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Sontaran

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The Sontarans were a race of belligerent and militaristic clones from the planet Sontar. They waged eternal war throughout Mutter's Spiral against the Rutan Host.

Biology

 
A Sontaran comes out of the Cloning Chamber. (COMIC: The Outsider)

The Sontarans were humanoids with large, bulbous heads and short stocky bodies. They had grey-brown skin and deep set features. Sontarans generally had three digits on each hand (two fingers and a thumb). (TV: The Time Warrior, et. all) Some Sontarans also had vestigial hair, generally in the form of beards, which grew white with age. (PROSE: Shakedown) Sontaran blood was green. (TV: The Two Doctors, TV: The Last Sontaran)

The Sontarans reproduced by cloning, meaning each Sontaran was nearly identical to each other. There were some variations over time, such as the number of fingers (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) or skin colour. (PROSE: Shakedown) As a nurse, at least one Sontaran had been gene-spliced for nursing purposes, such as the ability to produce breast milk. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) They used mass cloning techniques that allowed their hatcheries to produce up to a million Sontarans in four minutes. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm)

In an alternate universe, all Sontarans appeared roughly the same age, with the exception of General Sontar, who appeared older. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) The rare Pureblood Sontarans had increased status and were higher in the hierarchy. Occasionally, genetic defects would crop up and the afflicted Sontarans would perform menial labour. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

 
A Sontaran skull. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

Due to Sontar's high gravity, the Sontarans had great strength and resilience in lower gravity environments like Earth or Gallifrey. (TV: The Two Doctors) However, Sontaran muscles were designed for load bearing rather than leverage, which could lead to unwieldiness. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Experiment)

They were vulnerable to Coronic acid, which burnt, or in some cases disintegrated them. (TV: The Two Doctors) If severely wounded, a Sontaran would enter an anabolic coma. They would usually die, but sometimes they would later wake. (PROSE: Shakedown)

They absorbed energy via the probic vent on the back of their necks. This vent was also their crucial weakness, as any sudden blow to the vent would stun them. The penetration of a sharp object into the vent would kill them. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Invasion of Time, et. al.) Tampering with the energy source could also lead to a reversal effect that could destroy a Sontaran from the inside out. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

Sontarans could live into their eighties, but their culture meant that they were unlikely to do so. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers)

Society

The Sontarans were a martial species, obsessed with war. They hated the idea of a war going on without them. (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem) Sontaran civilisation relied on war, and the continuing war effort of the Sontaran Empire relied upon its civilisation. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) Sontarans trained for war in the Sontaran Greater Military Academy. (PROSE: Devil in the Smoke) The highest honour for a Sontaran was to serve in the Imperial Sontaran Fleet and to be disallowed soldiering was the most dishonourable fate for a Sontaran. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar) Taking care of the sick and wounded was a humiliating concept (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Fighting for other species was an equally dishonourable fate. (TV: Enemy of the Bane) Sontarans did not fear death and they would rather be court-martialled than show pain. They considered it honourable to face battle open skinned, without a helmet on. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

Though they would ally with other species (PROSE: Shakedown, TV: The Pandorica Opens), they felt no need to keep them. (PROSE: Shakedown) Sontarans would only ally themselves with other species, take prisoners, or allow enemies to live, if it served the greater good of the empire. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers) Their idea of a dishonourable and shameful death was to die peacefully and the family of a Sontaran who died in his sleep would often make up a story of him dying on the battlefield. An old and sick Sontaran would often sign up for the military so he could die fighting.[source needed]

Sontarans who possessed five digits on their hands were generally placed as intelligence operatives. However, these agents had a tendency to be paranoid. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm)

The Sontarans marched to a tune titled the Sontaran Anthem. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors)

Despite being a clone race, the Sontarans still retained the concept of betrothal, which was roughly analogous to ending hostilities by killing your enemy. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar) Within their society, there was a rigid clan structure, with clans having different genetic markers. (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) The clans vied for power. Some had great influence, such as the Gunnar Clan. (PROSE: Shakedown) Sontarans were known for Quicksand Wrestling. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)

Sontarans used a Base-6 counting system. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

