October 01, 2026
As the Conductor makes his move in the finale of Circuit Breaker, learn the history of the Sontarans, for the glory of Sontar!!
Stuck in an eternal war against the shapeshifting Rutans, the Sontarans are one of the Doctor’s oldest enemies. A clone species from the planet Sontar, every Sontaran is created for a single purpose: to win the war!
Sontarans must always face their enemies; ask one why, and they’ll tell you it is because they are brave and honourable warriors. Ask anyone else, and they’ll tell you it’s because of the probic vent at the back of a Sontaran’s neck. It’s their weak spot; hitting it is the quickest way to take out a Sontaran.
The Doctor has encountered the Sontarans on many occasions – most recently in Full Circuit, the epic finale to the Fugitive Doctor’s multi-platform adventure Circuit Breaker. Before you recount their latest battle, here’s a quick guide to their previous skirmishes...
Foe from the future
Crash landing on Earth, Sontaran Commander Linx quickly discovered he had a problem. The planet’s technology wasn’t advanced enough to fix his ship! He used equipment from his ship to fashion a device capable of throwing himself forward in time. In the future, he steals more advanced equipment, and scientists who can operate it.
This was his mistake - as the future he was stealing from was the late 20th Century, during the Third Doctor’s exile. The disappearances caught UNIT’s attention, as well as an intrepid reporter called Sarah Jane Smith. Using the TARDIS, the Doctor followed Linx back to the 13th Century, not realising Sarah had snuck aboard. The Doctor and Sarah put a stop to Linx’s meddling, which threatened to alter history. Linx died trying to escape in his ship, shot with an arrow in his probic vent.
Preparations for War
When Sarah Jane Smith spotted an identical Sontaran in the 170th Century, she was confused. Linx died in the 13th Century, how could he have possibly survived? Evidently he didn’t; this was Field Major Styre, who revealed to all that the Sontarans are a clone race.
Sarah was travelling with the Fourth Doctor and Harry Sullivan. They’d transmatted to Earth from an orbiting space station called Nerva, investigating some minor faults. They quickly encountered Styre, who was running experiments on the survivors of a crashed ship. He was getting the planet ready for an invasion. Unfortunately for him, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry brought his experiments to an early end.
Invading Gallifrey
In one of their most ambitious campaigns, the Sontarans tried to invade Gallifrey! The Doctor had just completed a fiendish plan: He had tricked a species called the Vardans, convincing them he would help them conquer Gallifrey. He had only just finished defeating them when he was confronted by a Sontaran army!
The Sontarans had also been using the Vardans to bypass Gallifrey’s defences. The Doctor was soon caught in a deadly pursuit through his TARDIS, racing the Sontarans to fetch a forbidden Time Lord weapon to defend the planet!
Two’s Company
What’s more dangerous than facing the Doctor? Facing two Doctors! If they weren’t warmongering conquerors, you could almost feel sorry for the Sontarans who found themselves going up against the Second and Sixth Doctors together. The Sontarans originally kidnapped the Second Doctor in attempt to pry the secrets of time travel out of him. The plan backfired when the Sixth Doctor came to investigate, and the two Doctors made short work of their foes!
Converting the ATMOSphere
When fifty-two people are killed at the same time, UNIT gets suspicious. They have a lead: everyone who died had an onboard computer system called ATMOS installed in their cars. On the plus side, ATMOS reduced a car’s carbon output to zero - but on the more considerable downside, ATMOS was a Sontaran weapon! They planned to convert the Earth’s atmosphere, turning the planet into a Sontaran breeding world.
Luckily for Earth, Martha Jones called the Tenth Doctor in to help UNIT investigate, and he turned the Sontarans’ weapons against them.
The Sontarans vs Bannerman Road
The Last Sontaran / Enemy of the Bane (The Sarah Jane Adventures)
Commander Kaagh was the sole Sontaran survivor of the failed attempt to convert the Earth’s atmosphere. Seeking to avenge his fallen comrades, Kaagh planned to destroy the planet by crashing satellites into every single nuclear power plant on Earth. He was forced to retreat when Sarah Jane Smith and her friends foiled his plan. He went on to team up with the Bane – old enemies of Sarah Jane – but ultimately sacrificed himself to help bring an end to their invasion.
The Alliance
Sontarans teaming up with Daleks and Cybermen? What would previously have been unthinkable at last became a reality, when the Doctor’s exploding TARDIS threatened to destroy the universe. Believing the Doctor to be the problem, the Sontarans joined an alliance of races, determined to lock the Eleventh Doctor away. Little did they know, he was the universe’s only hope.
For the Glory of Sontar! (and Paternoster Row)
A Good Man Goes to War / The Snowmen / The Crimson Horror / The Name of the Doctor / Deep Breath
Strax answered the Doctor’s call to fight at Demon’s Run, originally dying in the process. But that wasn’t the end of Strax; for he was resurrected by the Doctor and became an invaluable part of the Paternoster Gang. Alongside the Silurian Madame Vastra and her human wife Jenny, the three of them reside in Victorian London, solving crimes and extraterrestrial anomalies. They often team up with the Doctor, helping the Eleventh Doctor fight the Great Intelligence and uncover the truth of the crimson horror. They even helped the Twelfth Doctor recover from his regeneration!
A War Across History
When a wave of antimatter called the Flux ripped through the universe, it left devastation in its wake. For so many across the universe, they witnessed a tragedy. But the Sontarans saw an opportunity. Invading the Earth in 2021, they used it as a temporal beachhead.
The Sontarans’ first target was the Crimean war, launching an attack to conquer the past. When the Thirteenth Doctor and her friends defeated them in both points in time, the Sontarans tried again. Not only did they attack Earth, but they also attempted to trick the Daleks and Cybermen, planning to use the Flux to wipe out both of them. However, their trap was flipped back on them by the Doctor and her allies, leading to the destruction of their entire fleet.
Enter the Conductor
In the thrilling conclusion of Circuit Breaker, the Doctor must thwart the schemes of the fearsome Conductor. He’s unlike any Sontaran they’ve encountered before, easily identifiable among the legions of clones due to his scrawnier build. He might be weaker than other Sontarans, but make no mistake: his superior intelligence means he is still a formidable foe.
The Conductor has been fighting for his life ever since his birth. While all Sontarans are destined to fight, they normally have to wait to be deployed on a battlefield. But, due to being a genetic anomaly, the Conductor had to survive an assassination attempt as soon as he was born! He outwitted the rest of his kind and managed to escape. Slowly, by demonstrating his excellent strategic skills, he’s been gaining the support among the Sontaran generals. He knows that there’s only way for him to be full accepted, though: he needs to kill one of the Sontaran’s most persistent and dangerous enemies. He needs to kill the Doctor.
While the Doctor surrounds herself with friends from UNIT, the Conductor has allies of his own. Some he has made himself, like his new faction of Sontaran Shock Troopers: stronger and more durable than the average trooper, with menacing orange eyes. His other collaborators are from different species, including the witch-like Carrionites.
The Doctor has managed to overcome the Conductor’s allies, so now he must go on the offensive. A trap designed to ensnare the Doctor. He has materialised a bomb at the heart of UNIT Tower…
Find out what happens next in Circuit Breaker: Full Circuit from Big Finish Productions.
