<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

The Sontarans are a race of alien clone soldiers that has appeared occasionally on long-running program Doctor Who. Created by master Doctor Who scribe Robert Holmes, this war-obsessed species first appeared in the 1973 story The Time Warrior. Their last official appearance on the program was in 1985's The Two Doctors. However, the BBC has announced that they will be returning for the program's 2008 season.

Physical Attributes

Originating from a high gravity planet named Sontar, the Sontarans are undoubtedly one of the tougher humanoid species. Although slightly shorter than most adult male humans, they are extremely stocky and strong enough to be severely unimpressed by the physical capabilities of the denizens of Earth.

Sontarans are invariably seen to wear a kind of black padded armor, with a bowl-shaped helmet often covering their decidedly dome-like and hairless heads. When the helmet is off, they have no visible neck, suggesting that the head may in fact sit directly on their shoulders. So far, they have not displayed the ability to turn their heads separately from their bodies.

The race apparently absorbs energy through a small "probic vent" in the back of the neck rather than ingesting food. The vent has proven to be a weak point. Penetration of the vent with an object long and narrow enough (such as a knife) has proven to be fatal.

A substance known as "coronic acid" also seems to be very poisonous to the species.

War With the Rutans

The Sontarans seem to be perptually at war with another race known as the Rutans. The conflict was mentioned in The Time Warrior, which is largely set in medieval England, and appears to be still going on during the time frame of The Sontaran Experiment, which is set many thousands of years in the future.

The Rutans themselves have appeared on screen only once - in the 1977 story "Horror of Fang Rock."

Technology

Sontaran ships are invariably portrayed as silvery spheres. Some are clearly 1 or 2 person craft because they only measure about 10 feet in diameter. But larger spheres seem to exist as well. Sontaran spheres appear to tumble in flight, even when they hover.

They have been seen to employ energy weaponry.

In The Time Warrior, the Sontaran named Lynx was using a primitive time travel technology to kidnap scientists from the future. However, the Sontarans seem to have a feeble grasp of the technology at best. They have, in fact, attempted to steal more advanced knowledge of time travel on at least two occasions.

• In The Invasion of Time, they attempted to invade the Time Lord home planet of Gallifrey.
• In The Two Doctors, they stole a prototype time travel capsule, but were unable to get it working.