Cheap Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (Episode #77) (DVD) Price

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Customer Reviews of Doctor Who - The Sontaran Experiment (Episode #77)

"I just love clocks: atomic clocks, quartz clocks, grandfather clocks...Cuckoo clocks."
I can't help but get the impression that with "The Sontaran Experiment" the writers and producers are experimenting with the viewers just a bit. By that I don't mean the unusually short length of the storyline (two episodes instead of the standard four or the epic six) or the exclusively outdoors setting (which works well except for making the poor robot stick out like a sore thumb). Their experiment is this, I think: can we make the other factors of the show so very good that viewers will overlook the implausibility of the plot? <
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>The answer in my case is in the affirmative, I'm afraid. I was enthralled by the brisk, tightly-scripted adventure with all of its tension. I was laughing uncontrollably at the Doctor's classic quirkiness masterfully rendered by Tom Baker--"Never throw anything away, Harry" he tells one of his traveling companions as he tosses an object aside. I was impressed with the acting by the cast, who are able to convey a range of extreme emotions without going over the top. I was appalled by the military experiments being performed by the eponymous Sontaran, Field-Major Styre--these are truly chilling, all the more so for being convincingly authentic, as anyone familiar with Nazi war crimes or the terrible stuff the Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 did in Northeast China can attest. Styre himself makes for a great villain, his dismissive arrogance almost as enjoyable as the Doctor's quirkiness; by the end of basically a half hour, you love to hate him so much that watching him get his just desserts is thoroughly satisfying. In short, the show's whole crew really had me going the whole time. It was only after the story was over that cool reflection set in and it struck me: why are the Sontarans trying to "invade" an abandoned planet?! The whole premise of the plot is bogus, but I was taken in by the hocus-pocus, so hats off to the folks responsible for this little gem.

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One of the CREEPIEST moments in Doctor Who history....
...Oh, I am not talking about the Sontaran Experiment, the 1975 Doctor Who story, I am talking about Terrance Dicks soap-boxing on the corpse of Robert Holmes at the end of the special featurette 'Built For War'. Somehow, DICKs, I doubt Robert Holmes was a cop, an honored war hero, and an irrational, flaming liberal. Your tasteless, obtuse political comments were just crap, as were the editors and people who screened that item and decided to end a DVD on such a note. Absolutely disgusting. A pumpkin head who merely script edited one story wraps it all up in nonsensical hysteria as he puts words and intentions into the mouth of a dead man. <
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>Aside from that being said, the DVD was rather nice, and I am glad the restro team doesn't take out or fix the natural quirks of the video (or film in most cases aside from this show). A nice crisp story with excellent melodrama, scripting and acting. The commentary by Hinchcliffe is always fascinating as he talks about many aspects of the production, but sadly is interrupted a little too much by Sladen who focuses on mere ostensible qualities of what she sees 90 percent of the time. But, you can hear how well they and the whole crew of that era got along as they tell stories of what was emotionally important to them behind the scenes; Hinchcliffe's 30th birthday on the shoot, Sladen's admiration for Hinchcliffe's enthusiasm and support, a lunching Sontaran scaring a woman and her dog on a casual walk, Tom Baker nearly putting his eye out in a local darts competition between days shooting, etc. <
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>Any DVD with commentary from the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era is wonderful to own since the writing is superb, the acting excellent, production detail and effort admirable, and the commentary on the DVDs is superb. Pity Holmes isn't alive to add commentary, because the tales of his motives and antics sound incredible - "Just give us something to scare the little beggars to death."

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Third Tom baker episode
The Dr. and Sarah (and Harry) transmat back to earth (10,000 years in the future) after freeing the "Ark in Space" of its Wirrin (sp?) infestation. It drags a little at the end, but pretty good overall.