The blue police-box shape of the TARDIS rushes forward through the space-time vortex.
The Doctor's face, wide eyed and curly haired, forms in the tunnel of onrushing light; then is replaced by the words DOCTOR WHO in a diamond-shape logo.
The Sontaran Experiment.
By Bob Baker and Dave Martin.
Part 1.
Earth in the far future is recovering from devastating solar flares.
Horizon to horizon, there are no trees, no animals, just low, dense scrub under a flat, grey sky.
Nestled in the scrub, 12 tarnished metal balls, arranged in a circle
The Doctor, a tall man wearing an over-coat, floppy hat and long scarf materialises in the circle.
He takes in the rolling hills and the craggy granite outcrops.
Royal Navy Surgeon Harry Sullivan, dark hair, square jawed, in a fawn coat, materialises nearby, then disappears again with a look of surprise.
He reappears ... and disappears.
He finally stabilises.
The Doctor crouches in front of one of the globes.
Sarah is stuck in a bush.
As Harry walks away, the Doctor polishes the transmat globe with his hanky.
Sarah, brightly dressed in yellow rain-gear is stuck awkwardly in a bush. Harry takes her hands and helps her up.
Sarah and Harry make their way through the green and russet and mustard coloured bushes. They jog back up to the circle, but the Doctor is scrutinising the refractor and does not notice them. Sarah playfully pulls her beanie down over her eyes and makes a funny face.
He removes the maintenance port cover of the transmat refractor and peers doubtfully inside.
The Doctor is repairing the refractor with his sonic-screwdriver.
Leaving the Doctor to his repairs, Sarah and Harry stride off.
Later, they explore a gully with steeply sloping sides.
Moving swiftly, some *thing* disappears behind the hilltop.
He puts his arm companionably around her shoulders and they continue walking.
The transmat circle. The Doctor works on the globe, polishing components on his scarf.
He is being watched. Crouching in the scrub two dishevelled men wearing partial space suits have the Doctor in the sights of a futuristic side arm.
Sarah and Harry explore a rocky path through a valley.
[FAST] Losing his footing, Harry tumbles down a steep slope. He lays there, unmoving.
A camp.
Erak runs towards a basic camp in the shelter of a granite outcrop. Krans, a bearded man, tends a small fire.
[FAST] He stands, picking up a rifle.
At the bottom of the ravine, Harry stirs and gets to his feet, clutching his arm.
The Doctor is busy working on the transmat refractors, and doesn't notice Zake watching him warily.
Behind Zake, a strange silver machine appears.
Alarmed, Zake jumps to his feet and sprints away.
Oblivious, the Doctor rests his sonic-screwdriver on top of a globe as he rummages inside.
Zake *runs*.
The machine is a large, shiny robot that resembles both an insect and a crab. It glides swiftly across the heath on articulated legs.
It closes in on Zake.
Zake stops short at the edge of a rough weathered granite cliff, he then half jumps and half falls to escape the robot.
The transmat circle.
The Doctor jumps up and runs towards the cry, leaving his screwdriver behind.
He locates Zakes body at the bottom the cliff and gingerly slides down to help. The robot is nowhere to be seen.
He examines Zakes awkwardly twisted body. Zake is dead.
From the cliff top, Erak and Krans point their guns at the Doctor.
Erak aims.
The Doctor falls beside Zake.
Sarah runs into the transmat circle.
It is deserted; the Doctor missing.
She looks around, puzzled.
She notices the slender sonic-screwdriver that the Doctor left resting on top of the transmat globe.
She picks it up, looking worried.
Harry is waiting for rescue in the gloom at the bottom of the ravine.
A scattering of pebbles fall around him.
Suddenly, giant rocks crash down.
Harry scrambles for cover. He finds a small cave in the rock hidden by creepers and ducks into it.
[FAST] The transmat circle.
Sarah looks around. Then she clutches the sonic-screwdriver tightly and runs off.
Erak and Krans carry the Doctor’s body between them, but they are watched from high on a nearby hill by another bearded man in a partial space suit.
Sarah returns to the ravine.
Leaning over the edge, she sees Harry is gone.
She contemplates the broken sticks that were covering the ravine.
She looks around, unsettled.
Erak and Krans return to camp and drop the Doctor’s body. Both men are unkempt and dirty. Erak is tall and lean with wide eyes; Krans is shorter with dark hair. The camp is little more than a hollow in the steep slope of a weathered granite outcrop, affording a little protecton.
Krans tends to the fire.
Erak draws a machete from a scabbard on his belt, and cuts the rope around the Doctors ankles.
