The Sontarans are the finest warriors in the galaxy. They are a clone race dedicated to a life of warfare against the Rutans. The Sontarans are bred in batches of millions and they have only one weakness, the probic vent at the back of their necks is a vulnerable point. The Doctor has fought the Sontarans many times in Doctor Who, so it is only a matter of time before they show up again. However, not all Sontarans are evil, some are friendly like Strax, who has redeemed himself by joining the Paternoster Gang. But all Sontarans love war! Sontar-Ha!
The Time Warrior
★★★★★
TX: 15/12/1973 – 05/01/1974
Written by Robert Holmes Directed by Alan Bromly
Scientists on modern day Earth are being kidnapped and brought back through time to Medieval England by a Sontaran called Linx. The Third Doctor and investigative journalist Sarah-Jane Smith travel back in time to investigate. They discover that the castle of Irongron has been taken over Linx, who is trading weapons to Irongron in exchange for shelter and help in repairing his spacecraft. Linx has been kidnapping the U.N.I.T scientists from the future in order to repair his ship. Linx is bemused by Sarah-Jane as the concept of gender is unknown to the Sontarans. However, the Doctor offers Linx an ultimatum: he can take off in his ship, destroying Irongron’s castle and the sophisticated weapons that Linx gave to him. But Linx refuses and he captures the Doctor. Sarah-Jane helps the Doctor and Professor Rubeish escape. At a nearby castle, the Doctor and Sarah-Jane convince Irongron’s neighbours to mount an attack to get rid of Linx. The assault succeeds and an archer called Hal kills Linx by shooting an arrow into his probic vent. The Doctor, Sarah-Jane and Hal escape in the nick of time before Linx’s ship explodes destroying Irongron’s castle. The Doctor and Sarah-Jane return to present day Earth in the TARDIS, as this adventure leads directly into the events of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. The Doctor names his home planet of Gallifrey for the first time in this story. The first time that the Doctor mentions the name of his home planet in the modern series is in The Runaway Bride.
The Sontaran Experiment
★★★★☆
TX: 22/02/1975 – 01/03/1975
Written by Bob Baker & Dave Martin Directed by Rodney Bennett
The Fourth Doctor, Sarah-Jane and Harry beam down to Earth from the Nerva Beacon in the far future. However, they discovered that Earth is not completely deserted after all! A small team of humans have arrived to assess the suitability for recolonisation, the human race fled Earth centuries ago in fear of impending solar flares. But a Sontaran called Commander Styre has also arrived on the planet and he is assessing the strength of humans in order to prepare for a strategic attack by the Sontaran war fleet, as Earth is in a key position. The Doctor engages into hand-to-hand combat with Linx. Sarah-Jane is experimented on by Linx by she is rescued by the Doctor. Harry gains access to Linx’s spaceship and at the Doctor’s instruction, he sabotages the ship so that when Linx retreats inside it he is killed. The Doctor tells the surviving humans that there are many more humans in the Nerva beacon in space and that they need to recolonise the Earth. Sarah-Jane, Harry and the Doctor depart using the transmat, but they are intercepted as this adventure leads directly into the events of Genesis of the Daleks.
Horror of Fang Rock
★★★★☆
TX: 03/09/1977 – 24/09/1977
Written by Terrance Dicks Directed by Paddy Russell
The Fourth Doctor and Leela arrive at a lighthouse in the Victorian age. The lighthouse has been observing strange lights in the sky. Things get even more complicated when a shipwreck washes up four aristocratic survivors. A murderer is afoot within the lighthouse and the Doctor doesn’t know who it is. It turns out that a shape-shifting alien creature called a Rutan has infiltrated the lighthouse and has disguised itself as a human called Reuben. The Rutan Host are engaged in a long-running war with the Sontarans, their mortal enemies! The Doctor and Leela use some diamonds taken from the aristocrats to reflect the ray of the Rutan spaceship using the lighthouse so that it destroys the Rutan scout. The flash of the explosion causes a pigmentation dispersal in Leela’s eyes, which makes them change colour.
The Invasion of Time
★★★☆☆
TX: 04/02/1978 – 11/03/1978
Written by David Agnew (pseudonym for Graham Williams and Anthony Read) Directed by Gerald Blake
The Fourth Doctor returns to Gallifrey to claim his right to the Presidency of the Time Lords. However, his companion Leela is unaware that this is really a deception on his part to lure the Vardans into a trap, by ostensibly offering them control of Gallifrey. Leela is exiled from the Capitol and forced to live in the wild with other outcast Time Lords. What the Doctor did not anticipate is that the Vardans are really in league with the Sontarans, who launch their own invasion of Gallifrey. The Sontarans enlist the help of the Castellan. The Doctor, Leela, Andred and other Time Lords lure the Sontarans inside the TARDIS where the Sontarans are picked off one by one. Against Cardinal Borusa’s permission, the Doctor uses the Demat Gun to destroy the Sontaran Commander Storr in the Presidential Inauguration Chamber. Leela decides to stay behind on Gallifrey because she has fallen in love with the Time Lord Andred. K-9 Mark I stays with her, so the Doctor produces K-9 Mark II from storage inside the TARDIS.
