive inside a pyramid. (COMIC: The Gods Walk Among Us)

2nd century
In 102, the Sontarans were among the races who joined the Alliance. They came to Stonehenge and helped imprison the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica in order to save the universe. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

13th century
In the 13th century, (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Linx, a scout, was forced to perform an emergency landing in England after being attacked by a squadron of Rutan fighters. He claimed Earth and "its moons and satellites" for the Sontaran Empire. He proceeded to make an alliance with Irongron, a local warlord, and to transport scientists from the late 20th century into the past using his osmic projection. He would then hypnotise them in order to make them work on his ship. He was killed when his repaired ship began taking off. (TV: The Time Warrior)

Linx was remembered with honor by his fellow Sontarans, who viewed him as a great commander. The rest of the Sontaran Empire sought to fulfill his claim over Earth. (TV: War of the Sontarans)

16th century
Later, in the year 1522 AD, a Sontaran scoutship crash landed on Earth in China. As a result of the incident, their hyperspace transmitter was damaged and they required a replacement crystal in order to summon reinforcements as well as to take over the planet. There, they formed a partnership with the Abbot Hsiang and Yueh who knew them as the "bronze men" where they used their hypnotic technology to enhance his fighting abilities.

The Emperor of China learnt of the enhanced fighting skills of the monks and came for a demonstration. This was all part of a plan by the Sontarans to kill the Chinese Emperor as he possessed a quartz crystal sufficient to power the hyperspace transmitter and thus placed a hypnotic suggestion designed to turn the monks against the Emperor in order to kill him.

However, the Fourth Doctor intervened and had K9 record the trigger words and broke the spell but not before Chang went into a berserker attack that killed the Sontarans as a result of him hearing the command phrase once. (COMIC: Dragon's Claw)

17th century
In 1605, a group of Sontarans came searching for a crashed Rutan ship buried under the Houses of Parliament that contained two doomsday weapons capable of wiping out an entire species. Both the Sontarans and the Rutans raced to retrieve them but the Eleventh Doctor reached them first, modified them and gave one to each party and told them they could use it on the other but faced a risk of killing their own species instead. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

In 1609, along with the Rutans, the Sontarans participated in the summit of military powers throughout Mutter's Spiral in the Armageddon Convention, which convened in Laputa, a floating island in the sky near Venice. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)

19th century
After being resurrected in the aftermath of the Battle of Demons Run, Commander Strax worked with Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint on Paternoster Row in 1888 London. (WC: The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later, TV: The Snowmen)

In 1892, after the Eleventh Doctor was brought out of "retirement", Strax defended Captain Latimer's house from snowmen controlled by the Great Intelligence. He tried and failed to save the life of Clara Oswin Oswald after she fell off the Doctor's cloud. Said failure was shown to affect him somewhat. (TV: The Snowmen)

In 1893, Strax worked with the Doctor, the Paternoster Gang and Clara Oswald to defeat Mr Sweet and Winifred Gillyflower's plans to wipe out humanity except for their chosen few. Along the way he befriended a young urchin named Thomas Thomas and saved his friends from Mrs Gillyflower by shooting at her, causing her to fall to her death. (TV: The Crimson Horror) At some point after this, Strax, along with Vastra, Jenny and Clara, assisted the Twelfth Doctor in foiling the plans of the Half-Face Man, although at one point when defeat appeared inevitable, Strax briefly considered suicide. (TV: Deep Breath)

At some point during his time in Victorian England, Strax became separated from Vastra and Jenny and assisted investigators Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot on a case. (AUDIO: The Haunting)

20th century
Sontaran soldier Brak visited Earth in 1916 and witnessed the Battle of the Somme. He was captured by British soldiers and imprisoned for eighty years, during which he created powerful weapons for humanity in the hope that they would tear each other apart. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) Elsewhere in the 20th century, it was believed that a Sontaran scout ship crashed in Tunguska. Some of this wreckage was obtained by UNIT and kept in the Vault. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)

