Doctor Who: The Sontaran Stratagem

I have this theory. As the title of this post might suggest, it is about Doctor Who - more specifically, the new series of Doctor Who. Each of the new seasons has three multi-part stories. The second of these stories tends to be the best - not just of the multi-part stories, but of the seasons as a whole. Think of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit and possibly the greatest Doctor Who story of all time - Human Nature/The Family of Blood. Then you have the multi-part stories that end the seasons - these are good, and given their placings in the season, never fail to be epic. But they often don't stand up to close (well, microscopic, anal fan-boy) analysis. You'll love the epic sway, marvel at the acting, possibly be moved by a departure - but in that final ten minutes you'll probably feel a little cheated that the nemesis has been despatched so easily.

Finally you'll have the first two-parter of the season. This should be an epic as well, but somehow always manages to fall flat. Two examples of this type of story - Aliens of London/World War Three and Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks are strong contenders for the worst story since the series returned. Even Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel were disappointing, despite a wonderful final five minutes. Perhaps there is something about the returning monsters, or the expectation that these stories are twice as long so should be twice as good, but somehow they just don't work.

And last night's episode, The Sontaran Stratagem, seemed to prove that. It had so many great things going on - the return of UNIT, the return of Martha, the return of the villians in the piece - that perhaps there was just too much going on. But whilst there were some great moments, including the pre-credits assassination by car, the product as a whole felt padded, flabby and a little underwhelming. It felt like everything was building up to the cliffhanger, and that the production team would have felt more comfortable had this mean a fifteen minute story, ten minutes of which could be devoted to Martha's cloning, the plight of the Nobles, and the gas coming from the cars.

Still, what a cliffhanger. It managed to present danger at both a micro and macro level, and the shots of the Sontarans chanting as they prepared for war was a nice touch of development for an alien race that - until that point - appeared to be photo-copies of their previous incarnations. It bodes well for next week's The Poison Sky, which hopefully will buck the trend for this type of story and show itself to be a classic.

And even if it doesn't, then the following week sees the broadcast of the intriguingly titled The Doctor's Daughter...