57-671: The Sontaran Experiment is the third serial of the 12th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was originally broadcast on BBC1 on 22 February and 1 March 1975. The serial is set on Earth more than 10,000 years in the future, immediately after the events of The Ark in Space . In the serial, the Sontaran Field Major Styre ( Kevin Lindsay ) performs experiments on humans he trapped there as part of
114-540: A "nice exploit" with "pretty neat villains", but criticising the little the Doctor had to do, despite it being his introduction. Ian Jane of the site was more positive when reviewing the serial for its 2012 re-release, giving it four stars. He praised Pertwee and John, as well as the suspense and pacing. Reviewing the serial for The Guardian in 2013, Phelim O'Neill wrote that "Pertwee impresses, as does his short-lived partnership with apprentice Liz" and added that "the scene of
171-639: A Dalek origin story instead, which became Genesis of the Daleks . However, under Hinchcliffe, the serial gained a darker tone. The sets of The Ark in Space were reused for Revenge of the Cybermen . Genesis of the Daleks was the last serial of the season to be filmed, after Revenge of the Cybermen . This took place in January and February 1975. The entire season was broadcast from 28 December 1974 to 10 May 1975. The title sequence for Part One of The Ark in Space
228-403: A HD transfer. The Blu-ray looks superb, as if they shot a (very) low-budget Doctor Who movie late in 1969, which is pretty much what they did. The sets look sturdier, more colourful, and far better than their usual overlit, studio-bound video camerawork". In the original broadcast of episode two, the first fifteen seconds of Fleetwood Mac 's "Oh Well (Part One)" can be heard during scenes in
285-482: A collarbone during filming. This meant that the climactic fight was performed by two stand-ins rather than the original actors. Most of the actors playing the GalSec astronauts were South African . This was specified in the casting, as the writers, Bob Baker and Dave Martin , were interested in language change and reasoned that the multi-linguistic influences on South African English might resemble future developments of
342-623: A crevasse, and the robot returns, capturing Roth and Sarah and bringing them to the alien's spacecraft. The alien is Field Major Styre of the Sontaran G3 Military Assessment Survey, who has been experimenting on, and killing, the astronauts. Roth tries to escape but is shot dead by Styre. Styre reports back to his Marshal via a video link. The Marshal is impatient for the intelligence report (without which an invasion of Earth cannot take place), but Styre admits that he has been delayed in his experiments. Styre subjects Sarah to
399-474: A double video with Genesis of the Daleks . In October 2006, it was released on DVD on its own or part of the Bred for War box set, along with The Time Warrior, The Invasion of Time and The Two Doctors. Doctor Who (season 12) The twelfth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 28 December 1974 with Tom Baker 's first serial Robot , and ended with Revenge of
456-422: A legend, and tell him in turn that they had picked up a distress signal from Earth. They came to investigate, but their ship was vapourised when they emerged, leaving nine of them stranded. Then they began to vanish one by one. They blame the Doctor for this. Roth appears and the astronauts chase him, while Sarah frees the Doctor. Roth loses the others and meets up with Sarah and the Doctor. The Doctor also falls down
513-543: A month before work began on the serial. The new titles also introduced a new logo for the series. Unlike the logos used for the First and Second Doctor 's eras, which used a generic typeface, the new logo was an attempt at being more stylised, particularly in the presentation of the initial "D" in "Doctor" and the "H" in "Who." This logo would be used until the final episode of The Green Death in 1973, but (in slightly modified form) would make an unexpected return in 1996 when it
570-469: A series of terrifying hallucinations. The Doctor, free from the hole, has reached her and rips off a hallucinogenic device from her forehead, but she falls unconscious. The Doctor, enraged, attacks Styre, but the Sontaran easily fends him off. Styre shoots him unconscious (believing it to be fatal) when he runs away. The robot, having captured the three remaining spacemen, brings them to Styre's ship, where it
627-494: A six-episode arc, but Philip Hinchcliffe made the decision to split the arc into the four-part Ark in Space and this two-part story, sharing the same director and budget. To save money, Hinchcliffe decided that Ark would be entirely recorded in the studio and this story would be entirely recorded on location. He also settled on the Sontarans because they could re-use the Sontaran costume from The Time Warrior and therefore save
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#1733085727076684-493: Is Doctor John Smith, an alias first used in The Wheel in Space . The working title of the serial was Facsimile , and was based on a story that Robert Holmes wrote for the 1965 film Invasion , which featured an alien crashing in the woods near a rural hospital, where a medical examination reveals his alien nature. The hospital is later visited by other aliens, seeking a fugitive criminal. Due to industrial action by staff at
