The Power of Kroll

The penultimate key to time is upon us as the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Mary Tamm) arrive on the third moon of Delta Magna. Robert Holmes was unhappy with this serial as he later declared it not one of his best. To some extent, I agree although overall I prefer The Power of Kroll to his later sixth Doctor serial The Two Doctors.

 

The plot sees the Doctor and Romana become embroiled in a conflict between the moon's occupants the Swampies and the crew of an oil refinery. The Swampies plan to awaken the giant underwater creature called Kroll whom they worship as a God but is really a squid that was mutated by the fifth segment of the Key to Time. It is a good story but far from a memorable one, especially compared to some of Robert Holmes' other stories such as Spearhead From Space or The Ark in Space. The problem is that the narrative borrows too many things associated with other episodes of the show leaving not much in the way of originality.

 

Giant monster? Check (The Tenth Planet, The Green Death, Robot...)

Oil refinery? Check (Inferno, The Green Death, Terror of the Zygons...)

Primitive species (Swampies)? Check (An Unearthly Child, The Underwater Menace, Death to the Daleks...)

 

The Swampies also look a bit too ridiculous to be taken seriously. I don't know what make-up artist Kezia Dewinne was thinking by making them green but it just makes them look silly. I don't care about how the Kroll creature looks (it's not as bad as the Nucleus from The Invisible Enemy) but there is no excuse for the Swampies looking this bad. They look like the Jolly Green Giant:

 

 

 

 

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And what's with those stupid dreadlocks? They look like they're about to join some sort of punk rock band and sing songs about sweetcorn. They certainly don't look like a tribe that would sacrifice people for Kroll.

 

There are some nice scenes in The Power of Kroll though, such as when one of the Kroll's tentacles tries to attack the crew of the oil refinery through the pipes. That is a particularly tense moment and probably one of the most memorable of the Key to Time season. It's just a shame that Robert Holmes' usual imaginationisn't present here.

 

You have to hand it to the cast: they really try to sell the story. Tom Baker and Lalla Ward give it their all, although Tom Baker looks bored compared to his appearance in other serials. Unfortunately K9 dos not feature in this serial because of the problematic K9 prop being unable to move over the swamp but John Leeson does appear in his first onscreen role as refinery crew member Dugeen and he is by far the standout of the supporting cast. Despite the best efforts of the cast however the story still doesn't appear as anything other than average.

 

The Kroll could have benefitted from CGI on the DVD release. It isn't the worst classic series effect but I fear it could put off many new series fans wanting to give the classic series a try. It really shouldn't be about the special effects but unfortunately in the age of CGI, many enjoy seeing flashy visuals in a modern televised production over archive television material with weaker special effects. It is odd that they decided to give The Ark In Space (a serial with great special effects for the classic series) CGI sequences over a story like The Power of Kroll that deserved it more. Hopefully fans new to the show are better than the kind of people who wouldn't watch something because of the effects.

 

Overall, The Power of Kroll isn't Robert Holmes' worst Doctor Who story but it certainly isn't his best either. The narrative is decent but disappointingly borrows too much from past Doctor Who serials and the Swampies look more like the Jolly Green Giant than a primitive species capable of sacrifices for a fake God. There are some good scenes to be found in The Power of Kroll though and the cast try their best to sell the story (even if Tom Baker looks a bit bored). Yes, the Kroll doesn't look that brilliant but special effects are the last thing that should put somebody off watching a classic series serial and it's far from the worst classic series effect anyway: that honour goes to the Nucleus from The Invisible Enemy.

 

If you want to watch a Robert Holmes story, you're better off watching Spearhead From Space. It's a far superior serial that feels more like an exploration of new ideas than a repeat of ones the show has used

already.

This is a really solid story about colonialism. I don't think it's particularly groundbreaking, but the message is clear and well communicated, even though both factions have a considerable depth to them.

The Kroll was surprisingly convincing, one of the best practical effect monsters we've seen yet.

I'm getting a little tired of Romana saying she's going to do something, then the Doctor giving her an order to do that thing. It was funny the first handful of times, but it's becoming annoying.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Androids of Tara

Well there had to be one mediocre story. While I wouldn't show this story to anyone as an introduction to Classic Who, this is the most Classic Who story I've seen so far. It's the usual earth colony vs native people story that we've seen a hundred times over. That plus the sillier than usual alien species in the form of the Swampies makes this story painfully generic.

That's not to say there aren't good parts, for one, this story is never boring, which is one of my most important factors for a good episode. The effects are honestly really good and the Kroll is an impressive villain. The scenes with his tentacles swallowing people up is surprisingly realistic looking and the model shots are one of the highlights of this story.

Next Story: The Armageddon Factor

Despite having seen this before I had no recollection of how good it was. You can tell it’s a Holmes script. You factions and brilliant allegories for colonialism, racism and imperialism.

The stark contrast between the film sequences in the swamps with the swampies and the interior sequences with the cruel colonialists keeps the direction fresh and engaging. Holmes is great at making both factions feel human - there are no caricatures here. And of course it teaches you all the right lessons.

Holmes’ skill is in keeping the swampies sympathetic despite them putting our heroes in consistent danger. Having The Doctor and Romana lumped in with a gun runner who had seriously betrayed the swampies is a wonderful way of making the whole thing murky and compelling.

They realised Kroll pretty well. It’s always hard trying to make a convincing giant monster but it came off pretty well to me - especially the giant tentacles.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a story of quite this quality and it is helping up the enjoyment of what has been a pretty solid series. I hope they keep it up.

😑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.

 

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STORY:

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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.

 

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POPULATION:

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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."

 

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PRODUCTION:

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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.

 

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ATMOSPHERE:

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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.

 

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

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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.