Sontarans
The Sontarans are an alien warrior race that feature in Doctor Who.
Contents |
History
The Sontarans
They had long been involved in war against another rival civilization that were the Rutan Host. (Episode: The Time Warrior) The entire Milky Way galaxy gained some form of strategic importance for the Sontarans in their war against the Rutans. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment)
A Sontaran scout named Linx was forced to perform an emergency landing in England after being attacked by a squadron of Rutan fighters. He proceeded to claim the primitive Earth and its moons and satellites for the Sontaran Empire. During that time, he went about allying with a local warlord named Irongron who transported 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. In this time, he faced opposition from the Third Doctor where ultimately Linx was killed when his repaired ship began taking off. (Episode: The Time Warrior)
The Sontarans came to learn of the last great Time War but were denied the chance to participate in what they perceived as a glorious conflict. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment)
After 50,000 years of bloodshed, the war with the Rutans had gone against the Sontarans forcing them to replenish their number by secretly converting Earth into a clone world. (Episode: The Poison Sky) An expedition consisting of the 10th Sontaran Battle Fleet was dispatched in a covert attempt at conquest of the planet Earth. This plot a human by the name of Luke Rattigan to install ATMOS devices to help power cars but in reality these were designed to release a toxic gas into the atmosphere. (Episode: The Sontaran Strategem)
Later on, the Sontaran Psychic Command came to foresee the release of the Flux on the universe. This was deemed an opportunity for the Sontaran Empire that would allow them to conquer Earth. The Sontaran Temporal Command under Commander Skaak was placed in charge of the Sontaran Temporal Offensive. This involved sneaking into the past to Earth's Crimean War where they took over the territory of Russia and were involved in the conflict. From there, they laid siege into the planet's past and conquering every period of its history with this manifesting in the present in the world becoming an outpost of the Sontaran Empire. The Thirteenth Doctor came to uncover this and looked to stop the Sontaran conquest where she succeeded in forcing them into a strategic withdrawal. However, during the retreat, the Sontarans were killed when the humans detonated explosives that destroyed their vessels. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans) However, a renewed Sontaran invasion force came came to conquer the Earth through the aid of their ally the Grand Serpent whereupon they came to be protected from the destructive force of the Flux. They came to use captured human psychics to chart the spread of the Flux whilst using the Lupari defence shield to save themselves from its effects. In an effort to slow the anti-matter wave, the Sontarans decided to reach out to the Daleks and Cybermen claiming that they offered them shelter from the Flux but in reality this was a trap as they wanted the universe destroying Flux to consume them with their deaths being used to slow its impact. The intention was for the Sontarans to survive behind the Lupari shield and conquer the remains of the universe though they were ultimately destroyed by the Thirteenth Doctor who ended up stopping the Flux. (Episode: The Vanquishers)
Overview
In appearance, the Sontarans were a race of short bipedal humanoids with features that had a stocky build, greenish brown skin, a distinctive dome-shaped head, and three fingers on their hands. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Their bodies were unwieldy and despite all their strength they struggled in worlds with a different gravity. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) They were a species of clones who were grown in batches of millions. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem) As a result, many Sontarans could appear identical to one another. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) They were a mono-gender race in that they did not have females with all Sontarans being of a single gender. Gender in other species was confusing to Sontarans as they at times believed male and females to be two entirely different races on a world. Sontarans held these as being primary and secondary reproductive cycles that they saw as being an inefficient system. (Episode: The Time Warrior) They sometimes had a need to feed on pure energy for sustenance. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) They could be gene-spliced in order to produce large quantities of lactic fluid which was done so for those that had to perform nursing duties. (Episode: A Good Man Goes To War) They considered a twelve-year life to be a long one amongst their species. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
Their one weakness was a probic vent that was a small hole at the back of the neck. (Episode: The Time Warrior) It was through the vent in the back of the neck that they were able to top up their suit with chemicals and nutrients from their homeworld. This required them to undergo rest cycles for precisely 7.5 minutes, every 27 hours. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans) Thus, they had to face their enemies in battle and could never turn their back. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem) However, the Sontarans themselves did not see it as a weakness but a strength as it meant that they always faced their enemies. (Episode: The Time Warrior)
