Doctor Who: The Sontarans

On TV, the Sontarans make their first appearance in the Third Doctor story The Time Warrior. It's obvious that the Doctor already knows about them, as is often the case with alien races on the show, but here, Big Finish takes the unusual step of imagining that first encounter, framing it as if it were an unseen First Doctor story taking place between episodes of The Dalek Master Plan. Thus, we have Steven and Sara Kingdom as the companions, with Peter Purves providing the narration, as he did in the previous outing to feature those two characters.

It's a very serious Sontaran story, at odds with what the TV series has largely done with the race in the modern era, but suiting some of the style of the early show. The setting, as described, makes little sense in terms of real-world science and, while this is lampshaded, the mysteries are never really explained. Since there's not really any reason for them beyond window-dressing, this is one of the things that knocks the story down to four stars for me.

A rather militaristic outlook, especially in the first half, is another reason, but, fortunately, once you leave that aside, the plot itself is excellent. The TARDIS crew becomes involved with a team of Space Security agents trying to infiltrate a Sontaran base, something that inevitably involves a lot of gun battles. Even at this point, there's some good use of the companions, who, for once, know more about what they're facing than the Doctor does, and Sara in particular, realising that she's in the middle of a historical event she's previously heard of.

Things improve in the second half, once the gun battles end and we get to see more of the Sontarans as people. This is one of the real strengths of the story, contrasting Sontaran culture and psychology with that of humans, something that has a key part in the eventual resolution. It's a less sympathetic look than that given in some other Big Finish Sontaran stories, but it all fits together with what we know, and isn't wholly one-sided. And, of course, in the process, we get to see the Doctor learning for the first time all the things he brings up in The Time Warrior. Oh, and the final scenes are very much in character for the '60s version of the TV show.

If you want an action tale, don't mind a partially pro-military outlook, and are bored with the “comedy Sontaran” approach, this will probably be one to check out.