In 1941, a small retinue of the Eighth Battle Fleet arrived in the Sahara Desert after they had discovered the world engine the Warsong had begun to activate after being lost for millennia. They hid among the Tuareg tribe so as not to alert the Rutans to their presence. After the Rutan Heinz Bruckner had claimed the world engine with a device which controlled the Warsong's movements. The Twelfth Doctor tricked Kygon Brox into believing he would seize the Warsong for the Sontarans. As a result, Kygon gave the Doctor an osmic projector to send the control device through time, stopping Bruckner's plans. However, instead of allowing the Sontarans to strike at the Rutans with the Warsong, the Doctor blew the weapon up with his sonic screwdriver. (COMIC: The Instruments of War)

In 1945, the Sontarans were one of 23 races that came to Dusseldorf in search of the persuasion machine. (AUDIO: Persuasion) At some point during the 20th century, Edgar Nelson-Stanley met with the Sontarans. He believed they were "the silliest race in the galaxy". (TV: Eye of the Gorgon) In 1965, three hundred Sontarans were killed by Captain Gol Clutha when he and his squad hijacked a Sontaran timeship. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone)

In the 1980s, Group Marshal Stike claimed that the war with the Rutans was "on the contrary" to going badly. The Ninth Sontaran Battle Group attempted to gain unlimited access to time travel through Kartz and Reimer's experiments. This failed when Chessene betrayed Stike and Major Varl, and the Sixth Doctor sabotaged the Kartz-Reimer module. At the same point in time, the Sontarans were involved in a battle with the Rutans in the Madillon Cluster. (TV: The Two Doctors)

In England in the 1990s, one Sontaran confronted a woman who resembled Sarah Jane Smith and a little girl she was walking with. After capturing the older woman, the Sontaran held the child at gunpoint. (TV: Untitled 3)

Campaigns in the 21st century
In the 2000s, Major Kreg of the Ninth Sontaran Battle Brigade was sent to survey Earth for the empire. He was intercepted by Torchwood and forcibly resettled at Mumbles Bay Caravan Park. He eventually came to appreciate his life there, after clashing with the park's owner Mr Higgins and summoning Rutan mercenaries for a battle, and took over running of the park. (AUDIO: The Great Sontaran War)

In 2009, the Sontarans appeared as though they were losing the war against the Rutans. To counter this, the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet, led by the supposedly undefeated General Staal, made plans to convert Earth into a cloning world, and carried them out with the help of a young human genius named Luke Rattigan.

The Sontarans used a form of hypnosis on the workers of the ATMOS factory, forcing them to start shipping out devices that contained gases poisonous to humans, contained inside plates attached to the SatNavs they sold. When the Tenth Doctor attempted to meddle, the Sontarans activated all the devices already deployed in cars, releasing the poison gas and choking people nearby.

The gas was burnt away by the Doctor's use of an atmospheric converter and Rattigan, having been betrayed, sacrificed his life by using the converter to destroy the fleet. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky) After these events, Jack Harkness discussed the Sontarans in a monster file and revealed his money was on the Sontarans ultimately winning their war with the Rutans. (WC: )

Following the failed ATMOS strategy, Commander Kaagh was left as the last survivor of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet after he crashed to Earth. He used Professor Nicholas Skinner to bring satellites crashing into Earth's nuclear power plants. He wanted to take Sarah Jane Smith to Sontar for the Doctor's crime and for her knowledge of the Sontarans. The plan was stopped when Chrissie Jackson disabled Kaagh with her high heeled shoe, but he came round and was forced back to Sontar in his pod. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

Following this failure, Kaagh became a mercenary for the Bane. He met Mrs Wormwood while looking for the remains of Horath and they agreed to work together. After finding the mind of Horath, he followed Wormwood to Earth, where they took the Tunguska Scroll from Sarah Jane and kidnapped Luke Smith. The alliance started to break down when Mrs Wormwood sided with Luke over Kaagh, ending when she betrayed and disabled him. Seeing that he had lost, he dragged Wormwood into the wormhole containing Horath. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)

In 2009 one Sontaran was captured by the Krulius and stored in a data-pod. The Krulius later used his digital bio-converter to upload the Sontan's bio data onto the internet. There it was found by Mr Smith, Rani Chandra and Clyde Langer who sent the Sontaran back to his home planet. (COMIC: Monster Hunt) Another Sontaran was kept at the Doloth Star Base. When the Judoon caught the Krulius, all his captured aliens were set free. However the Krulius had managed to take clone cell samples of his former captured aliens with him, which allowed him to grow perfect copies of these aliens. (COMIC: Return of the Krulius)