Sontarans generally held a chauvinistic attitude towards females, considering them unfit for warfare. They would sometimes insult their enemies by comparing them to women. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem) They also considered their reproductive systems inferior. (TV: The Time Warrior) Some Sontarans, however, had trouble figuring out which gender humans were. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War, The Snowmen) They referred to Earth-born children as "half forms". (TV: The Last Sontaran, Enemy of the Bane)

Sontarans bore eponyms, usually relating to past victories and events that had occurred in their lives. Sontarans would often introduce themselves by their full name and title. The Tenth Doctor pointed out that a title such as Staal's ("General Staal the Undefeated") would no longer be accurate if he did get defeated, joking that that would make him "General Staal the Not-Quite-So-Undefeated-But-Never-Mind." (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, TV: The Last Sontaran)

If a Sontaran opposed the decision of their commanding officer, they could duel to the death to decide which would be the leader. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

Sontarans considered informing a person that they looked forward to someday killing them on the battlefield a compliment.

Due to their dedication to warfare and short lifespan, Strax considered a twelve year life to be a long one amongst his species. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Ranks

Note that the ranks are listed in presumed order of seniority in relation to Earth armed forces. The precise order is pure speculation.

The ranks of individual Sontarans were generally not prominently displayed on the uniform. The Marshal above Styre sported two large spiky disks on the front of his collar. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment) Commander Stor wore a larger collar than his troops and had a white, three-pointed crown imprinted on his helmet (TV: The Invasion of Time), although the crown may well have been the emblem of the Sontaran Empire. (TV: The Time Warrior) Group Marshal Stike had white braiding on his shoulders, akin to epaulettes. (TV: The Two Doctors)

In the early 21st century, 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. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) In the 24th century, Commander Steg wore a gold helmet while his troops wore red ones. (HOMEVID: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans)

Forces

The Sontaran military was divided into several different units, regiments and fleets:

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.

Weaponry

The Sontarans could use and make a wide variety of hand-held weapons, though they usually used the rheon carbine, a thin, metallic weapon, which was designed to optimally fit the Sontaran hand. The weapons were used for energy projection and hypnotism. (TV: The Time Warrior, PROSE: Shakedown, Lords of the Storm) The Sontarans also utilised laser rifle weapons during the assault of 2009, which fired bright beams of red light that could kill a human without any exterior damage. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky) They also had the Stenk 11 pistol. (PROSE: The Undertaker's Gift)

They also used melee weapons such as swords (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar), machetes (TV: The Sontaran Experiment), spears (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar), and staffs. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

They also made use of fragmentation grenades, which could destroy everything in a certain area. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons, Legacy)

In an alternate universe, the Sontarans began plans to develop a device capable of snuffing out entire stars in response to the development by the Rutans to create a planet killing weapon that was able to destroy a world by converting it from matter to anti-matter. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors)

Transportation

The Sontarans used spherical vessels, which were covered in square plates. They were generally only large enough for one Sontaran. (TV: The Time Warrior) Some had cloaking capabilities. (TV: The Last Sontaran) The Sontaran motherships were similar in shape to the scoutship, but had four claw like appendages coming out of the top and bottom. The scout ships were attached to the mothership and could be released when needed. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)

War-Wheels were combat vessels shaped roughly like a bow tie, with two rotating 'wheels' either side of a central spherical core. They were capable of planetary landings. (PROSE: Shakedown, COMIC: Unnatural Born Killers) Assault ships were also used for planetary invasions. Sontaran fleets had a typical arrow formation, with ships composing both the head and the shaft. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

When on a planet, the Sontarans would travel by the means of aircraft. These aircraft looked like the bottom half of a Sontaran ship, with seats and controls on the top half. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)

The Sontarans had limited time travel technology. By the 13th century, Sontarans utilised osmic projection, though nothing comparable to Time Lords. (TV: The Time Warrior) Thousands of years earlier, their time travel technology, which was developed by the Kaveetch, was only capable of sending individuals into the future. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans) In the 20th century, they made other attempts to obtain more effective time travel technology from the Time Lords such as the TARDIS. (TV: The Two Doctors)

Sontarans adapted teleportation technology using generators situated at the area of materialisation. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

