Sontaran

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Doctor Who race

Sontarans
Type	Cloned humanoids
Affiliated with	Sontaran Empire
Homeworld	Sontar
First appearance	The Time Warrior

The Sontarans are a fictional extraterrestrial race from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

The Sontarans made their first appearance in 1973 in the serial The Time Warrior. There, it was explained that they are a race that reproduces by means of cloning, with no females, and are a militaristic society obsessed by war. Sontarans are humanoid, with a squat build and distinctive dome-shaped head. They come from a high-gravity world named Sontar in the "southern spiral arm of the galaxy". They recharge their energy through a "probic vent" at the back of the neck rather than consuming food. The Sontarans have been at war with the Rutan Host for millennia. At one point the Sontarans successfully invaded Gallifrey itself, but were driven out again after less than a day (The Invasion of Time).

At some point, the Sontarans encountered the equally expansionist Rutan Host. The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans continued for several millennia, with both sides remaining fairly evenly matched and neither side interested in negotiating for peace. It was still ongoing at the time of The Sontaran Experiment, which takes place at least 10,000 years beyond the 30th century.

Although physically formidable, the Sontarans' weak spot is the probic vent at the back of their neck; a warrior was killed by a well-aimed knife at that spot (The Invasion of Time). They are also vulnerable to "coronic acid" (The Two Doctors).

[edit] Other appearances

The origins of the Sontarans have not been revealed in the television series. The Doctor Who role-playing game published by FASA claimed that they were all descended from the genetic stock of General Sontar (or Sontaris), who used newly developed bioengineering techniques to clone millions of duplicates of himself and annihilated the non-clone population. He renamed the race after himself and turned the Sontarans into an expansionist and warlike society set on universal conquest. However, this origin has no basis in anything seen in the television series and is not considered canonical.

Other appearances by the Sontarans include the spin-off videos, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans and Do You Have A License To Save This Planet? and three audio plays by BBV: Silent Warrior, Old Soldiers and Conduct Unbecoming as well as making a cameo appearance in Infidel's Comet. Shakedown marks the only occasion in which the Sontarans and their Rutan foes appear on screen together.

The Sontarans also appeared in a skit for the BBC children's programme Jim'll Fix It titled, "A Fix with Sontarans", along with Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka. They have also appeared in several spin-off novels, including Lords of the Storm by David McIntee and The Infinity Doctors by Lance Parkin, where the Doctor negotiated a peace between the Sontarans and the Rutan Host when two of them were left trapped in a TARDIS for several hours and got to talking due to their inability to kill each other. General Sontar made an appearance in the latter novel. In The Crystal Bucephalus by Craig Hinton, the name of their planet was given as Sontara.

The Sontarans have also appeared several times in the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip, both as adversaries of the Doctor and in strips not involving the Doctor. In The Outsider (DWM #25-26), by Steve Moore and David Lloyd, a Sontaran named Skrant invaded the world of Brahtilis with the unwitting help of Demimon, a local astrologer. The Fourth Doctor faced the Sontarans in Dragon's Claw (DWM #39-#45), by Steve Moore and Dave Gibbons, where a crew of Sontarans menaced China in 1522 AD. The Sontarans also feature in the Tenth Doctor's comic strip debut The Betrothal of Sontar (DWM #365-#368), by John Tomlinson and Nick Abadzis, where a Sontaran mining rig on the ice planet Serac comes under attack by a mysterious force.

A race of aliens resembling the Sontarans, the Hierarchy, appeared in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy". Coincidentally, the character that defeats the Hierarchy is also called "the Doctor".