So the Sontarans are back, and it's Sarah's second run-in with them after the events of The Time Warrior. The bit where she is dragged to his spaceship by his hunter robot is pure gold when he emerges and she gasps "Lynx!" in utter horror. It's clearly not the same Sontaran - the face is slightly different from before as well as its skin tone, but there's the same murderous intent and callous disregard for life. The Sontarans are an off bunch that way; they're looking to wage war and kill but they seem to want to make it a good fight and maintain their honour instead of just blasting away at opponents til there is nothing left. In the end of course they will be happy if they are the only ones left standing so long as their honour is maintained. The Doctor goes hand to hand against the Sontaran again, which isn't really the smartest move considering how he was nearly killed by one before, but it's a gamble he is willing to take to save everyone.
Production values are interesting on this one: it's entirely shot on video on location so it has that kind of "live" look to it. I go back and forth on how effective this is, although the decision was made for budget reasons and not for artistic value. I found though with DVDs made in the UK when played back here in North America on multiregion players the picture quality gets a regrade that looks like film, and brings the whole thing a more theatrical look. I would watch this show and a few others all shot on video this way until just recently when bluray boxed set of classic seasons started coming out.
The extreme future history of Doctor Who at this point is still a bit of a continuity mess; the second human empire is flourishing after Earth has been abandoned and the GalSec colonists who Styre is killing are nothing but resentful of the Nerva bunch who they think are going to try and take over once they wake up. This is all still somewhere before the events of The Ark where we actually see the planet burn up and be gone forever, but in total it's the second of five times in the series that Earth will be seen to die by fire. Trying to make any sense of that is difficult, although there are a couple places where it could overlap, but it would seem that The Ark in Space and Sontaran Experiment would be the first time it happens. How humanity is totally rebuilt and Earth brought to ruin by pollution all over again is a mystery. But how big is the human empire now and how could Earth possibly become the centre of it all over again after being left for dead? The infrastructure reinvestment alone would bankrupt an economy. There's no real roadmap to the future history of Doctor Who and series writers at the time were not as into keeping continuity going as they are today, so this becomes one of the first big grey areas right up there with the Cyberwars.
But if you want a real headache, try sorting out the Dalek continuity...
NEXT EPISODE : GENESIS OF THE DALEKS