741-557: Is a power unit for a non-physical alien intelligence known as the Nestene Consciousness . Normally disembodied, it has an affinity for plastic, and is able to animate human replicas made from it, called Autons . The Nestene have taken over a toy factory in Epping , and plan to replace key government and public figures with Auton duplicates. The Auton in charge of the factory sends other, less human-looking, dummy-like Autons to retrieve
798-402: Is revealed that Vural had tried to make a deal with Styre in exchange for his own life. However, Styre intends to experiment on Vural anyway. The Doctor recovers, disables the robot, and meets Sarah and Harry. He confronts Styre, goading him into a hand-to-hand combat. While they fight, Sarah and Harry free the astronauts, and then Harry climbs towards Styre's ship to sabotage it. Styre almost wins
855-400: Is the only Doctor Who story from the classic series where a complete high-definition release (with no upconversion ) is feasible. Reviewing this release, Phelim O'Neill of The Guardian praised the film look of Spearhead From Space , writing, "It sounds like a small thing but it made an incredible difference; this is the only one of the vintage stories to have the picture quality worthy of
912-563: The Autons , killer plastic automatons which act as human duplicates and shop-window mannequins . The serial introduced Pertwee as the Doctor and was the first to feature the Autons. It also introduces Caroline John as the Doctor's new assistant, Liz. Nicholas Courtney becomes a regular cast member beginning with this serial. The Doctor collapses outside his TARDIS and is taken to Ashbridge Cottage Hospital in Epping , where his unusual anatomy confuses
969-556: The BBC Television Centre , this serial was filmed almost entirely on location, in order to circumvent union rules. As a result, Spearhead from Space is the only classic serial shot entirely on film, as was then the standard of location filming. The majority of filming was undertaken at the BBC engineering college at Wood Norton near Evesham, and the pub in nearby Radford . The change to colour production also necessitated changes to
1026-613: The Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited 1–4 box set, together with The Aztecs , The Tomb of the Cybermen , and Pyramids of Mars . The disc presents the serial as originally broadcast, a single feature in widescreen format, introduced by former show runner Steven Moffat ; it includes a documentary on the Third Doctor . The serial was released on Blu-ray in July 2013. Due to the serial being shot entirely on film, this
1083-453: The "atmosphere and imagery" achieved with tension, location filming, and direction. In 2010, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times described The Sontaran Experiment as "short, taut and sadistic" and wrote that "impetus and panache prevail over problems with plot logic". DVD Talk 's Stuart Galbraith gave the serial three and half out of five stars, writing that its "best assets are its appropriately confined telling". A novelisation of this serial
1140-641: The Cybermen on 10 May 1975. This is the first season to feature Tom Baker as the fourth incarnation of the Doctor , an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS , which appears to be a British police box on the outside. He is accompanied by companions Sarah Jane Smith ( Elisabeth Sladen ), continuing from season eleven , and Harry Sullivan ( Ian Marter ), who joins in this season. With Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks having both departed along with Jon Pertwee , new producer Philip Hinchcliffe and new script editor Robert Holmes worked on this series. Letts's last story as producer
1197-478: The Daleks ), Loch Ness , and another six-part story to be determined. Script editor Robert Holmes discussed with Philip Hinchcliffe the possibility of replacing the as-yet undecided six-parter with a four-part story and a two-parter, both with the same production team. The season structure later became two four-part stories ( Robot and a replacement for Space Station , The Ark in Space ), the new two-parter The Destructors (later retitled The Sontaran Experiment ),
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#17330857270761254-431: The Doctor's help. He is nowhere in sight. Roth, an astronaut, finds Sarah. He is obviously distressed, and explains that he has been tortured by an alien that lives in the rocks, together with its patrolling robot. He takes Sarah towards the astronauts' campsite, but refuses to approach it, suspecting the astronaut Vural of collusion with the alien. Three of the astronauts have captured the Doctor. They believe Nerva to be
1311-654: The English language. The two episodes were combined into a single 50 minute omnibus broadcast on BBC1 at 6:25 pm on 9 July 1976 and was seen by 8.2 million viewers. The story received criticism from Mary Whitehouse (of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association) for its depiction of "helpless adults in a state of terror". Paul Cornell , Martin Day , and Keith Topping wrote in The Discontinuity Guide (1995) that
