A Fix with Sontarans (TV story)

A Fix with Sontarans
Doctor:	Sixth Doctor
Companion(s):	Tegan Jovanka Gareth Jenkins
Main enemy:	Group Marshall Nathan, Unnamed 2nd Sontaran
Main setting:	The Doctor's TARDIS
Key crew
Writer:	Eric Saward
Director:	Marcus Mortimer
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	23 February 1985
Format:	1x10-minute episode

A Fix with Sontarans was the name of a sketch specially written for the BBC's children's programme Jim'll Fix It, featuring the Sixth Doctor. It was broadcast on 23 February 1985.

Plot

The Doctor is working the controls in the TARDIS. He accidentally transports his former companion Tegan Jovanka on board. She is less than happy about this, but reluctantly agrees to help him. He reveals that two Sontarans are on board. They have a powerful vitrox bomb with which they intend to blow up the ship.

The Doctor then accidentally beams on board a human boy, Gareth Jenkins, who happens to be dressed in an outfit similar to his own. Gareth agrees to help in any way he can. He helps The Doctor set a trap for the Sontarans. The two aliens break into the console room. The leader introduces himself as Group Marshall Nathan and demands that the Doctor introduce his group. Upon hearing Gareth's name, Nathan reveals that in 2001 their invasion of Earth would be foiled by a brave rebel called Gareth Jenkins. If they kill him now, their future success is assured. However, Gareth springs their trap and kills the two villains. Jimmy Savile then appears on the scanner screen and then on the TARDIS set. The Doctor presents Gareth with his Jim'll Fix It medal and as an added treat, the prop "BBC meson gun" the Sontarans used.

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
• Gareth Jenkins - Himself
• Group Marshall Nathan - Clinton Greyn
• 2nd Sontaran -Tim Raynham
• Jimmy Savile - Himself

Story notes

• The format of Jim'll Fix It involved viewers asking requests of the host, Jimmy Savile. Gareth Jenkins had his own Sixth Doctor costume made for him by his grandmother and asked to appear in a Doctor Who story as the Doctor.
• Gareth Jenkins' letter to Jimmy Savile read as follows:

Dear Jim,

I like Dr. Who very much because I have got Colin Baker's Doctor Who suit made by my Nan and a tent TARDIS. Please could I see Colin Baker and go inside the TARDIS.

Yours sincerely

Gareth Jenkins (Age 8).

• Despite rumours to the contrary, the young Gareth Jenkins in this broadcast is not the same Gareth Jenkins who worked as a composer, audio engineer and actor for Big Finish in the 2000s.
• "A Fix with Sontarans" was broadcast during the run of The Two Doctors and is featured as an extra on the DVD release of that story.
• Group Marshal Nathan and his subordinate, unnamed on-screen but referred to as "Turner" in the script, were a sly reference to the then-current Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner.
• Janet Fielding was asked to participate in the sketch when it was discovered that Nicola Bryant was out of the country on holiday and unavailable to fill her role as the Doctor's then-current assistant, Peri Brown. She wore the flight attendant uniform she had on in Logopolis during most of Season 19, though since leaving the series her hair had grown much longer and she had bleached it blonde.
• Peri's absence is not explained. When Tegan arrives (wearing a flight attendant's uniform similar to the one she wore in the series, even though sometime between Time-Flight and Arc of Infinity she lost her job at the airline), the Doctor explains he has regenerated; since Tegan witnessed this before, she is not surprised. She is also shown to be somewhat familiar with TARDIS controls, in keeping with her character in her earlier appearances. In retrospect, it could be possible to place this story in the post-The Trial of a Time Lord era, as the Doctor would have travelled alone after that story (prior to picking up Melanie Bush).
• According to PROSE: Business Unusual, the events of A Fix with Sontarans is a bad dream the Sixth Doctor is having.