The Sontaran Strategem

Writer: Helen Raynor
Director: James MacKinnon

“This is Doctor Jones, Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go!”

A freelance journalist has been investigating the ATMOS devices which have become standard in all new vehicles. She believes that ATMOS is dangerous and confronts its inventor Luke Rattigan, but he knows that she doesn’t have any proof. The journalist tells Rattigan that she will take her suspicions to UNIT (The United Intelligence Task Force), but before she can reach their headquarters the ATMOS device in her own car takes over control of the car and forces it off the road and into the river, killing her.

The Doctor is allowing Donna to fly the Tardis, when amongst all the noise she hears a mobile phone ringing. It is the phone that Martha Jones left with The Doctor and he has no choice but to answer the call.  Martha tells him that she needs him back on Earth.

The Doctor and Martha meet and he is relieved that when he introduces Donna to Martha the two of them hit it off immediately. Martha is now a fully qualified doctor working for UNIT and helping to run a military operation at the ATMOS factory. She is a much changed woman from the one The Doctor last saw.
Colonel Mace who is charge of the UNIT taskforce tells The Doctor that they are investigating the simultaneous deaths of 52 people worldwide. The only common factor in all the deaths is that they were all in their cars at the time they died and all the cars were fitted with ATMOS.

Two UNIT soldiers are checking the lower levels of the building when they find a guarded room. The guards allow them to enter the room where they find a huge vat, from which is emanating a knocking sound. When they open the vat they discover it houses a half formed humanoid clone.  Before the soldiers can raise the alarm they are confronted with the figure of General Staal of the 10th Sontaran Battle Fleet, who tells them that they are needed for his stratagem.

The Doctor is uncomfortable working with UNIT again; he doesn’t like people who carry guns. He is also disappointed that Martha seems so at ease in the military environment. She tells him that she is working within UNIT hoping to change things for the better.
Donna has been snooping around the ATMOS offices and found that none of the workers has ever had any time off sick, she and Martha set off to examine the workforce whilst The Doctor learns more about ATMOS and its creator, the child genius Luke Rattigan.  ATMOS is a system that reduces the carbon emissions from a car to zero and UNIT believe that it may be of alien origin. The Doctor realises that if somebody or something could control all the ATMOS units then every car would become a potential weapon.

Donna wonders if she should call her Mum to warn her about the ATMOS in her car. Martha tells her that rather than call she should go and visit her Mum. She tells her that people close to The Doctor and those he travels with sometimes end up in danger too. She takes Martha’s advice and The Doctor takes her home before he goes to visit Rattigan.

Martha begins her examination of the workforce. They seem to have an elevated heart rate and be completely focused on doing their job, even claiming to work 24 hours a day. They seem to be under some sort of external influence and Martha sets off to find Col. Mace to tell him her findings. She is tricked by the two soldiers who are now under the Sontaran’s influence into believing that Mace is waiting for her in the basement room. Once inside the room she sees the vat and tries to make her escape but is prevented from doing so. The clone in the vat is now fully formed, into a duplicate of Martha.  Commander Skorr has been sent by General Staal to oversee the transfer of Martha’s consciousness to the clone.

At the Rattigan Academy The Doctor finds projects being undertaken that are highly advanced, a little too much so even for Earth’s brightest minds. Luke Rattigan takes him to his own private rooms where he spots a teleport pod and uses it.  He immediately recognises the Sontaran’s having met them before several regenerations ago and when he swiftly returns to Earth General Staal follows him. The Doctor explains to his UNIT minder that the Sontaran’s are the finest warriors in the Universe, but that they have one weakness… because they are clones they have to be fed through a vent in the back of their necks. The Doctor, with the aid of a very well hit squash ball, exploits this weakness, causing Staal to become temporarily incapacitated and enabling the Doctor and the UNIT soldier to escape.

Once recovered General Staal and Rattigan return to the Sontaran ship and Staal moves his troops onto a war footing. Rattigan tells Staal that The Doctor was using a military vehicle fitted with ATMOS. Staal knows the name of The Doctor as being that of an enemy of the Sontaran’s.
The ATMOS unit in The Doctor’s jeep takes control and tries to drive them into a nearby stretch of water. The Doctor manages to get control back by giving the ATMOS contradictory orders until it eventually breaks down. When the signal from the ATMOS unit is no longer being received by the Sontaran ship they believe that The Doctor is dead.

Donna is at home, relating her tales of life with The Doctor to her Granddad, who always knew such things were possible. She stops short of telling her Mum, Sylvia, exactly where she has been and who with. When The Doctor returns he uses Donna’s phone to call Martha and tell her about the Sontaran’s. He tells her to make sure she tells Mace not to engage them in battle. Martha of course chooses not to.

The Doctor is examining the ATMOS unit in Donna’s Mum’s car he knows there must be more to the unit than just controlling the cars. After tinkering with the ATMOS unit he realises that it contains a temporal pocket that gives off a poisonous gas.

When the Sontaran’s learn that an ATMOS has triggered the release of the gas they know it could only have been The Doctor and they get ready for an all out war with the Earth. They deadlock all the cars and start a mass release of the poisonous gas into the atmosphere.

Wilf is trapped inside Sylvia’s car as he attempted to move it off the street and slowly succumbs to the gas whilst The Doctor stands helplessly by, watching the world choke……

Written by Deryn Corner