The Battle of Giant's Causeway

"We shall bring life to the eyes of the dead."

Writer: Lizzie Hopley

Format: Audio

Released: January 2024

Series: Sontarans vs Rutans 1.01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Charley, C'rizz

Synopsis 

The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans has been going on for millennia. And is likely to continue for millennia more. 

A terrible conflict with no care for consequences or collateral damage. Billions have died with no end in sight. Its reach can encompass ancient Ireland and a forest world in the far future. 

A temporal tidal wave leads the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz to the Giant's Causeway, Ireland 55BC, where the TARDIS drains of power and they encounter Sontarans who believe they're Roman Legionnaires. What has caused this and what is the strange secret in the rocks?

Verdict

The Battle of Giant's Causeway was a strong start to the Sontarans vs Rutans audio series to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Time Warrior and therefore the debut of the Sontarans and first mention of the Rutans. It's a delightful idea and something I am absolutely on board with as the Sontarans are one of my all time favourite monsters in Doctor Who. They're just so fun whilst having the ability to be deadly serious at the same. Just look at the contrast of the likes of Strax and Linx. Really digging deep into the war between Sontarans and Rutans is something that is surprisingly rare from Doctor Who stories across nearly every format. So an entire audio series dedicated towards that is tremendous and it seems like there's going to be something of a story arc going across them as well which I must admit I wasn't expecting. This story sees a welcomed return of C'rizz as companion alongside the Eighth Doctor and Charley. It's a trio that broke the barriers of new Doctor Who with their travels to the Divergent Universe and beyond, so getting a little story thrown in somewhere in their journey was a delight. I must admit, I think a little more use could have been made of C'rizz considering how long it has been since his final adventure, but it was nice to hear a familiar combination of a long absence. C'rizz getting split up from the others was good and I liked the use of his natural camouflage blending with the rocks of Giant's Causeway, especially when the significance of the rocks was revealed. That was really well done and probably why his return was pushed for! I thought the setting was magnificent with Ireland alone being great, but going specifically to the Giant's Causeway in 55BC was just brilliant. Talk about unique! The concept of Sontarans believing they were Roman legionaries was fantastic and hearing them describe their name and titles was very amusing. Mentioning themselves as sons considering they were a clone race was delightful. Charley's reaction to them eating but spitting out the food because they didn't actually need that kind of sustenance was great stuff and she had a bit of a verbal spat on more than one occasion! She didn't take well to being called a boy. Valmoira was a good character and I liked how enigmatic she was right from the off. It wasn't too much of a surprise that she was part of the Rutan Host but that's probably more so because of the series title. It was hidden well and the temporal tidal wave causing chaos to them, the Sontarans and the TARDIS is really interesting. Getting Salutio into the TARDIS was quite an image and having the Doctor work with an old enemy in this way was very nicely done. The way he was trying to bring the Sontarans back to their normal selves was intriguing and I loved his perplexed reaction when even the name of the Rutan didn't spark anything despite the constant deja vu that was abound. The TARDIS dying was exciting because of the vulnerability that presents, but tying in with the residual energy of the rocks and how the Rutans were essentially operating a battery farm was a neat way to get it recharged. I thought the explosion that took out the Rutans including Valmoira was a bit of a shock, and the mystery we were left with to presumanot go into the rest of the series with as the Sontarans were also destroyed was very well done. It was quite a sad ending really as these Sontarans were pretty harmless! Sure, they were obviously tricked and manipulated with their memories, but it seemed a tad harsh. Overall though, a really entertaining story to kick off a series I'm very excited for! 

Rating: 8/10