Then he drags the Doctor roughly to his feet and holds him fast.
Krans approaches with a large stick, glowing with the heat of the fire, and waves it in the Doctor's face.
Near the top of the ravine, Sarah is resourcefully dragging a large, dead tree branch.
Suddenly she catches movement from the corner of her eye.
In the cave, Harry crawls through a narrow crack between two massive plates of granite rock towards light.
He emerges from between a jumble of mossy boulders, and staggers forward towards a craggy granite hill.
Sarah awkwardly uses her dead tree branch to reach down into the ravine where she last saw Harry.
She is unaware that someone is creeping up behind her.
The bearded man who watched the Doctor from the hill, clamps his dirt streaked hand over her mouth,
He drags her roughly away, pulling her behind a large boulder.
The robot appears, gliding smoothly through the rocky gully and comes to a stop close to their hiding place. It has two visual sensors like torches either side of its flat, trapezoid head; it is bristling with antennae that twitch and scan, searching out prey.
It turns its head too and fro.
Eventually, it moves away.
The man breaks cover to check the robot has really gone.
He returns, his posture hunched and defensive.
Roth jumps up and gestures towards the ravine that Harry fell into.
Roth rolls up a sleeve.
At the camp.
[FAST] A tall man with beard and sandy hair.
He squints at Vural’s suit.
He stares at a small stud below Vural's collar.
Elsewhere the Doctor’s enlarged face shows on a monitor screen, transmitted by the microcamera on Vurals suit.
A large, three fingered hand with skin the texture of a hog operates a series of controls mounted beneath.
The robot rises from a concealed position in the scrub, elevating itself on its insect-like legs.
It swiftly scans its environment and moves off, antennae twitching.
Meanwhile, Harry works his way back around a massive granite formation.
Now at the camp, the motley GalSec crew deliberate around the fire.
Roth leads Sarah briskly through the scrub along a slope.
Roth turns away and huddles, child-like against the slope.
He turns away, frightened. Sarah puts her hand on his arm, then leaves him.
Roth reluctantly follows.
The GalSec camp.
[FAST] Sarah is watching from behind a rock.
Roth bolts. Erak and Krans chase after him, and Vural follows.
Sarah leaves the cover of the rock to free the Doctor.
She takes Erak’s machete and cuts the ropes.
Sarah leads the Doctor away through the scrub and rocks.
Erak taps the side of his head.
The three of them jog back to the Campsite.
They discover the Doctor missing.
Erak grabs his machete.
Sarah leads the Doctor through the heather and over the crest of a steep hill. Roth joins them and runs on ahead.
The Galsec men cautiously comb the steep rocky landscape, weapons drawn, searching for the Doctor.
The doctor looks into the ravine.
The Doctor crouches and sniffs the ground, then tastes a little on the tip of his finger.
He beams.
The Doctor slips!
He tumbles awkwardly down into the ravine.
Sarah and Roth peer over the edge of the ravine.
Suddenly, the robot appears behind them. They’re trapped!
Roth recoils in fear, shaking his head and holding his arms up protectively
The machine scans them, antennae waving too and fro.
Meanwhile, Harry nimbly climbs up a steep jumble of huge granite boulders, to a short passage between massive slabs of grey, weathered rock.
He comes out on the other side of a hill. He creeps stealthily down, careful to keep his balance.
He sees something and ducks down behind a rock.
There's a spaceship nestled in the rocks, a iron-grey metal ball, the size of a small cottage, its surface scored with a regular diamond-grid pattern.
The bottom of the ravine. Rainwater dripping off the vegetation splashes the Doctor's face and he revives, blinking and clutching his head.
Elsewhere, Harry, careful to stay under cover, works his way closer to the strange ship.
He sees the robot arrive, dragging Roth and Sarah, both held fast by metal cords.
It stops in front of the ship and a door in the side opens.
A short, powerful figure appears, wearing soft, metallic armour and a dome shaped helmet.
The figure removes its helmet from the wide locking collar. Underneath are the lumpy, troll like features of a Sontaran!
That episode of Doctor Who featured Tom Baker, Elizabeth Sladen, Ian Marter Donald Douglas, Glynn Jones, Peter Walshe Kevin Lindsay, Peter Rutherford and Terry Walsh
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop Incidental Music by Dudley Simpson Special Sound by Dick Mills Sound by Vic Godrich
It was written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin The script editor was Robert Holmes It was Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe And Directed by Rodney Bennet Copyright BBC 1975
Independently described by Brett Coulstock.