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Your stratagem would be wise if Sontarans feared death, but we do not!
The Sontarans (pronounced "Sohn-TAR-rans") were a race of belligerent and militaristic clones who waged eternal war throughout Mutter's Spiral against the Rutan Host.
Biology
Appearance
The cloned Sontarans were humanoids with large, bulbous heads and short stocky bodies. They had grey-brown skin and deep set features and all appeared roughly the same age, with the exception of General Sontar, who appeared older. (PDA: The Infinity Doctors). Sontaran Blood is green. (DW: The Two Doctors). Ross Jenkins likened them to baked potatoes and Colonel Mace likened them to trolls.
Sontarans generally had three digits on each hand (two fingers and a thumb). They had great strength and resilience in lower gravity environments like Earth or Gallifrey. (DW: The Two Doctors) The cloned Sontaran species consisted only of males. (DW: The Time Warrior)
- At least one Sontaran, Styre, had five digits (four fingers and a thumb) on each hand. This, along with facial variation seen in the species, indicates some degree of individuality even between clones. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
Variation in appearence
Despite being a clone race, over time the Sontaran appearance has changed.
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Society
The Sontarans are the finest race of soldiers in the galaxy. Dedicated to a life of warfare.
The Sontarans were an entirely cloned race, able to produce one million clones every four minutes. All Sontarans were similar in appearance. Sontaran society revolved completely around warfare, Sontarans being a war-obsessed race. Sontarans do not fear death, and they would rather be court martialled than show pain to others. They considered it honourable to face battle open skinned (without a helmet). The Doctor warned that combat with them must be avoided at all costs. Individual Sontarans were treated differently according to rank (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky). Due to their probic vent, Sontarans must always face their enemy as, if they turn, they expose their "weak spot". They have no problem with betraying allies. (DW: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky). They consider humans primitive apes. (DW: The Time Warrior)
Weaknesses
The Sontarans have no weakness!
Despite their strength, Sontaran muscles were designed for load bearing rather than leverage, which means they could easily be tied up. (DW: The Time Warrior)
One of the few ways to hurt or kill a Sontaran is via a small access port called a "probic vent" at the back of the neck. (DW: The Time Warrior) They are also weak to Coronic acid, which causes them to disintegrate and burn. (DW: The Two Doctors)
Technology
The Sontarans were reasonably advanced, though all their technology was designed for use in the war with the Rutan Host. They often used spherical spaceships and could make advanced robots for various purposes. They could use and make a wide variety of hand-held weapons, though they usually used a thin, metallic weapon, the approximate shape and size of a corkscrew designed to fit the Sontaran hand.
The weapons were used for energy projection and hypnotism. (DW: The Time Warrior) They can create around a million clones every four minutes, which allows them to sustain massive casualties. By the 12th century, Sontarans already used crude time-travel technology utilising osmic projection, though nothing comparable to Time Lords. (DW: The Time Warrior) They made other attempts to obtain more effective time-travel technology, specifically those of the Time Lords. (DW: The Two Doctors) Styre also used a miniature camera and a force field while studying the Humans. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment). Sontarans adapted teleportation technology using generators situated at the area of materialisation. Sontaran motherships have 4 claw like appendages coming out of the top and four from the bottom the centre is a giant circle covered in smaller spheres that are Sontaran scout ships. Sontaran scout ships are silver and have a square glass like pane to see from. Each scout ship can hold a single Sontaran. Sontaran leaders also used their batons to cripple their enemies. During the mission to make Earth a clone planet, the Sontarans made a Cordolaine field around themselves that causes metallic copper to expand; when the copper is in the jacket of a bullet, it becomes jammed in the gun's barrel, rendering it useless. This is not always the case, as a Sontaran would think it as honourable to face bullets with dignity, but in this particular mission they needed to stay alive. They also utilised rifle laser weapons during the assault which fired bright beams of red light that could kill a human without any exterior damage.. (DW: The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky)
Sontarans wore distinctive battle armour, which resembles a thick and bulky grey space suit. Their helmets were dome-shaped and almost featureless except for two eye holes and a small, flat crest running from the forehead to the back of the neck. They generally carried around their rod-like weapon and a translating device. (DW: The Time Warrior). Later Sontarans had blue armour in a similar design. (DW: The Sontaran Strategem/The Poison Sky)
History
They've been fighting this war for longer than man has been walking upright, and they don’t take prisoners
Originally, Sontarans differed considerably in appearance and reproduced sexually, rather than via cloning. The original Sontarans appeared ganglier and more more like Humans. Prior to the war with the Rutans, the clones forced the purebloods off-world. (DWM: Pureblood)
The cloned Sontarans were engaged in a war with the Rutan Host. During the Millennium War, though, Sontarans and Rutans briefly joined forces. (PDA: The Quantum Archangel)
- Accounts differ as to the date at which the Rutan-Sontaran war started.
