What do you think?
Rate this book
The Early Adventures #3.4
Doctor Who: The Sontarans
The TARDIS arrives on a moon-sized asteroid orbiting two gas giants. With an amazing view, it’s a chance for the Doctor, Steven and Sara to unwind after their recent adventures.
But they quickly find themselves in the midst of battle - on one side: a familiar group of space-suited soldiers - members of the Space Security Service. On the other: strange, squat aliens in body armour.
Surviving the initial hostilities, the Doctor and his friends discover that the SSS squad is on a terrifying mission. With many lives at stake, they have to venture deep inside the asteroid in search of a hideous weapon. But who can they trust in the battle against these Sontarans?
But they quickly find themselves in the midst of battle - on one side: a familiar group of space-suited soldiers - members of the Space Security Service. On the other: strange, squat aliens in body armour.
Surviving the initial hostilities, the Doctor and his friends discover that the SSS squad is on a terrifying mission. With many lives at stake, they have to venture deep inside the asteroid in search of a hideous weapon. But who can they trust in the battle against these Sontarans?
- GenresDoctor WhoAudiobook
Audio CD
First published January 31, 2017
4 people are currently reading
57 people want to read
About the author
Simon Guerrier
168 books61 followersSimon Guerrier is a British science fiction author and dramatist, closely associated with the fictional universe of Doctor Who and its spinoffs. Although he has written three Doctor Who novels, for the BBC Books range, his work has mostly been for Big Finish Productions' audio drama and book ranges.
Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers.
After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007.
His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range.
Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series
Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers.
After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007.
His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range.
Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 14, 2025
Continuing my memorial listening of Jean Marsh stories, I came to the last one she recorded and the one that ends the gap created by these audios between TV episodes.
Jean Marsh and Peter Purves are brilliant as always. Their dynamic feels like its existed for a long time despite how little screentime they got.
This story does a lot of great things continuity wise. It not only fills and ends the gap, but it gives us the Doctor's first encounter with the Sontarans chronologically. On TV, The Doctor already knew everything about them in the first Sontaran story, The Time Warrior, so it's great to have a story that explains how he knew of them. It's also funny that his two companions, Steven and Sara, already know of them.
The inclusions of the SSS (Space Security Service) from Daleks Masterplan nicely gives us a link back to that story as well as a connection to Jean Marsh's Sara Kingdom. The cameo appearance at the end of the story also nicely connects this to the Daleks' Masterplan
This story is also a perfect story to showcase how ruthless and dangerous the Sontarans are as quite a few stories turn them into comedic villains, which downplays their threat.
On the whole, a perfect story which has contributed lots to the Doctor Who lore while also being a fun, fast-paced audio story
Jean Marsh and Peter Purves are brilliant as always. Their dynamic feels like its existed for a long time despite how little screentime they got.
This story does a lot of great things continuity wise. It not only fills and ends the gap, but it gives us the Doctor's first encounter with the Sontarans chronologically. On TV, The Doctor already knew everything about them in the first Sontaran story, The Time Warrior, so it's great to have a story that explains how he knew of them. It's also funny that his two companions, Steven and Sara, already know of them.
The inclusions of the SSS (Space Security Service) from Daleks Masterplan nicely gives us a link back to that story as well as a connection to Jean Marsh's Sara Kingdom. The cameo appearance at the end of the story also nicely connects this to the Daleks' Masterplan
This story is also a perfect story to showcase how ruthless and dangerous the Sontarans are as quite a few stories turn them into comedic villains, which downplays their threat.
On the whole, a perfect story which has contributed lots to the Doctor Who lore while also being a fun, fast-paced audio story
February 14, 2021
This wasn’t bad, it’s certainly enjoyable, but I just didn’t get drawn into the story as much as I have with other entries in the Early Adventures imprint range. Nothing really wrong, The cast does a great job and the story is fascinating. And I do have to give accolades to both Purves and Starkey for really giving 100% on this one. Kudos to both. Also I did enjoy this from the stand point of a retroactive first encounter between the Doctor and the Sontarans. As a whole though, it just didn’t quite click for me.
December 4, 2018
Failed opportunity to deliver (and could have been easily so via not changing any core events, but deleting one unnecessary character and enhancing one crucial scene).
