Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5991 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-09
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

Synopsis
Tom Baker returns as the fourth doctor in THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT in an eerie tale of a deserted Earth and the group of space travellers lured there by a phoney distress call.

Customer Reviews

"Sontarans and South Africans"
A good 2 parter shot entirely on location, Dartmoor adding more than a little atmosphere.

Yes, the script is a bit scatalogical. We can accept the experiments are all testing the mortality of Humans, but given there's so few on the planet, why bother? I reckon Styre's just making snuff videos for the Marshall!

Great characterisation for the Sontarans, easily the best non-Robert Holmes Sontaran script-so far! Kevin Lindsay's performance takes full advantage of lines like (on reacting to a scream) "Why did you make that disagreeable noise?" and calling the Doctor a "maggot"!

The Doctor/Sarah/Harry triumvirate is working well here, 3 never seems like a crowd. Sarah becomes a torture victim largely relying on camera angles and Elisabeth Sladen's strong performance, Harry switches from credible doctor (he knows someone deprived of water should be given a small amount and not a cupfull) to someone who can fall down a "whacking great subsidence" and then resolve to teach a murderous Sontaran a lesson without ever seeming a buffoon.

Uncle Tom plays the action man here falling down the same subsidence and challenging the Sontaran to a duel. The sequence where he declares "I'm the Warrior Class!" is a joy!

The colonists are not so memorable although it's good they're not speaking in received pronunciation, even if the South African accent is so easily identifiable.

A good functional design for the robot.

"Built for War" covers the 4 Sontaran stories, focussing mainly on the 1st 2, utilising Lis Sladen but also featuring soundbites from Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant & others. Great stuff.

Of course there's a commentary (sadly not a Tommentary) which stars Ms Sladen and covers memories of the location, Kevin Lindsay's lunch being sent up the hill on a tray and Tom's snapped collar bone.

A great start for the budget DVDs with better extras than some of the full price ones (yes "Claws of Axos", I am talking about you!).

Recommended for all.

Only 2 episodes.
'The Sontaran Experiment' is good, but, being only a 2 parter (about 50 minutes), should have been released with 'The Ark in Space' (4 parts), the story that had preceded it on first broadcast in 1975. However, the restoration of picture and sound is exemplary, as usual, and there is the bonus of a near 40 minute documentary. Unfortunately, though, the 'actor' playing the Sontaran in the new footage that's interspersed throughout the documentary is an embarrassment and should have been cut.

Enjoyable, short mid-season filler
"The Sontaran Experiment", by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve: to provide a diverting two-part filler story to plug the gap between "The Ark in Space" and "Genesis of the Daleks".
Fifty minutes really isn't a lot of time for the classic series to work with, and as such the plot (and resolution) is fairly straightforward. Of much more interest is the fact that "The Sontaran Experiment" was shot entirely on location, in cold weather on the windswept expanses of Dartmoor. There are, therefore, no corridors for once, and good use is made of the natural environment, with its dramatic vistas and all its concomitant hazards.
In his first performance as the Doctor under new producer Philip Hinchcliffe ("The Sontaran Experiment" was made before "The Ark in Space"), Tom Baker nails the part right away, delivering just the right mixture of madness and intensity. Companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are their usual likeable (if hopeless) selves and there's nothing really to object to, except perhaps for the rather cheesy robot. The Sontaran makes a good, if one-dimensionasl villain, and his eventual demise is fairly gratifying.
The DVD presentation in this likeable slice of filler is the first of the BBC's cut-price "vanilla plus" presentations of classic series stories. The DVD therefore features a commentary (with actress Elisabeth Sladen, producer Philip Hinchcliffe and writer Bob Baker) and a decent documentary on the role of the Sontarans in Doctor Who, but not all that much else. A decent purchase for Who fans none the less.