DOCTOR WHO:  THE POWER OF KROLL

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#28:  THE POWER OF KROLL (4 Parts)
ORIGINALLY AIRED:  12/23/78 to 1/13/79
WRITTEN BY:  Robert Holmes
DIRECTED BY:  Norman Stewart
PRODUCER:  Graham Williams	
SCRIPT EDITOR:  Anthony Read
	

Of the six stories which make up the interrelated Key to Time theme, one has to be the worst, and unquestionably this is it. Surprisingly, it was written by the usually reliable Robert Holmes. Much of the blame for the weakness of the story, however, can be laid on the poor special effects. It also seems significant to note it was directed by Norman Stewart, whose previous assignment was the even poorer UNDERWORLD, to which this story has a certain resemblance in the lack of interest generated by most of the characters.

This was Robert Holmes last story for the series during Tom Baker's time as the Doctor. A recap of his Tom Baker stories includes:

	THE ARK IN SPACE
	THE DEADLY ASSASSIN
	THE TALONS OF WENG-CHIANG
	THE SUN MAKERS
	THE RIBOS OPERATION
	THE POWER OF KROLL

His stories for Patrick Troughton were THE KROTONS and THE SPACE PIRATES.

His stories for Jon Pertwee were TERROR OF THE AUTONS, THE CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS and THE TIME WARRIOR.

Holmes wrote one story for Peter Davison--THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI--and two for Colin Baker--THE TWO DOCTORS and the initial installment of THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD.

THE POWER OF KROLL takes place on a swamp world, where K9 would not function very well, so he was written out of this story, freeing up John Leeson to appear on screen as Dugeen. Unfortunately, Dugeen doesn't have much to do in the plot, although he does get a death scene.

At a methane refinery on the third moon of Delta Magna, Thawn--the Director--returns from Delta Magna and is greeted by his staff of three: Harg, Fenner and Dugeen.

Dugeen has an echo track on his radar equipment; he thinks Thawn was followed down; someone used his track as a cover. Thawn has heard a rumor on Delta Magna the Sons of Earth plan to arm the Swampies. These are a local tribe, with green skin and corn-rowed hair. The green of their skin is variable from scene to scene and noticeably lighter in the outdoor sequences where it had a tendency to wash off.

The Swampies were the original inhabitants of Delta Magna, who were resettled centuries ago on this third moon, as a sort of reservation. Now the colonists have discovered a use for the moon, and the Swampies are threatened again.

Fenner says there was a recent report Rohm-Dutt's ship has vanished. He's a notorious gun runner. Thawn and Fenner grab guns and go out in a hovercraft-like vehicle called a swamp glider. Outdoor sequences were shot at Iken Marshes.

The TARDIS materializes in the swamp. The time capsule is practically invisible, covered up to the light on its roof by tall weeds. The Doctor pushes his way out, weeds sticking out of his hat. He has 4 duck pins attached to the lapels of his coat and wears high wading boots.

He tosses his hat on the ground as a gravity check and reports an escape velocity of 1.5 miles a second. "This must be one of the moons of Delta Magna," the Doctor observes, wetting his finger and holding it up, "I'd say the third."

The tracer is giving out a diffuse signal, covering 42 1/2 degrees. Romana tries higher ground, while the Doctor hollows out the stem of a reed into a flute, which he plays. This is a minor reference to Patrick Troughton, whose Doctor used to play the recorder.

Romana is captured by some Swampies and drops the tracer. She is tied up and put in a canoe with Rohm-Dutt. The Doctor goes looking for her and is spotted by Thawn and Fenner. They mistake him for Rohm-Dutt and shoot at him. The Doctor falls down.

He is OK, although there is a bullet hole in his hat. Thawn realizes the Doctor is not Rohm-Dutt but insists he return to the refinery to answer some questions, although the Doctor wants to look for Romana. "Will there be strawberry jam for tea?" the Doctor asks, walking off with his hands up.

Romana is tied to a rock at the Swampies settlement. Rohm-Dutt tries to intimidate her by telling her about an unpleasant local insect, the drillfly. "Emotional insulation is usually indicative of psychofeudal trauma," she tells him.

