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{{Infobox Story SMW
{{Infobox Story
|image                  = The First Sontarans.jpg
|name= The First Sontarans
|range                  = The Lost Stories
|image= The First Sontarans.jpg
|series in range        = Series 3 (TLS)
|series=[[The Lost Stories]]  
|series number in range = 3
|number= 3.06  
|number in series      = 6
|doctor=Sixth Doctor  
|series                 = [[The Lost Stories]]
|companions= [[Peri Brown|Peri]]  
|number                 = 3.06
|enemy= {{il|The [[Sontaran]]s|The [[Rutan Host]]}}
|doctor                 = Sixth Doctor
|setting = {{il|Mare Nectaris, [[the Moon]], [[1872]]|[[Sussex]], [[England]], [[1872]]}}
|companions             = [[Peri Brown|Peri]]
|writer= [[Andrew Smith (writer)|Andrew Smith]]  
|enemy                 = [[Rutan]]s
|director= [[Ken Bentley]]  
|setting               = [[Sussex]], [[England]], [[1872]]
|music=[[Jamie Robertson]]
|writer                 = Andrew Smith (writer)
|sound=[[Jamie Robertson]]
|director              = [[Ken Bentley]]
|cover=[[Alex Mallinson]]
|producer              = [[David Richardson]]
|publisher= Big Finish Productions  
|music                 = [[Jamie Robertson]]
|release date= [[July (releases)|July]] [[2012 (releases)|2012]]
|sound                 = Jamie Robertson
|format= 4 Episodes on 2 CDs  
|cover                 = [[Alex Mallinson]]
|prev= Power Play (audio story)
|publisher             = Big Finish Productions
|next=The Masters of Luxor (audio story)}}{{audio stub}}
|release date           = 23 July 2012
'''''The First Sontarans''''' was the sixth release in the third series of ''[[The Lost Stories]]''. It provided the [[Sontaran]]s with an origin story, something which, unlike many of the Doctor's other recurring enemies, had not been provided before. This was only the third full cast audio story to feature the [[Rutan]]s, the first being the ''[[Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series|Bernice Summerfield]]'' audio story ''[[The Bellotron Incident (audio story)|The Bellotron Incident]]'', released in [[2003]] followed by ''[[Castle of Fear (audio story)|Castle of Fear]]'' in [[2009]].
|format                 = 2 CDs<br/>Download
|production code        = BFPDWLS20
|isbn                  = ISBN 978-1-84435-588-4
|prev                   = Power Play (audio story)
|next                   = The Masters of Luxor (audio story)
|soundcloudtrailer      = https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/doctor-who-the-lost-stories-the-first-sontarans-trailer
|epcount                = 4
|thwr                  = 2
}}
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the sixth story release in the [[Series 3 (TLS)|third series]] of ''[[The Lost Stories]]'', produced by [[Big Finish Productions]]. It was adapted by [[Andrew Smith (writer)|Andrew Smith]], from his original script, and featured [[Colin Baker]] as the [[Sixth Doctor]] and [[Nicola Bryant]] as [[Peri Brown]].


== Publisher's summary ==
== Publisher's summary ==
[[1872]]. After finding a strange signalling device on [[the Moon|the moon]], [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] and [[Peri Brown|Peri]] travel to the depths of the English countryside to track down the source of its transmissions. But they're not the first aliens to arrive on the scene.
[[1872]]. After finding a strange [[communications repeater|signalling device]] on [[the Moon|the moon]], [[Sixth Doctor|the Doctor]] and [[Peri Brown|Peri]] travel to the depths of the [[England|English]] [[countryside]] to track down the source of its [[transmission]]s. But they're not the first [[alien]]s to arrive on the scene.


Old enemies of the Doctor are drawing their battle lines in the forest and the local humans will be lucky to escape the conflagration unscathed.
Old [[enemy|enemies]] of the Doctor are drawing their [[battle]] lines in the [[forest]] and the local [[human]]s will be lucky to escape the conflagration unscathed.


For hidden within this village is a deadly secret - a secret that could destroy the entire [[Sontaran]] race... and reveal the terrible mystery of their creation.
For hidden within this village is a deadly secret - a secret that could destroy the entire [[Sontaran]] race...and reveal the terrible mystery of their creation.


