The Sontaran Stratagem: Doctor Who Series Four Episode Four

The show did it with shop window dummies and again last year with statues. Once again, Doctor Who has taken an everyday item and turned it in to an object of abject terror for the nation's children. Fantastic! In this first of a two parter, it was the turn of satellite navigation systems. There will be a number of parents who for the foreseeable future will have to persuade their reluctant offspring that the car is safe and will not suddenly send them plunging in to a river.

The episode also saw the return of the much loved Martha Jones. She called the Doctor up using the mobile that he gave her at the end of the last series. Martha has moved on - now a fully fledged Doctor herself - and engaged to be married - she is a vital part of the resurgent organization UNIT. However, when called on to investigate the satellite navigation system known as Atmos which miraculously reduces a vehicle's carbon emissions to zero she realizes that she needs a little assistance. The Doctor and Donna emerge from the Tardis straight in to a full assault on the factory building.

This was a useful plot device. It allowed the action of the episode to get going straight away with little beating around the bush. The Doctor leaves Martha at the factory and drops Donna off at her house and proceed to the headquarters of the originator of the device - Rattigan - an eighteen year old genius who has somehow managed to create technology that is decades ahead of itself. Suspicions aroused, the Doctor soon discovers a “thingy” as he calls it and teleports straight on to a Sontaran space ship. He teleports right back down to earth as soon as he realizes that it is this particular old adversary, running while teleporting! He and his soldier escort make good their escape, with the help of a tennis ball in the probic vent.

Martha in the meantime has been kidnapped by two UNIT soldiers who have been conditioned by the Sontarans and is horrified to see that they have created a clone of her, with full memories intact. She lapses in to unconsciousness, kept alive only to serve as a connection to the clone. I loved the differences between Martha and her clone - it is obvious that Freema Agyeman enjoys playing a bad guy! I hope she is given more to do than stride around smirking with evil intent in the next episode.

The Sontarans realize that their plans have been interrupted and although the Atmos system has only been installed in half of the eight hundred million cars on the planet they go in to their battle phase. As the Doctor and Donna look on helplessly, Wilf, trapped in his car, suffocates as all the cars on the planet start throwing out a mysterious gas. The cliffhanger ending has the whole world imperiled by this gas, the true purpose of which is still unknown.

This was an excellent first episode, tightly scripted to keep the tension mounting. Some may have been a little disappointed that Donna and Martha got on well with each other from the word go. This was exactly the right thing for writer to do - nothing can compete with the disgruntled bitchiness between Sarah Jane and Rose in series two - to try and cap that would have been foolish. Instead the two of them reach an understanding almost immediately. Plus, Martha is impressed with Donna when the latter discovers that none of the workers in the factory has ever had a day off, something which indicates that there is something seriously wrong - we are dealing here with the great British workforce after all!

The Luke Rattigan character was a well conceived idea - the still snotty nosed child genius who looks down on his species. It has been done similarly in other series, however Ryan Sampson gave the character the right combination of childish petulance and teenage impotence turned to deadly effect with something approaching glee. His alliance with the Sontarans has not been fully explained but I imagine it is something to do with his dissatisfaction with the human race. I imagine he will probably face a nasty death in the next episode - though it would be a neat touch if the Doctor expelled him to a planet where his mental capabilities are considered average, if not below. That would be punishment indeed and we know that the Doctor can mete out severe and unusual when he so wishes.

It was good, too, to revisit the Noble family again. Wilf Mott especially is becoming a favourite - perhaps it is not too late to have a septuagenarian in the Tardis as a companion? Humour aside, he is very well played by veteran comic actor Bernard Cribbins. There is a subtlety in his characterization that is unexpected and a pleasure to watch, unlike Jacqueline King as Donna's mother, Sylvia. Although this is due to the script rather than the acting she really does come across as a tiresome and nagging woman - which might make you think "job done". However, when it leaves me sighing in quiet irritation at her every appearance it is not, I imagine, the light relief that the powers that be at the show anticipated.