1368-513: The Nestene plot, just as the Autons activate across Britain and begin killing. The Doctor assembles an electroshock device that he believes will disable them. UNIT attacks the plastics factory, but the Autons are impervious to gunfire. The Doctor and Liz make their way inside and encounter a tentacled plastic host created by the Nestenes as the perfect form for the invasion. While the Doctor struggles with
1425-502: The Sontarans' invasion stratagem. Following on from The Ark in Space , the Fourth Doctor , Sarah Jane Smith , and Harry Sullivan teleport down from the Nerva space station to Earth, ostensibly uninhabited. However, the system is not functioning well, and the Doctor begins repairing it. The other two explore the surrounding area, but Harry falls down a crevasse and Sarah goes to seek
1482-464: The Third Doctor's first story Spearhead from Space (1970), which helped the audience transition between actors. The Ark in Space was written by Robert Holmes from a story by John Lucarotti that was considered unusable. Letts and Dicks were eager to have Terry Nation return to write the Daleks, but initially found his script too similar to past Dalek adventures. They suggested that he write
1539-494: The alien-powered shop display dummies is still chilling." In 2013, Ben Lawrence of The Daily Telegraph named Spearhead from Space as one of the top ten Doctor Who stories set in the contemporary time. A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks , was published by Target Books in January 1974, entitled Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion . This was the first novelisation commissioned by Target following
1596-411: The continuity, each serial is considered its own standalone story. The season was initially formatted as the previous Pertwee season had been with three six-part stories and two four-part stories. To this end, the initial structure was to open with the four-part Robot and the four-part Space Station by Christopher Langley followed by three six-parters – Genesis of Terror (later retitled Genesis of
1653-612: The creature, Liz uses the electroshock device to shut the creature down, the effect cascading to all other Autons. The Brigadier fears the Nestenes will return and asks for the Doctor's continued help. The Doctor agrees, albeit reluctantly, to join UNIT. In return, he requires facilities to help repair the TARDIS, and a car like the sporty antique roadster he commandeered during the adventure. At his insistence, Liz also stays on as his assistant. The Doctor tells Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart that his name
1710-506: The doctors. Meanwhile, a meteorite shower falls on the English countryside, and a poacher discovers a mysterious plastic polyhedron at the crash site. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart of UNIT is trying to recruit Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw as a scientific advisor to examine any meteorites for evidence of aliens. Shaw is sceptical of the Brigadier's concerns and resents being taken away from her research at Cambridge . The plastic polyhedron
1767-522: The expense of designing a new alien. This was the first two-part serial to be broadcast since 1965's The Rescue and the last until 1982's Black Orchid . Although the serial was the third to feature Baker, it was actually the second shot, hence the out-of-sequence production code. This was only the second serial in the history of Doctor Who (the first being 1970's Spearhead from Space ) to be shot entirely on location, in this case at Hound Tor on Dartmoor . However, unlike Spearhead from Space and
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1824-556: The fight, but Vural attacks him, saving the Doctor at the cost of his own life. Styre, now low on energy, heads back towards his ship to recharge, but the sabotage causes it to kill him. The Doctor informs the Marshal that not only has Styre's mission failed, but that the invasion plans are in human hands. This is enough to ward off the invasion, and the three companions attempt to return to Nerva. Working titles for this story included The Destructors . These two episodes were initially part of
1881-485: The first ever broadcast of Doctor Who outside of its typical Saturday evening slot. The story was later repeated on BBC2 in 1999. In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker wrote that the serial was "arguably the first to really go for the viewer's jugular with a potent combination of horror and science-fiction." They continued, "It is the terrifying and well-realised concept of killer shop dummies that makes Spearhead from Space one of
1938-478: The last major role played by Kevin Lindsay before his death in 1975 of a heart condition. He found the heavy Sontaran costume so difficult to manage that he could not leave the Hound Tor location for breaks, and also could not perform the fight scene – a stand-in, Stuart Fell , was used instead. Terry Walsh not only played a minor role as an astronaut, but doubled for Tom Baker in parts of episode two, after Baker broke