== Plot ==
== Plot ==
=== Part one ===
[[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] takes [[Peri Brown|Peri]] to [[Mare Nectaris]] on [[the Moon]] in [[1872]] where they find a crashed [[communications repeater]]. Taking it back into [[the TARDIS]], he finds that its purpose is to cover up the fact that the message it is retransmitting, saying "We are here", comes from [[Sussex]]. They trace the message to a [[forest]] and put a stop to a [[cockfight]], for which [[innkeeper]] [[Jacob Gilley]] [[apology|apologises]] whilst also emphasising the difficult times that the villagers are currently going through. Peri, recognising the opportunity to collect information about possible [[anomaly|anomalies]] in the area, suggests that Jacob take her and the Doctor to his [[tavern]], [[The Coach and Horses]].
[[The Gentleman (The First Sontarans)|The Gentleman]] bursts into the tavern and demands to know what a [[Time Lord]] is doing on [[Earth]], having recently killed [[Petros Ambier|another alien]]. Before he can attack the Doctor and Peri, [[Thessinger|Major Thessinger]] arrives and invites the two of them to his home to seek sanctuary against the Gentleman, who departs after warning the two travellers to leave. They do not stay long with Thessinger, whom the Doctor quickly realises is not as affluent as he claims and is lying about serving in the [[Battle of Inkerman]], and are knocked out and captured shortly after leaving his home.


===Part One===
Thessinger is visited by the Gentleman, who accuses him of being a [[Kaveetch]] and draws a technologically advanced [[firearm]] which Thessinger claims not to recognise. The Doctor awakens in a [[dungeon]] fitted with an anachronistic [[CCTV]] camera and electronic doors, behind one of which he finds [[Lork|Commander Lork]] of the [[1st Sontaran Battle Fleet]], a [[Sontaran]] prisoner who assumes that the Doctor is his jailer and goes to attack him.
''to be added''


===Part Two===
=== Part two ===
''to be added''
The Doctor manages to lock Lork back up and release Peri from behind another door. The two of them get through the exit by applying different degrees of force to its [[energy field]] and enter a makeshift [[morgue]] in a [[cellar]]. The Doctor switches off the transmitter to the Moon, finds two [[dissection|dissected]] Sontarans and identifies the contents of four [[jar]]s as the remains of the other members of a Sontaran patrol before Gilley enters, granting him and Peri their freedom as he has confirmed that they are not Sontaran agents. In truth, Gilley is Meredid Roath, a Kaveetch [[cellular geneticist]].


===Part Three===
Roath explains that the Sontarans attacked his [[planet]] and that he and his ex-wife, [[Leandra Roath|Leandra]], escaped to Earth before sending a transmission to summon the other survivors and lure in a Sontaran patrol which he could dissect. Lork escapes his cell and, finding the corpses of his comrades, attacks the Doctor, Peri and Roath, who lock him in the basement until he uses a [[photon grenade]] from his companion's survival pack to break out and flee the tavern. The Doctor and Roath stop him from getting too far away whilst Peri, looking around the tavern, is joined by Leandra, who shoots Lork with a gun which targets Sontaran cell structures. The Doctor and Peri recognise her as Thessinger's [[housekeeper]].
''to be added''


===Part Four===
After the Doctor deactivates a [[distress beacon]] activated by Lork, Peri and Leandra teleport to the Roaths' [[orbiter]] to run a scan and detect a [[Sontaran Planet Kill Fleet]] commanded by [[Jaka|Fleet Marshal Jaka]]. The Doctor and Roath learn of Thessinger's death from [[Barclay (The First Sontarans)|Barclay]], his [[manservant]], and go with him to the house where they find Thessinger alive. The Doctor suspects that he is a [[Rutan]] impostor, however, and goes looking for the real Thessinger's corpse. Instead, he finds Barclay's, leading the Gentleman, who has been impersonating him, to attack.
''to be added''
 
=== Part three ===
Thessinger shoots the Gentleman before he can kill the Doctor and Roath, but he escapes through a window. Roath tells Leandra to send out the [[Exodus Signal]] to the Kaveetch, who are allied with the [[Kreliban Confederacy]] and intend to wipe out the Sontarans with their help. However, the Doctor informs Roath that [[Krelibas]] has been conquered by the Rutans, whom Leandra reveals to Peri that she is working with when she teleports the Gentleman up to the ship. The Gentleman soon takes both of them prisoner and contacts the Rutan fleet as he wants to use Roath and his anti-Sontaran technology in their war and has been killing the Kaveetch on Earth to find him.
 
