A first look at the all-new Sontarans in Doctor Who season 13 has revealed the classic villains’ new design looking a lot more like their classic 70s counterparts. The Sontarans are one of Doctor Who’s most famous foes and were introduced opposite Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor in Doctor Who series 11, episode 1, “The Time Warrior” in 1973. The armored warrior race, who have often been compared to potato-men for their spud-like appearance, went on to appear several times in the show’s original run throughout the 70s and 80s. When Russell T. Davies rebooted the sci-fi series in the 2000s, it wasn’t long before fans started seeing the best of Doctor Who’s extensive rogues gallery returning with modernized designs.
Chris Chibnall’s time as Doctor Who show-runner has deviated as much as it can from the classic and often over-used villains that fans know and love. It was only after Jodie Whittaker’s first full season as the Time Lord that the show gave in to temptation and reintroduced The Daleks, and later The Cybermen, the show’s two most famous alien enemies. In order to reinvent the creatures and make them stand out from the popularized and heavily-marketed Davies-era variants, Chibnall’s Doctor Who oversaw a fresh design for both baddies, with the Dalek’s getting a sleeker, thinner look and the Cybermen becoming a hybrid of modern and old interpretations.
New images, revealed exclusively in the new issue of Doctor Who magazine, and reposted to Twitter via James Johnson show that the Sontarans are the next classic villains to find themselves revamped in the Chibnall era. The images show an all-new Sontaran that looks much more like the original 70s design, featuring a darker, fabric space-suit with armored attachments, a longer neck and a scarier, meaner-looking brow-line. Ditching the Tennant-era blue and reinstating the classic, simple helmet design, this new Sontaran is a mix of old and new, like its Cyberman counterparts last season.
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The Sontarans were recently revealed to be one of many Doctor Who villains facing Jodie Whittaker in her third and final series as the Thirteenth Doctor. The shorter, event-based series, titled Flux, will see The Sontarans, The Weeping Angels, and new creatures known as The Ravages battling with the TARDIS crew as confirmed by the short teaser released last week. As part of the recent viral marketing campaign to build anticipcation for the new series, Doctor Who also recently tweeted a picture of a Sontaran ship hovering over the Liverpool docks, causing some locals to go out in search of a real spacecraft.
The stacked odds facing The Doctor in this upcoming series should excite fans, especially classic Whovians, who will be happy to see the return of the war-hungry aliens. Jodie Whittaker’s upcoming Doctor Who season is set to be her last, as she was confirmed recently to be leaving the show alongside show-runner Chris Chibnall. Doctor Who revival hero Russell T. Davies was announced to be returning to command the series in 2023, and it’s likely that many of the classic aliens will find themselves reinvented all over again in the years to come. The new Sontarans may debut later this month, as Doctor Who triumphantly returns for Whittaker’s Time Lord swan song.
Source: James Johnson