The Two Doctors
★★★★☆
TX: 16/02/1985 – 02/03/1985
Written by Robert Holmes Directed by Peter Moffatt
The Second Doctor and Jamie are sent by the Time Lords to the space station Camera, to investigate illegal time travel experiments conducted by a scientist called Dastari. Dastari has augmented Androgums like Chessene in order to make them more human, which appals the Doctor. However, the space station is attacked by the Sontarans, who kill everyone onboard. The Sontarans, led by Group Marshal Stike, head for Earth with Dastari, two Androgums (Chessene and Shockeye) and the kidnapped Second Doctor. Jamie hides in the ship’s inner mechanics, which is where the Sixth Doctor and Peri find him when they attempt to rescue the Second Doctor. The Sixth Doctor, Jamie and Peri follow the Sontarans to Seville, Spain where Dastari attempts to isolate the Second Doctor’s symbiotic nuclei which will enable Chessene and the Sontarans to operate the time machine they have assembled. When the Second Doctor is uncooperative, Chessene tells Dastari to turn him into an Androgum (using Shockeye’s DNA), to loosen his tongue. The Second Doctor begins turning into an Androgrum, which gives him a voracious appetite. He and the equally hungry Shockeye depart for the nearby Seville where the pair begin eating endlessly in one of the restaurants. Chessene kills the Sontarans Stike and Varl with coronic acid. The Sixth Doctor, Peri and Jamie pursue the Second Doctor and Shockeye in Seville. Unfortunately, Shockeye kills an innocent maître d’ at the restaurant. The Second Doctor rejects the fusion transfer and turns back into a Time Lord. Chessene and Dastari capture the two Doctors, Jamie and Peri and take them back to the country house. In the basement, the Doctor demonstrates that Chessene’s time machine will work now using Peri as a trial subject. The Doctors and Peri are tied up as Shockeye prepares to eat Jamie. They escape and the Sixth Doctor rescues Jamie. The Sixth Doctor lures Shockeye into the open where he brutally kills him using cyanide. Back at the house Chessene betrays Dasatri too and kills him. Jamie disarms Chessene by throwing his knife at her hand. Chessene gets inside her time machine, but the Doctor sabotaged it by removing the briode nebuliser. So Chessene dies and reverts back into an Androgum. The Sixth Doctor and Peri bid their goodbyes to the Second Doctor and Jamie. The Sixth Doctor tells Peri that they are now going to be vegetarians.
The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky
★★★★☆
TX: 26/04/2008 – 03/05/2008
Written by Helen Raynor Directed by Douglas Mackinnon
The Tenth Doctor and Donna are summoned back to present day Earth by the Doctor’s former companion Martha Jones. Martha now works for U.N.I.T and they have been investigating mysterious deaths across the world in connection with the car sat nav company ATMOS. ATMOS is revolutionary because it reduces all carbon emissions to zero. U.N.I.T storm the London ATMOS factory. But in the basement, two U.N.I.T soldiers are captured and turned into operatives by the Sontarans. The Sontarans create a clone of Martha in order to infiltrate U.N.I.T. The Doctor and Private Ross meet Luke Rattigan, the arrogant young genius inventor of ATMOS. The Doctor discovers that Luke Rattigan is in league with the Sontarans and there is a teleport pod to their spaceship in his living room. General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet confronts the Doctor, but he and Ross escape. The Doctor reunites with Donna, who has gone back to see her mother Sylvia and her grandfather Wilf in Chiswick. However, the Sontarans decide to accelerate their plan. The Sontarans activate all of the 400 million ATMOS devices on Earth, which release poisonous gas which starts to choke humanity. However, the Doctor discovers that the gas is really clone feed that the Sontarans are using to turn the Earth into a clone world to create billions of new soldiers to engage in their fifty thousand-year war with the Rutans. The clone of Martha is used by the Sontarans to prevent the United Nations from destroying the Sontaran ship with nuclear weapons. However, the clone of Martha is discovered by the Doctor and he rescues the real Martha in the basement of the ATMOS factory. U.N.I.T storm the factory and reclaim it from the Sontarans using steel bullets that counteract the Sontarans’ ability to jam most conventional firearms by expanding the copper-lined bullets with their cordolaine signal. The Doctor, Martha and Donna teleport to the Rattigan Academy where Luke Rattigan has been betrayed by the Sontarans. The Doctor creates a device which he uses to ignite all of the Sontaran gas on Earth, causing it to disperse. The Doctor then re-calibrates the device for Sontaran air, so that he can use it to destroy the Sontaran ship from within. After teleporting aboard, the Doctor offers General Staal the Undefeated and his troops the chance to leave, but they refuse because they do not fear death and instead prepare to destroy the Earth. Luke Rattigan beams aboard the ship, replacing the Doctor and he uses the device to sacrifice himself to destroy the Sontarans. Later, the Doctor and Donna are about to say goodbye to Martha (who is engaged to Tom Milligan from Last of the Time Lords), but an unknown force causes the TARDIS to take-off with Martha still onboard. This adventure leads directly into the events of The Doctor’s Daughter.