Circa 2010, one Sontaran named Jask was on Earth and was chased by Martha Jones and Mickey Smith. He managed to get away and tried to kill them with a sniper rifle but was knocked out by the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The End of Time)

In 2011 at least one Sontaran weapon was part of a shipment of weaponry stolen by a CIA Special Operations Division when it was removed from The Hub. (PROSE: The Men Who Sold the World)

In the 2010s, Commander Merx of the Eighth Sontaran Battle Fleet crash landed on Earth and fell into the possession of the Auctioneers. They supplied him to John Torrance for use on his cloning experiments, with Torrance attempting to create his own Sontaran clones for human militaries. Marshal Skar led the Eighth Fleet to Earth to recover Merx, reluctantly collaborating with UNIT forces led by Kate Stewart and Colonel Shindi. Their combined forces were able to take over Torrance's facility and destroy the cloning project, rescuing Merx, after which the Sontarans withdrew. (AUDIO: The Sontaran Project)

In the 2010s, a Sontaran was a resident of the hidden trap street in London which housed lost aliens on Earth under the protection of Mayor Me. As with the rest of the inhabitants it appeared cloaked in human form through use of the lurkworms. (TV: Face the Raven)

A War-Wheel crashed on Earth where its wreckage was found by Mr. Kamen, who salvaged a host of technology as well as one survivor, Group Marshal Skral, whom he had forced into servitude as a mercenary. Ultimately, Sam Bishop, by appealing to Skral's sense of honour, convinced the Sontaran to turn against his master, killing Mr. Kamen at the cost of his own life. (AUDIO: Portrait of a Lady)

In the 21st century, two Sontarans were in Istanbul. The Ninth Doctor fought them in a sword fight, and had his life saved from one of them by "some sort of spy" called Sally Sparrow. (PROSE: What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow)

Exploiting the Flux
The Sontarans grew interested in the Flux that occurred in 2021, with Psychic Surveyor Kragar assessing its impact. He reported back to Commander Ritskaw that the cataclysm was imminent and and forecast "conflict that will dwarf all that has come before", to the Commander's excitement. Ritskaw subsequently ordered an attack. (TV: The Halloween Apocalypse) The Sontarans invaded Earth just before the shield of Lupari ships sealed to protect the planet from the oncoming Flux, occupying Liverpool where they began construction of a fleet of timeships to invade Earth throughout time. A pilot temporal invasion was conducted in the Crimean War led by Skaak. The Sontarans in the Crimea came into conflict with British forces and encountered the Thirteenth Doctor, who sabotaged their supplies to force them to retreat. As their ships began to lift off, a British commander used gunpowder to detonate them. In 21st century Liverpool, the Doctor's companion Dan Lewis infiltrated the fleet and was rescued from Sontarans by his assigned Lupar Karvanista who had taken the blame from his people for the Sontaran incursion. Karvanista rammed one of the Sontaran timeships into the rest of the fleet, creating a temporal shockwave which removed the Sontarans from Earth. (TV: War of the Sontarans)

In revenge for their defeat, the Sontarans invaded Earth again later in the Flux crisis with the aid of the Grand Serpent, attacking the Lupari ships still shielding the planet and breaking into the Williamson Tunnels. (TV: Survivors of the Flux) They wiped out the Lupari and occupied Earth, though were resisted by a resistance led by Kate Stewart. Exploiting Earth's psychics to identify the origin point of the next Flux event, the Sontarans planned to take advantage of it by luring the Dalek War Fleet and Cybermen forces there under the pretex of forming an alliance at that location, planning to protect themselves using the Lupari ships they now controlled. Their plan was sabotaged by the Doctor who changed the formation of the Lupari ships to expose the Sontaran fleet to the Flux as well, destroying it. (TV: The Vanquishers)

25th and 26th century
Circa the 25th century, the Sontarans clashed with the forces of the Earth Empire during the Siege of the Hexion Gates. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

Around 2570, the Sontarans were engaged in activities in the Magellanic Clouds. (PROSE: Love and War)