Should have been on better side of average at minimum, with an acceptable but very slow, plodding plot. Not very thrilling, but even this was not the biggest problem that forces this mandatory lowball rating.
Began borderline mediocre-good minus that dropped firmly in just-acceptable mediocrity, but appalling faltered at end to very poor due to crappy writing and direction.
Great cast with Purves front-and-center playing Steven, Narrator, and Doctor. Marsh’s Sara more in accessory mode. Sontarans.
While well-performed on all accounts and characters, 60% through I began hoping for some more action, climatic or exciting moments, etc. Ironically, the objective of the plot in the final act suffers from an intentional literal “anti-climax” and a just bizzare intervention by a strange poorly placed or fitting child character, a little girl called Tinder, which really attached dumb associated characterization and questionable writing—I mean really questionable.
Basically along with the anti-climax the prior introduction of Tinder literally just causes the story at this point to just fail and collapse. I suppose there was either some cryptic intent of author or simply poor creativity heavily dampening the whole experience, resulting in more of a waste of time. Annoying.
Up to the end, I had steady rated at 2/5 stars waiting for some kind of thrill or climax, which could have bumped rating to a welcome 3/5, but instead got the worst possible ending after investing a boring 1.5 hours plus plus a really crap side character(s) additionally spoiling the whole thing. Tinder burn.
Worst Sontaran story ever? Maybe. Waste of Purves and Marsh. The Sontaran acting was very nice, space fleet scene could have greatly elevated, but nope – not so much as a ship’s engine heard. Total fail. This is an audioplay, where was any audio representation/direction of events, FX, , etc?? Massive writing and direction fail. It really wouldn’t have been hard to just keep this anti-climatic but acceptable. But now I have no choice but to rate this in the “poor” character.
AFTERWORD
I am not sure what is going on with Guerrier’s writing lately or the occasional bad direction/production blunder as ‘heard’ here. After 65 releases, it must be burn out or other preoccupations for Guerrier and crew. Or hopefully just a rough spot. The Yes Men does not hint at wellness. So far I have invested and listened to 2 out of the 4 Early Adventures, due to his credit, his authorship of his Sara Kingdom classic companion trilogy awhile back in expectation of a full cast adventure. For this release, and especially after the aforementioned, I was thrilled to find one.. BUT… this and especially The Yes Men were just absolute dismal bombs.
Another recent Guerrier major disappointment.
I have the other two Early Adventures penned by Guerrier sitting on the shelf and regardless of my extreme bad experiences, I continue on.
This was 1/5.
Director: Ken Bentley
Writer: Simon Guerrier
Should have been on better side of average at minimum, with an acceptable but very slow, plodding plot. Not very thrilling, but even this was not the biggest problem that forces this mandatory lowball rating.
Began borderline mediocre-good minus that dropped firmly in just-acceptable mediocrity, but appalling faltered at end to very poor due to crappy writing and direction.
Great cast with Purves front-and-center playing Steven, Narrator, and Doctor. Marsh’s Sara more in accessory mode. Sontarans.
While well-performed on all accounts and characters, 60% through I began hoping for some more action, climatic or exciting moments, etc. Ironically, the objective of the plot in the final act suffers from an intentional literal “anti-climax” and a just bizzare intervention by a strange poorly placed or fitting child character, a little girl called Tinder, which really attached dumb associated characterization and questionable writing—I mean really questionable.
Basically along with the anti-climax the prior introduction of Tinder literally just causes the story at this point to just fail and collapse. I suppose there was either some cryptic intent of author or simply poor creativity heavily dampening the whole experience, resulting in more of a waste of time. Annoying.
Up to the end, I had steady rated at 2/5 stars waiting for some kind of thrill or climax, which could have bumped rating to a welcome 3/5, but instead got the worst possible ending after investing a boring 1.5 hours plus plus a really crap side character(s) additionally spoiling the whole thing. Tinder burn.
Worst Sontaran story ever? Maybe. Waste of Purves and Marsh. The Sontaran acting was very nice, space fleet scene could have greatly elevated, but nope – not so much as a ship’s engine heard. Total fail. This is an audioplay, where was any audio representation/direction of events, FX, , etc?? Massive writing and direction fail. It really wouldn’t have been hard to just keep this anti-climatic but acceptable. But now I have no choice but to rate this in the “poor” character.