In the 12th century, Linx, a scout, landed in England and claimed it for the Sontaran Empire. He proceeded to make an alliance with Irongron, a local warlord, and to transport scientists from the late 20th century into the past using his osmic projection to use hypnosis on them in order to make them work on his ship. (DW: The Time Warrior)
In 1609, along with the Rutans, the Sontarans participated in the summit of military powers throughout Mutter's Spiral in the Armageddon Convention, which convened in Laputa, a floating island in the sky near Venice. (MA: The Empire of Glass)
During the later part of the 20th century, Edgar Nelson-Stanley met with the Sontarans. He believed they were "the silliest race in the galaxy". (SJA: Eye of the Gorgon)
In the 1980s, the Sontaran Warburg investigated the possibility of using time ships in order to win the war. At the same point in time they were involved in a battle with the Rutans in the Madillon Cluster. Neither attempt was successful. (DW: The Two Doctors)
The Sontarans were also not 'allowed' to fight in the Last Great Time War, which according to General Staal was the greatest war of all time. How and why they were not allowed to be involved is unknown, though it is apparent they were aware of its outcome.
In 2009, the Sontarans were losing the war against the Rutans. To counter this, the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet (led by General Staal) made plans for invasion of Earth, and carried them out with the help of Luke Rattigan. The Sontarans used a form of hypnosis on the workers of the ATMOS factory, forcing them to start shipping out devices that contained gases poisonous to humans, contained inside plates attached to the Sat-navs they sold. When the Doctor interfered with their plans, they attempted to kill him by using the plate on a UNIT car to drive it into a river. It failed, but this was unknown to them until the Doctor began fiddling with a plate, causing it to become active. The Sontarans activated all the plates in every car containing one. The gas was released into the air, choking people around it. It also deadlocked the car preventing escape from inside. The Sontarans plans were revealed: they actually wanted to change the Earth into a cloning planet to make a billion more Sontarans. The fleet was eventually destroyed by Rattigan. (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)
During either the 25th or 26th century, the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, Sontara, with photonic bombs, though some escaped with the Sontaran racepool. At the same time, the Sontarans encountered the purebloods. Due to the intervention of the Doctor, the cloned and pureblood Sontarans decided to pool their resources and Marshall Stave promised to remove the Sontarans' memory of Humans from the racepool. (DWM: Pureblood)
Many thousands of years hence, at a time when the Earth had been abandoned for 10,000 years, the Sontarans were separated from the many human worlds like GalSec throughout Mutter's Spiral by a buffer zone. The Grand Strategic Council planned to invade the galaxy, but they had to abandon that plan when a scout, Field Major Styre, was killed while trying to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the humans. After this, the Doctor bluffed, telling the Sontarans that their battle plans had been captured, so they would have to call off their invasion. (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
On the DVD release of The Sontaran Experiment, an additional story is included called "Built for War". Though mostly a documentary about the fictional history of the Sontarans, some segments follow the journey of Squadron Commander Gron as he lands on the abandoned future Earth on a mission to locate the missing Field Major Styre. As he wanders around, he picks up 'transmissions' from the cast and crew of prior Sontaran serials as they conduct their behind-the-scenes interviews. At the end of the story, Gron recommends that they invade Earth immediately. Dozens of Sontaran pods then land on the empty grasslands. Due to the semi-documentary nature of this production, it is generally not considered canon.
Ranks
As Sontarans tend to introduce themselves with their full title, a number of their ranks have been mentioned. These are some of those ranks:
- Space Marshal Sontar
- Battle Marshal (novels only)
- Fleet Marshal (novels only)
- Group Marshal
- Marshal
- General
- Squadron Commander (spin-off media only)
- Commander
- Battle Major (novels only)
- Field Major
- Major
- Lieutenant (spin-off media & novels)
- Warriors
Note that the above are listed in presumed order of seniority in relation to real-life ranks of Earth armed forces. The precise order is pure speculation, however.
In the classic serials, the ranks of individual Sontarans were not prominently displayed on the uniform. The first to wear any significant insignia was the unnamed Marshal who sported two large spiky disks on the front of his collar (DW: The Sontaran Experiment). Commander Stor wore a larger collar than his troops and had a white, three-pointed crown on his helmet (DW: The Invasion of Time), although the crown may well have been the emblem of the Sontaran Empire (DW: The Time Warrior). Group Marshal Stike had white braiding on his shoulders, akin to epaulets (DW: The Two Doctors).
In the 2005 revival series, badges of rank were more clearly visible and consisted of various symbols set into the right-hand side of the front of the collar. General Staal wore five diamonds in a crown-shaped pattern. Commander Skorr sported three diamonds in a similar design (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky). Note that Skorr's insignia is very similar in shape to that of Commander Stor's helmet logo (DW: The Invasion of Time).
Forces
The Sontaran military appears to be divided into several different units, regiments and fleets:
- 5th Army Space Fleet of the Sontaran Army Space Corps (DW: The Time Warrior)
- Sontaran G3 Military Assessment Survey (DW: The Sontaran Experiment)
- Sontaran Special Space Service (DW: The Invasion of Time)
- 9th Sontaran Attack Group (DW: The Two Doctors)
- 10th Sontaran Battle Fleet (DW: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)
- Koda - Military security branch of the Sontaran Armed Forces. (MA: Lords of the Storm)
Behind the scenes
The Sontarans are set to appear in the Series 2 finale of The Sarah Jane Adventures, alongside returning character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.