Terror of the Sontarans (#203)

    Big Finish Main Range

Where to start with this one… There are Sontarans but they don’t arrive for awhile. First the Doctor and Mel wander around a location on a planet, where there are prisoners and gems and strange voices in the air. And an insane Sontaran, we eventually discover. He’s been driven mad by something in the depths of the mining base, in the caverns below, which are whispering the Doctor’s name. The jewels there seem to have a mind of their own, too. And the cast of characters are quite fun a lobster dude, a fake hero, and a mad Sontaran scientist. Then the “real” Sontarans show up and start pushing people around. And things go from bad to weird and further on down the line. Meh.

This story reminds me a lot of Dust Breeding, though not nearly so straightforward. And it feels like it was written with the 5th Doctor and Tegan in mind. The 7th Doctor and Mel have some strange conversations that really don’t remind me of their relationship. Terrible puns and a completely clueless Doctor, happily wandering? Wait, what? That is just not the 7th Doctor’s personality at all! Now I realize that he doesn’t’ become the great manipulator at all but unless this is right after the first story with the Rani, I don’t see why the 7th Doctor is just so disinterested in everything. Perhaps it’s just having two writers but that usually doesn’t cause any strangeness. It just wasn’t for me.


Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Daniel O'Meara (Ketch), Jon Edgley Bond (Anvil Jackson/Technician Gyte), Andree Bernard (Tethneka/Carter/Thing #1 and #2), Dan Starkey (Field-Major Kayste/Skegg/Stodd), John Banks (Adjutant Commander Klath/Stettimer), John Dorney (Glarr)    

Writer: John Dorney and Dan Starkey 

Director: Ken Bentley

Release: September 2015   

© Laura Vilensky 2019