1995-464: The location material for other serials, the production was mounted entirely on videotape using early portable video equipment, rather than on the usual 16mm film . This use of location video was remarkable for the time, but technical problems are evident in the final programmes. This was also the first and only Doctor Who story where there were no interior scenes at all. During shooting, Baker broke his collarbone . However, because part of his costume
2052-519: The main antagonist in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad the same year. He had written to Bill Slater, the Head of Serials at the BBC, asking for work. Slater suggested Baker to Doctor Who producer Barry Letts who had been looking to fill the part. Letts had been the producer of the series since the early Pertwee serials in 1970. He had seen Baker's work in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and hired him for
2109-459: The military organization United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). They, along with Sladen, would be the transition cast to carry through from the Third Doctor to the Fourth Doctor, though Robot is the only UNIT story for the twelfth season. After Robot , all the serials in this season continue directly one after the other, tracing one single problematic voyage of the TARDIS crew. Despite
2166-475: The most horrific Doctor Who stories ever [...] Particularly notable is the uncompromising, adult quality of the story's realisation, which sets it apart from much of sixties Doctor Who and contributes greatly to its success." Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times awarded Spearhead from Space five stars out of five, describing it as an "extraordinary debut for the third Doctor" and also a good performance from Courtney; while positive towards John, Mulkern criticised
2223-501: The novelisation by actor Caroline John was released as four CDs in June 2008 by BBC Audiobooks. The original Target books artwork by Chris Achilleos is featured on the cover. This serial was released in an omnibus format on VHS in 1988; it was re-released in 1995 as an unedited episodic version, remaining in omnibus format for the United States, Canada, and Australia markets. The DVD
2280-567: The only one to be made entirely on 16 mm film . In the serial, which is set in Essex and London, the alien time traveller the Doctor ( Jon Pertwee ), now exiled to Earth by the Time Lords , joins Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart ( Nicholas Courtney ) of UNIT and the scientist Liz Shaw ( Caroline John ) to stop the incorporeal intelligence the Nestenes from colonising the planet through their use of
2337-406: The part. Baker would continue in his role as the Doctor for seven seasons, longer than any other actor to play the part. Elisabeth Sladen returned to play the role of companion Sarah Jane Smith throughout the season. Ian Marter joined the cast as Harry Sullivan . The character was created before Baker was cast; there had been discussion of casting an older actor as the Doctor, and so Harry
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2394-498: The power units from UNIT and the poacher. After recovering in hospital and avoiding being kidnapped by the Autons, the Doctor discovers that his TARDIS has been disabled by the Time Lords and he is trapped on Earth. Despite his recent change in appearance , he convinces Lethbridge-Stewart that he is the same man who helped to defeat the Yeti and the Cybermen . Together with Liz, he uncovers
2451-536: The programme's opening titles. Designer Bernard Lodge , who had produced the previous sets of titles used up until Spearhead from Space , originally intended to produce a new set using the same 'howlaround' technique that he had for the previous titles. Tests showed, however, that the technique did not produce satisfactory results when used with colour equipment and so the final set was produced in black and white before being manually tinted. These were completed in August 1969,
2508-466: The serial "succeeds despite its obvious limitations". They praised the look of the all-video location recording, but commented that "neither the robot nor the deflection of the Marshal's invasion plans are wholly convincing". In The Television Companion (1998), David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker said that the premise of a Sontaran surveying humans before conquering the Earth was "silly", but they praised
2565-485: The serial's main goal of introducing the new cast, but commented that they "provide some effectively chilling moments". Bahn wrote that the "major flaw" was the pacing, as it spent too much time establishing "the new status quo before getting into the action". IGN 's Arnold T. Blumburg rated the DVD special edition release 9 out of 10, describing the serial as "an amazing feat – a nearly complete top-to-bottom reinvigoration of
2622-442: The show that feels like a full-blown feature film". Den of Geek ' s James Peaty called Spearhead from Space "easily the best 'new Doctor' story" until Matt Smith 's " The Eleventh Hour " (2010), and believed that Courtney and John were "so good [...] that you barely miss the Doctor from episode one". Reviewing the original DVD release in 2002, DVD Talk 's J. Doyle Wallis gave the serial three out of five stars, describing it as
