Recap / Big Finish Doctor Who TLSS 3 E 6 The First Sontarans

The Sontarans' origin story, starring the Sixth Doctor. The Sontarans are played by Dan Starkey, better known as Strax and countless other Sontarans in the revived series.

Tropes include:

• Bait-and-Switch: As well as noting that Major Thessinger's tales of his military history aren't real, the Doctor briefly suspects the Major of having been replaced by a Rutan, but it turns out to be his manservant who was replaced, and the Major's tales are only faked because he basically suffered PTSD after taking a wound early in a major battle and just exaggerates his military history because he's embarrassed.
• Continuity Nod: The Doctor points out that this is the year the Mary Celeste incident happens - he'd also rather not talk about it.
  • Also a Development Gag, as the story, had it been on TV, would have involved the Mary Celeste disappearance. However, the author, when brushing off the story to revamp it for Big Finish, realized that after all the research he had done, he started to have pangs of conscience about using the disappearance of real people as grist for a science-fiction story.
• Double-Meaning Title: The story isn't just about the first "Sontarans" as we know them, the clone soldiers. It's about the Kaveetch, the cloner inhabitants of the planet Sontar, who are the real "first Sontarans".
• Friend to All Living Things: When the Doctor and Peri land in 1872, they immediately stumble on a cockfight and the Sixth Doctor - the vegetarian and lover of cats and all animals - immediately steps in and stops it.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Major Thessinger.
• Human Aliens: The Kaveetch, aka the original "Sontarans".
• Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: The Kaveetch are tricked into working with the Rutans because Jane claimed that they were a different species that have been conquered by the Rutans in the centuries since the Kaveetch vanished.
• Insistent Terminology: The Kaveetch are the "first Sontarans", the "Sontarans" are just their clone army. At least, according to the Kaveetch.
• Last of Their Kind: By the end of the audio, there are only two known Kaveetch left, but as these are a male and female who have decided to give their marriage another chance, it creates some hope that the species will endure.
• Mêlée à Trois: Of course, the Rutans turn out to be on Earth too. They're - theoretically at least - working with the Kaveetch instead.
• Origin Story: For the Sontarans. Turns out the native inhabitants of Sontar are rightly known as the "Kaveetch."
• Paper-Thin Disguise: A good description of Peri and Jane disguising themselves as Sontarans; the Doctor notes that it only worked because the women were in a dark storage bay and the only true Sontaran to see them wasn't paying much attention.
• Red Herring: Major Thessinger initially appears to be a fake who the Doctor suspects of keeping some secret, but it turns out his only lies were to hide his shame at showing cowardice in a past battle rather than anything to do with aliens.
• Retcon: The FASA role-playing game claimed "Sontar" was the general from whom the race was cloned, something that for years was taken as the "official" Sontaran origin story. While this episode doesn't explicitly contradict the idea of the Sontarans being clones of a single general named Sontar, it does establish that the planet, and not the general, was definitely named "Sontar" first.
• Villainous Valour: The Sontarans, as usual - they may not be nice, but they stand by their own principles.