The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Charley Pollard (India Fisher) are exploring a seemingly peaceful rainforest planet, but soon happen upon a dying Sontaran.

Accused of murdering the Sontaran, the Doctor has until sunset to prove his innocence.

Yet there’s something massive occurring on this planet. What are the Sontarans doing there and why are they experimenting on the local wildlife?

Can the Doctor and Charley get to the bottom of the mystery and survive the hostilities they find themselves caught in the middle of?

After the Rutan-heavy second episode of Sontarans vs Rutans, the pendulum swings the other way and we get an almost exclusively Sontaran episode.

Which means that we get to hear regular Sontaran actors Christopher Ryan and Dan Starkey as multiple members of the clone warrior race.

Joining them is the brilliant Jon Culshaw who takes on a further Sontaran role here, basing his performance on that of Kevin Lindsay, who played the very first Sontaran to appear onscreen in Doctor Who, Commander Linx.

They’re all great and it’s wonderful to hear them all bouncing off each other in their various (in some cases multiple) roles.

Though this episode is fun, as well as Baker and Fisher being reliably excellent in roles that they truly own (with good old Sixie still not quite sure why Charley has so much more knowledge than she should, and Charley doing her best to keep that quiet) there’s a sense overall that the big war epic that was set up in the first episode of Sontarans vs Rutans hasn’t really come to pass.

The episodes seem to be tiptoeing around the Sontaran/Rutan conflict without really heading as deeply into it as us listeners may have been led to expect.

The story itself does feel a bit like a standalone, just as the second episode did in many ways.

However, no doubt the seeds have been sown for the big climax in episode four; let’s just hope that the finale truly does justice to the concept, beyond giving the Sontarans their deserved time to shine during their 50th anniversary year.

You can buy Sontarans vs Rutans 3 – Born to Die directly from Big Finish here.