Armour

 
21st century era armour. (TV: The Poison Sky)

Sontarans wore distinctive battle armour, which resembled 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. (TV: The Time Warrior)

 
Early Sontaran armour. (TV: The Invasion of Time)

During a period in the early 17th and early 21st century Sontarans had blue, less flexible, armour in a similar design (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, GAME: The Gunpowder Plot) although those Sontarans may have been solely ship crews, since crew armour was blue. Sontarans of the medical and environmental divisions wore green armour, (PROSE: Lords of the Storm) though in 4037, the nurse Strax wore an outfit similar to that of the blue 17th/21st century armour. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Other technology

Sontarans used two methods of controlling other individuals. They could take over their minds through hypnosis, (TV: The Time Warrior, The Sontaran Stratagem) or control them with devices attached to the neck (TV: The Last Sontaran). They also used psy-snares for the same purpose. (COMIC: Black Sun Rising)

The Sontarans were capable of creating around a million clones every four minutes, which allowed them to sustain massive casualties. (TV: The Time Warrior) These clones were fed using the probic vent, which was the Sontaran's only weak spot. These clones were grown in vats and were nourished by sezerfine gas. (TV: The Poison Sky)

The Sontarans could heal their wounds with a device called a tissue rectifier, which was a stubby, tubular device. (PROSE: Blind Terror)

Styre used a miniature camera and a force field while studying humans. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

During the mission to make Earth a breeding planet, the Sontarans made a Cordolaine field around themselves that caused metallic copper to expand; when the copper was in the jacket of a bullet, it became jammed in the gun's barrel, rendering it useless. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky)

History

Early history

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 Sontarans. 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. (AUDIO: The First Sontarans)

In their early history, before enountering the Rutans the Sontarans were split into clans, which would fight amongst themselves. (PROSE: Shakedown) The original Sontarans appeared more gangly and more like humans. (COMIC: Pureblood) The survivors of these civil wars joined forces and set their aggression on aliens instead. (PROSE: Shakedown)

The Sontarans eventually discovered cloning and adapted it to their own use, abandoning normal reproduction. Prior to the war with the Rutans, the clones forced the purebloods off-world. (COMIC: Pureblood)

Rutan-Sontaran War

Distant past

The cloned Sontarans were engaged in a war with the Rutan Host. During the Millennium War, though, Sontarans and Rutans briefly joined forces. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)

In Earth's prehistory a Sontaran came to Egypt, where it was worshipped as a God. Eventually, the humans learned that he planned to destroy Earth for the war. When they learned this, the Sontaran was buried alive in the Pyramid. (COMIC: The Gods Walk Among Us)

2nd century

In 102, the Sontarans were among the races who joined the Alliance. They came to Stonehenge and helped imprison the Eleventh Doctor in the Pandorica in order to save the Universe. (TV: The Pandorica Opens)

13th century

File:Timewarrior ep1.JPG
Jingo Linx on Earth. (TV: The Time Warrior)

In the 13th 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. He would then hypnotise them in order to make them work on his ship. (TV: The Time Warrior)

16th century

Later, in the year 1522 AD, a Sontaran scoutship crash landed on Earth in China. As a result of the incident, their hyperspace transmitter was damaged and they required a replacement crystal in order to summon reinforcements as well as to take over the planet. There, they formed a partnership with the Abbot Hsiang and Yueh who knew them as the "bronze men" where they used their hypnotic technology to test enhance his fighting abilities.

The Emperor of China learnt of the enhanced fighting skills of the monks and came for a demonstration. This was all part of a plan by the Sontarans to kill the Chinese Emperor as he possessed a quartz crystal sufficient to power the hyperspace transmitter and thus placed a hypnotic suggestion designed to turn the monks against the Emperor in order to kill him.