At the refinery, Thawn pushes the Doctor, who falls on the floor of the pump chamber. Although it is a classified project, the Doctor recognizes it as a methane catalyzing refinery; he's seen hundreds. "If you've been to Binaca-Ananda, you'd see one in every town," he says, identifying a funicular gas separator and an enzyme recycler with an injection circuit feeding the bacterium bioplast. "I imagine the raw protein is centrifuged before being freeze dried and compressed for packaging. I think you'd find it more efficient if you inserted a plasmin catalyst ahead of the bioplast circuit," the Doctor suggests. Everyone thinks this is brilliant.

Dugeen's voice comes over the loud speaker, announcing an orbit shot in 10 minutes, so the Doctor is brought to the control room.

At the settlement, Rohm-Dutt distributes weapons to the Swampies--60 calibre gas-operated Stelsons. Ranquin, chief of the Swampies, decides to sacrifice the Dryfoot woman--Romana--to their god Kroll to assure success in their attack on the refinery.

At the control room, refreshments are served by Mensch, a Swampie servant, whom Thawn abuses and everyone else ignores as a primitive savage. Instead of drinking from his glass, the Doctor puts it in his pocket.

Thawn explains 100 tons of compressed protein is produced and shot into Delta orbit every 12 hours. Dugeen points out when there are 10 full scale refineries on this moon, there will be no room for the natives. The Doctor feels the lake couldn't possibly support 10 full scale refineries. With everyone's attention on the orbit shot, he sneaks back to the pump chamber, where he finds a signal lamp device. Before he can jimmy the door open, Thawn walks in.

Romana is tied to a stake in the Temple of Kroll and a pit is opened. Ranquin performs a ritual chant to summon Kroll, while the Swampies dance.

Sounds of the Swampie ceremony filter into the refinery. Thawn tells the Doctor Kroll is a giant squid. Centuries ago when the Swampies were resettled from Delta Magna a couple of squids were shipped along to keep them happy.

Thawn and the Doctor return to the control room. Mensch uses the signal lamp to warn the Swampies the Dryfoots plan to attack with gas mortars at dawn. The Doctor sneaks away again and steals a canoe to rescue Romana.

She is attacked by a man-sized creature and screams. The Doctor arrives and knocks out the creature, which turns out to be a Swampie--Skart--in a Kroll costume, although it looks nothing like a squid. As he unties Romana, the Doctor sees the imprint of sucker marks on the ground.

At the refinery, Dugeen's scanners detect movement underneath the baygue over an area of 2 square miles.

Romana confesses she's dropped the tracer. Luckily, the Doctor has picked it up. He drops a stone down Kroll's pit to test the depth; then hops down the shaft, emerging shortly after with an illustrated history of the Swampies, which the Doctor calls "the Bayeux Tapestry--with footnotes." This is an 11th century tapestry, embroidered with scenes depicting the Norman Conquest, preserved in the town of Bayeux in France. The Swampie book shows the eviction of the Swampies from Delta Magna and settlement on this moon as a reservation.

The text states, "When Kroll awakened he saw that the people were fat and indolent. And then Kroll became angry and he struck them down, swallowing into him the symbol of his power and killing all who were in the Temple, even Hajes, the priest. Great was the lamentation of the people, but Kroll returned to the water and slept." The text concludes, "This was the third manifestation of Kroll." "He's obviously one of those monsters who's not always about the place," the Doctor notes, marveling "A dormancy period of that length would indicate a creature of massive size." He thinks Kroll is still around and just about due for a fourth manifestation. The Doctor tosses the book back down the shaft.

Thawn arrives on his swamp glider and one of the Swampies shoots at him. The old gun Rohm-Dutt provided blows up in his face. An enormous tentacle comes out of the swamp and grabs Mensch, killing him. Kroll rises; he's an enormous squid, 140 feet tall. The Swampies fall to their knees to adore him. Kroll sinks beneath the swamps again and the Swampies set out after Rohm-Dutt.

