😑41% = Underwhelming = Skippable!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time! This time: Robert Holmes returns with a space western, the cast is filled with returnees, and Kroll is a cutie.

Many people consider The Power of Kroll, the penultimate story of Season 16, as one of the Fourth Doctor's weakest adventures. It takes one of the simplest premises of any Doctor Who adventure—that of two separate groups of people at war with each other—and tries to do something new and interesting with it.

STORY:

Because this one was written by series veteran Robert Holmes (this is his final script for the show until The Caves of Androzani in 1984), one should not expect any huge surprises or unexpected twists when watching it. It's a very basic Holmes-esque script of the sort he already produced back in the Patrick Troughton era with a script like The Krotons from 1969. Consequently, the story has a very simple setup, making things easily understandable right from the start. The fresh take here is the supposed Western vibe of the story: the green Swampies are similar to Native Americans, while the human crew are like the white invaders. The refinery crew has been moving the native Swampies around to dig for riches, which is what happened with the Native Americans in the West as well. Even the filming location, with its rivers, grassy fields, and swamps, evokes the fields and prairies of classic American westerns.

The rest of the plot is easy to figure out in advance, and there is very little that hasn't been done before. Part 1 dedicates its entirety to introducing the characters, setting, and history that led to the current dispute. It's not particularly interesting or engaging, and quite bland, even coming from Holmes himself. The dialogue in this story is also unusually boring and repetitive; it's mostly the crew members contemplating life and faith and asking questions without any answers.

The lack of action in the four episodes is another issue. The Swampies plan to attack and overthrow the crew, while the crew plans a counterattack. However, neither party actually executes their plans; in fact, the final episode completely erases the entire uprising from the narrative. As a result, most of the potential tension surrounding the story's events has evaporated.

POPULATION:

Tom Baker and Mary Tamm are great as usual, even though their characters get very little to do in this story. Romana's slow but steady transformation into a stereotypical Who girl, a trend that carries over into the next story, The Armageddon Factor, is something I find disappointing. It's truly a shame, since Romana is one of the better companions and a true match for the Doctor.

The cast is not very memorable, and none of the actors stick out, with the possible exception of Glyn Owen as the outlawed Davy Crockett-esque antihero Rohm-Dutt. His character brings a well-needed change of pace to the story, but he is unfortunately quite underdeveloped and not very well put to use. Owen would later be one of the few Classic Who actors to work for Big Finish in the 21st century (he appears in Nekromanteia).

The Power of Kroll also features several returning guest actors, most notably the legendary Philip Madoc in his final appearance on the show. In this story, I don't think he stands out in any particular way. He is not as bad as he is in The Krotons, but he is also not as superb as in The War Games and The Brain of Morbius. Neil McCarthy, who plays the villain in this piece, previously portrayed Barnham in The Mind of Evil. Here, he is alright, and at least he looks the part with those ominous eyes and that looming moustache. John Leeson, the K-9 voice actor, also makes his first and only onscreen appearance in a rather anonymous role as one of the crew members.

Frequent Doctor Who stuntman Terry Walsh portrays the Swampie servant Mensch, ironically named after the German word for "human."

PRODUCTION:

One of the reasons people don't generally remember The Power of Kroll so fondly is because of Kroll itself. It is admittedly the most embarrassing CSO creation since the dinosaurs in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but unlike that story, the people working on this one have at least had the brains to use the massive squid-like monster sparingly. No, Kroll isn't the scariest or most memorable monster in the history of the show, but the few appearances he makes generally work well. All the death scenes including Kroll's tentacles look very realistic and are among the best moments of the story.

Norman Stewart, director of Underworld, does a far better job with The Power of Kroll. The source material is a bit easier to chew, and Stewart never does anything interesting with his story or characters, but at least he isn't attracting unwanted negative attention by being obviously bad.

ATMOSPHERE:

The final episode of the story is filled with all the tension and action absent from the previous three episodes, and I can only imagine how children were terrified of the things going on here. Here we also have some good moments of tension between the crew members, as well as a final showdown between the Doctor and Kroll, which, despite being brief and quite unnecessary, works alright.

Despite being a four-parter, The Power of Kroll feels a bit lengthy, and it's mostly devoid of bigger excitement and tension (except for the Part 2 cliffhanger and other moments where Kroll attacks, and the pretty morbid but lengthy vine torture sequence in Part 3). The refinery crew mostly sits in one room looking at monitors; the Swampies partake in religious rituals; and the Doctor and Romana bounce between them.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Robert Holmes delivers a very traditional Doctor Who story that mostly seems to go on autopilot and never feels very creative or rewarding, despite its interesting setting and capable cast.