They were said to had used a Base-6 counting system. (Episode: The Last Sontaran) Sontarans were noted for being a methodical people. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) Their species were said to follow the Laws of Battle. (Episode: The Last Sontaran) Despite that, it was said that the average Sontaran soldier was not very bright. Capture was deemed the ultimate shame for them with mercy being a summary execution being the only way for a Sontaran to regain their honor. Though unwilling to retreat, the Sontarans were known to engage in a strategic withdrawal. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans)
They were a people dedicated to a life of warfare with them regarded as the finest soldiers in the galaxy. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem) Sontarans were said to never turn down the chance to kill someone. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) In fact, they were a species devoted to perpetual warfare. (Episode: The Invasion of Time) It was said that their people had been at war for millennia with there being no galaxy in the universe that their space fleets had not subjugated. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Sontarans did not fear death an in fact welcomed it where they died happy if they fell in battle. (Episode: The Poison Sky) They were a race that were experts at war with the Sontaran philosophy being to wage glorious warfare that was their destiny with the seeing themselves as a truly military species. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Sontarans were regarded as brutal killers who had a single thing on their mind which was conquest. (Episode: The Last Sontaran) They were a proud people who believed that honour laying in battle and dying. To their kind, it was believed that they stared into the face of death with them facing weapons with dignity. It was believed to be honourable to die in battle compared to being disabled. Their kind held the view that soldiers gave no warning in battle against foes and that words were the weapons of womenfolk. They believed that they had no weaknesses and preferred a court martial rather than show any pain. Thus, actions such as deception, hiding and using children as tools were not considered typical Sontaran behaviour with them only engaging in such acts as part of a larger strategy. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem)
The greatest punishment that could be given to a Sontaran was to assign them medical duties whereby they had to help the weak and sick. Some of their kind accepted and endured such punishment in order to restore the honour of their clone batch. (Episode: A Good Man Goes To War) Fighting for other species was deemed to be an equally dishonourable fate. (Episode:: Enemy of the Bane)
A sport known to the Sontarans was Quicksand Wrestling. (Episode: Enemy of the Bane)
They were known to insult their enemies by comparing them to women. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem)
Within the Sontaran Empire, there were numerous divisions such as the Army Space Corps with officers gathering information on other species from their races military intelligence. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Other branches included the Sontaran Temporal Command that were responsible for temporal offensives. They also fielded the Sontaran Psychic Command that were capable of foreseeing the future. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans) Its ranks consisted of Psychic Surveyors where the experience was withering on its officers. (Episode: The Halloween Apocalypse) Another division was the G3 Military Assessment Survey whose members were dispatched to gather intelligence on target worlds. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) A branch within their empire was the Sontaran Special Space Service. (Episode: The Invasion of Time) A further specialist group was the Special Assault Squad who were trained to operate behind enemy lines. (Episode: The Last Sontaran) The Grand Strategic Council that was a body responsible in their empire that could authorise research programmes. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) One institution was the Sontaran Military Academy whereby hatchings of millions of cadets gathered at each muster parade. (Episode: The Time Warrior)
The Sontaran army reckoned its numbers in the hundreds of millions. (Episode: The Invasion of Time) Their ability to deploy immense armies meant that they could sustain enormous casualties on all battle fronts. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Sontarans never did anything without a military reason. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment) Basic Sontaran Strategem One involved brute force ravaging of a planet and wiping out all of its population. (Episode: The Poison Sky) Sontarans gathered intelligence on target worlds by conducting experiments on native species to indicate their capabilities such as resistance to physical stress with these being used to determine weaknesses that could be exploited in further attacks. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment)
It was said that the Sontarans did not need allies. (Episode:: The Two Doctors) Despite that being the case, they were known to work with other species on certain ventures. (Episode: Pandorica Opens) Some accounts claimed that the Sontarans were not trustworthy allies and that treachery was natural to them. (Episode: The Two Doctors) They were shown to had allied with members of other races only to kill them when their usefulness was at an end. (Episode: The Poison Sky)
Technology
