The Sontaran Experiment

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry arrive on a desolate and apparently deserted Earth to discover that a group of shipwrecked astronauts from a human colony, GalSec, have been lured there by a fake distress call. One of their number, Roth, tells Sarah of an alien conducting gruesome experiments on him and his crewmates. The alien turns out to be a Sontaran, Field-Major Styre, who is compiling a report on human physical and mental capabilities as a prelude to an invasion of Earth.

The Doctor challenges Styre to unarmed combat. The Sontaran agrees but is quickly weakened in Earth’s unfamiliar gravity. Harry meanwhile enters Styre’s ship and uses The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver to remove the vital terullian diode bypass transformer, so that when the alien returns there to revitalise himself he is drained of all his energy and destroyed.

The Doctor sends a message to the Sontaran fleet, warning them that without Styre’s report they cannot invade.

Episode entry

• Commentary by Elisabeth Sladen, Bob Baker and Philip Hinchcliffe
  
• Documentary – ‘Built for War’. A brief history of the Sontaran race, told by some of the actors and production personnel who worked on the stories, including Elisabeth Sladen, stuntman Stuart Fell, writer Bob Baker and more
  
• Photo gallery
  
• Production notes
  

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