|
The Power of Kroll Format Reviewed: DVD Review The penultimate adventure in the somewhat legendary Key to Time season is The Power of Kroll. When viewing the season, it is hard to take a story out of it and watch it as a stand-alone adventure, as the central theme is always inextricably linked with the other episodes in the season. If you are choosing one story to watch of an evening, it may therefore be best not to select a Key to Time adventure, unless it is viewed in context with the surrounding stories. The fifth segement of the Key to Time is traced to the third moon of Delta Magna, where The Doctor and Romana are instantly attacked and separated. Romana is captured by native 'Swampies', and The Doctor is taken to a refinery harvesting local resources. Hearing the native sacrificial drums, The Doctor leaves the refinery and rescues Romana from the sacrifice. The refinery staff notice however that the entire seabed is shifting. The Swampies are preparing to attack the refinery, aided by Rohm-Dutt, a Human gun runner, but they stop when an enormous squid appears and goes to attack the refinery itself. This is the Swampies god Kroll, and they plan to sacrifice Rohm-Dutt, identified as a traitor, and The Doctor and Romana to it. They escape however, but Rohm-Dutt is killed by a giant tentacle in the swamp. Back at the refinery, Thawn is planning a missile strike to kill Kroll, but The Doctor disables the missile. The Swampies then attack the refinery, and Thawn is killed, but The Doctor uses the tracer on Kroll and it changes into the fifth segment of the Key to Time, and they leave. This adventure uses what is essentially a tried and trusted formula for the story. Primitive natives with mystical beliefs, outsiders exploiting the local resources with an alien element thrown in that on The Doctor can seemingly solve. This plot could be transposed onto most settings, and is nothing innovative whatsoever, so the only consideration here is how well this formula is expanded upon in the sotry. We have a giant squid that is the twist, as it is providing the minerals to exploit as well as the myth for the natives and the alien element for The Doctor to solve. Again, this could have been anything, but the squid provides some good differences here. There is not a lot for regular cast member Mary Tamm as Romana to do here, but what she does have she performs well in. Her austere quality is very refreshing after the typical screaming of most of her predecessors. Tom Baker is largely complete as The Doctor at this time, and it is hard to criticise anything he does with the role during these stories. This is around his real height, and it is not without merit that he is generally described as the most popular actor to have played Doctor Who. The guest cast is again thin on the ground, with refinery staff Neil McCarthy and Philip Madoc as Thawn and Fenner respectively do well. Glyn Owen is excellent as Rohm-Dutt, and it is a shame his character could not have been further expanded. There are several credits given to the actors playing the Swampies, and all do OK in difficult roles. The Swampies are essentially primitive tribes forced to deal with advanced technology, and this is a difficult role to have. The success or otherwise of a story is generally whether it captures the imagination or not of the viewer. The Power of Kroll both achieves this and doesn't in different ways. The interest is there, and the viewer is kept interested, but I don't believe it has another important element, fun. This does not mean laughs, but scares can be fun along with other elements. The story then just seems to be one that happens, a stepping stone in the Key to Time season, an event that moves the season on by a sixth. The story is OK, but it doesn't stand out as good or bad, just there. Overall, The Power of Kroll uses a tried and trusted formula for the plot, and has some interesting features that do keep the viewer watching throughout. The story however never really gets exciting, and the level of fun is low so the story largely becomes OK, not good, not bad, but OK, and this is it's main failing. Rating:  |