The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)

The Sontaran Stratagem was the fourth episode of the fourth series of Doctor Who. It marked the first appearance of the Sontarans in the revived series and the reappearance of Martha Jones as a guest companion.

Synopsis
Martha Jones summons the Doctor back to modern-day Earth, but an old enemy lies in wait.

Plot
Jo Nakashima is investigating the Rattigan Academy and is kicked out by Luke Rattigan because she has found out his secret about the ATMOS devices. While she is driving she tries to get in contact with UNIT but she gets the answer phone. Suddenly her car takes control of itself and drives into the River Thames.

Donna is flying the TARDIS while the Doctor gets a call from his former companion Martha Jones. She says that she is bringing him back to Earth. As the TARDIS lands, Martha greets the Doctor and Donna. Martha is engaged to Tom Milligan now and, thanks to the Doctor's recommendation, has a job with UNIT as a medical officer. Martha takes the Doctor and Donna to a truck which serves as UNIT headquarters. Colonel Mace tells them that 52 people died at the exact same time at different locations and found in their cars and it is linked to the Rattigan Academy.

Meanwhile, two UNIT solders, Privates Harris and Gray, are exploring in the lower corridors of the ATMOS Factory. They are let through a door by brainwashed ATMOS workers, and find a tub full of slime and an unformed humanoid shape attached to it by an umbilical cord from its neck. Just as it sinks back below the surface, the Sontaran General Staal appears and disables them, then brainwashes them both into working for the Sontarans.

Donna brings to UNIT's attention the fact that the "sick day" file for the factory workers is empty. While Martha is checking an ATMOS employee he says that he works 24 hours a day. It becomes obvious that he has been hypnotized by the Sontarans. The Doctor is assigned a soldier for protection named Ross Jenkins and they depart, with a brief stop in order to drop Donna off at her home to check on her family before proceeding to the Rattigan Academy.

Donna walks down the street, recollecting past events with the Doctor, then sees her grandfather, Wilf, who is pleased to see her. They go in from a cup of coffee. The Doctor and Ross walk into the academy and are confronted by Luke Rattigan. After snipping Rattigan with much repartee, the Doctor sneaks into a teleport pod in his living room and teleports up to the Sontaran ship. Then, the Doctor discovers that the Sontarans are planning to do something with the cars and are orbiting the earth.

The Doctor teleports back to Earth and Staal, the Sontaran leader, follows him down to Rattigan's mansion. After impairing him hitting his Probic vent with a squash ball, The Doctor returns to the UNIT jeep with Jenkins. The ATMOS devices kick in and start to drive them towards the river. The Doctor realizing that the device is programmed to not follow his directions, orders the device to drive them into the river. Jenkins and the Doctor abandon the car as the device malfunctions. They run to Donna's mum's house. Back at UNIT Martha is called to see Colonel Mace but she is kidnapped by the mind-controlled solders. She is taken to the cloning room in the basement and the process of cloning her is begun.

The Doctor tells Donna's family that their car is dangerous and that it should be destroyed. Wilf gets in the car to drive it off the street when the doors lock and the gas is released and starts to suffocate him. Sylvia runs into the house.

Martha's clone wakes up and puts her clothes on and Martha is put to sleep. Martha's clone then walks off with the controlled solders, as the Doctor tries to save Wilfred.

Cast

 * The Doctor - David Tennant
 * Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
 * Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
 * Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
 * Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
 * Luke Rattigan - Ryan Sampson
 * Colonel Mace - Rupert Holliday Evans
 * General Staal - Christopher Ryan
 * Commander Skorr - Dan Starkey
 * Jo Nakashima - Elenor Matsuura
 * Private Harris - Clive Standen
 * Private Gray - Wesley Theobald
 * Ross Jenkins - Christian Cooke
 * Trepper - Rad Kaim
 * ATMOS Voice - Elizabeth Ryder

Production crew
To be added

Technology

 * The Sontarans use Cloning Pools

Individuals

 * Martha is now engaged to Tom Milligan.
 * Martha's stated desire to change UNIT from the inside echoes Jack Harkness' similar statement regarding his intentions regarding Torchwood.

Locations

 * The Doctor mentions the fifteenth broken moon of the Medusa Cascade.