2679-552: The six-part Genesis of Terror , and a four-part version of Loch Ness (later retitled Terror of the Zygons and held over for season 13). This decision made The Sontaran Experiment the first two-part story since Season 2's The Rescue . It was also the first to be shot entirely on location since Jon Pertwee 's opening story Spearhead from Space in Season 7 , and the first to be shot entirely on videotape instead of 16mm film , as
2736-510: The successful republishing of three books originally published in the mid-1960s. The Target Books novelisation series would run for the next twenty years and see all but six Doctor Who serials adapted. In the seventies, this book was translated into Finnish as Tohtori KUKA ja autonien hyökkäys , although Doctor Who never appeared on Finnish television until the broadcast of the 2005 revival series. There were also Dutch , Turkish , Japanese and Portuguese editions. An unabridged reading of
2793-400: The way Liz was "severely styled." He also commended the production, particularly Dudley Simpson's score. He wrote that "the only real disappointment is the lacklustre representation of the Nestene" and stated that the "boggle-eyed Pertwee" at the end, when he is strangled by the tentacles, "always warrants a snigger". Christopher Bahn of The A.V. Club felt that the Autons were secondary to
2850-505: Was Robot , with Hinchcliffe producing the rest of the season. Holmes had previously written for the programme. During production of season eleven, it was known that Jon Pertwee would be leaving his role as the Third Doctor and that a new Fourth Doctor would need to be cast for the part. Tom Baker was an out-of-work actor, working in construction at the time. Baker had been a television and film actor, having major parts in several films including The Vault of Horror (1973) and as
2907-552: Was a large scarf, he could conceal the neck brace he had to wear following the injury. For action scenes, he was doubled by regular stunt performer Terry Walsh , shot from several face-concealing angles. The recording of both episodes was completed in a week. Glyn Jones, who played the astronaut Krans, wrote the First Doctor serial The Space Museum (1965); he was the only person both to act and write for Doctor Who during its original 1963-89 run. The Sontaran Experiment contains
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#17330857270762964-684: Was adopted as the logo for the US-produced 1996 TV movie . The 1996 form subsequently became the official logo of the Eighth Doctor , and of the franchise itself, being used on original novels, video releases (1996–2003) including the alternative Ninth Doctor 's animated Scream of the Shalka , DVD releases, and Big Finish Productions audio plays. The story was repeated in its entirety on Friday evenings on BBC1 in July 1971, achieving ratings of 2.9, 3.0, 3.4 & 3.9 million viewers respectively. It became
3021-507: Was created as a younger character to handle the action scenes. Nicholas Courtney and John Levene reprised their roles as the Brigadier and Warrant Officer Benton respectively in the first serial, Robot . Courtney had begun his role in the Second Doctor story The Web of Fear (1968), where the character was a colonel. Levene had begun in Second Doctor story The Invasion (1968), replacing another actor. Both were members of
3078-507: Was first released in January 2001, followed by a re-release (with new outer packaging) in July 2007. There was a Special Edition DVD release in May 2011 as part of the Mannequin Mania box set, along with Terror of the Autons ; it boasts additional special features and improved remastering. All four episodes have been offered for sale on iTunes . It was re-released on DVD in 2013 as part of
3135-456: Was tinted sepia as an experiment, but was not repeated for subsequent episodes. All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated: Spearhead from Space Spearhead from Space is the first serial of the seventh season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who , which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 3 to 24 January 1970. It was the first Doctor Who serial to be produced in colour and
3192-445: Was usual for location shooting. As a means of saving money, The Ark in Space and Revenge of the Cybermen were shot on the same sets. Barry Letts served as producer for Robot , after which he was succeeded by Philip Hinchcliffe . Robert Holmes took over from Terrance Dicks as script editor. Robot was written by Dicks, who cited King Kong as an influence for the serial. Dicks incorporated several familiar elements from
3249-618: Was written by Ian Marter , who appeared in the serial as the Doctor's companion Harry. It was published by Target Books in November 1978. The novelisation differs from the TV version by having the travellers arrive in the TARDIS. The Sontaran plan here does not involve war with the Rutans but a planned conquest in alliance with another clone species. The Sontaran Experiment was released on VHS in October 1991 as
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