“The Power of Kroll” is the fifth adventure of the sixteenth season, known by the global title “The Key to Time”, which aired between the end of 1978 and the beginning of 1979. It follows “The Androids of Tara” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Robert Holmes and directed by Norman Stewart.
The story
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Mary Tamm) arrive on the third moon of the planet Delta Magna in search of the fifth segment of the Key to Time and because the area is swampy K-9 must remain in the Tardis.
Romana is captured by the inhabitants of the marshes, who want to sacrifice her to their god Kroll. The Doctor meets the staff of a refinery that extracts proteins from the water of the marshes but is mistaken for an arms dealer who supplies the locals who would like to destroy the refinery. As if that wasn’t enough Kroll seems to be much more than a superstition.
Extras
Note. The adventure “The Power of Kroll” was published in a single DVD or in a box-set that includes the entire season “The Key to Time” in different editions. This review refers to the edition published in 2009 in a box-set, available on Amazon UK
This DVD contains a fair amount of extras. There are typical contents such as a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonist Tom Baker and actor John Leeson.
Philip Madoc – A Villain for All Seasons. A retrospective on the various roles as a villain played by Philip Madoc in “Doctor Who”.
In Studio. A recording of the production of certain in studio scenes of “The Power of Kroll”.
Variations. Some interviews of the time filmed on location.
There’s Something About Mary. Mary Tamm speaks of her experience playing Romana in “Doctor Who”.
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A special feature of “The Power of Kroll” is that John Leeson, who generally gives the voice to K-9, this time plays a more conventional role appearing in flesh and blood.
The Doctor meets Cthulhu. The idea was to create the largest monster ever seen in “Doctor Who” so for “The Power of Kroll” they created a kind of giant octopus which was worshiped as a deity by the inhabitants of the marshes.
The classic “Doctor Who” series was never famous for its high quality special effects, on the contrary because of the tight budget the results in this field were often low quality. In “The Power of Kroll” the ambition to have a really gigantic monster was really too big of a challenge and over time the result has become a sort of joke, even beyond its actual demerits.
Eventually of Kroll we see its almost whole body from a distance or a single tentacle that extends to grab some poor guy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the other hand in the history of “Doctor Who” there are other examples of special effects bad even by the standards of the time: just think of “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” just to mention another adventure in which monsters appeared.
The production of “The Power of Kroll” was made even more difficult by the conditions of the location where they filmed scenes set in the swamps. The tide rising during the shooting slowed the work with cast and crew who also had to be careful not to get stuck.
These issues affect the final result which is a shame because Robert Holmes had once again put interesting ideas into his script. In “The Power of Kroll” in fact we have a native population of the planet Delta Magna which is moved on one of its moons because human settlers want to exploit the resources of the planet. Then humans decide to exploit the resources of the moon as well and the natives decide to fight them.
This story of colonialism is treated by Robert Holmes quite differently from the politically correct way and above all without the patronizing attitude we see in many other stories of that kind.
Robert Holmes doesn’t describe the natives as good and innocent and especially no white hero arrives to realize the injustices they are suffering and guide them to the counter-attack. In “The Power of Kroll” the natives can be bad and mean and in many ways their attitude is the mirror image of the refinery staff’s. The dealer who supplies them with weapons isn’t a freedom fighter but has far from philanthropic motives.
Unfortunately such interesting content gets a bit lost among slow scenes in the swamps and botched special effects. Even the Doctor’s brilliant lines can only do so much to improve the result.
Overall “The Power of Kroll” isn’t even bad. Over the years a negative reputation has created around this adventure mainly because of its special effects overshadowing its positive elements. Unfortunately the low production values really affect the final result making it the least successful adventure in this season.
Because this DVD is part of “The Key to Time” box set a global judgement must necessarily be given only at the end of the reviews of this season’s adventures.
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