The Power of Kroll

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102 – The Power of Kroll
Doctor Who serial

Huge and powerful, Kroll looms over the swamp as the Swampies' leader, Ranquin, offers up prayers to it.
Cast
Doctor Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)
Companion Mary Tamm (Romana I)
Production
Writer Robert Holmes
Director Norman Stewart
Script editor Anthony Read
Producer Graham Williams
John Nathan-Turner (uncredited)
Executive producer(s) None
Production code 5E
Series Season 16
Length 4 episodes, 25 mins each
Originally broadcast December 23, 1978–January 13, 1979
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
The Androids of Tara The Armageddon Factor

The Power of the Kroll is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from December 23, 1978 to January 13, 1979. It is the fifth story in the Key to Time story arc.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The Doctor and Romana arrive on the marsh moon of Delta Magna in search of the next segment of the Key to Time, but are caught in the conflict between the native Swampies and the crew of a chemical refinery. The presence of a gun runner complicates matters, and to make things worse, the Swampies intend to awaken Kroll, the giant god that lives beneath the swamps.

[edit] Plot

In the far future on one of the moons of Delta Magna, Delta Three, sits a vast methane and protein collection and manufacturing refinery. The staff of four – the bullying leader Thawn, and his technical support Fenner, Harg, and Dugeen – are in charge of the operation. A green-skinned humanoid native called Mensch, one of the Delta Magnans, serves them. These servile people were once the inhabitants of the main planet but were moved to Delta Three when the Earth Empire identified Delta Magna as commercially valuable; sadly for the green-skinned natives, known as Swampies, this is now also the case on Delta Three. Thawn becomes concerned about the possibility of insurrection when he learns both that the environmentalist group Sons of Earth has taken an interest in Delta Three and that the gun-runner Rohm Dutt is rumoured to be journeying there. Thawn and Fenner head outside the refinery to see if he has arrived, suspecting a mysterious spacecraft which has touched down nearby is Rohm Dutt’s.

The Fourth Doctor and Romana have also arrived on Delta Three, searching for the penultimate segment of The Key to Time. However, the Tracer they are using to locate the segment is giving some very strange readings that makes their quarry difficult to pinpoint. They are ambushed by Swampies and Romana ends up getting taken away with Rohm Dutt and a Swampie patrol, while the Doctor is found by Fenner and Thawn and returned with them to the refinery. There he displays a bewildering familiarity with the methane catalyzing process, with the refined protein then shot into space for delivery to Delta Magna. The Doctor is also intrigued by the position of Mensch, whom the refinery workers do not even regard as a properly sentient being. The Doctor slips away to try and find Romana, but she has meanwhile got herself into a degree of trouble. The Swampies have tied her to a rock and are prepared to sacrifice her to Kroll, a giant squid creature that lives beneath the swamps and which they worship as a god. When it appears from the waters, Kroll is a vast squid – or rather a Swampie dressed as one. The Doctor unmasks the fake monster and rescues Romana.

Back at the refinery, Dugeen has detected a vast living creature some two miles wide inside the swamp. The Doctor and Romana have meanwhile found reference to the real Kroll in a Swampie testament, which says the enormous creature ate a previous Swampie High Priest and has made three appearances with a fourth due soon.

Rohm Dutt has supplied the Swampies with weapons but when they are used against Thawn, who is searching the swamps for the Doctor, they are found to be defective and explode whenever fired, resulting in the death of one of the Swampies. Seconds later, a huge tentacle erupts from the water and seizes Mensch, dragging him to his death. In the confusion, Rohm-Dutt calls out to Thawn; his cries go unnoticed however, as everyone's eyes are drawn to the vast squid-like creature that emerges from the swamp, towering above the horizon (as shown in the picture above). Kroll is very real, very large and very hungry. Ranquin attempts to mollify it with prayer, and Kroll disappears beneath the surface of the swamp. Despite Ranquin's belief that Kroll has spared his believers, the monster has simply failed to notice the Swampies, and it is soon drawn to the refinery. One of its tentacles enters a pipeline and soon smashes its way inside, dragging crewmember Harg to his death.

