Tuesday, June 09, 2015

The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky

Donna (Catherine Tate), the Doctor
(David Tennant) and Martha (Freema
Agyeman) - a force to be reckoned with
Two episodes (The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
First broadcast Apr 26 to May 3 2008
Average audience for story: 6.80m

REGULAR CAST

David Tennant (The Doctor) Born Apr 18 1971 Click here for David Tennant's entry on The Parting of the Ways

Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) Born Mar 20 1979 Click here for Freema Agyeman's entry on Army of Ghosts

Catherine Tate (Donna Noble) Born Dec 5 1969 Click here for Catherine Tate's entry on Doomsday

GUEST CAST

Lachele Carl (Reporter [Trinity Wells]) Born Apr 29 1960 Click here for Lachele Carl's entry on Aliens of London

Christian Cooke (Ross Jenkins) Born Sep 15 1987
Career highlights
Christian made his debut as the title character in the children's fantasy series Wilmot (1999-2000), when he was aged just 12, after which he found work in Barking! (2004), Casualty (2002/06), The Chase (2007), Robin Hood (2007), Moving Wallpaper (2008), Echo Beach (2008), Demons (2009), Trinity (2009), Cemetery Junction (2010), Hello Carter (2013), Drunk Wedding (2015), Stonemouth (2015), Ordeal By Innocence (2018), Point Blank (2019), Barkskins (2020) and Soft Voice (2021). Regular roles include Danny Evans in Magic City (2012-13), Frederick Beauchamp in Witches of East End (2014), and Graham Connor in The Art of More (2015-16), but he may be best remembered for playing Luke Kirkwall in 78 episodes of Where the Heart Is (2000-06).
Facts
Spice Girl Melanie B is Christian's cousin (Christian's mum is Mel's aunt).

Bernard Cribbins (Wilfred Mott) Dec 29 1928 to Jul 27 2022 Click here for Bernard's entry on Voyage of the Damned

Bridget Hodson (Captain Price) Born 1972
Career highlights
Bridget has been acting under the name Bridget Hodgson since 2004, but started out using the name Biddy Hodson, in productions such as St Ursula's in Danger (1983), Bloody Weekend (1994), Cracker (1995), Soldier Soldier (1996), Wilde (1997), Bedazzled (2000) and Beginner's Luck (2001). Under her more recent stage name she has appeared in Hellboy (2004), Doctors (2005) and Casualty (2006).

Rupert Holliday-Evans (Colonel Mace) Born Aug 2 1964
Career highlights
Rupert debuted in Inspector Morse (1987), then Personal Services (1987), No Frills (1988), Harry Enfield's Television Programme (1990), May to December (1990), Wuthering Heights (1992), Nostradamus (1994), No Bananas (1996), Cadfael (1997), Cider with Rosie (1998), Second Sight (1999-2000), Home and Away (2001), From Hell (2001), Powers (2004), Dracula (2006), My Family (2009), Dracula (2014), New Worlds (2014), A Dark Reflection (2015), EastEnders (2015), Call the Midwife (2016), Another Mother's Son (2017), Patrick (2018), Grantchester (2020), Grace (2021) and Nemesis (2021).

Rad Kaim (Trepper) Born Oct 7 1973
Career highlights
Polish born Radoslaw made his screen acting debut in Klan (1999), then Show (2003), Camera Cafe (2004), The Aryan Couple (2004), Dalziel and Pascoe (2006), Blue Murder (2007), Taggart (2008), Harry Brown (2009), Patagonia (2010), Waterloo Road (2011), Wallander (2012), Spies of Warsaw (2013), Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie (2014), Capital (2015), Wolfsland (2016), Surviving Christmas with the Relatives (2018), Silent Witness (2019), Cleaning Up (2019) and World on Fire (2019).


Eleanor Matsuura (Jo Nakashima) Born Jul 16 1983
Career highlights
Debuted in Hustle (2005), then Extras (2005), EastEnders (2006), Party Animals (2007), After You've Gone (2007), Magicians (2007), Lead Balloon (2008), The Old Guys (2009), Lunch Monkeys (2011), The Fades (2011), Vexed (2012), Utopia (2013), Blood Moon (2014), Spooks: The Greater Good (2015), The Lady in the Van (2015), Da Vinci's Demons (2015), Cuffs (2015), Sherlock (2017), Wonder Woman (2017), Shetland (2018), Into the Badlands (2017-19), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), Feel Good (2021) and This Time with Alan Partridge (2021). She has also appeared as Yumiko in over 50 episodes of The Walking Dead since 2018. Tokyo-born Eleanor also provided the voice of Dana Tanaka in the Doctor Who Adventure Game Shadows of the Vashta Nerada (2010).
Facts
Eleanor is married to fellow actor Trevor White, who appeared in Rosa (2018). Here she is on Twitter.