AFTERWORD
I am not sure what is going on with Guerrier’s writing lately or the occasional bad direction/production blunder as ‘heard’ here. After 65 releases, it must be burn out or other preoccupations for Guerrier and crew. Or hopefully just a rough spot. The Yes Men does not hint at wellness. So far I have invested and listened to 2 out of the 4 Early Adventures, due to his credit, his authorship of his Sara Kingdom classic companion trilogy awhile back in expectation of a full cast adventure. For this release, and especially after the aforementioned, I was thrilled to find one.. BUT… this and especially The Yes Men were just absolute dismal bombs.
Another recent Guerrier major disappointment.
I have the other two Early Adventures penned by Guerrier sitting on the shelf and regardless of my extreme bad experiences, I continue on.
This was 1/5.
Director: Ken Bentley
Writer: Simon Guerrier
March 14, 2020
On TV, the Sontarans make their first appearance in the Third Doctor story The Time Warrior. It's obvious that the Doctor already knows about them, as is often the case with alien races on the show, but here, Big Finish takes the unusual step of imagining that first encounter, framing it as if it were an unseen First Doctor story taking place between episodes of The Dalek Master Plan. Thus, we have Steven and Sara Kingdom as the companions, with Peter Purves providing the narration, as he did in the previous outing to feature those two characters.
It's a very serious Sontaran story, at odds with what the TV series has largely done with the race in the modern era, but suiting some of the style of the early show. The setting, as described, makes little sense in terms of real-world science and, while this is lampshaded, the mysteries are never really explained. Since there's not really any reason for them beyond window-dressing, this is one of the things that knocks the story down to four stars for me.
A rather militaristic outlook, especially in the first half, is another reason, but, fortunately, once you leave that aside, the plot itself is excellent. The TARDIS crew becomes involved with a team of Space Security agents trying to infiltrate a Sontaran base, something that inevitably involves a lot of gun battles. Even at this point, there's some good use of the companions, who, for once, know more about what they're facing than the Doctor does, and Sara in particular, realising that she's in the middle of a historical event she's previously heard of.
Things improve in the second half, once the gun battles end and we get to see more of the Sontarans as people. This is one of the real strengths of the story, contrasting Sontaran culture and psychology with that of humans, something that has a key part in the eventual resolution. It's a less sympathetic look than that given in some other Big Finish Sontaran stories, but it all fits together with what we know, and isn't wholly one-sided. And, of course, in the process, we get to see the Doctor learning for the first time all the things he brings up in The Time Warrior. Oh, and the final scenes are very much in character for the '60s version of the TV show.
If you want an action tale, don't mind a partially pro-military outlook, and are bored with the "comedy Sontaran" approach, this will probably be one to check out.
It's a very serious Sontaran story, at odds with what the TV series has largely done with the race in the modern era, but suiting some of the style of the early show. The setting, as described, makes little sense in terms of real-world science and, while this is lampshaded, the mysteries are never really explained. Since there's not really any reason for them beyond window-dressing, this is one of the things that knocks the story down to four stars for me.
A rather militaristic outlook, especially in the first half, is another reason, but, fortunately, once you leave that aside, the plot itself is excellent. The TARDIS crew becomes involved with a team of Space Security agents trying to infiltrate a Sontaran base, something that inevitably involves a lot of gun battles. Even at this point, there's some good use of the companions, who, for once, know more about what they're facing than the Doctor does, and Sara in particular, realising that she's in the middle of a historical event she's previously heard of.
Things improve in the second half, once the gun battles end and we get to see more of the Sontarans as people. This is one of the real strengths of the story, contrasting Sontaran culture and psychology with that of humans, something that has a key part in the eventual resolution. It's a less sympathetic look than that given in some other Big Finish Sontaran stories, but it all fits together with what we know, and isn't wholly one-sided. And, of course, in the process, we get to see the Doctor learning for the first time all the things he brings up in The Time Warrior. Oh, and the final scenes are very much in character for the '60s version of the TV show.
If you want an action tale, don't mind a partially pro-military outlook, and are bored with the "comedy Sontaran" approach, this will probably be one to check out.
February 2, 2024
🙏🏼56% = Average!
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE SONTARANS!
