Rate "The Sontaran Strategem"

Returing to Doctor Who for the first time since 1985, the spud-heads are back. And, not to be confused with the spud-heads, Martha Jones is back. UNIT is back. And we find out what ATMOS is.

So, what did you think of the Sontaran Strategem?

Rates a 4/5 from me. I thought the new Sontaran costumes looked quite good, UNIT was back and feeling nicely modern. Some very good dialogue, solid performances from Tate, Tennant and the ever-awesome Bernard Cribbins. Likewise, the guest characters were nicely played with Staal being enjoyably villainous, Mace a nice foil for The Doctor and Rattigan a nasty little twerp.

Satnavs are a bit evil, so it wasn't a hard plot point to sell.

I still remember being underwhelmed by this episode. Luke Rattigan was annoying beyond belief, and the cliffhanger build up went on forever. The sontaran realisation, however, was the best since The Time Warrior. 3/5.

Overall bit of a dip but still 4/5

i quite like it. probably need to watch it again at some point.

I wasn't a huge fan of Helen Raynor's previous 2-part Dalek story, but this one had something of an old-school Who vibe to it with UNIT featuring so prominently. My thoughts are along the same lines as Zoltar. 4/5 from me.

3/5.

Problems: the evil satnav idea was good, and one assumes that the Sontarans needed a plausible genius to pitch the idea of Atmos, but the Rattigan character was more annoying than he needed to be.

Doing the Sontaran Hakka every five minutes isn't intimidating, it's silly. Do the Daleks break into a line dance every time they want to be menacing? No.

The cordulaine signal, or whatever it's called, doesn't work. Even if you make the casing of a round expand so it lodges in the chamber, pulling the trigger will still cause the gun to fire. The signal does nothing to the gunpowder, so each gun becomes a one shot weapon.
- not that it matters,really,it's just a dismal error.


Other than those fanboy/geeky niggles, not a bad story. It was almost a slice of Pertwee, and the nostalgia factor makes it a 3 instead of a 2.