The Poison Sky (TV story)

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We will ravage this planet!Staal [The Poison Sky [src]]


Synopsis

The Valiant clears the ATMOS gas as the Sontarans activate their master plan 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

Following from the previous episode, Sylvia Noble manages to free Wilfred Mott from the car by smashing the window. The Doctor sends Donna Noble back to the TARDIS while he sets off to figure out what the Sontarans are up to. After studying the gas, UNIT determines that it will need to reach 80% density to become poisonous. Elsewhere, Martha helps the Sontarans to seize the TARDIS. Realising that he is trapped, the Doctor attempts to goad the Sontarans into revealing their plan: the Sontarans are smart enough not to fall prey to this ploy, but the Doctor does trick them into manoeuvring the TARDIS out of the main war room, placing Donna in a position to help.

Against the Doctor's advice, UNIT decides to use nuclear weapons against the Sontarans; however, Martha's clone has covertly copied the launch codes, and stops every attempt they make to fire the weapons. This in itself shows a hidden agenda: nukes would not have harmed them in the first place, which combined with the unidentifiable elements in the gas, suggest that the Sontarans have an interest in keeping anything from disrupting the atmospheric conversion. At the same time, the Sontarans mobilize a contingent of troops to retrieve and protect the clone. With the Sontarans' ability to jam most conventional firearms by expanding the copper-lined bullets, the UNIT troops are quickly slaughtered and the factory is secured.

Rattigan leaves the Sontaran mothership to gather his students. He plans to take them to another planet and begin the human race anew. The students merely laugh him off, even when he brandishes a gun. When he returns to report his failure, the Sontarans likewise ridicule his efforts, having never planned to take him or his students anywhere. Rattigan teleports back to his mansion before they can kill him, and the Sontarans lock the teleport pods behind him.

Meanwhile, the Doctor instructs Donna on how to reopen the teleport pods. As she makes her way through the ship, UNIT begins a counterattack, loading their weapons with non-copper bullets and using the aircraft carrier Valiant to clear the gas. The counterattack is a success, and the UNIT troops are able to put the Sontarans on the defensive. The distraction allows the Doctor to make his way to the cloning room where Martha is being held. Having figured out long before that the clone wasn't the genuine article, he severs its connection to Martha, leaving it to die. Martha convinces the clone to betray the Sontarans in its last moments, and the clone reveals that the poison gas is actually "food" for Sontaran clones: they are converting the planet into a giant breeding world. With Donna's help, the Doctor is able to reactivate the teleport pods, allowing him to rescue Donna, steal back the TARDIS, and teleport into Rattigan's mansion.

With the equipment Rattigan's students built, the Doctor builds his own atmospheric converter, igniting the atmosphere to clear out the poison gas as shown in the picture. However, he knows the Sontarans won't accept defeat so easily, and teleports to their ship with the converter, planning to give them the choice between retreat or death. The Sontarans choose the latter, but at the last moment, Rattigan teleports himself to the Sontaran ship and brings the Doctor back to Earth, sacrificing himself to destroy the Sontarans.

With the day saved, the Doctor and Donna say their goodbyes to Martha, only to have the TARDIS spring to life and begin piloting itself to places unknown before she can leave.

Cast

Production crew

To be added

References

  • The Doctor mentions the Rutans and their war with the Sontarans.
  • The Brigadier is said to be stranded in Peru.
  • He has been knighted as (Colonel Mace refers to him as "Sir Alistair".)
  • 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 jurisdiction two of the intergalactic rules of engagement" which is very similar to the Shadow Proclamation.
  • The Doctor watches Tommy Zoom while waiting for the Sontarans to stop chanting. This is similar to when The Master watches other shows such as the Teletubbies.
  • UNIT use the Valiant to blow away ATMOS' gases.
  • The Valiant's laser is similar to that of Torchwood 1's one used against the Sycorax which, in turn was very similar to the death star's laser form the star wars movies. (DW:The Christmas Invasion)
  • During the polution crisis the American newsreader mentions that it is the "end of days" which was also said after Owen opens the rift and causes shockwaves around the world. (DW:End of Days)
  • The music that plays when the Valiant appears is strikingly similar to "The Master Tape", one of the Murray Gold themes for The Master. Of course, since The Master helped build the Valiant, this isn't too surprising...

Story notes

Ratings

To be added

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

To be added

Continuity

  • The Valiant last appeared in DW: Last of the Time Lords.
  • At the end of the episode, when the TARDIS flies off, the Doctor says his "What, what, what" line from Donna's first appearance in DW: 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 DW: Partners in Crime.
  • The Valiant's laser appears to be the same that Torchwood used in DW: The Christmas Invasion
  • The Doctor thanks Donna and Martha just before he sacrifices his life. He last said this to Donna in The Sontaran Stratagem' when she was supposedly leaving him.
  • In the New York scene a building with the name Butler Institute can be seen on one of the buildings Cat's Cradle: Warhead

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.)
  • A fire that size would drain all of the oxygen from the atmosphere, making saving the human race relatively pointless! Who said it was fire?
  • The world wide nuclear grid includes minor nuclear powers such as India, Pakistan and North Korea, yet the Russian Federation is conspicuously absent.

DVD and other releases

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

External Links

v • e
Sontaran stories
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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