Review of The Sontaran Experiment (#77)
DVD Release Date: 06 Mar 07
Original Air Date: 22 Feb – 01 Mar 1975
Doctors/Companions: Four, Sarah Jane Smith, Harry Sullivan
Stars: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Ian Marter
Preceding Story: The Ark in Space (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)
Succeeding Story: Genesis of the Daleks (Four, Sarah Jane, Harry)

One common experience I’ve heard from people over and over during this pandemic is that it’s very difficult to concentrate. Whether it’s our work or our entertainment, no one seems to have the brainpower to do anything that requires anything beyond the attention span of a hamster.

That’s why The Sontaran Experiment is the perfect selection for this month’s installment in the Hidden Gems series. The only quality this adventure shares with the eponymous enemies’ famous ones (namely, being “nasty, brutish, and short,” like life) is that blessed final one. At two episodes long, it is one of the shortest Classic Doctor Who serials ever, on par with a single modern Who episode. Adding to the delight is that it stars a relatively calm, low-key Tom Baker, early in his run, alongside Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith and Ian Marter’s too-oft-overlooked Harry Sullivan.

Having just left Nerva Station (see: The Ark in Space), the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Harry arrive at a transmat receiver on the “dead” planet Earth that those on Nerva had left behind. Harry and Sarah Jane spend a fair amount of time talking about the complete lack of life on the planet and how creepy it is, all the while tromping through heavy scrub. You can practically hear botanists everywhere screaming at them.

Soon, however, we learn that they’re not alone, and the requisite hijinks ensue. Even in such a short span, the writers manage to split the TARDIS crew into singles and doubles in every way possible, finding allies and adversaries everywhere. Despite all that, the storyline is not complex, and it serves as a nice little bonbon of an adventure between two more well-known heavy-hitters.

At the end, our heroes toddle off to their next encounter, blissfully unaware that they are about to meet one of the Doctor’s best-known adversaries (that would be Davros, in Genesis of the Daleks, for those who might not know that off the tops of their heads), leaving the Earth to its own devices. Surely the Doctor already knows what’s in store for his favorite not-quite-home planet, and is thereby unconcerned.

I envy that unconcern. Maybe you do, too. But if you’ve got enough oomph to sit down with the Doctor and his friends for an hour—less, even—then this Hidden Gem could be just what you need. A bite-sized dose of Four, SJS, and Harry can really brighten an otherwise gloomy day.