The Three Little Sontarans

"Prepare to die, Rutan!"

Writer: Justin Richards

Format: Short Story

Released: August 2026

Printed in: Time Lord Fairy Tales 05

Featuring: Sontarans

Synopsis

We are all stories in the end...

Sixteen tales of ancient wonder and mystery, passed down through generations of Time Lords. 

Dark, beautiful and twisted, these stories are filled with nightmarish terrors and heroic triumphs from across all of time and space.

Verdict

The Three Little Sontarans was another good little short story to continue my way through the Time Lord Fairy Tales collection! This is one I was really looking forward to because the Sontarans are an absolute favourite villain of mine and they really have reached iconic status as a monster in the Whoniverse by this point. Their story has been expanded across so many different formats and that’s been wonderful to explore. I was deeply intrigued by the Betrayal at the House of Sontar audio earlier this year where it was revealed that Division were seemingly responsible for an eternal war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. That was obviously part of the Rutans vs Sontarans range at Big Finish but given this story here was a Time Lord fairy tale, I find that very intriguing! A fairytale created from something sparked by a secret Time Lord organisation orchestrating events is pretty fun. I liked that aspect and I’m obviously benefitted from reading now in 2026 with this third edition of the collection. I must say though I thought the story was pretty generic. I’m not sure it lived up to its title which is just glorious and that’s a big shame. I think this should have gone down the comedy route and that’s especially so because of the Eleventh Doctor referencing this story during the events of Night Terrors as one he was read at bedtime. I don’t think it really had that vibe. I’m always delighted to be reading stories featuring the Sontarans and Rutans doing battle against each other and this was no different, but it could have featured somewhere else. This was just made for Sontaran comedy with the title! I thought the use of the Rutan Host was pretty decent and it was good to go deep on the descriptors of their makeup as a species. There’s something about the word squelching that feels uncomfortable and a little eery so that describing the Rutan Host and how it was hiding was impressive. I liked that the Rutan didn’t actually try to emerge from the wall but rather squeezed itself underneath it. That was an intriguing image to try and shape in my head! I thought the strength of the Sontarans was presented very well though and I liked that they tricked the Rutan here with somewhat ease. They’d anticipated everything the Rutan would believe as a trap and actually work around that to wipe it out completely. The final description of the green glow lighting for a second before going out was great stuff. This certainly didn’t place the Sontarans and the Rutan Host on an equal playing ground which was fascinating today the least! Overall, a good story but perhaps under the wrong title and collection?

Rating: 7/10