Planets

 * The Doctor mentions Cotter Palluni's World as one of the planets he wanted to take Donna.

Races and species

 * General Staal is called a "baked potato" by Ross Jenkins.
 * When the Sontarans realised they had an intruder, the Doctor replied "How'd he get in, then? In-tru-der-window?" Henry van Statten also said the same thing.
 * The Sontarans' weak point is their probic vent; a small connector at the back of their necks that allows them to plug into an energy source to recharge.

Time wars

 * According to Staal, the Sontarans were not allowed to take part in the Last Great Time War.

Timeline

 * The Doctor said he worked with UNIT some time in the 1970s, "or was it the 80s?": A reference to the UNIT dating controversy.

UNIT

 * Donna calls the UNIT soldiers "stormtroopers", refering to the Nazi soldiers. Or possibly to the characters from the Star Wars franchise.
 * The dialogue between the Doctor and Martha suggests that he helped get her job with UNIT.
 * UNIT has received increased funding from the United Nations due to the increase in alien incidents: "all in the name of Homeworld Security".
 * Martha mentions the Valiant.
 * The Doctor is still technically a UNIT staff member, having never officially resigned. He's well known to UNIT.

Story notes

 * This episode marks the first television appearance of the Sontarans in 23 years. Their last regular series appearance was in The Two Doctors, however the last time they were refered to was in 2007 in SJA: Eye of the Gorgon. They had also previously appeared in several non-canonical or questionably canonical productions, including "A Fix with Sontarans" in 1985 and the early-1990s independent production Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans.
 * Helen Raynor wrote this episode. Her Series 3 episodes Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks both occupied fourth and fifth episode in the series. This two part episode also occupies episode four and five.
 * This two-parter is Douglas Mackinnon's first story as director.
 * When Donna asks the Doctor if it was his influence that turned Martha into 'a soldier', a few notes of Donna's theme music can be heard before it segues into the music which plays when the UNIT soldiers appear.
 * Mobile phone company O2 released an ATMOS SatNav phone, possibly based on the devices used in this episode.
 * On the Sontaran ship and in almost every shot you will see what looks like an Xbox 360 power indicator complete with the quarter circle lines and a dot in the center the only major difference is that it is purple rather than green.
 * This show was made during the 35th anniversary of the Sontarans.
 * In DW: The Time Warrior the Sontarans were described as "nasty, brutish and short". This is the first time that they are shown to actually be shorter than normal human stature.
 * There is a UNIT character called Jenkins, a homage to a famous piece of dialogue "Jenkins, chap with the wings there five rounds rapid" from DW: The Dæmons. In the commentary broadcast on BBC7, it was said that "Jenkins" was named for Richard Jenkins, who maintains the BBC's DW website.
 * This is Christopher Ryan's second role in Doctor Who. He previously played Lord Kiv in DW: Mindwarp.
 * UNIT has now been rebranded as the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, having previously been known as the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. This followed a request by the United Nations shortly after the series returned to TV in 2005. Nonetheless, Martha still refers to UNIT receiving funding from the United Nations and the later TW: Children of Earth: Day One indicates that the UN still commands UNIT.
 * When communicating with each other, UNIT use call signs first used in the Classic series. These are mostly based around greyhound racing. Personnel are usually designated a Greyhound call sign, whereas a base of operations is known as a Trap.
 * Donna makes reference to the terrorist prisoner camps at Guantanamo Bay. This is one of the first references in the revived Doctor Who to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Similarly, Martha refers to UNIT's funding being "in the name of Homeworld Security", a deliberate reference to the Department of Homeland Security established in the US after 9/11. It should be noted that while references to other post-9/11 events such as the Iraq War have been made in both Doctor Who and Torchwood, the franchise has yet to explicitly indicate that the Whoniverse experienced the actual events of 9/11.
 * The cloning vat in this story is in fact the fountain from DW: The Fires of Pompeii, simply redressed.
 * The Table that is used to hold the real Martha is used in the Torchwood episode TW: Cyberwoman. Also the metal headware that Martha has on at the same time looks like mind probe used the episode TW: Sleeper.
 * During the Sontaran Transporters activation the Master's drumming can be heard.
 * Luke Rattigan, despite having an American accent, uses the word "clever" in the British sense of the word, in which it simply means "intelligent." While the word has a similar meaning in America, Americans generally use the word "clever" to mean not just intelligent but intelligent with an element of cunning, wit and imagination.