Back at the refinery, Thawn tells the others the Swampies are armed, and describes the giant squid. He suspects the Doctor warned the Swampies and that's why they were waiting for him. He wants to locate the squid and finish it off with depth charges.

The Doctor tells Romana, "The refinery's heat exchangers must have raised the lake temperature by several degrees already and the noise of their orbit shot is rousing Kroll," who is the source of all the methane.

The Swampies approach. The Doctor tells Romana to introduce him "as a wise and wonderful person who wants to help. Don't exaggerate." Romana clears her throat and says, "This is..." before they are seized. "I told you not to exaggerate," the Doctor whispers.

Ranquin prays to Kroll for a sign which of the seven holy rituals to use to kill Rohm-Dutt, Romana and the Doctor. "Probably the usual things--fire, water, hanging upside down over a pit of vipers," the Doctor tells Romana.

At the refinery, one of Kroll's tentacles breaks into the pump chamber, grabs Harg and hauls him out the main pipe line. Dugeen and Fenner want to evacuate the refinery, but Thawn refuses. He tells them to use a secondary line and pump to half capacity until the main pipe line is fixed.

Ranquin informs his captives they've been condemned to die by the seventh holy ritual of the old book. "Seventh, my lucky number!," the Doctor crows to Romana.

In an underground chamber, the Doctor, Romana and Rohm-Dutt are tied with creepers to a wooden frame. The Doctor prefers being sacrificed lying on his back to "Gothic perpendicular." While Romana, Rohm-Dutt, and Varlik--one of the Swampies--discuss the seventh holy ritual, the Doctor looks at the ceiling and observes, "That window's quite out of place; it's not in character at all."

As the creepers dry, the sun will shorten them, pulling the planks of the frame the prisoners are tied to and eventually snapping their spines. Ranquin performs a ceremony and dismisses the other Swampies. The Doctor asks the secret of Kroll's power. Ranquin leans close to the Doctor and says the symbol Kroll swallowed was a holy relic, allowing the holder to see the future.

When Ranquin leaves, the Doctor says, "He's got narrow little eyes; you can't hypnotize people with narrow little eyes." Rohm-Dutt admits Thawn paid him to bring the natives guns, as an excuse to justify wiping out the Swampies.

At the refinery, Dugeen and Thawn estimate Kroll is nearly a mile across; its central mass is a quarter of a mile in diameter; it's 140 feet high and has 30 tentacles on one side alone.

The Doctor looks out the window and predicts they're due for a storm. "Electrical storms on planetary satellites can be quite spectacular," he says. It starts to rain. The Doctor sings out in a sustained high note, and then tries a higher pitch. The sonic vibration breaks the window, letting in the rain. "Nellie Melba's party piece," the Doctor laughs, "although she could only do it with wineglasses."

The rain eases the tension of the creepers and the Doctor gets his hands free. He releases everyone's feet from the wooden frame and uses a shard of window glass to cut the creeper, freeing Romana and Rohm-Dutt. Romana's nose has stopped itching, "a textbook example of displacement anxiety," she observes. They escape. Shortly after, Ranquin, Varlik and Skart enter, discover they're gone, and set out after them.

The storm is over, and the Doctor is picking his way through the swamp, slightly ahead of the pursuing Swampies. Kroll is on the move, headed straight for the settlement. The Doctor tells Romana and Rohm-Dutt not to move, but Rohm-Dutt panics and runs. He's grabbed by a tentacle and dragged off. "I told him not to move; it hunts by surface vibrations. Primarily a vegetarian, of course, but over the years it's learned that anything that moves is wholesome," the Doctor says. He and Romana hop into a canoe and set off, pursued by the Swampies. Kroll rises in front of them, grabs a Swampie and submerges again.

At the refinery, Thawn decides to drop the next orbit shot into Kroll--100 tons of hydrogen peroxide should kill it. The Doctor and Romana enter the refinery and overhear his plans.

Dugeen tries to stop Thawn from redirecting the orbit shot, which will also wipe out the Swampie civilization, but Thawn knocks him out. He pulls a gun on Fenner, forcing him to go along with the plan. The countdown is 2 minutes.

