Doctor Who: The Power of Kroll (1979)
Review by Doc Ezra
Film:
DVD:

Written by Robert Holmes
Directed by Norman Stewart
Starring Tom Baker and Mary Tamm

Features:

• Commentary with Tom Baker and John Leeson
  
• Pop-up production notes
  
• Photo gallery
  
• Who’s Who cast and character info
  

Rating: NR, suitable for most audiences

Anamorphic: N/A

My advice: As much as I hate to say it, pass.

Chasing another segment of the Key to Time, the Doctor and Romana land on the fetid swamp moon of the planet Delta Magna. The swamp moon is a hotbed of intrigue and violence, ever since the aboriginal denizens rose up against the Delta Magna colonists. The Doctor finds himself in the middle of the conflict when he’s mistaken for a wanted gun-runner and accused of supplying weapons to the “Swampies.” Taken into custody by the staff of a refinery built on territory promised to the natives, the Doctor has to do some fast talking to avoid being blasted.

Matters only get further complicated when it becomes evident that Kroll, the powerful Cthulhu-esque elder deity of the native people, is waking up, thanks to the activities at the refinery. But, despite the assurances of the fanatic shaman Ranquin, Kroll is not on the Swampies' side. Kroll isn’t on anybody’s side but Kroll’s, and his only interest seems to be grabbing people up with his many tentacles and stuffing them into his maw. So of course, it falls to the Doctor’s superior intellect and quick wit to save the day, make peace, and recover the fifth segment of the Key to Time.

As Doctor Who stories go, The Power of Kroll is a bit of a clunker. Part native exploitation drama, part tentacled horror Cthulhu story, it doesn’t really come across well as either. It doesn’t help that the “native peoples” are merely painted-green Englishmen with no attempt to alter or conceal their pitch-perfect Queen’s English accents. Then there’s the little problem of Kroll. While Doctor Who special effects are almost legendarily bad, this story arc merely amplifies the problem by making the monster hundreds of feet tall and a very prominent character in the latter half of the story.

The performances by Tamm and Baker are of their standard quality, and pretty much everyone else in the film is an over-the-top hack. I found the “natives” pretty laughable, and even vaguely insulting in their imperialist interpretation of more naturalistic societies (of course, this is probably reading entirely too much into a few episodes of Doctor Who). This isn’t too uncommon for the series (i.e., excellent principle actors and really bad supporting cast), but this one is even worse than most.

The DVD provides a commentary with Baker himself, which is always entertaining. There’s also the standard slew of production notes available during the run of the episodes and the character and cast information. The extras throughout the Who collection have been stellar, and this one is no different. A shame none of them shed more light on the choice of this story. Throwing pearls before swine, and all that.

I really hate to say it, having been brought into the Who fold only recently and singularly impressed with pretty much all the other stories, but this one’s not worth the time. Even if you were following the Key to Time cycle, you’d be best off skipping to volume six and inventing your own imaginary story in which the fifth segment was recovered. I suppose when you’re on the air for nearly thirty years, there are bound to be some soft spots. Most of these weaker stories will likely never see DVD treatment, but when you want to do a massive multi-story set like this one, you have to include the good and the bad.