At some point during the 26th century, the Sontarans sent in Commander Steg to conquer Jekkar in order to create a buffer around Sontar. Though he had no difficulty with the humans, the Jekkari, led by the Seventh Doctor, were able to fight back effectively. The surviving Sontarans destroyed their bases and abandoned the planet. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Some time later, an expedition was made to go to Sentarion and take advantage of the wormhole connecting it and Ruta III to kill the Rutan Queen. Though the Sontarans tried to keep this information classified, a Rutan spy known as Karne was able to learn that the information had leaked out and tried to return to the Rutans. Commander Steg was sent in to redeem himself and kill Karne. He was able to track it to the space yacht Tiger Moth, where it had hidden in the ship. During the course of his investigations, his soldiers were whittled down by Karne and the human crew. Eventually, Karne was killed and all the Sontarans were believed to be killed. In reality, Karne was able to clone himself before his death and Steg was able to pull through. (HOMEVID: Return of the Sontarans, PROSE: Shakedown)

The second Karne was able escape to Sentarion, followed by the Seventh Doctor, his companions and the survivors from the Tiger Moth. Commander Steg was able to follow them with a War-Wheel and forced the Doctor to open the wormhole to Ruta III. The War-Wheel was sent through, but the Doctor was able to reverse the polarity of the wormhole, meaning the War-Wheel would never get to Ruta III. When Steg tried to kill the Doctor in revenge, a fight began, leading to the death of Karne and the Sontaran forces. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Also at some point during the 26th century, the Sontarans and Rutans took their war to the colony Chelsea 426. The Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division, led by General Kade, were given the mission of hunting down Rutans that were at the time taking over human bodies. The Tenth Doctor was present during the event and while he did not side with either warring party, he did stop the Rutans, after which the Sontarans left. However, there was evidence that the Sontaran Division's trouble with the Rutans was not fully over after their ship left the colony. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

During either the 25th or 26th century, the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, Sontar, with photonic bombs, though some escaped with the Sontaran racepool. At the same time, the Sontarans encountered the Pureblood Sontarans. Due to the intervention of the Seventh Doctor, the cloned and pureblood Sontarans decided to pool their resources and Marshal Stave promised to remove the Sontarans' memory of humans from the racepool. (COMIC: Pureblood)

31st century
A group of Sontarans landed on the planet ERM 4997 in the year 3076 where they encountered the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush. (AUDIO: Terror of the Sontarans)

41st century
In 4037, eleven year old Commander Strax was demoted to Nurse for his failure, tending to the humans in the Battle of Zaruthstra. He was summoned by the Eleventh Doctor to Demons Run circa the 52nd century. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Circa 52nd century
Circa the 52nd century, Commander Strax died in the Battle of Demons Run at the hand of the Order of the Headless. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint brought him back to life. (WC: The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later)

10th millennium
According to one account, in the year 10,674, the Sontaran Empire had been reduced to "radioactive remains". (PROSE: The Crystal Bucephalus)

Post-11th millennium
However, according to another account, many thousands of years after the 20th century, at a time when the Earth had been abandoned for 10,000 years, the Sontarans were separated from the many human worlds like GalSec throughout Mutter's Spiral by a buffer zone. The Grand Strategic Council planned to invade the galaxy, but they had to abandon that plan when a scout, Field Major Styre, was killed while trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the humans. After this, the Fourth Doctor bluffed, telling the Sontarans that their battle plans had been captured, so they would have to call off their invasion. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

Ultimately, the Sontarans became extinct by the "twilight years" of the universe. (AUDIO: The Eternal Battle)

Undated events
The Sontaran mining ship Betrothal of Sontar was sent to Serac as a form of demotion. Colonel Snathe, a pureblood Sontaran, believed that the Thanatos was located on Serac, but his attempts to find it were unsuccessful and crew became restless and insubordinate. When the Tenth Doctor arrived, Snathe forced him to find the Thanatos - but when Snathe tried to control it, the Thanatos decided that the Sontarans were stagnant and Sontar needed to be destroyed. Though Lerox showed that there was still hope for the Sontarans, Snathe was killed when the Inuk shoved him outside during a Silverfire. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