The gun-runner is taken as a prisoner back to the Swampie camp, where the Doctor and Romana arrive and introduce themselves to the tribe and its leader Ranquin. The elder decrees all three "dry-foots" will die by the seventh ritual of Kroll: a cumbersome and painful affair involving the stretching of the victims on creepers and wood that will eventually snap their backs. In fear, Rohm Dutt admits Thawn paid him to sell the faulty weapons to the Swampies as a means to discredit the environmentalist Sons of Earth movement. All three are secured and their punishment begins as a violent storm starts on Delta Three. The Doctor rescues himself, Romana, and Rohm Dutt with "vocal vibrations", which shatter a window above, allowing the rain to pour in on the vines. This relaxes them enough for the trio to escape, pursued by the Ranquin and his tribe.

The three refinery crew now decide to redirect the orbit shot against Kroll. They note the creature is now on the move towards the Swampie settlement. When it reaches there its first victim is Rohm Dutt. The Doctor deduces that the creature hunts by vibration, and uses this knowledge to keep himself and Romana safe from the tentacles. The enormous Kroll now rises to the surface of the swamp and destroys the Swampie settlement, killing many Swampies before submerging again.

The Doctor and Romana now sneak back into the refinery and are horrified that Thawn calculates the missile strike will destroy the creature and the Swampies. Dugeen is equally appalled, and when he tries to stop the missiles being fired, Thawn kills him. The Doctor, however, is more successful and manages to disconnect the firing mechanism in the rocket silo. Thawn investigates and finds the two culprits, more convinced than ever that they are Sons of Earth spies too. The tables are turned, however, when the Swampies attack the breached refinery and kill Thawn. Ranquin, who has led the assault, believes the deaths of the “dry foots” will help atone to Kroll, but the creature is now above the swamp again and hurling itself against the bulk of the refinery.

While Ranquin fruitlessly prays to Kroll in an effort to stop the attack, the Doctor orders that all the refinery's equipment be activated, in order to try and confuse Kroll. It has the desired effect, and the attack stops. Ranquin refuses to let his faith in Kroll be shaken however, and upon finding one of Kroll's tentacles, begs his god to destroy the "dry foots." Instead, Kroll simply grabs hold of Ranquin and drags him away to his doom. The remaining Swampies realize the creature is beyond appeasement. It is not, however, beyond science. The Doctor has worked out that Kroll has been magnified to giant proportions by a segment of the Key to Time, disguised as a Swampie relic which the squid creature swallowed along with a previous High Priest. He uses the Tracer to eliminate the giant Kroll and retrieve the fifth segment of the Key.

The Doctor finally saves the refinery from destruction by aborting the automatically scheduled orbit shot, which would have resulted in an explosion, and then tells Fenner, the only survivor of the refinery crew, to use his time wisely until a rescue mission arrives from Delta Magna, and to try to understand the Swampie culture. The Doctor and Romana head back for the TARDIS with another segment of the Key in their possession.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Cast notes

  • This serial features a guest appearance by Philip Madoc. Madoc had been invited to play Thawn, however, the invitation was withdrawn. He agreed to play the part of Fenner when Alan Browning, who was slated to play Fenner, fell ill before the start of production. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
  • John Leeson, best known as the voice of K-9, appears in this episode as Dugeen. This is his only on-screen appearance in Doctor Who.

[edit] Continuity

  • This is the fifth of six linked serials that comprise the whole of Season 16, known collectively as The Key to Time.

[edit] Production

Working titles for this story included Horror of the Swamp.

[edit] Outside references

The Doctor makes a reed-flute and starts playing Bach's Badinerie from Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1076.

[edit] In print

Doctor Who book
Book cover
Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll
Series Target novelisations
Release number 49
Writer Terrance Dicks
Publisher Target Books
Cover artist Andrew Skilleter
ISBN 0 426 20101 9
Release date 26 May 1980
Preceded by Doctor Who and the Androids of Tara
Followed by Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in May 1980.

[edit] Broadcast, VHS and DVD releases

  • This story was released on VHS in June of 1995.
  • This serial, along with the rest of season sixteen, was released as part of the Key to Time box set on region 2 DVD on September 24, 2007[1].

[edit] References

  1. ^ "DVD News", BBC, 18 May 2007. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Target novelisation

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Doctor Who season 16 serials
The Key to Time