However, the Fourth Doctor intervened and had K9 recorded the trigger words and broke the spell but not before Chang went into a berserker attack that killed the Sontarans as a result of him hearing the command phrase once. (COMIC: Dragon's Claw)

17th century

 
The Eleventh Doctor intervenes between a battle of Sontarans and Rutans. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

In 1605, a group of Sontarans came searching for a crashed Rutan ship buried under the Houses of Parliament that contained two doomsday weapons capable of wiping out an entire species. Both the Sontarans and the Rutans raced to retrieve them but the Eleventh Doctor reached them first, modified them and gave one to each party and told them they could use it on the other but faced a risk of killing their own species instead. (GAME: The Gunpowder Plot)

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. (PROSE: The Empire of Glass)

19th century

By 1892, Commander Strax had been brought back to life following the Battle of Demons Run and worked with Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint on Paternoster Row in London.

In 1892, after the Eleventh Doctor was brought out of "retirement", Strax defended Captain Latimer's house from snowmen controlled by the Great Intelligence. He tried and failed to save the life of Clara Oswald after she fell off the Doctor's cloud. (TV: The Snowmen)

20th century

Sontaran soldier Brak visited Earth in 1916 and witnessed the Battle of the Somme. He was captured by British soldiers and imprisoned for eighty years, during which he created powerful weapons for humanity in the hope that they would tear each other apart. (AUDIO: Old Soldiers)

In the 20th century, it was believed that a Sontaran scout ship crashed in Tunguska. Some of this wreckage was obtained by UNIT and kept in the Vault. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)

At some point during the 20th century, Edgar Nelson-Stanley met with the Sontarans. He believed they were "the silliest race in the galaxy". (TV: Eye of the Gorgon)

Due to the dates of his encounters with a Gorgon and the Vondraxian Orb, this possibly occurred in the 1950s.

In 1965, 300 Sontarans were killed by Captain Gol Kutha when he and his squad hijacked a Sontaran timeship. (COMIC: Hunters of the Burning Stone)

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. (TV: The Two Doctors)

 
General Staal, during the Earth invasion of 2009. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)

21st century

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 to convert Earth into a cloning world, and carried them out with the help of Luke Rattigan. (TV: The Poison Sky)

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 Tenth Doctor attempted to meddle, the Sontarans activated all the devices already deployed in cars, releasing the poison gas and choking people nearby. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem)

The gas was burnt away by the Doctor's use of an Atmospheric Converter and Rattigan, having been betrayed, sacrificed his life by using the Converter to destroy the fleet. (TV: The Poison Sky)

Following this attempt, Commander Kaagh was left as the last survivor of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet after he crashed to Earth. He used Professor Nicholas Skinner to bring satellites crashing into Earth's nuclear power plants. He wanted to take Sarah Jane Smith to Sontar for the Doctor's crime and for her knowledge of the Sontarans. The plan was stopped when Chrissie Jackson disabled Kaagh with her high heeled shoe, but he came round and was forced back to Sontar in his pod. (TV: The Last Sontaran)

Following this failure, Kaagh became a mercenary for the Bane. He met Mrs Wormwood while looking for the remains of Horath and they agreed to work together. After finding the mind of Horath, he followed Wormwood to Earth, where they took the Tunguska Scroll from Sarah Jane and kidnapped Luke Smith. The alliance started to break down when Mrs Wormwood sided with Luke over Kaagh, ending when she betrayed and disabled him. Seeing that he had lost, he dragged Wormwood into the wormhole containing Horath. (TV: Enemy of the Bane)

Circa 2010, one Sontaran named Jask was on Earth and was chased by Martha Jones and Mickey Smith. He managed to get away and tried to kill them with a sniper rifle but was knocked out by the Tenth Doctor. (TV: The End of Time)

In the 21st century, two Sontarans were in Istanbul. The Ninth Doctor fought them in a sword fight, and had his life saved from one of them by "some sort of spy" called Sally Sparrow. (PROSE: What I Did on My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow)

25th and 26th century

Around 2570, the Sontarans were engaged in activities in the Magellanic Clouds. (PROSE: Love and War)

At some point during the 26th century, the Sontarans sent in Commander Steg to conquer Jekkar in order to create a buffer around Sontar. Though he had no difficulty with the humans, the Jekkari, led by the Seventh Doctor, were able to fight back effectively. The surviving Sontarans destroyed their bases and abandoned the planet. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Some time later, an expedition was made to go to Sentarion and take advantage of the wormhole connecting it and Ruta III to kill the Rutan Queen. Though the Sontarans tried to keep this information classified, a Rutan spy known as Karne was able to learn that the information had leaked out and tried to return to the Rutans.