The Doctor takes Roath and Thessinger, who has admitted that he fled the [[Crimea]] before Inkerman, to where the TARDIS landed, but Jaka has [[Strek|Commander Strek]] teleport it to the Sontaran mothership and the three of them are pursued. Cornered by Jaka in his [[workshop]], Roath admits to the Doctor that the Kaveetch are from [[Sontar]] and that he created the Sontarans as a last resort to win the Kaveetch's war against the Rutans. The Sontarans turned on the Kaveetch whilst they celebrated the turning tide of the war on account of them having too much knowledge of their [[physiology]] and way of thinking and took control of the planet.
 
When the Rutans start the docking procedure with the Kaveetch ship, Leandra, at Peri's suggestion, opens the door and kills the Rutans through decompression, after which the orbiter starts to fall apart as Sontaran ships approach. The Doctor and Roath get away in Thessinger's carriage and join the four hundred Kaveetch waiting to be teleported to the orbiter, but they are forced to surrender to the Sontarans and Thessinger is killed. The Sontarans destroy the orbiter and vapourise the Kaveetch on Jaka's command; the Doctor and Roath, however, are to be taken to Sontar to face Sontaran [[justice]].
 
=== Part four ===
During the journey to Sontar, Roath tells the Doctor how he had to save himself and the unconscious Leandra during the burning of their city rather than collect his son and daughter, something Leandra apparently never forgave him for. Jaka, having been listening, shows the Doctor the [[clone hatchery]] he is sworn to protect and orders him to take him into the TARDIS, which he intends to use to defeat the Rutans. Disguised as a Sontaran, Peri knocks Jaka out by hitting his [[probic vent]] and she and Leandra explain how they escaped the orbiter using the teleporter's emergency settings, which sent them to the Sontaran cargo hold.
 
The Doctor picks up an encrypted Rutan transmission and uses a code memorised Peri to access it, learning that the Rutans will soon be attacking to acquire Roath's anti-Sontaran weapon. He deliberately gets himself recaptured to be reunited with Roath and escapes thanks to Peri deactivating the security systems through the TARDIS, but they fail to return to the TARDIS before the Rutans attack the ship and start destroying the hatchery. Jaka, holding Peri and Leandra hostage, comes to defend the hatchlings and wounds Leandra when she takes his jumps in front of his shot to save the Doctor. The Rutans mortally injure Jaka and he orders Strek to activate the [[self-destruct]] before he dies.
 
The Doctor, Peri and Roath get Leandra to the TARDIS and into the [[Zero Room]], keeping her alive long enough to get her to the [[surgeon]]s of [[Calisto 4]]. With the Sontarans and the Rutans killed, they attend Thessinger's [[funeral]] and the Roaths decide to leave Earth to start the Kaveetch race anew on a nameless planet that the Doctor recommends to them. The Doctor and Peri congratulate them on moving on rather than continuing to seek revenge against the Sontarans and depart.


== Cast ==
== Cast ==
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Sixth Doctor|The Doctor]] - [[Colin Baker]]
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
* [[Peri Brown|Peri]] - [[Nicola Bryant]]
* [[Jaka|Fleet Marshal Jaka]]/ [[Barclay (The First Sontarans)|Barclay]] - [[Dan Starkey]]
* [[Jaka|Fleet Marshal Jaka]] / [[Barclay (The First Sontarans)|Barclay]] - [[Dan Starkey]]
* [[Meredid Roath|Jacob Gilley]] - [[Anthony Howell]]
* [[Meredid Roath|Jacob Gilley]] - [[Anthony Howell]]
* [[Leandra Roath|Jane Ross]] - [[Lizzie Roper]]
* [[Leandra Roath|Jane Ross]] - [[Lizzie Roper]]
* [[Rutan Host|The Gentleman]]/ [[Lork|Commander Lork]] - [[John Banks]]
* [[The Gentleman (The First Sontarans)|The Gentleman]] / [[Lork|Commander Lork]] - [[John Banks]]
* [[Thessinger|Major Thessinger]]/ [[Strek|Commander Strek]] - [[Cameron Stewart]]
* [[Thessinger|Major Thessinger]] / [[Strek|Commander Strek]] - [[Cameron Stewart]]
 
