One of the assets of the Sontarans as a returning monster/villian for Doctor Who is that while they are easily identified with the classic run of the show, they’re not a “staple” of the original series in the same way the Daleks or Cybermen were.

I say this because it gives the writers and production staff a bit more freedom to explore the Sontarans without the danger of honking off the hard-core fans of the original series. That said, you can’t just insert the Sontarans into any random story and have it work. (For an example of this, see “The Two Doctors”). Because of that, I’m glad to see that the production team and writing staff seems to have put some time and thought into a story that would benefit from bringing back the Sontarans and not just be an excuse to bring them back for the inevitable “old foe is back” publicity train.

I’ve got to admit I was a bit nervous headed into “The Sontaran Stratagem.” A couple of factors contributed to this. One is that I didn’t much care for Helen Raynor’s two part story last year with the Daleks. Another is I was worried about how the return of UNIT might play out. And finally, I was concerned about the reasoning from bringing back the Sontarans.

The good news is that, so far, the story hasn’t done anything to set off red-alert claxons in my mind. But I also have to admit I liked the first half of Raynor’s two-part Dalek story last year, while I found it completely feel apart in the second half.

But enough worrying about next week. What worked here?

For the most part, just about everything.

Martha calls on the Doctor to return to present-day Earth to assist UNIT in investigating the company that produced a combination GPS/carbon-cleaning car-exhaust filter called ATMOS. Martha and UNIT suspect alien influence and have called on the Doctor as their expert. Also, it appears the Doctor never officially resigned as scientific-advisor to the para-military organization.

ATMOS was invented by a young genius named Luke Rattigan. Rattigan has built an empire on the profits, including a mysterious acadamy. Martha tells the Doctor that ATMOS has been installed on half the world’s automobiles.

As the Doctor investigates, he realizes that ATMOS is far too advance for Rattigan to have dreamed up on his own, genius or not. Also, it appears something more is going on at the ATMOS production plant seized by UNIT and it’s linked to Rattigan and his acadamy.

The link is the Sontarans who have produced ATMOS as a weapon. It can control cars on which it’s installed and when activated it emits some type of gas.

Storywise, the script has some nice moments in it. There’s a quick line about the debate over the dating of the UNIT era stories (something that causes no end of debate in the fandom) and even the scenes with Donna at home with her family are well realized. There are some wince-inducing moments in the story such as the Doctor misunderstanding that Donna is leaving for a few hours to visit the family rather than leaving his company forever and the final scenes as the Sontarans dance to what can only be called the “Sontar!” rap/chant. I haven’t seen something that disconcerting in the show since the Dalek’s rapping “Exterminate” in episode one of “Day of the Daleks.” Also, the cliffhanger goes onto long, going from a suspense point to wondering just when the stinger to the theme music will roll.

Also, it’s hard to draw too many conclusions about the story as we’ve only see the first half. There are still a lot of questions left unanswered and I hope that part two will address them all.

And while this week’s direction isn’t quite as visually stunning as last week’s, the overall look of the show is good. The new Sontarans are nicely realized and don’t seek to over-update the look like the Cybermen did. There’s also another nice in-joke about the Sontarans looking like baked-potatoes. Overall, the acting is up to the usual standards of greatness and it’s a pleasure to see Martha Jones back on screen. I have nothing really against Catherine Tate, but I have to admit I prefer Martha as a companion.

Finally, there is an interesting line that the Sontarans, who are bred for military battle, were not allowed to participate in the Time War. I’m hoping this will be expanded on and explored as the story and season progresses. It’s just far too interesting to bring up and then never address again.

Next up: The world’s in danger and only the Doctor can save us from alien invasion. It sounds positively Pertwee-era….