The story begins with the usual air of mystery and adventure as One, Steven, and Sara Kingdom land on an unknown planet in the midst of escaping the Daleks (between episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Masterplan) and begin exploring. It then quickly evolves into a surprisingly large-scale battle story. While this makes the story a bit bolder than the average First Doctor story, it also grows it into almost too big proportions too early on, which weighs down on the latter half.
I love Peter Purves' First Doctor voice, which is good and better than his Steven voice here. Jean Marsh is somehow a bit lost in the mix. Dan Starkey is great as the Sontarans and a bit more muddled than usual, particularly when interrogating Steven. Their part in the story remains fairly disappointing, though.
It's interesting how Steven knows about the Sontarans, while this is the Doctor's first time meeting them. It makes for a slightly unusual relationship with the alien enemies, as usually it's the other way around.
Despite the explosive beginning, the middle parts kind of slow down to a halt and don't do much with the premise, which makes this four-parter feel longer than it is.
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE SONTARANS!
The story begins with the usual air of mystery and adventure as One, Steven, and Sara Kingdom land on an unknown planet in the midst of escaping the Daleks (between episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Masterplan) and begin exploring. It then quickly evolves into a surprisingly large-scale battle story. While this makes the story a bit bolder than the average First Doctor story, it also grows it into almost too big proportions too early on, which weighs down on the latter half.
I love Peter Purves' First Doctor voice, which is good and better than his Steven voice here. Jean Marsh is somehow a bit lost in the mix. Dan Starkey is great as the Sontarans and a bit more muddled than usual, particularly when interrogating Steven. Their part in the story remains fairly disappointing, though.
It's interesting how Steven knows about the Sontarans, while this is the Doctor's first time meeting them. It makes for a slightly unusual relationship with the alien enemies, as usually it's the other way around.
Despite the explosive beginning, the middle parts kind of slow down to a halt and don't do much with the premise, which makes this four-parter feel longer than it is.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2022
Simon Guerrier has written a story in the tradition of the Doctor 1 series in a way, but with bigger effects. Slotted between episodes 7 & 8 of The Daleks' Masterplan, this story finds Doctor 1, Steven, and Sara arriving on a curious asteroid a few decades before Sara's time, but close enough for cultural reference. They soon find themselves attached to a military squad on a suicide mission to take out a cannon operated by The Sontarans. The Doctor knows nothing about Sontarans, but Steven knows about them in a general way and Sara knows about the success of this particular mission. The story itself is made up mostly of battle sequences, running away, getting captured, getting tortured, and inspiring the local populace to rise up against the Sontaran occupation. Peter Purves does a pretty good Doctor 1 imitation. The story is just fairly basic and not terribly inspiring.
December 16, 2016
I really enjoyed this one, although sometimes, some of the voices sounded a bit similar. (Perhaps it was because I wasn't listening on headphones this time.) The Sontarans always crack me up a bit because they're just so To The Point, and the bit about jokes being a tactical advantage was pretty great. Peter Purves always does a good job with the First Doctor's voice.
I'm always, always game for a Sara Kingdom story, so I hope there are more.
I'm always, always game for a Sara Kingdom story, so I hope there are more.
May 13, 2017
This was so good that I'm now looking forward to the next series in 2018
Great story, wonderful performance by peter purves as both the doctor and Steven
Excellent 1st encounter between the doctor & sontarans
Great story, wonderful performance by peter purves as both the doctor and Steven
Excellent 1st encounter between the doctor & sontarans
July 11, 2022
Well, this was more action than expected.
Exciting action adventure story about the violent culture clash between Sontarans and humans. And These Sontarans are not the Comedy variety.
These guys mean business.
And are not hesitant to use cold blooded torture.
Exciting action adventure story about the violent culture clash between Sontarans and humans. And These Sontarans are not the Comedy variety.
These guys mean business.
And are not hesitant to use cold blooded torture.
December 15, 2023
What if…there had been a First Doctor serial where he encountered the Daleks? For better or worse, this is set between episodes of The Daleks’ Masterplan. It goes as well as you’d expect for a Sontarans story set around then.
May 27, 2017
Stephen and the Doctor help Sara Kingman fight Sontarons in her people's past history.
July 1, 2018
(I felt sad hearing Steven get ... hurt..) :( :(
March 16, 2023
Excellent
December 24, 2016
A retroactive introduction of the Sontarans to the first Doctor.
November 28, 2024
SO GOOD. peter purves has the range
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews