History Recap / DoctorWhoS12E3TheSontaranExperiment

'''Production code:''' 4C\\

'''Production code:''' 4C

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This two-episode serial first aired from February 22 to March 1, 1975.

[[caption-width-right:344: Aw, come on! I just wanna stroke your hair!]]

->"''It's absolutely typical of Harry. How anyone in his right mind can fall down a whacking great subsidence like that...''"

The one where Harry spends a scene coming close to lecturing the viewers about those rocks.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Sarah Jane is rescued from the fear experiment before hallucinating the clown.
* ChromosomeCasting: Sarah is the only female character in the story.

* ColdBloodedTorture ForScience: Styre's experiments.
** DeniedFoodAsPunishment: The victim that Harry finds tied in shackles onto a rock. Being denied water, he lasts nine days and seven hours before dying of thirst.
** DrowningPit: One unseen victim lasts less than 3 minutes in submersion before asphyxiation.
** MindProbe: A device attached to Sarah's head makes tests her resistance to fear. She sees three hallucinations: a snake, a falling rock, and porridge devouring her leg.
** SquashedFlat: The gravity bar Erak and Krans hold above Vural is used to test the human body's resistance to compressibility. It also doubles as a test of human determination and willpower, as he observes how long Erak and Krans can keep the ever-increasing weight from killing Vural even after he betrayed them and even as the bar exceeds the limits of what their bodies can support.

* GravityIsAHarshMistress: The gravity bar runs either on variable gravity, or complete disregard for the conservation of mass.
** Given the widespread use of ArtificialGravity on the series, it's likely the same technology was involved.

* ImMelting: Styre's head deflates like a kickball when he dies.

* MindRape: Styre captures Sarah and tortures her by making her hallucinate a snake crawling up her leg. (The subtext to that is fairly obvious, right?) The Doctor absolutely loses it when he finds out what Styre did to her, diving at him with every intention of murdering him on the spot even though the Doctor is unarmed and Styre is a solidly-built warrior-race alien in heavy armour. He even actually ''growls'' at Styre.

* WeaksauceWeakness: Styre lists some of the human race's weaknesses and considers them [[WeaksauceWeakness Weaksauce Weaknesses]] compared to a Sontaran's strength.

* BottleEpisode: The whole story, in addition to being two episodes long and [[VideoInsideFilmOutside shot on videotape to save money]], takes place entirely on a [[BBCQuarry hillside]]. There are four guest stars in [[PropRecycling recycled space suits]][[invoked]], one of whom is even played by Creator/TomBaker's StuntDouble ActingForTwo, and two Sontarans (recycled costumes). There's a TinCanRobot and some props recycled from the Sontaran spaceship sets of previous Sontaran stories. It also has no scenes in the TARDIS. This was also Tom Baker's first story in which he could adjust to the role. The cost-saving genius was that is was made using the location filming allocated to the four-parter it was produced alongside, resulting in two stories shot for the price of one. This practice was later fine-tuned under the last producer of the classic series, Creator/JohnNathanTurner, and was the only method of production for the shortened, NoBudget last three seasons under the Seventh Doctor.

Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. This serial first aired February 22-March 1, 1975.

* LightWorlder: The Doctor mentions that Styre isn't used to Earth's gravity, implying Styre's homeworld has less.

* SequelEpisode: This serial happens immediately where the last one left off, and contains a lot of references to it, but no characters appear in both (except Doctor and companions, of course).
** Also to "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior The Time Warrior]]".

* BottleEpisode: The whole story, in addition to being two episodes long and [[VideoInsideFilmOutside shot on videotape to save money]], takes place entirely on a [[BBCQuarry hillside]]. There are four guest stars in [[PropRecycling recycled space suits]], one of whom is even played by Creator/TomBaker's StuntDouble ActingForTwo, and two Sontarans (recycled costumes). There's a TinCanRobot and some props recycled from the Sontaran spaceship sets of previous Sontaran stories. It also has no scenes in the TARDIS. This was also Tom Baker's first story in which he could adjust to the role. The cost-saving genius was that is was made using the location filming allocated to the four-parter it was produced alongside, resulting in two stories shot for the price of one. This practice was later fine-tuned under the last producer of the classic series, Creator/JohnNathanTurner, and was the only method of production for the shortened, NoBudget last three seasons under the Seventh Doctor.

Harry promptly falls down a crevasse-- which, in his defense, had been deliberately concealed with branches. Faced with this worrying evidence that the planet isn't as deserted as it's supposed to be, Sarah hurries back to the Doctor, only to find that he's disappeared. While she's away, Harry finds and begins following a passage that seems to lead out of the crevasse, so when Sarah returns, he's disappeared too.

* HonorBeforeReason: Styre can't refuse a duel with the Doctor, even though it allows Harry and Sarah Jane to release his prisoners.
* {{Hypocritical Humor}}: The Doctor is showing Harry the piece of metal that saved him when he was shot by Styre:

* ColdbloodedTorture ForScience: Styre's experiments.

This is the only two-part adventure in TheSeventies, which wouldn't happen again until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid Black Orchid]]" in 1982. It's also one of very few to not involve the TARDIS even by implication: the Doctor and companions arrive and leave by transmat beam.

* BottleEpisode: Philip Hinchcliffe and Creator/RobertHolmes had decided to abolish the 6-parter format in favour of 4-parters while still being commissioned for the same number of episodes, leading to a remainder of two episodes which had to be produced for NoBudget. The whole story, in addition to being two episodes long and [[VideoInsideFilmOutside shot on videotape to save money]], takes place entirely on a [[BBCQuarry hillside]]. There are four guest stars in [[PropRecycling recycled space suits]], one of whom is even played by Creator/TomBaker's StuntDouble ActingForTwo, and two Sontarans (recycled costumes). There's a TinCanRobot and some props recycled from the Sontaran spaceship sets of previous Sontaran stories. It also has no scenes in the TARDIS. This was also Tom Baker's first story in which he could adjust to the role. The cost-saving genius was that is was made using the location filming allocated to the four-parter it was produced alongside, resulting in two stories shot for the price of one. This practice was later fine-tuned under the last producer of the classic series, Creator/JohnNathanTurner, and was the only method of production for the shortened, NoBudget last three seasons under the Seventh Doctor.

The alien is, in fact, Field Major Styre of the Sontaran Military. Sarah is terrified, recognizing him as a Sontaran like [[Recap/DoctorWhoS11E1TheTimeWarrior Linx from her first story]] (and briefly thinks that he ''is'' Linx, because the Sontarans are a clone species who all look alike, not that the radically different mask Kevin Lindsey wears in this story indicates that). Styre shoots Roth, and takes Sarah off to be tortured.

Sadly, the Doctor doesn't beat Styre in combat, but he buys enough time for Harry to mess around with Styre's space ship. Battered but not defeated, Styre flees back to his ship to feed on energy ... only to melt and explode from whatever Harry messed with. The Doctor then speaks directly to Sontaran Command and plays a few mindgames with them -- convincing the Sontarans that the Earth isn't something to mess with right now. The day saved, despite only two of the original nine astronauts remaining alive, the Doctor and companions hop back in the teleportation pad to go back to Nerva Station and let them all know that the Earth is just fine and dandy now.

This is the only two-part adventure in the 1970s, which wouldn't happen again until "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E5BlackOrchid Black Orchid]]" in 1982. It's also one of very few to not involve the TARDIS even by implication: the Doctor and companions arrive and leave by transmat beam.

* ForeverWar:

The Doctor decides to do a favor for the people of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace Nerva Space Station]], and beams down to Earth to check out if it's safe to re-colonize. Landing on an old teleport pad, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry find a rather... smooth and barren Earth. Nevertheless, the Doctor claims they're actually in the centre of what used to be London, and encourages Harry and Sarah to go sightseeing while he does some work on bringing the teleporter back up to spec.

* ArtShift: The second ''Doctor Who'' episode shot entirely on location and the first of such to be shot entirely on video. As a result of this then-unusual combination, many scenes look like they were shot more for a PBS documentary than for a science fiction story. At one point, a shot features Harry precariously climbing a mound of rocks in the camera's direction, as if he's preparing to introduce a historical lecture.
* BerserkButton: The first time in the Fourth Doctor's tenure that he seems genuinely furious. The Doctor has been stable with everything else that had happened in the episode so far. But what sets him off? Discovering Styre has been mentally torturing Sarah Jane.

-->''Harry:''' I can't get in.\\

--> '''Doctor''': Piece of the locking system on Nerva. Popped it into my pocket.

* {{Irony}}: The people in suspended animation on the Nerva assumed they were the last hope for humanity. Turns out humanity survived the solar flare disaster and went on to forge a galactic empire.

* PocketProtector: When Styre shoots the Doctor, he is saved by a lump of metal in his pocket.

* BulletProofProtecter: The Doctor has swiped and pocketed a piece from a Space Station Nerva door lock. He uses it to block a projectile from Styre's blaster. Of course, this ruins the part and he has to chuck it out.