The Carpalian Witch's favourite hunt was when she hunted a Sontaran. Since her pheromonal lure was ineffective, she waited in his ship for 6 weeks until she stabbed him in the probic vent when he was about recharge. (PROSE: The Doctor Trap)

One of the fiercest Sontarans, Katsu, fought and was defeated by the Levanaxus. In order to become more powerful, he went to Aleph-777 in search of a mythical super-weapon. He was eventually able to track it to Omega-666, where he opened it, revealing it to be Omega Green Plague, which killed him. (COMIC: The Final Quest)The Master once tried to kill the Graak with a group of Sontarans, even making the Graak joust with one. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)

Skrant was sent on a seven-year mission to conquer Braktalis. He joined forces with Demimon. He was defeated by Demimon's daughter Alareen and her lover Kinvor's forces. (COMIC: The Outsider)

The Sontarans attempted an invasion of a planet, but were stopped by Kroton. (COMIC: Unnatural Born Killers)

The Sontarans sent a force to investigate the planet Goth for weaponry. (COMIC: Black Legacy)

Both Sontarans and Rutans were trapped in the Edifice. They continued to fight even there. (AUDIO: The Forever Trap)

A group of Sontarans chased River Song across the country after she remarked that they were on a 'hen night'. (TV: First Night/Last Night)

The Eleventh Doctor encountered a group of Sontarans while visiting Florinall 9 and was forced to escape them by surfing on its lava. (WC: Pond Life)

An unnamed planet (defined as a "worthless rock" by the Sontarans) was an outpost of the Sontaran-Rutan war. The Fifth Doctor tried to advise the local commander Strock a strategy to avoid useless loss of soldiers, but the commander still died in vain as they charged the Rutans. (COMIC: In Their Nature)

Following the establishment of the New Dalek Paradigm, the Daleks built a series of space fortresses along the border of Sontaran space, amongst other species. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The Sontarans were among the many species drawn to Trenzalore by the asking of the First Question but locked out of the planet by the force field put up by the Papal Mainframe. Two Sontarans attempted to bypass the force field during the Siege of Trenzalore by putting on an invisibility cloak, but the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to make them visible to the Papal Mainframe, which they were then destroyed by. Conforming to protocol, the Mainframe apologised for their deaths and selected an appropriate afterlife. Later, the Daleks attacked the Mainframe and broke through the force field. The Sontarans followed them to the surface and either died in the fighting or possibly retreated. (TV: The Time of the Doctor)

The Sontarans were notable customers of the information regarding the Doctor held by the Inforarium. When the Eleventh Doctor discovered the Sontarans, as well as the Daleks and Cybermen, had been purchasing this information, he infiltrated the Inforarium and memory-proofed their database using methods he learned from the Silence. The information sold was thus instantly forgotten. (HOMEVID: The Inforarium)

A black-armoured Sontaran was present at Garage 10. (COMIC: The Ministry of Time)

set himself up as a messiah on a Sontaran colony planet. A century or two after he left the 17th Veteran Cohort came to the colony planet with the purpose of wiping out the Sontarans infected by the Master. A Suicide Specialist Sontaran destroyed the bearded Sontarans along with the entire planet. (COMIC: The Judas Goatee)

One Sontaran attended Bonjaxx's birthday party on Maruthea. (COMIC: Party Animals)

Sometime prior to Sara Kingdom’s time period, the Sontarans began attacking individual human star systems forcing the Space Security Service to organise an evacuation of millions of humans. An SSS squad was sent to attack a Sontaran facility in the Sulgrave Asteroid Belt, as the fleet needed to go through the pass there. An undercover Sontaran, Gage, used Rutan technology to infiltrate the squad, which encountered the First Doctor, Steven Taylor and Sara Kingdom. Commander Slite led his forces against the squad, killing most of the SSS agents and capturing Steven. Slite tortured Steven for information, including his recent encounters with the Daleks. Gage led the survivors into an ambush and Slite held them prisoner, seeking access to the Doctor’s capsule. When Gage began to waver from his orders whilst interrogating the Doctor and Steven, Slite killed him and took over. As the native Nil began to rise up against the Sontarans, the Doctor convinced Slite to hold fire on the evacuation fleet, by playing on his potential shame, allowing them to pass. Though the asteroid was liberated, the Doctor and Sara predicted the Sontarans would return. (AUDIO: The Sontarans)

