Sontar's Little Helpers

"There is no honour in suffocation."

Writer: Mike Tucker
Format: Short Story
Released: October 2016
Printed in: Twelve Doctors of Christmas 05

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Turlough

Synopsis

Commander Braast leads a Sontaran fleet but unlike most Sontaran squadrons, this group are having a little help. Fresh from the cloning tank, Braast does battle with Turlough... to the death! Can the Doctor stop a disaster?

Verdict

Sontar's Little Helpers was another very decent story to continue along the Twelve Doctors of Christmas collection of adventures. It is probably one of the very best titled stories I have ever come across and as soon as I saw what this one was called, I fell in love with it. However, it was far from what I was expecting as my initial expectations, along with it being a Christmas-themed collection, were that it would be something along the comedic lines but it was actually far from that! We got to see glimpses of the Sontarans at their best and Braast made for a good commander. I liked that it was obvious that he was a relatively new Sontaran in terms of the cloning process they undergo, but one feature I felt was missing was the mention of the Rutans! How can there be. Sontaran story without mentioning their war? That just seemed a little off to me. Apart from that though, there was not a lot to complain about at all so it was definitely pleasing in that regard. The arrival of the Sontarans was handled well with the uncloaking and I do feel that it could have been a little more triumphant but it didn't change my opinion on the story as a whole. The robots turning out to be the servants of the Sontarans, in essence Sontar's little helpers as the story title alludes to, was pretty good and quite cute which was good for this type of story comprising part of this Christmas collection. There wasn't much of a Christmas theme at all here which I was surprised by but I didn't mind at all. It was just literally the fact that in temporal terms, it was Christmas Eve. It was nice to see that Tegan was so excited and happy about that but they were miles from Earth so it didn't really mean anything. Turlough not being so keen on Christmas was hardly something I was surprised me. What I did like about him in this story though was his battle with Braast. The Sontaran Commander had identified him as the most threatening foe and one he could bring honour to himself with by defeating him in air combat. Turlough was brave though and went against logical decision making and full on attacked Braast from the offset. The Doctor was impressed with that move and would go on to help hack into the robots, one of which was threatening Turlough with his life to ensure he continued the fight, and bring the ships to a standstill. The Doctor was instructing Sontar's little helpers now and it was time for Braast to go home and answer to higher command. He didn't like the prospect of explaining how he'd been defeated by the likes of the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough and in many ways echoed the end scene in The Last Sontaran. The relationship between the Doctor and his companions, often testy during this era, was actually pretty great and it was nice to see everybody largely get along whilst characterisation was retained at a very high level. I also really enjoyed the description of the Sontaran battle armour being black and a lovely statement that these were Sontarans of the Classic era. Overall, a terrific little tale!

Rating: 8/10