The Eternal Battle.

They were aiming for the Lake District, to visit a pencil museum,and you have to hear The Doctor articulate his interest in the history of the pencil, but they overshoot somewhat and find themselves, The Doctor, Romana and K9, on a muddy War World where Sontarans and humans find themselves engaged in an endless war,or Eternal battle as stated. boy, I really mangled this opening sentence, its all over the place but imagine me saying it at speed and it will fall into place.
             Dan Starkey , Strax the Sontaran butler, does the vocal duties for Field Marshall Lenk and Sargent Major Stem. Which is acutally quite a plausible thing given that the Sontarans are a clone race which would suggest that they all pretty much look and sound the same. As always the Sontarans spend quite a lot , if not all, of their time trying to kill their enemies as horribly and violently as they can or else they are looking forward to dying as horribly or as violently as they can. This preoccupation of theirs could get old very quickly(actually the average lifespan for a Sontaran is six years, not awfully long.They are the fruit flies of clone races.Although I would strongly suggest never saying this directly to one of them.They are gong to try killing you anyway but why bother encouraging them to get inventive.) and it could sound wearisome if the action and dialogue were not delivered with an eye, and an ear, for spirited aplomb. Their monotone verbal predictability makes me believe that Strax would have travelled well with Tom's Doctor. But then I would say that. I used to play a little game upon discovering interesting new characters measuring their suitability as travelling companions for Tom's Doctor. The game was called; "They would have travelled well with Tom's Doctor."
               Mind you, I have never heard anyone I know say this out loud so I suppose it never made it beyond the waiting room next to my cerebal cortex.
                It is the second story into Season six of this run and it is a completely different turn from#6.1. This is one of my favourite aspects of following the Doctor on his travels. You can turn up almost anywhere and any time.
                Lalla Ward's incarnation of Romana has been afforded such a rich and strong new lease of life in her time with Big Finish across its ranges. The classy aristocrat  Romana sounds so lofty next to the verbal blimpisms of the Sontarans endless thirst for violence which baffles her. And Tom sounds so re-energised on this one.
                Which is amazing given that he is a hundred year old Liverpudlian.