Commander Steg was sent in to redeem himself and kill Karne. He was able to track it to the space yacht Tiger Moth, where it had hidden in the ship. During the course of his investigations, his soldiers were whittled down by Karne and the human crew. Eventually, Karne was killed and all the Sontarans were believed to be killed. In reality, Karne was able to clone himself before his death and Steg was able to pull through. (HOMEVID: Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans, PROSE: Shakedown)

The second Karne was to able escape to Sentarion, followed by the Seventh Doctor, his companions and the survivors from the Tiger Moth. Commander Steg was able to follow them with a War-Wheel and forced the Doctor to open to wormhole to Ruta III. The War-Wheel was sent through, but the Doctor was able to reverse the polarity of the wormhole, meaning the War-Wheel would never get to Ruta III. When Steg tried to kill the Doctor in revenge, a fight began, leading to the death of Karne and the Sontaran forces. (PROSE: Shakedown)

Also at some point during the 26th century, the Sontarans and Rutans took their war to the colony Chelsea 426. The Fourth Sontaran Intelligence Division, led by General Kade, were given the mission of hunting down Rutans that were at the time taking over human bodies. The Tenth Doctor was present during the event and while he did not side with either waring party, he did stop the Rutans, after which the Sontarans left. However, there was evidence that the Sontaran Division's trouble with the Rutans was not fully over after their ship left the colony. (PROSE: The Taking of Chelsea 426)

During either the 25th or 26th century, the Rutans destroyed the Sontaran homeworld, Sontar, with photonic bombs, though some escaped with the Sontaran racepool. At the same time, the Sontarans encountered the Pureblood Sontarans. Due to the intervention of the Seventh Doctor, the cloned and pureblood Sontarans decided to pool their resources and Marshal Stave promised to remove the Sontarans' memory of humans from the racepool. (COMIC: Pureblood)

41st century

In 4037, eleven year old Commander Strax was demoted to Nurse for his failure, tending to the humans in the Battle of Zaruthstra. He was summoned by the Eleventh Doctor to Demons Run circa the 52nd century. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

Circa 52nd century

Circa the 52nd century, Commander Strax died in the Battle of Demons Run at the hand of the Order of the Headless. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War) Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint brought him back to life. (WC: The Battle of Demons Run: Two Days Later)

Post-11th millennium

 
Styre examines the results of Experiment 5: Fluid deprivation. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

Many thousands of years after the 20th century, 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 Fourth Doctor bluffed, telling the Sontarans that their battle plans had been captured, so they would have to call off their invasion. (TV: The Sontaran Experiment)

Undated events

  • The Sontaran mining ship Betrothal of Sontar was sent to Serac as a form of demotion. Colonel Snathe, a pureblood Sontaran, believed that the Thanatos was located on Serac, but his attempts to find it were unsuccessful and crew became restless and insubordinate. When the Tenth Doctor arrived, Snathe forced him to find the Thanatos - but when Snathe tried to control it, the Thanatos decided that the Sontarans were stagnant and Sontar needed to be destroyed. Though Lerox showed that there was still hope for the Sontarans, Snathe was killed when the Inuk shoved him outside during a Silverfire. (COMIC: The Betrothal of Sontar)
  • The Carpalian Witch's favourite hunt was when she hunted a Sontaran. Since her pheromonal lure was ineffective, she waited in his ship for 6 weeks until she stabbed him in the probic vent when he was about recharge. (PROSE: The Doctor Trap)
  • One of the fiercest Sontarans, Katsu, fought and was defeated by the Levanaxus. In order to become more powerful, he went to Aleph-777 in search of a mythical super-weapon. He was eventually able to track it to Omega-666, where he opened it, revealing it to be Omega Green Plague, which killed him. (COMIC: The Final Quest)
 
A Sontaran in the TARDIS. (GAME: Destiny of the Doctors)

Rassilon Era

When these encounters with the Time Lords occurred is unknown, due to the difficulty in dating the Time Lord stories.

Alternate timelines

Behind the scenes

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