The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Last Sontaran
★★★★☆
TX: 29/09/2008
Written by Phil Ford Directed by Joss Agnew
Sarah-Jane and her gang investigate strange lights around a nearby observatory. The astronomer scientist and his daughter have been taken over by a Sontaran called Kaag. Kaag is the only survivor of the Tenth Sontaran Fleet, which was destroyed by the Tenth Doctor in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky. Kaag intends to use the observatory to bring down satellites on Earth, destroying humanity as revenge. Sarah-Jane wants to contact U.N.I.T as she knows how brutal the Sontarans are, having previously encountered them in The Time Warrior and The Sontaran Experiment. Clyde distracts Kaag so that Luke and Maria can sneak aboard Kaag’s disguised space pod and manufacture a gas to knock out Kaag. However, Maria’s mum Chrissie arrives and uses the heel of her shoe to incapacitate Kaag by sticking it into his probic vent. Maria uses the gas to knock out her mum and wipe her memory of the events. Sarah-Jane allows Kaag to leave Earth in his repaired ship, but warns him to never return. Maria and her dad Alan Jackson move to America because of Alan’s new job. Chrissie remembers the events with the Sontaran but promises Sarah-Jane not to tell anyone about it.
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Enemy of the Bane
★★★★☆
TX: 01-08/12/2008
Written by Phil Ford Directed by Graeme Harper
Rani’s mother Gita is kidnapped from her flower shop by Mrs Wormwood! Sarah-Jane and Rani follow Mrs Wormwood to a deserted facility, where Mrs Wormwood reveals that she needs Sarah-Jane’s help. The Bane are after her because she failed to conquer Earth during the events of Invasion of the Bane. The Bane have come to Earth in search of the Tunguska Scroll, which is kept in the U.N.I.T Black Archive. Sarah-Jane enlists the help of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (The Web of Fear et al), who helps her and Rani to break into the U.N.I.T Black Archive. Meanwhile, Clyde and Luke are attacked at Bannerman Road by the Bane, who have come to recapture Mrs Wormwood. Mrs Wormwood is secretly in league with Commander Kaag, who has returned to Earth. Kaag and Mrs Wormwood want Sarah-Jane to recover the Tunguska Scroll for them because this holds the key to the location of the body of Horath, a powerful warrior who will help them conquer the galaxy. Kaag already possesses the consciousness of Horath. The two kidnap Luke and take him to a remote location. Luke attempts to escape after Mrs Wormwood tries to convince him that she is his real mother. However, Luke is recaptured by Kaag. Mrs Wormwood and Kaag take Luke to a druidic circle, which is the entrance to a portal to where Horath’s body is. The portal is opened by Mrs Wormwood using the Tunguska Scroll. However, Sarah-Jane, Rani and Clyde arrive and rescue Luke. Clyde convinces Kaag that Mrs Wormwood is not his ally and so Kaag throws himself and Mrs Wormwood into the portal, killing them both and the portal closes behind them. Sarah-Jane, Luke, Clyde and Rani return to Bannerman Road where they say goodbye to the Brigadier, which marks the final appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Sadly, I never had the pleasure of meeting the late, great Nicholas Courtney and Elizabeth Sladen.
Flux: Chapter 2 – War of the Sontarans
★★★★☆
TX: 07/11/2021
Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
The Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz and Dan arrive in what they believe to be the Napoleonic Wars. However, the British soldiers are really fighting Sontarans! The Doctor is assisted by Mary Seacrest. The Doctor discovers that on the British map, the word Russia has been replaced by the word Sontar. Desperate to negotiate a peaceful settlement, the Doctor tries to reason with the Sontaran leader. However, this fails and the British army and the Sontarans begin to battle! During the battle, the Doctor sneaks aboard the Sontaran space fleet on Earth, and she and Dan sabotage the ships, causing them to explode. The Sontarans later unite with the Daleks and the Cybermen in fear of the galaxy-consuming Flux.
Chris Olsen's TARDIS 