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| Jamie is menaced by a Quark! ...er, a Kroton. |
4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 90 minutes. Written by: Robert Holmes. Directed by: David Maloney. Produced by: Peter Bryant.
THE PLOT:
The humanoid Gonds live their lives under the law of the Krotons. That's the way of things, ever since the Krotons arrived on their planet many generations ago. The brightest male and female students of each generation's class are sent to the Krotons: in this case, the male is Abu (Terence Brown) and the female is Vana (Madeleine Mills).
The Doctor and his companions have no reason to expect trouble. Not until they find a mysterious machine just in time to see Abu ejected and executed. When Vana is similarly ejected, the Doctor acts quickly to rescue her, though she remains in a catatonic state.
The time travelers soon learn that the Gonds' entire society is built around the Krotons. In effect, the invaders have created "a form of self-perpetuating slavery." When the Doctor reveals the killings of the selected students, a faction of Gonds prepare to rebel. Led by the ambitious Eelek (Philip Madoc), this group ignores warnings that force will not work against such a technologically superior foe.
For the most part, the Doctor ignores Eelek's group. Force won't work - but if he can get into the machine, he may find a way to turn the tables on these oppressors...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: Tasked with carrying an unimpressive story, Patrick Troughton responds with a flurry of comedy business, enlivening small moments to keep the serial engaging. The first episode sees the Doctor hiding behind his umbrella, then later pulling an exaggeratedly crestfallen face when the umbrella falls prey to "dispersal." He fumbles with machines, gets flustered while trying to match Zoe's score on the Kroton "learning machines," and deliberately puts a headset on wrong while playing for time. Given that for a long time in the 1980s, this was the only Troughton story broadcast, I can't help but think that it's at least partially responsible for his exaggerated reputation as a "comedy Doctor" (something that, bits of business aside, he most of the time definitely wasn't).
Zoe: Promises Jamie that she'll keep the Doctor out of mischief. But she's the one who can't resist starting up one of the Kroton learning machines, which sets off the crisis that occupies the rest of the story. The Doctor tells her not to blame herself - But given that this makes three stories in a row in which her impulsiveness has made matters worse, it's only actress Wendy Padbury's engaging screen presence which keeps this character likeable at this point.
Jamie: His loyalty to the Doctor and Zoe shows after they are taken into the Kroton machine. Jamie pries at the door tirelessly until it finally opens, then doesn't hesitate in going straight in. Classic padding in a sense, because by this time the Doctor and Zoe have already escaped - but it's also perfectly in character. Less in character is his moment of doubt that the Doctor and Zoe might leave without him; by now, he should be completely confident that the Doctor would not abandon him (or, indeed, flee from the Krotons of all things after all the far more formidable enemies they've faced).
THOUGHTS:
A Doctor Who serial written by Robert Holmes and directed by David Maloney, and featuring Philip Madoc's first series guest appearance! The definition of Who bliss, right?
Unfortunately, this was Robert Holmes' first Doctor Who script, and it would take a few tries for him to really hit his stride. Still, I don't think The Krotons is as bad as it's frequently made out to be. Even here, Holmes understands both structure and pacing. The story moves along at a fair clip by 1960s Who standards, and it actually does a reasonable job of using the first three episodes to set up the manner of the Krotons' defeat in the final part.
David Maloney was always a highly visual director. Given that this serial features location filming in the same quarry used by The Dominators, it's interesting to compare the two. In The Dominators, Morris Barry was content to give us a very good view of the quarry; in this serial, David Maloney keeps the camera tight on the regulars, doing as much as he can to avoid spoiling the illusion of being on another world.
Both stories also feature rather silly-looking robots. We almost always saw the Quarks in The Dominators in full, all the better to giggle at them. In this story, the Krotons are regularly shot from below to try to make them appear more threatening; and in many shots, particularly in Episodes Two and Three, we only see bits of them, with the focus more on the human actors, helping to somewhat obscure them. Episode Three even offers a (rather overly) sustained tracking shot from a Kroton's point-of-view. Both are mediocre stories, but there's a legitimate effort being made to at least present The Krotons with a measure of style.
If I'm not saying too much about the story itself, it's because there isn't much to say. The first two episodes do a fair job of building intrigue around the mysterious Kroton "machine." Once the Krotons are revealed in all their generic robotic glory, however, most of the initial interest vanishes. The rest of the story follows two tracks, neither very interesting: the "A" plot sees the Krotons trying to recapture the Doctor and Zoe; the "B" plot pads the runtime with a generic power grab by Philip Madoc's Eelek - a subplot so perfunctory that it isn't even particularly resolved at the end.
Even so, these four episodes are briskly paced, and manage to use all three regulars to good effect. As bread-and-butter Who goes, it's reasonably entertaining nonsense. Patrick Troughton and script editor Terrance Dicks might have derided this as among the worst of their respective tenures, but I'd rather re-watch this than at least two other stories from this very season...
Overall Rating: 5/10.
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