They had the technology to send other races into a state of deep hypnosis allowing them to interrogate captives to get the truth from them or even turn them into workers that blindly followed commands. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Sontarans had technology that could tap into the psychic abilities of a race and use them to predict future events. (Episode: The Vanquishers)
Clonefeed was a vital component for Sontarans to grow more of their kind as it served as a form of amniotic fluid used to feed clones through the creation of clone worlds to create billions of soldiers. Cloning gas consisted of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides along with a 10% artificial heavy element with this being poisonous to humans if it reached sufficient density. The remaining element was caesofine concentrate that was one part bosteen and two part probic five. Once it reached sufficient density, clone pods were launched in order to breed more of their kind. However, the caesofine gas was volatile and could easily ignite in the atmosphere potentially burning it all away. (Episode: The Poison Sky)
They could make use of a cordolaine signal that excited the copper surface of projectile ammunition such as bullets leading to them expanding within the barrel of the weapon leading to guns being rendered useless. Sontarans were also able to easily jam radio signals allowing them to cut communications in an area. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem)
They were typically seen wearing Sontaran space armour that encompassed their bodies and had a dome shaped helmet that protected them from harm. (Episode: The Time Warrior) It allowed them to cope in different atmospheres with thee protective armoured sits filtering harmful gases and substituted them with chemical along with nutrients from their home plane. However, the suits only contained a limited supply and had to be refilled forcing the Sontarans to maintain regular rest periods to their transports. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans)
Their fighters took the form of spherical vessels which were covered in square plates that were large enough for a single occupant. (Episode: The Time Warrior) Some of these were shown to possess cloaking capabilities. (Episode: The Last Sontaran)
Sontaran command ships were able to withstand attacks from nuclear weapons with it being said that such arsenals not being able to put a scratch on the surface. (Episode: The Poison Sky) Imperial Sontaran Temporal Carriers were a type of capital ship used to transport their armies in a temporal offensive. These ships not only transporte their armies but also contained vital supplies to maintain their life support functions. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans) One craft that was used by them were small spherical one-manned space pods. (Episode: The Last Sontarans)
Members
- Staal : General who headed the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet and was known as Staal the Undefeated who was dispatched to Earth to turn it into a cloneworld. (Episode: The Sontaran Stratagem)
- Skorr :
- Strax :
- Linx : an officer that held the rank of Commander in the Fifth Sontaran Army Space Fleet. (Episode: The Time Warrior)
- Styre : a Field Major of the Sontaran G3 Military Assessment Survey who conducted an assessment of human physical limitations for a potential future invasion of Earth. (Episode: The Sontaran Experiment)
- Stike :
- Kaagh : Commander in the Special Assault Squad who was attached to the Tenth Sontaran Fleet with him being known as Kaagh the Slayer. (Episode: The Last Sontaran)
- Stor : a Commander in the Sontaran Special Space Service who was involved in the attack on Gallifrey. (Episode: The Invasion of Time)
- Skaak : a Commander from the Sontaran Temporal Command who headed the Sontaran Temporal Offensive on Earth's past but was ultimately killed when explosives were detonated that destroyed his vessel during a strategic withdrawal. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans)
- Strevs : a Commander involved in the Sontaran Temporal Offensive against Earth. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans)
- Ritskaw : a Commander in the Sontaran Temporal Command and part of the Temporal Offensive against Earth where he was stationed in the developing space port in Liverpool. (Episode: The War of the Sontarans)
- Kragar : a Psychic Surveyor who was able to discern the coming of the Flux. (Episode: The Halloween Apocalypse)
- Shallo : a Sontaran Commander who was part of the forces that conquered Earth where he developed an addiction towards chocolate. (Episode: The Vanquishers)
- Senstarg :
Notes
- The Sontarans were introduced in Doctor Who's 11th season where they first appeared in the episode "The Time Warrior".
- They were created by writer Robert Holmes and first portrayed by actor Kevin Lindsay who was responsible for giving the pronunciation of the species as being "son-TAR-an".
- The Unofficial Guide: The Science of Doctor Who (2006) stated that they were native to a large, dense planet named Sontar situated in the southern spiral arm of the galaxy with it possessing a very strong gravitational field that was responsible for their compact stocky form.
In other media
Video games
- In Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, Sontarans appeared in the "The Gunpower Plot" during the setting of the video game. In 1605, Avix Squad led by Field Major Kaarsh received a distress call from a Rutan Host ship on Earth and arrived in London to track the survivors down.
Novels
Audio Books
Appearances
- Doctor Who: "The Time Warrior"
- Doctor Who: "The Sontaran Strategem"
- The Sarah Jane Adventures:
External Links
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