== Credits ==
* Recording by - [[Toby Hrycek-Robinson]]
* Sound Design, Music, and CD Mastering by - [[Jamie Robertson]]
* CD Extras Interviews by - [[David Richardson]]
* CD Extras Edited by - [[Jamie Griffiths]]
* Series Theme by - [[Ron Grainer]]
* Arranged by - [[Peter Howell]]
* Theme Remastered by - [[David Darlington]]
* BFP Administration - [[Miles Haigh-Ellery]], [[Catrin Hubbarde]], and [[Alison Taylor]]
* Producer's Assistants - [[Paul Spragg]] and [[Frances Welsh]]
* Cover Illustration & Booklet Design - [[Alex Mallinson]]
* Web Editor - [[Paul Wilson]]
* Director - [[Ken Bentley]]
* Script Editor - [[John Dorney]]
* Producer - [[David Richardson]]
* Executive Producers - [[Nicholas Briggs]] and [[Jason Haigh-Ellery]]


== References ==
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Cultural references from the real world ===
=== Cultural references from the real world ===
* Peri refers to the fictional detective {{w|Nancy Drew}}.
* The Doctor refers to [[Neil Armstrong]] and the [[Apollo 11]] moon landing on [[20 July]] [[1969]].
* The Doctor refers to [[Neil Armstrong]] and the [[Apollo 11]] moon landing on [[20 July]] [[1969]].


=== Individuals ===
=== Individuals ===
* When he erroneously believes that Peri has been killed by the Sontarans, the Doctor describes her as "the bravest of souls."
* [[Petros Ambier]] goes by "John Mackie". He worked as a porter at [[Covent Garden Market]] for seven years.
* Major Thessiger's father fought in the [[Battle of Waterloo]] on [[18 June]] [[1815]]. Furthermore, Thessiger claims that he himself fought in the [[Battle of Inkerman]] on [[5 November]] [[1854]] during the [[Crimean War]].
* Major Thessinger's father fought in the [[Battle of Waterloo]] on [[18 June]] [[1815]]. Furthermore, Thessinger claims that he himself fought in the [[Battle of Inkerman]] on [[5 November]] [[1854]] during the [[Crimean War]].
 
=== Planets ===
* The Doctor takes Leandra to [[Calisto 4]] to heal after her wound from a [[Sontaran blaster]].


=== Timeline ===
=== Timeline ===
Line 82: Line 92:


=== Species ===
=== Species ===
* The Doctor refers to the Sontarans' sworn arch-enemies the [[Rutan Host]]. The two species have been at [[Rutan-Sontaran War|war for millennia]].  
* The Doctor refers to the Sontarans' sworn arch-enemies the [[Rutan]]s. The two species have been at [[Rutan-Sontaran War|war for millennia]].
* A Sontaran patrol numbers seven.
* A Sontaran patrol numbers seven.
* The [[Kaveetch]] were natives of [[Sontar]]. Thousands of years earlier, after the war with the [[Rutan Host]] had reached a stalemate, Meredith Roath proposed the creation of a clone army, namely the [[Sontaran]]s. Within weeks, the clones were not only fighting on the front lines but had turned the tide of the war firmly in the Kaveetch's favour. However, the Sontarans turned on their creators due to their supposedly inferior nature and unique knowledge of Sontaran physiology. The surviving Kaveetch, who numbered only in the hundreds, employed their rudimentary time travel and arrived in various locations throughout [[Mutter's Spiral]] in the early 1860s.
* The [[Kaveetch]] were natives of [[Sontar]]. They worked with an [[infiltration scout]].
* The [[Kreliban]] from [[Krelibas]] were once a well established military force in the [[Mutter's Spiral]]. Now, they are slaves in the [[Rutan Empire]].
* The Sontarans were created on [[Alminus]], a moon of [[Sontar]].
* The Sontarans are led by the [[Grand Marshal]]. The [[Table of Seven]] oversee justice.


=== TARDIS ===
=== TARDIS ===
Line 90: Line 103:


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
* This is the first Big Finish audio drama to feature both the [[Sontaran]]s and the [[Rutan Host]].
[[File:The First Sontarans Big Finish interior artwork.jpg|thumb|right|CD booklet interior artwork.]]
* This is the first Big Finish audio drama to feature both the [[Sontaran]]s and the [[Rutan]]s.
* Writer Andrew Smith removed all of the ''Mary Celeste'' scenes from the original TV script and instead added a reference. According to Smith, when he was originally writing the TV episode, he became highly disturbed when his research about the ''Mary Celeste'' turned into him knowing every detail about all the crew who died on the ship.
* This story was recorded at [[the Moat Studios]].<ref>https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-first-sontarans-418</ref>
* The cover for this story, along with that for ''[[The Anachronauts (audio story)|The Anachronauts]]'', was revealed on 3 November 2011.<ref>[https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/sontaran-past-uncovered Sontaran Past Uncovered]</ref>
* This story was originally released on CD and download.
[[File:LS 020 The First Sontarans credits.jpg|thumb|CD booklet credits.]]


== Continuity ==
== Continuity ==
* The Doctor and Peri would return to the Moon when they visited the [[Gogglebox]] in the [[far future]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Reaping (audio story)|The Reaping]]'')
* The Doctor and Peri would return to the Moon when they visited the [[Gogglebox]] in the [[far future]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Reaping (audio story)|The Reaping]]'') Although he objects to the notion of visiting the [[Apollo 11]] landing site in person, he is willing to allow her to view it from a distance aboard the TARDIS following a visit to [[1963]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Space Race]]'')
* The Doctor refers to the disappearance of the crew of the ''[[Mary Celeste]]'' in [[1872]]. The Doctor refers to the [[Dalek]]s' involvement in the incident. The [[First Doctor]] and his companions [[Ian Chesterton]], [[Barbara Wright]] and [[Vicki Pallister]] were indirectly involved in the crew's disappearance. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Chase (TV story)|The Chase]]'') The Doctor had discovered his own involvement with the crew's disappearance by the time of his [[Second Doctor|second incarnation]]. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rosemariners (audio story)|The Rosemariners]]'') The [[Fifth Doctor]] had told [[Alan Fitzgerald]], a student summer intern at the Gogglebox, that he was "sort of" responsible. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Gathering (audio story)|The Gathering]]'')
* The Doctor refers to the disappearance of the crew of the ''[[Mary Celeste]]'' in [[1872]]. The Doctor refers to the [[Dalek]]s' involvement in the incident. The [[First Doctor]] and his companions [[Ian Chesterton]], [[Barbara Wright]] and [[Vicki Pallister]] were indirectly involved in the crew's disappearance. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Chase (TV story)|The Chase]], ''[[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Rosemariners (audio story)|The Rosemariners]]'') The [[Fifth Doctor]] had told [[Alan Fitzgerald]], a student summer intern at the Gogglebox, that he was "sort of" responsible. ([[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Gathering (audio story)|The Gathering]]'')
* The Doctor and Peri previously encountered the Sontarans in [[Seville]], [[Spain]] in [[1985]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'')
* The Doctor and Peri previously encountered the Sontarans in [[Seville]], [[Spain]] in [[1985]]. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'')
* The Doctor tells Roath and Fleet Marshal Jaka that he is aware that the Sontarans possess rudimentary [[time travel]] technology as he once witnessed it in operation. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'')
* The Doctor tells Roath and Fleet Marshal Jaka that he is aware that the Sontarans possess rudimentary [[time travel]] technology as he previously witnessed it in operation. ([[TV]]: ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'', ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'')


== External links ==
== External links ==
* {{Bigfinish|306-Doctor-Who-The-Lost-Stories-The-First-Sontarans|The First Sontarans}}
{{bigfinish|releases/v/the-first-sontarans-418}}
* {{tetrap|6/firstsontarans.html|The First Sontarans}}
{{tetrap|6/firstsontarans.html|The First Sontarans}}
{{BFA LostStories}}
 
== Footnotes ==
<references />{{BFA LostStories}}
{{Sontaran stories}}
{{Sontaran stories}}
{{Rutan stories}}
{{TitleSort}}
{{TitleSort}}
[[Category:Series 3 (TLS) audio stories]]
[[Category:2012 audio stories]]
[[Category:2012 audio stories]]
[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio stories]]
[[Category:Sixth Doctor audio stories]]
[[Category:The Lost Stories]]
[[Category:Sontaran audio stories]]
[[Category:Sontaran audio stories]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1872]]
[[Category:Stories set in 1872]]
[[Category:Stories set on the Moon]]
[[Category:Audio stories set on the Moon]]
[[Category:Stories set in Sussex]]
[[Category:Stories set in Sussex]]
[[Category:Rutan Host audio stories]]
[[Category:Rutan Host audio stories]]
[[Category:Pseudo-historical stories]]
[[Category:Audio stories that use the Peter Howell theme]]

Latest revision as of 23:17, 17 November 2024

RealWorld.png

The First Sontarans was the sixth story release in the third series of The Lost Stories, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was adapted by Andrew Smith, from his original script, and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

1872. After finding a strange signalling device on the moon, the Doctor and Peri travel to the depths of the English countryside to track down the source of its transmissions. But they're not the first aliens to arrive on the scene.

Old enemies of the Doctor are drawing their battle lines in the forest and the local humans will be lucky to escape the conflagration unscathed.

For hidden within this village is a deadly secret - a secret that could destroy the entire Sontaran race...and reveal the terrible mystery of their creation.

Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]

Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor takes Peri to Mare Nectaris on the Moon in 1872 where they find a crashed communications repeater. Taking it back into the TARDIS, he finds that its purpose is to cover up the fact that the message it is retransmitting, saying "We are here", comes from Sussex. They trace the message to a forest and put a stop to a cockfight, for which innkeeper Jacob Gilley apologises whilst also emphasising the difficult times that the villagers are currently going through. Peri, recognising the opportunity to collect information about possible anomalies in the area, suggests that Jacob take her and the Doctor to his tavern, The Coach and Horses.

The Gentleman bursts into the tavern and demands to know what a Time Lord is doing on Earth, having recently killed another alien. Before he can attack the Doctor and Peri, Major Thessinger arrives and invites the two of them to his home to seek sanctuary against the Gentleman, who departs after warning the two travellers to leave. They do not stay long with Thessinger, whom the Doctor quickly realises is not as affluent as he claims and is lying about serving in the Battle of Inkerman, and are knocked out and captured shortly after leaving his home.

Thessinger is visited by the Gentleman, who accuses him of being a Kaveetch and draws a technologically advanced firearm which Thessinger claims not to recognise. The Doctor awakens in a dungeon fitted with an anachronistic CCTV camera and electronic doors, behind one of which he finds Commander Lork of the 1st Sontaran Battle Fleet, a Sontaran prisoner who assumes that the Doctor is his jailer and goes to attack him.

Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]

The Doctor manages to lock Lork back up and release Peri from behind another door. The two of them get through the exit by applying different degrees of force to its energy field and enter a makeshift morgue in a cellar. The Doctor switches off the transmitter to the Moon, finds two dissected Sontarans and identifies the contents of four jars as the remains of the other members of a Sontaran patrol before Gilley enters, granting him and Peri their freedom as he has confirmed that they are not Sontaran agents. In truth, Gilley is Meredid Roath, a Kaveetch cellular geneticist.

Roath explains that the Sontarans attacked his planet and that he and his ex-wife, Leandra, escaped to Earth before sending a transmission to summon the other survivors and lure in a Sontaran patrol which he could dissect. Lork escapes his cell and, finding the corpses of his comrades, attacks the Doctor, Peri and Roath, who lock him in the basement until he uses a photon grenade from his companion's survival pack to break out and flee the tavern. The Doctor and Roath stop him from getting too far away whilst Peri, looking around the tavern, is joined by Leandra, who shoots Lork with a gun which targets Sontaran cell structures. The Doctor and Peri recognise her as Thessinger's housekeeper.

After the Doctor deactivates a distress beacon activated by Lork, Peri and Leandra teleport to the Roaths' orbiter to run a scan and detect a Sontaran Planet Kill Fleet commanded by Fleet Marshal Jaka. The Doctor and Roath learn of Thessinger's death from Barclay, his manservant, and go with him to the house where they find Thessinger alive. The Doctor suspects that he is a Rutan impostor, however, and goes looking for the real Thessinger's corpse. Instead, he finds Barclay's, leading the Gentleman, who has been impersonating him, to attack.

Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]

Thessinger shoots the Gentleman before he can kill the Doctor and Roath, but he escapes through a window. Roath tells Leandra to send out the Exodus Signal to the Kaveetch, who are allied with the Kreliban Confederacy and intend to wipe out the Sontarans with their help. However, the Doctor informs Roath that Krelibas has been conquered by the Rutans, whom Leandra reveals to Peri that she is working with when she teleports the Gentleman up to the ship. The Gentleman soon takes both of them prisoner and contacts the Rutan fleet as he wants to use Roath and his anti-Sontaran technology in their war and has been killing the Kaveetch on Earth to find him.

The Doctor takes Roath and Thessinger, who has admitted that he fled the Crimea before Inkerman, to where the TARDIS landed, but Jaka has Commander Strek teleport it to the Sontaran mothership and the three of them are pursued. Cornered by Jaka in his workshop, Roath admits to the Doctor that the Kaveetch are from Sontar and that he created the Sontarans as a last resort to win the Kaveetch's war against the Rutans. The Sontarans turned on the Kaveetch whilst they celebrated the turning tide of the war on account of them having too much knowledge of their physiology and way of thinking and took control of the planet.

When the Rutans start the docking procedure with the Kaveetch ship, Leandra, at Peri's suggestion, opens the door and kills the Rutans through decompression, after which the orbiter starts to fall apart as Sontaran ships approach. The Doctor and Roath get away in Thessinger's carriage and join the four hundred Kaveetch waiting to be teleported to the orbiter, but they are forced to surrender to the Sontarans and Thessinger is killed. The Sontarans destroy the orbiter and vapourise the Kaveetch on Jaka's command; the Doctor and Roath, however, are to be taken to Sontar to face Sontaran justice.

Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]

During the journey to Sontar, Roath tells the Doctor how he had to save himself and the unconscious Leandra during the burning of their city rather than collect his son and daughter, something Leandra apparently never forgave him for. Jaka, having been listening, shows the Doctor the clone hatchery he is sworn to protect and orders him to take him into the TARDIS, which he intends to use to defeat the Rutans. Disguised as a Sontaran, Peri knocks Jaka out by hitting his probic vent and she and Leandra explain how they escaped the orbiter using the teleporter's emergency settings, which sent them to the Sontaran cargo hold.

The Doctor picks up an encrypted Rutan transmission and uses a code memorised Peri to access it, learning that the Rutans will soon be attacking to acquire Roath's anti-Sontaran weapon. He deliberately gets himself recaptured to be reunited with Roath and escapes thanks to Peri deactivating the security systems through the TARDIS, but they fail to return to the TARDIS before the Rutans attack the ship and start destroying the hatchery. Jaka, holding Peri and Leandra hostage, comes to defend the hatchlings and wounds Leandra when she takes his jumps in front of his shot to save the Doctor. The Rutans mortally injure Jaka and he orders Strek to activate the self-destruct before he dies.

The Doctor, Peri and Roath get Leandra to the TARDIS and into the Zero Room, keeping her alive long enough to get her to the surgeons of Calisto 4. With the Sontarans and the Rutans killed, they attend Thessinger's funeral and the Roaths decide to leave Earth to start the Kaveetch race anew on a nameless planet that the Doctor recommends to them. The Doctor and Peri congratulate them on moving on rather than continuing to seek revenge against the Sontarans and depart.

Cast[[edit] | [edit source]]

Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]

Cultural references from the real world[[edit] | [edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] | [edit source]]

Planets[[edit] | [edit source]]

Timeline[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • Meredid and Leandra Roath have been on Earth since the early 1860s.

Species[[edit] | [edit source]]

TARDIS[[edit] | [edit source]]

  • The Doctor is able to preserve Leandra's life using the Zero Room.

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

CD booklet interior artwork.
  • This is the first Big Finish audio drama to feature both the Sontarans and the Rutans.
  • Writer Andrew Smith removed all of the Mary Celeste scenes from the original TV script and instead added a reference. According to Smith, when he was originally writing the TV episode, he became highly disturbed when his research about the Mary Celeste turned into him knowing every detail about all the crew who died on the ship.
  • This story was recorded at the Moat Studios.[1]
  • The cover for this story, along with that for The Anachronauts, was revealed on 3 November 2011.[2]
  • This story was originally released on CD and download.
CD booklet credits.

Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

Footnotes[[edit] | [edit source]]

  1. ↑ https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-the-first-sontarans-418
  2. ↑ Sontaran Past Uncovered
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For the purposes of this list, a "Sontaran story" is one in which one living, authentic Sontaran plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story. For this reason, stories such as The Halloween Apocalypse and Survivors of the Flux are not counted due to the Sontarans' appearance being defined by their importance to following stories. Stories like The End of Time and The Time of the Doctor are also not included due to the Sontarans' appearance being no consequence to the plot of the story. Stories featuring Strax of the Paternoster Gang are only included on the Paternoster Gang story template.
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For the purposes of this list, a "Rutan story" is one in which one living, authentic Rutan plays a part within the confines of the story, outside of flashbacks to previous stories and cliffhangers that lead into the following story.
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