Ratings

 * Official - 7.06 million viewers

Myths
to be added

Studio

 * Upper Boat Studios, Trefforest
 * BBC Broadcasting House, Llandaff

Location

 * Margam Country Park, Port Talbot
 * Usk Valley Business Park, Pontypool
 * Nant Fawr Road, Cardiff
 * Orion Electric, Port Talbort
 * Roath Basin, Cardiff Docks

Continuity

 * The Doctor last saw Martha Jones in DW: Last of the Time Lords. It is not indicated on screen how long it has been for Martha since she last saw the Doctor, although it has been long enough for her to have joined UNIT, obtained her doctorate, become engaged to Tom Milligan and worked with Torchwood.
 * Martha last appeared (chronologically) in TW: A Day in the Death. It is not yet known whether this episode (and the two that follow) occur before or after her later Torchwood involvement in BBCR: Lost Souls. NSA: Beautiful Chaos dates this episode as mid-April and Lost Souls is dated as June meaning this takes place before that event.
 * The Doctor says 'Are you my mummy?' while wearing a gas mask. (DW: The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances)
 * The Sontarans first appeared in DW: The Time Warrior and last appeared on TV broadcast screen in DW: The Two Doctors, though they did feature in a spin-off story: RP: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans. They also feature in The Sontaran Experiment and The Invasion of Time. Though physically similar to prior appearances, their uniforms are now purple and their voices have taken on a more human quality. They are honourable when it comes to the rules of warfare and respect their enemies, but are callous and bloodthirsty.
 * One aspect of Sontaran culture introduced with this episode is the war-chant "Sontar-ha!" which had not been heard previously.
 * Donna has flashbacks of DW: Partners in Crime, The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood. It is stated in dialogue that, from her grandfather and mother's perspective, it has only been days since the events of Partners in Crime.
 * In SJA: Eye of the Gorgon, Bea Nelson-Stanley referred to the Sontarans as Potato-like. Clyde Langer also makes a similar remark about "spuds" in SJA: The Last Sontaran.
 * Sylvia Noble recognizes the Doctor and references the events of The Runaway Bride, while Wilfred Mott recognizes the Doctor from his brief encounter with him in Voyage of the Damned. Wilfred's absence from The Runaway Bride is explained by Sylvia when she says he was ill with flu at the time of Donna's interrupted wedding.
 * The Doctor's initial response to Martha and Donna meeting each other is to ask them not to fight, which is exactly what happened when Rose Tyler met Sarah Jane Smith in School Reunion.
 * The Doctor mentions that the ATMOS devices are a temporal pocket 1 second out of sync with real time. The same is later said for the Medusa Cascade in the The Stolen Earth.
 * The Doctor says "How'd he get in? In-tru-da-window?" after teleporting onto the Sontaran's space ship. Henry van Statten made the same joke in Dalek.
 * Staal and Luke staring out the window in a scene reminiscent of the scene from Helen Raynor's previous story Daleks in Manhattan in which Diagoras and a Dalek are also staring out a window. In both, the alien comments on the humans ambition.
 * Martha's engagement to Tom Milligan is announced in this episode. She met Tom during her last adventure with the Doctor in Last of the Time Lords. During the intervening time, she referred to dating a doctor (Milligan) in TW:Reset. She is later said to be on honeymoon during TW: Children of Earth: Day One. In The End of Time'' we find that she eventually married Mickey Smith.
 * Donna quickly knowing how to fly the TARDIS may be a foreshadowing of her becoming part Time Lord.

Timeline

 * This story takes place after DWBIT: The Battle for Time
 * This story takes place before DW: The Poison Sky

Home video releases

 * Released in the Series 4 DVD boxset in November 2008 along with the rest of the Series.
 * Released as Series 4 Volume 2 in a vanilla edition alongside The Poison Sky, The Doctor's Daughter and The Unicorn and the Wasp.