Doctor Who retro review: The Poison Sky (Tenth Doctor story)

In the second part of Series Four’s Sontaran story, the Earth gets choked by gas, but UNIT fights back in The Poison Sky!

Continuing directly from where The Sontaran Stratagem left off, the Sontarans reveal themselves more openly as they put their plans into action. As a result, the stakes are significantly increased in The Poison Sky. The Earth gets choked by poison gas, and more importantly, the Sontarans ready themselves for battle.

This is the real highlight of the episode: UNIT versus the Sontarans. It’s actually surprising to think about, but while they were introduced in a UNIT era story, they’ve never truly faced UNIT before.

More from Winter is Coming

Initially, it seems to go the way you’d expect it to. The Sontarans have the superior technology and are clearly winning when the battle begins. Throughout the Classic Series, UNIT faced many enemies that were “immune to bullets”, to quote the Brigadier.

When the initial battle does go badly, a lot of UNIT soldiers die. Writer Helen Raynor added depth to this with the character of Ross, who was introduced in the last episode. He was a very likable character and the Tenth Doctor seemed to get on well with him. So it’s quite a shock to see him get shot by a Sontaran on-screen. In UNIT stories, a lot of unnamed soldiers usually get killed off in battle, so it’s refreshing that for once, a death has some weight to it.

However, things take an unexpected turn when UNIT finds ways of fighting back. Colonel Mace gets a great speech on how tired he is of both UNIT and humanity always getting seen as “primitive” by alien species and nothing more. But, despite the Doctor’s constant objections, UNIT fights back, and hard. They’re actually able to give the Sontarans a good battle. And eventually, the Doctor changes his mind about it. The UNIT battle is pretty satisfying to see.

Other plotlines

Luke Rattigan is further explored in this story. In the previous episode, he came across as an arrogant villain. Or at least, someone who wanted to be.

In The Poison Sky, however, you begin to realize just how damaged he is. And eventually, so does he. When he finds out how easily he’s been tricked by the Sontarans, it’s a moment that really wrecks him. Rattigan’s a pretty interesting character, and his arc in this episode of finding redemption is a satisfying one.

Overall, the companions in this episode seem to have less to do than in The Sontaran Stratagem. Especially Donna, who gets separated from the Doctor for most of the episode. She gets one really great scene where she chats to her mother and Wilf. It’s a moment that highlights both the danger she’s in and what everyone’s going through at that moment. But overall, she’s given noticeably less to do than in other episodes.

While Freema Agyeman portrays Martha’s clone for the majority of this episode, she never comes across as a real threat. Particularly as the Doctor works out that she’s a clone pretty quickly, too. Overall, considering how much goes on in The Poison Sky, this subplot just comes across as very small compared to everything else.

On the whole, however, The Poison Sky pays off the build-up from The Sontaran Stratagem. It was good to see UNIT in action, and overall, the Sontarans were depicted faithfully and brilliantly. Not exactly flawless, but an enjoyable UNIT story, nonetheless.

Next: Review: An Earthly Child (Eighth Doctor audio)

Are you a fan of The Poison Sky? Was it great to see UNIT in action once more? Do you think the episode continued well from The Sontaran Stratagem? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Home/Doctor Who