The Poison Sky (TV story)

We will ravage this planet!Staal

The Poison Sky
Doctor:	[[doctor::Tenth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Donna Martha (Reintroduction)
Main enemy:	Sontarans
Main setting:	London, 2009
Key crew
Writer:	Helen Raynor
Director:	Douglas Mackinnon
Producer:	Susie Liggat
Release details
Release number:	4
Premiere broadcast:	3rd May 2008
Format:	1 45 minute episode
Production code:	4.5

Synopsis

The Valiant clears the ATMOS gas as the Sontarans activate their masterplan to turn Earth into their cloning planet. UNIT is left defenceless, with a traitor in their ranks. And as interplanetary war edges closer, Doctor has to fight to keep both Martha and Donna alive - but will he have to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Plot

To be added

Cast

• The Doctor - David Tennant
• Donna Noble - Catherine Tate
• Martha Jones - Freema Agyeman
• Rose Tyler - Billie Piper
• Wilfred Mott - Bernard Cribbins
• Sylvia Noble - Jacqueline King
• General Staal - Christopher Ryan
• Commander Skorr - Dan Starkey
• Colonel Mace - Rupert Holliday Evans
• Luke Rattigan - Ryan Sampson
• Ross Jenkins - Christian Cooke
• Captain Price - Bridget Hodgson
• Private Harris - Clive Standen
• Private Gray - Wesley Theobald
• Newsreader - Kirsty Wark
• Mal Loup - Lachele Carl

Production crew

To be added

References

• The Doctor mentions the Rutan's and their war with the Sontarans.
• The Brigadier is mentioned to be stranded in Peru.
• He has been knighted as (Colonel Mace refers to him as "Sir Alastair".)
• The Doctor wears a gas mask and asks "Are you my mummy?" like the Empty Child in Albion Hospital. (DW: The Empty Child).
• The Doctor addresses the Sontarans "under duristiction two of the intergalactic rules of engagement" which is very similiar to the Shadow Proclamation.

Story notes

• Helen Raynor wrote this episode. Her Series 3 episodes Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks both occupied fourth and fith episode in the series. This two part episode also occupies episode four and five.
• This is part two of a two part story that began with The Sontaran Strategem.
• This two parter is Douglas Mackinnon's first story as director.

Ratings

To be added

Myths

to be added

Rumours

• Sylvia gets an axe and breaks Wilf out of the car. Confirmed
• The Sontaran's copper exitation will be deactivated. UNIT use steel bullets, no metal This was proved to be true
• The Sontarans need the gas from the cars to make the earth habitable for themselves. to create a clone planet. it is clone feed This was true
• A Rutan army will appear in flashback. They were only mentioned
• Details of the Brigadier's whereabouts are revealed. been knighted and in Peru
• The Sontarans steal the TARDIS. confirmed
• UNIT will launch a nuclear strike. tried but failed
• Donna will kill a Sontaran by the Probic Vent. knocks one out
• The Doctor's hand will reappear. seen at the end
• The TARDIS will take off with the Doctor, Donna and Martha stuck inside at the end of the episode. confirmed, possibly by the Doctor's daughter

Filming locations

To be added

Continuity

• The Valiant last appeared in Last of the Time Lords.
• At the end of the episode, when the TARDIS fly's off, the Doctor says his "What, what, what" line from Donna's first appearence in The Runaway Bride.
• Rose Tyler appears on the TARDIS scanner screen for a split second, she appears to be shouting 'Doctor!' and was last seen in Partners in Crime.
• The Valiant's laser is similar to that of Torchwood 1's one used against the Sycorax. (DW: The Christmas Invasion)
• The Doctor is threatened by Luke Rattigan and by the cloned Martha with a gun. He was previously threatened by Mr Halpen in Planet of the Ood.
• The Doctor thanks Donna and Martha just before he sacrifices his life. He last said this to Donna in The Sontaran Strategem when she was supposedly leaving him.
• This is the first time a serial has continued onto the next one in the new series; as normaly happened in the classic.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• A corridor explodes with Sontarans inside it. This is the same corridor that exploded in the Torchwood episode Sleeper. The corridor in Sleeper was in Cardiff but the one in this episode is in London. A similar mistake occured in Partners in Crime. (Perhaps these buildings are built to the same design.)
• Commander Skorr is killed by Colonel Mace with a pistol, but minutes later he can be seen open skinned next to General Staal in the Sontaran ship. (The second Skorr, however, could simply be an identical-looking clone.)

DVD and other releases

• It will be released on the Series 4 boxset DVD in November 2008.

External Links

To be added.