The Sontaran Experiment

The Sontaran Experiment was a 2 episode story from the 4th Doctor's first season which brought back the popular Sontaran alien first seen in the Time Warrior the season before. (During the 3rd Doctor's last season.) It would sort of cement them as one of the most popular Doctor Who aliens... which means its weird that they wouldn't show up again for another 9 years. But hell, they made an action figure set of the episode, which is really weird.

I had no intention of buying this set, but then I went to a Doctor Who convention where they were selling it, and I saw it in person, and collector's lust seeped into my pores.

So this set comes with the 4th Doctor, the Sontaran Styre, and Styre's ship, which looks like all one-man Sontaran ships is a giant sphere. (It was also seen in the Time Warrior.)


I don't know how I feel about them always packing Doctors into the sets. On the one hand I hate paying for figures I already have. The minor paint variations aren't usually enough to make me feel like I'm getting a new figure. But this time I'm okay with it because this time we get sad 4th Doctor while wearing hat. The other 4th Doctor figure I have is happy 4th Doctor while wearing hat and surprisingly I think this is an acceptable variation.


Next up is Styre. In a nice touch, he has 5 fingers. You see the Sontaran Experiment was the only story where the Sontarans had 5 fingers. In all the other Sontaran stories they have three. You can see the difference in the old school and new school Sontarans by this comparison in the figures. The old Sontarans could be rather tall, the new ones are very pointedly not. I do prefer the old uniforms though. They're more gritty, as befitting a warrior race of clones.

Finally there's the Sontaran ship, and damn what a disappointment that is. Sure it looks impressive on the outside, but open the door and BAM. You're greeted with a solid wall of plastic.

I mean why let the door open at all if you don't have a compartment that can fit the figure inside it? And the fake chair, that's just teasing us with what could have been. Hell, I don't even care if it was a good compartment, but give me something that the damned Sontaran can fit in when I close the door. I probably wouldn't be THAT disappointed, but this set is retailing for $65 in the US, considering previous set costs, that means that this big silver ball is meant to be going for somewhere between $25-$35 dollars.

SO LET THE DAMN SONTARAN FIT IN THE SHIP!