Elizabeth Rider (ATMOS voice) Born 1958
Doctor Who credits
Played: ATMOS voice in The Sontaran Stratagem (2008)
Played: Mistress Ellen in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Lost in Time (2010)
Played: Linda in The Time of the Doctor (2013)
Career highlights
Debuted in Testament of Youth (1979), then Breakaway (1980), Breakout (1984), Hard Cases (1988), Civvies (1992), Dangerfield (1996), Stone Cold (1997), The Lakes (1997-99), Bad Girls (2002), Hustle (2004), A Thing Called Love (2004), Hotel Babylon (2006), Coronation Street (1999/2006), Waterloo Road (2008), EastEnders (2004/07), Law and Order UK (2010), Marchlands (2011), Waking the Dead (2009-11), Our Zoo (2014), Suspects (2015), The Casual Vacancy (2015), The Scandalous Lady W (2015), Lady Chatterley's Lover (2015), Vera (2018), Informer (2018), Doc Martin (2019), Line of Duty (2019-21), Shadow and Bone (2021), True Things (2021) and Showtrial (2021). She's also played DCI Lynette Driver in almost 80 episodes of daytime soap Doctors since 2009.

Christopher Ryan (General Staal) Born Jan 25 1950
Doctor Who credits
Played: Kiv in The Trial of a Time Lord (1986)
Played: General Staal in The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky (2008)
Played: Commander Stark in The Pandorica Opens (2010)
Career highlights
5ft Christopher debuted in Target (1978), then appeared in Angels (1979), Fox (1980), The Olympian Way (1981), Inside Out (1985), Happy Families (1985), Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), The New Statesman (1992), Dirty Weekend (1993), Mr Bean (1994), Health and Efficiency (1995), Melissa (1997), My Family (2001/03), Saxondale (2007), The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle (2007), City Slacker (2012), It's Kevin (2013) and Tracey Breaks the News (2018). He will be best recognised as Mike TheCoolPerson in sitcom The Young Ones (1982-84), as well as Tony Driscoll in Only Fools and Horses (1989) and Green Green Grass (2005-06/09), Dave Hedgehog in Bottom (1991-95) and Marshall in Absolutely Fabulous (1992-2012 and the 2016 film). Christopher reprised the role of Kiv for the 2019 spin-off production Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor.
Facts
Christopher appears, along with the rest of The Young Ones, in the video for Cliff Richard's 1986 Comic Relief single Living Doll.

Ryan Sampson (Luke Rattigan) Born Nov 28 1985
Career highlights
Ryan debuted in Wire in the Blood in 2003, followed by Heartbeat (2006), The Things I Haven't Told You (2008), Fresh Meat (2011), Dates (2013), Up the Women (2013-15), Strike Back (2015), Horrible Histories (2017), The Crown (2017), Waiting (2019, which he also wrote) and Brassic (2019-21). He regularly played Alex in After You've Gone (2007-08), Grumio in Plebs (2013-19) and Boz in The Frankenstein Chronicles (2015-17), and voiced Pieface in the cartoon Dennis and Gnasher: Unleashed! (2017-20).
Facts
Here he is on Twitter.

Clive Standen (Private Harris) Born Jul 22 1981
Doctor Who credits
Played: Private Harris in The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky (2008)
Played: UNIT soldier in Turn Left (2008)
Career highlights
Debuted in Ten Days to D-Day (2004), then Waking the Dead (2004), Doctors (2005), Heroes and Villains (2006), Robin Hood (2009), Camelot (2011), Hammer of the Gods (2013), Atlantis (2014), Everest (2015), Patient Zero (2018), In Like Flynn (2018), Vault (2019), Mirage (2020) and Council of Dads (2020). He regularly played Rollo in Vikings (2013-18) and Bryan Mills in Taken (2017-18).
Facts
When he was a teenager, Clive was a national Muay Thai boxing champion and later a fencing gold medallist. Here's his Twitter feed.