A entire Sontaran assassination squad was wiped out by Amanda Steele and her pest control team. Their heads were removed and subsequently mounted as trophies. (AUDIO: Night of the Vashta Nerada)

The Sontarans came to Luachmhar to fight the various races that were warring there, having been upset at being left out. (PROSE: Anything You Can Do)

The Thirteenth Doctor once hid from an army of Sontarans in a cupboard. (WC: Message from the Doctor)

Rassilonian Era
In Gallifrey's past, the Sontarans joined Rassilon's Alliance of Races in the Great Inferno, a war with the Hyperions. (COMIC: Terrorformer) After the Hyperions were defeated, the Alliance then went on to purge the universe of other threats to universal harmony, one of those threats being Count D'if of the Cybock Imperium. (COMIC: Gangland) The Sontarans were also part of the force which went to war against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)

The Sontarans, in concert with the Vardans invaded Gallifrey, until beaten back by the Lord President the Fourth Doctor. (TV: The Invasion of Time) This invasion nonetheless brought forth the Cloister Wars, as the Sontaran attack had revealed to the rest of N-Space that the Matrix existed. (PROSE: Dalek: The Astounding Untold History of the Greatest Enemies of the Universe)

The Sontarans were part of the Supremo's alliance in the war against Morbius. (PROSE: Warmonger)

The Sontarans were in negotiation with the Time Lords and Order of the Black Sun for uranium on Desrault. When the Time Lords seemed to favour the Order of the Black Sun, the Sontaran ambassador Brilox used a psy-snare to turn one of the Special Executive escorts, Millenium into an assassin. After Millenium killed the Black Sun Elder, Brilox believed that with Gallifrey and the Black Sun at war, he'd be able to secure the uranium rights for the Sontarans. However, when Wardog discovered the psy-snare on Millenium, he returned it to Brilox, wiping his mind. (COMIC: Black Sun Rising)

A group of Sontarans were sent to an alternate Death Zone on Gallifrey and fought against the Fifth Doctor and a group of Daleks. (AUDIO: The Five Companions)

During the War in Heaven, the Seventy-Ninth Sontaran Assault Corps invaded the Eleven-Day Empire on the behest of Houses Tracolix and Lolita. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire) However, Lolita later betrayed them, consuming them with the rest of the Empire. (AUDIO: The Shadow Play)

Despite failed attempts to join in the conflict, (AUDIO: The Sontaran Ordeal, The Eternity Cage) the Sontarans were not "allowed" to fight in the Last Great Time War. General Staal understood it to be the greatest war of all time. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) After the Time War had ended the Sontarans fought other races for control over time. (COMIC: Weapons of Past Destruction)

Alternate timelines
In an alternate timeline created by the Black Guardian, where the First Doctor never left Gallifrey and became Lord President, the Sontarans were one of many aliens that invaded Earth, and fought over the planet with other races against the Silurians and the Sea Devils. This timeline was negated when the Seventh Doctor retrieved the Key to Time. (COMIC: Time & Time Again)

In an alternate timeline known as the "Cyberverse" which started with a change in history in 1927, the Sontarans were one of several major powers in the universe who were conquered by the Cybermen by 1951. (WC: Real Time/AUDIO: Real Time)

In an alternate timeline where the Daleks were peaceful, the Sontarans remained a dangerous force in the universe alongside the Cybermen. They won the battle of Kharax Rift. (PROSE: The Ripple Effect)

Following a psychic conference call with Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint, River Song and Clara Oswald, Strax was taken by the Whisper Men to an alternate Trenzalore where the Doctor died in battle. On Trenzalore, Strax was able to resurrect a dead Jenny but couldn't defeat the Whisper Men and was nearly killed. When the Great Intelligence altered the Doctor's timeline after accessing a wound in time in the Doctor's grave, Strax turned evil and Madame Vastra was forced to vaporise him. After Clara repaired the timeline, Strax was returned back to his old self and apologised. (TV: The Name of the Doctor)

