The Power of Kroll Part Four

The one where the Doctor works out why Kroll is so big...

After a tedious reprise going as far back as Rohm-Dutt's death, the episode continues with an anti-climax, as Kroll decides to simply go back to bed (sea bed?) and not terrorise the Doctor and Romana at all. But Kroll does re-emerge elsewhere to terrorise the terrified Swampies, and this time the terrible split-screen effect just gets worse. I thought it had been bad enough so far, but when Kroll attacks the Swampie settlement, the harsh line dividing the screen between the Kroll puppet and the actors on location is embarrassing. It's the best they could do, blah, blah, blah. Yes I know, but their best on this occasion just wasn't good enough!

Meanwhile, at the refinery the technicians are turning on themselves, or rather Fenner and Dugeen are turning on their increasingly megalomaniacal leader. Thawn's thirst for genocide hasn't exactly come out of nowhere - he's made no secret of the fact he thinks little of the Swampies - but his rather steep descent into madness has been signposted less subtly. The truth is that Neil McCarthy isn't equipped to portray a nuanced collapse of this man's sanity, so all we get is a very melodramatic face-off between a man with a gun and a man with a conscience.

Thawn plans to blow Kroll up by firing several thousands tonnes of hydrogen peroxide at it, which may well destroy the beast but will also poison the already thin level of oxygen in the atmosphere. Naturally, Fenner and Dugeen aren't keen on this form of self-sacrifice, and Dugeen in particular is dead against murdering the Swampies. It's not stated explicitly, but it seems Dugeen could well be an acolyte of the Sons of Earth sect, although this is only ever implied via Thawn's own assumptions. Dugeen's protestations about the sanctity of life could just as easily be those of a humanitarian. It's interesting that at no point does Fenner join in with Dugeen's argument - he's not in favour of wiping out the Swampies, but he's less in favour of pushing Thawn too far and ending up dead himself.

Dugeen finally strikes out, but Thawn is ready with a rather pathetic chop to the shoulder, and John Leeson collapses to the ground in agony, clutching his face and finally rendered unconscious. It's one of those embarrassing "fight" scenes where a swift "neck-chop" (although McCarthy misses Leeson's neck on this occasion) is deemed enough to get the action out of the way. It's not, and it never is. Why doesn't Thawn give Dugeen a proper thumping? It's not as if Doctor Who is against such explicit violence, because the Fourth Doctor never shies away from a good walloping when needed (eg, he punches Skart in part 2).

Finally, after coming back round, Dugeen clambers to the controls to try and stop the rocket launch, but is shot in the back by Thawn. After bumbling through three and a half episodes doing little more than twiddle knobs, John Leeson manages to make Dugeen's death mildly resonant with the brief expression of shock on his face when he's shot. The shock briefly turns to pain before the life drops from his body altogether. As death scenes go, it's understated, but it is considered.

The Doctor and Romana (who's finally made it inside the refinery after three episodes in the swamps) rush to the rocket silo to try and stop the launch, which you'd think would be an easy task seeing as everything's so damn wobbly. There aren't as many wobbly sets in Doctor Who as people always say, but in this case, they're here in abundance: there's a wobbly wall, a wobbly rocket and even a wobbly ladder!

Also making it into the refinery are the Swampies, who look even more preposterous in studio than they do on location. At least these pea green primitives vaguely blend in among the lush, viridescent marshes of Suffolk. But when seen by Warwick Fielding's harsh studio lighting, the Swampies look as ridiculous as they really are: embarrassed supporting players daubed with green paint, desperate for this job to be over so they can scrub it off their CVs.

The Swampies kill crazy Thawn with an arrow to the chest (it's fitting he's finished off by such a primitive weapon), then Kroll kills blinkered Ranquin by grabbing him with a tentacle and pulling him into the pipes. They're rather sudden, ignoble deaths. Thawn, the heartless terror that he is, should have died with a little more ceremony to justify his "bad guy" status, while Ranquin's demise at the suckers of his beloved Kroll might seem tragically appropriate, but there's not much dignity in it for poor John Abineri.

The Doctor has a hunch that Kroll got to be so enormous by swallowing the fifth segment of the Key to Time, so sets off with the tracer to see if he's right. And he is, which is lucky as the end of the final episode is fast approaching. Tom Baker does surprisingly well in the scenes where he's mauled by Kroll's tendrils, and looks and sounds suitably agonised until the tracer works its magic and transforms the giant squid into the segment. 

It's rather sweet to see Romana wearing the Doctor's scarf when he returns to the others (reminding me of Ace wearing the Doctor's hat in Survival), and as they traipse back to the TARDIS through the marshes, she hangs on to the Doctor's coat tails as he leads them through the reeds. They're tiny, subtle moments of charm which show that the two Gallifreyans have become rather attached after all the adventures they've had so far (as the Doctor says in part 1: "I'm looking for my friend. You see, she's important to me").

And so ends the fifth story in Season 16's quest for the Key to Time. The Power of Kroll is in no way a great story. It has its plus points - the fantastic location is the true star, while the animation of the Kroll puppet itself is nicely done - but there's a chronic lack of energy or conviction in the piece. It's sadly miscast, and often poorly realised, the Swampies and the Kroll split-screen effect the main examples. It's a curious off-day for Robert Holmes, who perhaps needed a break from Doctor Who to recharge his imagination. There's very little in The Power of Kroll to prove he actually wrote it, virtually none of the recognisable hallmarks of his better work. Holmes would be back, after a few years' hiatus, and it'd be well worth the wait.

First broadcast: January 13th, 1979

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Doctor versus Kroll is about the best I can manage.
The Bad: Thawn shoulder-chopping Dugeen; the wobbly rocket silo; the terrible split-screen; the fumbled death of Thawn... Need I go on?
Overall score for episode: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (story average: 3.3 out of 10)

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 18

NEXT TIME: The Armageddon Factor...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: https://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-power-of-kroll.html

The Power of Kroll is available on BBC DVD as part of the Key to Time box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Key-Time-Re-issue/dp/B002TOKFNM