The Doctor and Romana head to the rocket silo. Thawn is using the override firing mechanism, but the Doctor hopes there is some other way of disconnecting it. Romana asks what will happen if the rocket fires while the Doctor is in the silo. "We better say goodbye now," the Doctor replies.

Dugeen comes to and tries again to stop the rocket by pushing the abort button. Thawn shoots him dead, and the abort doesn't work, for some unexplained reason.

The Doctor climbs up beside the rocket to the primary ignition panel. Saying, "When in doubt, cut everything," he smashes the controls with a hammer and the countdown aborts at 3 seconds.

Kroll submerges out of rocket range. Thawn goes to the silo to see why the countdown aborted. The Doctor has blacked out for a few minutes from oxygen starvation. He comes to and rushes out of the silo, where Thawn pulls a gun on him outside the blast room door. Thawn marches the Doctor and Romana back to the control room.

The Swampies enter the refinery and Kroll heads there also. A Swampie stabs Thawn with a spear, killing him. The Doctor raises his hands, saying, "We surrender," and tells Ranquin, "Kroll couldn't tell the difference between you and me and half an acre of dandelion and burdock." They're all potential food.

Kroll climbs on the refinery, knocking everyone to the floor. Romana gets up and tries to look out the window. The Doctor drags her back just as a tentacle smashes through.

The Doctor tells Fenner to switch on the centrifuge so the noise will attract Kroll. Fenner starts the compressors and the emergency klaxton as well to keep Kroll busy.

The Doctor heads off with the tracer to test his theory about the symbol of Kroll's power.

Ranquin runs into the pump chamber and pleads with a tentacle, which grabs him and pulls him to his death.

The Doctor approaches Kroll cautiously, saying, "Well, I've had a happy life; can't complain; nearly 760--not a bad age." A tentacle hits him in the face and he drops the tracer. Another grabs him around the waist and pulls him toward Kroll's mouth.

The Doctor grabs for the tracer and reaches it. He touches it to Kroll, who disappears. On the end of the tracer the Doctor holds the fifth segment. He returns to the control room to let everyone know Kroll is dead.

Fenner says something is blocking the firing bay. The Doctor tells him never mind: "No more Kroll, no more methane; no more orbit shots;" but the computer doesn't know that and is gearing up to make the next rocket launch in 50 seconds. With the firing bay blocked, the whole refinery will go up. The manual override and abort are not functioning, because the Doctor smashed the primary ignition panel in the silo; and there's no time to reconnect them.

The Doctor opens a hatch in the control panel and starts cutting wires, closing his eyes in case he's made a bad choice. "Let's hope these are the right ones," he says, pushing two cables together. With less than a second to go, he stops the launch.

The Doctor and Romana say goodbye and head back through the swamp, arguing on where to head to reach the TARDIS. "You know, I've got an unerring sense of direction," the Doctor says, walking into a quagmire, before agreeing to set off where Romana is pointing.

They come across a tiny squid. "Cellular regeneration," the Doctor says. But the squids will never get as large as Kroll again; his great size was because he swallowed the symbol of power. (Two of the segments turned out to be symbols--the other was the Seal of Diplos).

The Doctor and Romana make it back to the TARDIS, greet K9; and the TARDIS dematerializes.

Neil McCarthy, who plays Thawn, played Barnham in the Pertwee story THE MIND OF EVIL.

Philip Madoc, who plays Fenner, played Eelek in THE KROTONS and a War Lord in THE WAR GAMES, both Troughton stories. He is best known for playing Solon in the Tom Baker story THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS. He also appeared with Peter Cushing in the 1966 film THE DALEKS: INVASION EARTH 2150 AD.

John Abierni, who plays Ranquin, played Railton in the Pertwee story DEATH TO THE DALEKS and Van Lutyens in the Troughton story FURY FROM THE DEEP.

Frank Jarvis, who plays Skart, played Ankh in the Tom Baker story UNDERWORLD and a Corporal in the Hartnell story THE WAR MACHINES.

Terry Walsh, who plays Mensch, has played at least 10 background and stunt roles in the show, including an Auton.