The Poison Sky (TV story): Difference between revisions

The [[Tenth Doctor]] continues [[Sonic screwdriver|sonicking]] the Nobles' [[car]] in his desperate attempt to free [[Wilfred Mott|Wilf]] from it before he chokes on the [[Caesofine gas|gas]]. It proves useless until [[Sylvia Noble|Sylvia]] frees Wilf by smashing the car window with an [[axe]] she keeps in case of burglars. [[Ross Jenkins|Ross]] arrives in a taxi, the only vehicle he could find not fitted with ATMOS. Despite Sylvia's protests, Donna goes with the Doctor back to the [[ATMOS factory]] with her grandfather's support.

Arriving at the factory, the Doctor gives [[Donna Noble|Donna]] a [[TARDIS key|key]] to [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] so she can wait safely inside without choking on the poisoned air. Donna manages to enter the TARDIS just before she begins coughing hard from the gas. In the meantime, [[Martha Jones (clone)|Martha's clone]] overhears a [[Radio transmitter|radio transmission]] of the Doctor's arrival and belatedly relates to [[Mace (The Sontaran Stratagem)|Colonel Mace]] the previous message the Doctor gave her: [[Code Red Sontaran]]. Rushing into the mobile base, the Doctor tells Mace not to engage the Sontarans in battle. When questioned about what he plans to do, the Doctor says he'll use the TARDIS to get on their [[Sontaran flagship|ship]] to talk with them.

Martha's clone subtly gives orders to the [[Hypnosis|hypnotised]] [[UNIT]] soldiers [[Carl Harris|Harris]] and [[Steve Gray|Gray]] to put teleport relays on the TARDIS for the Sontarans to beam it up. Donna feels a shake from the teleport as the ship is transported to the Sontaran war room, and General [[Staal]] gloats over his capture of the Doctor's infamous vessel. The Doctor and Martha's clone arrive to find the TARDIS gone. Realising he is trapped on Earth, the Doctor returns to UNIT headquarters and establishing visual contact with the Sontarans, trying to goad them into revealing their plan. Staal does not fall prey to this ploy, but he orders the TARDIS moved out of the main war room when the Doctor threatens to summon it via remote control on his sonic screwdriver, placing Donna in a position to help.

Against the Doctor's advice, UNIT decides to use [[nuclear weapon]]s against the Sontarans; however, Martha's clone has covertly copied the NATO launch codes and stops every attempt made by Captain [[Marion Price]] to fire the weapons. Led by Commander [[Skorr]], the Sontarans mobilise troops to retrieve and protect the clone. With the Sontarans' ability to jam most conventional [[firearm]]s by expanding the [[copper]]-lined [[bullet]]s with their cordolaine signal, the UNIT troops are quickly slaughtered and the factory is secured, with privates Jenkins, Harris and Gray among the dead.  

[[Luke Rattigan|Rattigan]] leaves the Sontaran flagship to gather his students at the Rattigan Academy, planning to take them to another planet, [[Castor 36]], and begin the [[human]] race anew; everything they were building was the foundation of said new world. The incredulous students laugh him off, and Rattigan attempts to keep them from leaving by brandishing a gun. However, when he shows no initiative to use it, they desert him en masse. Rattigan dejectedly returns to the ship to report his failure, only to then learn from the Sontarans that he was only needed to install ATMOS and that they had no further plans for him and his students beyond using them for target practice. Rattigan [[Teleportation|teleports]] back to his [[Rattigan Academy|mansion]] before they can kill him, and the Sontarans lock the [[teleport pod]]s, isolating him on Earth.  

Meanwhile, the Doctor instructs Donna over the phone to reopen the teleport pods from the Sontaran warship. She is able to incapacitate the Sontaran standing guard outside the TARDIS by striking its probic vent with a mallet from the console. Outside the ATMOS factory, UNIT troops have regrouped wearing gas masks, even the Doctor, who can't resist remembering the [[Empty Child]]. Mace calls down the ''[[Valiant (aircraft carrier)|Valiant]]'', whose engines are strong enough to clear the area around the factory; this is enough to earn the Doctor's approval. A [[Jathaa sunglider|Sunglider]] weapon — smaller than that used against the [[Sycorax]] — is UNIT's main offence, killing many Sontarans in the blast, and with steel-encased bullets in lieu of copper, Mace's soldiers begin a successful retaliatory strike, during which the colonel personally confronts and executes Commander Skorr with a pistol.

With Martha's clone in tow, the Doctor tracks a signal on his sonic screwdriver and makes his way down to the cloning room where the unconscious Martha is being held. Having figured out long before the clone wasn't the genuine article from her lack of concern for her family and bad non-human smell, he severs its connection to Martha, leaving it to die. Wrapped in the Doctor's coat, Martha convinces her clone to betray the Sontarans in its last moments. The clone reveals that the poison gas is actually "[[clone feed]]" for Sontaran clones: they are converting the planet into a giant breeding world. As her clone dies, Martha reclaims her engagement ring. With Donna's help, the Doctor reactivates the teleport pods, rescues her from the Sontaran ship, steals back the TARDIS, and teleports into Rattigan's mansion.

Using Rattigan's equipment, the Doctor builds an [[atmospheric converter]], igniting the Earth's [[atmosphere]] to clear out the poison gas, much to the delight of UNIT and the rest of humanity; Wilf and Sylvia come out of their house to cheer along with their neighbours, while Captain Marion Price kisses Colonel Mace as the UNIT soldiers celebrate their victory, although she quickly composes herself. However, the Doctor knows the Sontarans won't accept defeat so easily — they are beginning their standard invasion stratagem to wipe out the human race in retaliation.  

Recalibrating the atmospheric converter to Sontaran air, the Doctor tells Donna and Martha to lead good lives, asks Rattigan to go on and do something clever with his life, and teleports to the Sontaran ship with the intention of giving them the choice between retreat and death. The Sontarans choose the latter, as a countdown begins to deploy their weapons upon the Earth. Unafraid of death, Staal remains defiant in the face of the Doctor's threats and leads his warriors in another "Sontar-ha!" war chant. However, with a few seconds left, Rattigan acts on the Doctor's advice and rewires the teleport pod to transport himself to the Sontaran ship in the Doctor's stead, mocking the Sontarans' chant with a sarcastic "Sontar? Ha!" before he triggers the device. The ensuing explosion blows out the windows of the bridge, killing Staal and Rattigan, before consuming the entire Sontaran ship; the resulting shockwave destroys most of the Sontaran space pods launching from the main vessel.

With the day saved, life gradually returns to normal as the ATMOS devices are removed from the world's cars. Donna returns to her home in Chiswick and shares a tearful farewell with Wilf, who promises not to let Sylvia know of her travels with the Doctor. Martha turns down an offer to travel with them and bids them goodbye, only to have the TARDIS spring to life and begin piloting itself to places unknown before she can leave, the Doctor's [[The Tenth Doctor's hand|hand jar]] bubbling...