Doctor Who: Season 12, Episode 9

The Sontaran Experiment: Part One (22 Feb. 1975)

TV Episode  -   -  Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
7.3
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.3/10 from 126 users  
Reviews: 3 user | 3 critic

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry teleports to Earth to ensure the planet is safe for the survivors on-board Nerva Beacon to return to Earth and re-inhabit their world. Only to find a Sontaran ... See full summary »

Director:

0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 52 titles created 06 Nov 2011
 
a list of 137 titles created 3 weeks ago
 
a list of 326 titles created 4 months ago
 
a list of 263 titles created 1 month ago
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: The Sontaran Experiment: Part One (22 Feb 1975)

The Sontaran Experiment: Part One (22 Feb 1975) on IMDb 7.3/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Doctor Who.
« Previous Episode | 390 of  695 Episodes | Next Episode »
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

Doctor Who (TV Series 2005)
Adventure | Drama | Family
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.7/10 X  

The further adventures of the time traveling alien adventurer and his companions.

Stars: David Tennant, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan
Doctor Who (TV 1996)
Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.9/10 X  

The newly-regenerated Doctor takes on the Master on the turn of the millennium, 31 December 1999.

Director: Geoffrey Sax
Stars: Paul McGann, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook
Torchwood (TV Series 2006)
Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

The members of the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization founded by the British Crown, fight to protect the Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural threats.

Stars: John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Kai Owen
Blakes 7 (1978–1981)
Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

A group of convicts and outcasts fight a guerrilla war against the totalitarian Terran Federation from a highly advanced alien spaceship.

Stars: Michael Keating, Paul Darrow, Peter Tuddenham
Smallville (2001–2011)
Adventure | Drama | Romance
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville.

Stars: Tom Welling, Allison Mack, Kristin Kreuk
Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

After an encounter with UFOs, a line worker feels undeniably drawn to an isolated area in the wilderness where something spectacular is about to happen.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr
Star Trek (1966–1969)
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.3/10 X  

Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise explore the Galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

Stars: Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley
Battlestar Galactica (2004–2009)
Action | Adventure | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.7/10 X  

When an old enemy, the Cylons, resurface and obliterate the 12 colonies, the crew of the aged Galactica protects a small civilian fleet - the last of humanity - as they journey toward the fabled 13th colony of Earth.

Stars: Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Jamie Bamber
Farscape (1999–2003)
Adventure | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.1/10 X  

Thrown into a distant part of the universe, an Earth astronaut finds himself part of a fugitive alien starship crew.

Stars: Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe
First Wave (1998–2001)
Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.1/10 X  

Framed for murder and on the run, a former thief struggles to expose the vanguard of an alien invasion with the help of a conspiracy theorist and newly discovered prophecies of Nostradamus.

Stars: Sebastian Spence, Rob LaBelle, Roger R. Cross
Firefly (2002–2003)
Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 9.1/10 X  

Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk
Stargate: Atlantis (2004–2009)
Action | Drama | Sci-Fi
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

An international team of scientists and military personnel discover a Stargate network in the Pegasus Galaxy and come face-to-face with a new, powerful enemy, The Wraith.

Stars: Joe Flanigan, Rachel Luttrell, David Hewlett
Edit

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
...
...
Ian Marter ...
Donald Douglas ...
Glyn Jones ...
Peter Walshe ...
Kevin Lindsay ...
Peter Rutherford ...
Terry Walsh ...
Edit

Storyline

The Doctor, Sarah and Harry teleports to Earth to ensure the planet is safe for the survivors on-board Nerva Beacon to return to Earth and re-inhabit their world. Only to find a Sontaran named Styre has captured a group of humans and conducting experiments on them to discover the human body's weaknesses, as part of the Sontaran's goal for domination of the galaxy. Written by Daniel Williamson

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Certificate:

See all certifications »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

22 February 1975 (UK)  »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

This two-part serial was released by the BBC on video cassette in the UK in October 1991 as part of a double video pack with the six-parter that followed it, Doctor Who: Genesis of the Daleks: Part One. See more »

Goofs

The Sontaran's hands show a glove with 5 fingers - Sontarans only have three fingers. See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Sontarans look like Russett Mr. Potatoheads!
27 January 2008 | by (McDermott, Ohio) – See all my reviews

I'm reviewing both parts 1 and 2 here because that's the way it comes on the video.

This one is a really great episode, one of my personal favorites. Tom Baker plays Doctor Who and Sarah is his sidekick along with one other male sidekick, Ian Sullivan.

Doctor Who stops off on Earth (far in the Earth's future when it is no longer inhabited) to make repairs to some equipment that he has based there. Sarah and her friend come along for some R&R in the beautiful English countryside but they run into a "hole-trap" right away! Pretty soon some human astronaults show up and they are very suspicious of the TARDIS trio because some of their crew members have been killed.

The facts ultimately show that it is Field Major Styre, a Sontaran, along with his devilish mobile robot, who has been torturing and killing off the astronaults. Styre had lured them to Earth with a fake distress call and then destroyed their space ship after they had landed. He is conducting "experiments" on humans to detect all their mental and physical inferiorities, (e.g., by water deprivation, by mashing them, etc.), so that his tribe can invade the galaxy and exploit these weaknesses. His superiors are awaiting his final report prior to the invasion.

But Doctor Who has other plans for the Sontarans! The Sontaran, Styre, (as well as his look-alike superior), looks like a giant russett potato with arms and legs and dressed in a cool space suit, and is actually made up quite good. His robot is also a timeless work of tinsmithing art. The cinematography in this entry is spectacular and the action is constant.

If I have a singular critique of this one it's that it is one of the shorter Doctor Who episodes, having only two parts. Still, it's very worthwhile television. My highest recommendation.


2 of 2 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Snowballing missing episodes rumor... IanDSmith
Colin Baker, hugely underrated philwhite-411-828978
Which Lost Episode Would You Find? efactorial
Should i watch The Crusade? Lennonfan1992
I hate Sarah Jane Smith? Lennonfan1992
Mind Of Evil, Worth A Watch? Lennonfan1992
Discuss The Sontaran Experiment: Part One (1975) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page