Dan Starkey (Commander Skorr) Born Sep 27 1977
Doctor Who credits
Played: Commander Skorr in The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky (2008)
Played: Lieutenant Skree in The Poison Sky (2008, uncredited)
Played: Commander Jast in The End of Time Part Two (2010, uncredited)
Played: Commander Strax in A Good Man Goes to War (2011), The Snowmen (2012), The Crimson Horror (2013), The Name of the Doctor (2013), Deep Breath (2014)
Played: Plark in The Sarah Jane Adventures: The Man Who Never Was (2011)
Played: Sontaran in The Time of the Doctor (2013)
Played: Ian in Last Christmas (2014)
Played: Kragar in Flux (2021)
Played: Svild in Flux (2021)
Played: Senstarg in Flux (2021)
Played: Shallo in Flux (2021)
Dan also played Strax in the minisodes The Great Detective (2012), Vastra Investigates (2012) and The Battle of Demon's Run - Two Days Later (2013), as well as at the 2013 Proms live event. He played Commander Skorr at the 2009 Doctor Who Proms live event, and provided the voices of Field Major Kaarsh and other Sontarans in Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - The Gunpowder Plot (2011).
Career highlights
Dan's other credits include Fix (2004), Casualty (2012), Alex the Vampire (2015), Inside No 9 (2015), Catherine Tate's Nan (2015), The Coming of the Martians (2018), Good Omens (2019), Years and Years (2019), Brassic (2019) and EastEnders (2020). He also regularly played Randal Moon in children's series Wizards vs Aliens (2012-14).
Facts
Dan has had roles in four Doctor Who Christmas specials (2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014). Dan was a member of the winning Trinity Hall, Cambridge team on the Christmas University Challenge special in 2015, beating Balliol College, Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Hull. His teammates were international rower Tom James, international cyclist Emma Pooley, and writer Adam Mars-Jones. Dan's contribution to the Doctor Who universe also extends to audio, having performed in various Big Finish adventures since 2011 (including playing Sontarans). Here's Dan on Twitter.
In 2013 Toby Hadoke released his Who's Round interview with Dan here.

Wesley Theobald (Private Gray)
Career highlights
Debuted in Thief Takers (1999), then The Bill (2003), EastEnders (2004), Judge John Deed (2007), Hollyoaks (2008), Britannia High (2008), The Novelist (2009) and The Swordsman of Trelawny (2011).

Kirsty Wark (Kirsty Wark) Born Feb 3 1955
Career highlights
Kirsty is a journalist who joined the BBC in 1976 and worked at Radio Scotland before moving into TV in the 1980s and working on various political and current affairs programmes. In the 1990s Kirsty became a presenter on The Late Show and Newsnight, and has also fronted shows such as One Foot in the Past (1995), Rough Justice (1998-2007), The Book Quiz (2008-09), The Review Show (2002-13), and A Question of Genius (2009), as well as appearing on Celebrity MasterChef (2011) and The Great British Bake-Off.
Awards
1993: BAFTA Scotland Award for Journalist of the Year
1997: BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Television Presenter

CREW

Helen Raynor (writer) Born Mar 27 1972 Click here for Helen Raynor's entry on The Unquiet Dead

Douglas Mackinnon (director)
Doctor Who credits
Directed: The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky (2008), The Power of Three (2012), Cold War (2013), Listen (2014), Time Heist (2014), Flatline (2014), The Husbands of River Song (2015)
Career highlights
Douglas started out as a director on London's Burning in the early 1990s, then worked on The Bill (1994-95), Thief Takers (1996), The Grand (1997), Gentlemen's Relish (2001), Nice Guy Eddie (2001-02), Murder in Suburbia (2004), The Last Detective (2003/07), Jekyll (2007), Robin Hood (2009), Silent Witness (2004/13), Line of Duty (2012/14), Outlander (2015), Sherlock (2016), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (2017), Knightfall (2017-18) and Good Omens (2019-22). He also wrote and directed the short Sealladh (1992) and Calum Dongle (2011).
Awards
2016: BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Directing in Film or Television (Sherlock)
2020: Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation - Long Form (Good Omens) - shared with Neil Gaiman
Facts
Here he is on Twitter.

Susie Liggat (producer) Born 1968 Click here for Susie Liggat's entry on Human Nature/ The Family of Blood

Nikki Smith (script editor)
Doctor Who credits
Script edited: The Sontaran Stratagem/ The Poison Sky (2008, as Nikki Smith)
Produced: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 (2008, as Nikki Smith), The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 3 (2009, as Nikki Wilson), The Waters of Mars (2009, as Nikki Wilson), Deep Breath, Into the Dalek, Robot of Sherwood, The Caretaker, Flatline, The Husbands of River Song, Thin Ice, Knock Knock, Oxygen, The Eaters of Light, Series 11, Resolution, Series 12 (2014-20, as Nikki Wilson)
Executive producer: The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 4 (2010, as Nikki Wilson)
Played: Voice of the Le Verrier station computer in Sleep No More (2015, uncredited)
Career highlights
Nikki started out as a story editor on Trial and Retribution in 1998, after which she worked in this capacity on The Bill (2003) and New Street Law (2006). She became a producer on New Street Law in 2007, followed by Upstairs, Downstairs (2010), Casualty (2011-13), Wizards vs Aliens (2014) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2016).
Facts
When Nikki married in 2009, she changed her surname from Smith to Wilson.

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