Ever since the Doctor regenerated for the third time, he, Sarah Jane Smith, and Harry Sullivan have been careering through time and space by means of travelling in the TARDIS and now by transmat. In the previous adventure, The Ark in Space, the trio leave space station Nerva by means of teleportation, for the space station’s new captain asks them to fix the teleporting mechanism that beams them to Earth. The three time-space travellers materialise on planet Earth, and the Doctor starts to work on the circle of transmat refractors, encouraging Sarah and Harry to explore the different-and-yet-the-same planet. Little do they know that there’s something hiding on what appears to be this empty planet, and it’s not very nice...
After several scuffles with what eventually turns out to be a stranded group of astronauts, the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry discover that the astronauts are being picked off one by one, but by what or whom, no one knows, until Sarah is captured by a robot and taken to a familiar space ship...
The robot in question turns out to be the helper of a Sontaran, a militaristic alien. While the robot rounds up all the humans it can find on the planet (which turns out to be just the Doctor and his crew and the stranded astronauts), the Sontaran executes harsh and brutally fatal experiments on the humans and sends the information to the leader of his army. Once again, it is up to the Doctor and his companions to save the day, and to prevent a whole Sontaran army from destroying Earth.
Because this arc is only two episodes long, there really isn’t an extensive overview on my part today. The length of this arc didn’t live up to my expectations of a classic Doctor Who story. However, while the story is brief, the plot is familiar and extensively well-written and detailed. The similar theme in this story reminds us as viewers of events that have happened in the past. The methods of experimentation that the Sontaran uses are similar to those performed by the Nazis on the people they holed up in their concentration camps. Dehydration tests, strength tests, food deprivation tests - these experiments have all obviously been toned down for the children watching this show, but it reflects the harsh experiments the Nazis used after World War II.
In a way, the Sontaran race is similar to the Nazis as well, although not as spot-on as the Daleks. They aren’t born – they are cloned. Each Sontaran looks practically identical. They live only to fight, and are trained in combat in their early years so they can serve for their race. Their sole purpose in life is to die honourably in battle. It’s incredible how the writers of Doctor Who are inspired by the historical events of Earth’s past and can create alien villains that so resemble our own. In a way, it’s like creating one’s own version of events, like CS Lewis’ and Philip Pullman’s interpretation of the Bible and Christianity. Of course, I may just be thinking too deeply on such matters...
On the subject of Sarah Jane’s outfit, however...
Honestly, I don’t know what she was thinking...I mean, the orange Wellies, I can deal with, and I wouldn’t mind wearing a pair myself, and the blue hat (not pictured) is a nice touch, but a yellow raincoat and matching trousers is like you’re a shining beacon for attracting aliens. That’s probably why she got captured in the first place...
It’s nice to see the resurgence of Sarah’s attitude in this story. She never fails to stand up for herself, even when she’s been uprooted from her own time. When Harry keeps calling her “old thing” out of habit, she points out that she isn’t really a “thing” and insists that he call her by her name. It seems that it’s going to take Harry a while to get used her feminist attitude.
And, of course, Tom Baker never fails to disappoint. From funny quips such as “Trafalgar Square is that way...mind the traffic,” to taking out his five hundred year diary to look up the Sontarans in his past, it just makes me admire him even more. I’m not sure if I like the fight scene between him and the Sontaran, as I still have to get used to the Doctor actually fighting someone.
One thing that I still question even after watching is of what I heard one of the astronauts say to the Doctor about space station Nerva.
VURAL: Because Nerva doesn't exist, that's why. There's no such place.
DOCTOR: Fascinating. You don't believe it exists and yet you've obviously heard of it.
KRANS: Everybody's heard of the Lost Colony.
DOCTOR: Lost Colony? You mean it's become a legend like Lost Atlantis?
ERAK: Like what?
DOCTOR: Lost Atlantis. It's a legendary city... oh, never mind.
DOCTOR: Fascinating. You don't believe it exists and yet you've obviously heard of it.
KRANS: Everybody's heard of the Lost Colony.
DOCTOR: Lost Colony? You mean it's become a legend like Lost Atlantis?
ERAK: Like what?
DOCTOR: Lost Atlantis. It's a legendary city... oh, never mind.
Why do the astronauts think that Nerva doesn’t exist, if the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry all just came from it? Something must happen to it, and I have a feeling that we’ll find out soon.
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