Doctor Who: Sontarans VS Rutans: The Battle of Giant’s Causeway from Big Finish Review

With this year marking fifty years since we first met the potato-headed monsters – The Sontarans in The Time Warrior, Big Finish are marking the occasion by telling a story, across four audio releases which detail various meetings between the Sontarans and their arch nemesis, the shapeshifting Rutans.

This story reunites the Eighth Doctor with fan favourite companion Charley Pollard. It brings back C’Rizz, the Eighth Doctor’s audio companion who hasn’t been heard from since he left in 2007’s Absolution!

Lizzie Hopley’s story sees the TARDIS bring the Doctor, Charley and C’Rizz to the Irish coast in 55 BC. There they find Roman legionnaires with a difference as it doesn’t take long for them to discover these are a platoon of Sontaran soldiers who believe themselves to be Romans.  They are engaged in a battle with a sect of Celts who seemingly can bring the dead back to life. Right off the bat, Hopley’s script is packed with visual feasts and she handles the story excellently, balancing the humour and the horror perfectly for the most part.

A large part of the success of this opening story is down to the return and inclusion of C’Rizz and it’s great to have the character, once again played by Conrad Westmass back. Hopley handles him brilliantly and uses his abilities to shapeshift and camouflage as a way of giving the Rutans a little more humanity. It might feel like a shame in the beginning that he is split off from the Doctor and Charley for so long but the story is all the better for having him get the lion’s share of the plot and Westmass rises to the challenge perfectly. Hopefully, this is the first of more appearances for the character of C’Rizz.

Hopley also deserves plenty of credit for doing something new with the Sontarans, something that isn’t easy given how most of their stories are pretty much the same in terms of their plans. The Sontarans can also be a little hit or miss, luckily Hopley makes sure this is a hit, not dwelling on the stupidity of the characters. Strax works as a one-off, but I’ve never really understood why writers since have just treated the characters as complete incompetents when they are supposed to be a terrifying force. Luckily here though they channel that Roman rage perfectly but there is an air of grace about them, something which Charley exploits brilliantly.

If there was one issue with this story, it’s the way the Doctor handles the situation, essentially killing all the Rutans and their offspring feels a little out of character. This feels more like the Eighth Doctor or the War Doctor from the Time War instead of the version of the character who hadn’t had those atrocities happen yet. It’s a minor quibble as Paul McGann does deliver a great performance but it’s not a move that is very in keeping with his character we know.

The Battle for Giant’s Causeway is a great opening story for this mini-series with Lizzie Hopley delivering a story with a genuinely strong premise aided by great performances from all involved. It’s a triumphant return for the popular companion C’Rizz and while things do come a little undone in the third act, it’s still a hugely enjoyable opening act to this saga and left me looking forward to hearing the rest.

You can pick up The Battle of Giant’s Causeway from Big Finish on both digital and CD now.