The Sontaran Stratagem

[meddow]

Good solid episode which I think was let down by the cliff-hanger and the monsters. I’m really amazed, series one to three had their fantastic episodes and their clunkers mixed in – but series four has managed consistency of at least very good episodes so far. I think they’ve team have finally got the hang of it.

I wish they would stop killing off journalists. Every time they do that I get all upset because that might one day happen to Sarah Jane.

Martha! Being awesome and professional and in control. Man, top class clearance – she did not start UNIT at entry level. And Evil!Martha. I got the evil doppelganger that I’ve been wanting for months!

The Martha and Donna interaction was great. Though there wasn’t nearly enough of it. They were both pretty much basking in the glow of each other's awesomeness. That is how Companions meeting Companions should be – no fighting that make you choose which one you like, but adding the love for both of them together to make something even greater than the individuals.

I’m loving just how together the Doctor seems to be. This time last series he was suicidal. My love for Ten this season is immense. Though there wasn’t nearly enough grovelling at Martha’s feet. Next week maybe? And I think his jokes are getting worse.

Loved loved loved Donna the supertemp. My last summer job involved a lot of secretarial work and I managed to amuse myself during long hours over the binding machine by thinking that secretaries would make the best Companions. After all, they have to put up with a figures who like to think of themselves as right all the time and smarter than you, translate insane instructions and figure out how to us complex pieces of technology. Plus, I have a personal theory which I plan to one day work into fanfic that flying the TARDIS is much more like using a photocopier than driving a car. I mean, do you know what photocopiers can do these days? The can staple and scan and email. I wouldn’t be surprised if they can travel in time.

Though a folder with nothing in it doesn’t mean that nobody is taking sick days - it means that nobody’s following the proper paperwork procedures and they don’t have a Donna or a Meddow running around after them making sure that they do.

I can’t say how much I love Donna. The salute? Letting the Doctor ramble on about how brilliant she is when she was just popping out? Piloting the TARDIS? She leapt over Sarah and Barbara to become my favourite companion of the entire series in Fires of Pompeii, I really don’t know where else there is for her to go. Though the flashbacks of Donna magnificence – although welcome – seemed unnecessary in the forth episode of the series.

Wilf! He remembered the Doctor from Voyage! It was rather amusing how everyone in Donna’s family already knew the Doctor.

I’m not sure where they are going with the super genius kid, but damn he is annoying. I know stealing plots from SJA has been a common criticism of Series Four, and I haven’t minded – but isn’t that the very same old house where the evil kid genius in The Lost Boy was? Making him American does not make him materially different from the Slitheen kid.

UNIT! So far they’re removed from the Torchwood. The guns and misuse of military power message has the subtlety of an anvil, but I can deal. Like the military leader guy. Please don’t let him die. Love the young soldier Ross. He’s so cute. If we can’t get Midshipman Frame as a Companion for series five, I’ll very happily take Ross.

UNIT dating controversy jokes never get old.

And Sontarans were alright. I’ve seen The Time Warrior and The Sontaran Experiment and I still can’t seem to work up even a bit of nostalgia for them. Though it may have been worth bringing them back and giving them two episodes purely for the greatest war that they weren’t invited too line.

The cliff-hanger, I though, lacked a bit of drama. I mean, they’re never going to kill off Wilf, Donna would never get over it, and the gas seemed about as threatening as a smoke bomb.

And in series buzzwords, we have: The Medusa Cascade.

Anyone else think the bees disappearing might have nothing to do with the season plot and everything to do with some production team joke about the word ‘buzzword’?

Comments

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this episode for all these fragments too. Ten is less manic, and more together, and my love for Donna knows no bounds. I think the Ten/Donna/Martha interaction was great, although I hated Martha's opening line "I"m bringing you back to earth" -- ?? BAH. I hate weird things.

I don't feel that impressed with the Sontarans yet. Maybe when they start to be a bit more threatening, next episode? To be honest I wasn't expecting a lot considering last seasons equivalent episode with the Daleks wasn't up to much, but I was happy and I enjoyed it for the most part.

[naushika.livejournal.com]

Yay, excellent writeup, I concur with everything.

Though it may have been worth bringing them back and giving them two episodes purely for the greatest war that they weren’t invited too line.

That bit really made me lol. Sontarans are far from my favorite baddie, but I always thought they were good for a chuckle.

I can't remember if that old building/castley-looking place was in The Lost Boy, but it was definitely in Eye of the Gorgon, where the nuns lived. It's a neat looking building, and I get the feeling they have all of about five different filming locations they can shoot at, so we will probably see it many times in the future. At least now it's actual buildings instead of just quarries!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that opening line could have been much better, that and the "the Doctor is like fire" line. Much better than some of the lines in the Dalek episodes year though. There's been quite an improvement. I'm really glad Helen Raynor got a chance to prove she can write better than that.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

It might have been Eye of the Gorgon, thinking about it. Though if I had to pick between the same building and quarries, I might actually pick quarries. But then, I am getting bored with 21th century Earth as a setting.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

"I’m loving just how together the Doctor seems to be. This time last series he was suicidal. My love for Ten this season is immense. Though there wasn’t nearly enough grovelling at Martha’s feet. Next week maybe? And I think his jokes are getting worse."

I think the Doctor's always suicidal, but yes, s2-s3 was a lot more with the suicidal (I say s2 because "the urge to fall," Ten? Could you have anymore of a deathwish?). And indeed, more grovelling is necessary. He was getting close to being cold to her again before she grabbed his foot and lodged it down his throat.

Crappy!joke Doctor is a mainstay of the character, so far as I'm concerned. XD

The Sontarans are not among my favorites, but they remain very eerie to me. The experiments being run in Sontaran Experiment got under my skin in a really weird way.

[naushika.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I'm right there with you. It's like CAN WE PLEASE HAVE SOME ALIEN PLANETS. EVER. The Ood episode made me happy because it was something different for a change!

[meddow.livejournal.com]

And indeed, more grovelling is necessary.

Knowing poor Martha's luck, Evil!Martha will get to hear the groveling. Hmm, maybe evil Martha could kick his arse a bit.

Those Sontaran Experiment experiments were creepy. The guy who died of dehydration was brutal. Thinking about it makes me miss Harry and his stick.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

YES! They say we can't have alien planets because they never look like alien planet, but viewers have imagination. If we can deal with some of the science they have on the show, we can totally deal with alien planets that look like quarries.

[snorkackcatcher]

Not just the house -- wasn't the bridge the journalist was driven off the same one the boy disappeared from in Torchwood 'Adrift'? (Come to think of it, I think the house was used in TW 'Reset' too.)

Stealing plots from SJA? Haven't noticed that -- all right, 'Fires of Pompeii' had a few superficial links to 'Eye of the Gorgon', but I can't think of any other obvious ones. Mad genius types, either working with aliens or not, were a staple of Old Who, after all. (If the similarities are in spoilers for eps coming up, don't tell me what they are!)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the bridge, I haven't seen that episode of Torchwood.

Partners in Crime was pretty similar to Invasion of the Bane, particularly the villainesses. Then again, IotB is very similar to an episode of Futurama - it's very hard to be original these days.