In an alternate timeline where the Cybermen used Time Lord resources to conquer all of history, by the 24th century, the Sontaran Empire had been completely eradicated, save for Sontar and the Last Great Sontaran War Fleet. Under the orders of the Sontaran-Prime, Commander Sturg and a patrol of Sontarans captured the Tenth Doctor, Gabby Gonzalez and Cindy Wu at Cosmomart to lead the Sontarans in a final battle on Sontar to stop the Cybermen taking control of the Sontaran cloning factories. Although the Cybermen massacred the Sontarans, despite the efforts of the Tenth Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor allied with a betrayed Rassilon at the end of the universe to use the Eye of Harmony on Gallifrey to erase this alternate timeline from history, restoring the Sontaran Empire along with the rest of the original timeline. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

Alternate universes
In an alternate universe where the Tenth Doctor died before the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet's 2009 invasion of Earth, Torchwood Three took his place in destroying the flagship and stopping the spread of ATMOS' gas. Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones were killed saving Earth, and the immortal Jack Harkness was transferred to Sontar. (TV: Turn Left)

In an alternate universe, the Warburg, led by General Sontar himself, the Warburg's supreme commander, and the Rutans convened on Gallifrey to meet face to face without violence. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Other references
In the video game Happy Deathday, played by Izzy Sinclair on the Time-Space Visualiser, several Sontarans were among a host of "every single enemy" that the Doctor had ever defeated, who were assembled by the Beige Guardian and pitted against the Doctor's first eight incarnations. (COMIC: Happy Deathday)

When the Skith Leader scanned the Tenth Doctor's mind, a Sontaran was among the alien creatures shown to him. (COMIC: The First)

Behind the scenes

 * The Sontarans were created by Robert Holmes, who conceived of them partially based on the joke of a Doctor Who monster taking off its helmet to reveal a head shaped like that helmet.
 * According to Bob Baker, when he and Dave Martin consulted Holmes as script editor for help with writing The Sontaran Experiment, Holmes had drawn out an elaborate backstory for the Sontarans, including that the Sontarans had sex through the backs of their necks (whether this is through the probic vent or not is unclear).
 * In the documentary Built for War, Elisabeth Sladen credits Linx actor Kevin Lindsay with establishing the pronunciation for "Sontaran" that is now generally accepted. Her description of the filming of The Time Warrior suggests that Lindsay insisted upon stressing the second syllable over the objections of director Alan Bromly, who wanted to emphasise the first. A similar dispute was later seen on screen in The Sontaran Stratagem, with Donna Noble adopting Bromly's preferred pronunciation and the Tenth Doctor using Lindsay's.
 * According to The Brilliant Book 2011, a non-narrative based reference book that this wiki does not consider to be a valid source; on 26 October 1895, the Tenth Doctor was searching for Sontaran grenades when he met up with Winston Churchill.
 * NOTVALID: Strax Field Report: The Doctors states that Strax and the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet are from the same clone batch, explaining why the costumes of these Sontarans resemble each other instead of their classic series appearance or Flux redesign.
 * The Star Trek series  introduced.
 * In the David Walliams novel Grandpa's Great Ecscape, kids dress up as Sontarans, along with Cybermen and Daleks, using costumes stolen from a Doctor Who exhibition, and pretend that there is an alien invasion of Earth.
 * In 2017, leaked CIA documents listed "sontaran" as the name of a hacking tool used for Skype.
 * In both AHistory and Whoniverse, Lance Parkin confirms that the "shape-shifting goblins" mentioned in Father Time are the hybrid descendants of the Rutans and the Sontarans. It is possible that this merging of races is meant to stem from General Sontar's call for peace after seeing the end of the universe. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)
 * In "A Sourcebook for Field Agents" from The Doctor Who Role Playing Game, the Sontarans were descended from a race called the Anar, who came to be at war with the Isari. The Anar then turned control of their world to General Sontaris, who after wiping out the Isari refused to give up his dictatorship, having himself cloned into an army and wiping out the rest of the Anar. He then declared himself Emperor, renamed the Anar homeworld Sontara, and gave his newly-cloned race the name Sontarans. NOTE: It seems some of this storyline was adapted for the history of the alternate Sontarans depicted in PROSE: The Infinity Doctors.
 * If one counts AUDIO: Sync and AUDIO: The Great Sontaran War, the Slitheen and Sontarans are the only aliens besides the Trickster's Brigade to appear in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.