The Krotons: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Krotons: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 229
STORY NUMBER: 047
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 04 January 1969
FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO REPEAT: Tuesday 10 November 1981
WRITER: Robert Holmes
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
RATINGS: 8.4 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Krotons

"Whatever else they are, these Krotons are certainly not friendly!"

The Doctor realises the eye is working on pattern recognition fixed on his face. When one of the Gonds attacks the machine and is gassed, the Doctor realises that the "stupid machine mistook him for me". The Gongs ordered out of learning hall by the machine. The Doctor & Zoe realise that there are gaps in the Gonds knowledge: they use solar energy but have no knowledge of chemistry. They decide to visit the learning hall, but on the way the Doctor finds that there are chambers under the hall and goes to have a look. Zoe uses the learning machines and passes the tests with the highest scores ever recorded. She says Krotons were pleased with her. Vana wakes and is distraught, talking of a flashing ball burning her mind. The Doctor says the foundations of the machine were like a root structure, and speculates if the machine is organic, a living thing. Zoegond (Zoe) is summoned by Krotons to be a companion. The Doctor takes the test too, and feels that the Krotons were pleased with him. He too passes and Doctorgond too is summoned as a companion. The Doctor and Zoe enter machine just as Jamie arrives to stop them. Inside it becomes apparent that the machine is a spaceship. The Doctor and Zoe sit down, where they are restrained by a forcefield. A glowing ball appears subjecting the travellers to a painful bright light and a level in a machine rises. When the gauge reaches a certain level two tanks start to bubble. The Doctor and Zoe wake drained, theorising that the machine has transferred their mental powers into energy for it's own purposes. The tanks bubble away attracting their attention. The Doctor takes a sample of the liquid, which he thinks is slurry composed of suspended crystals. A form begins to coalesce in each of the tanks. Jamie tries to enter the Krotons' machine to help his friends. Awakening the Krotons search for the missing "Gonds", the Doctor and Zoe, who have left the control chamber and are trying to escape. The Doctor opens the ship's rear door. They jump out to the sides of the door to avoid the gas guns which the Krotons refer to as he dispersion unit. The Krotons track them and decide to order the Gongs to trap them. The Krotons see Jamie on their screen and realise he's not a Gond so admit him to the machine. His mind is tested, but he is ruled to not be a high brain but a primitive at which point the Krotons state the power will kill him.

Oh that's lovely that is. The Doctor scolds Zoe for playing with the teaching machine, but I suspect using the Teaching Machines to gain access to the Krotons was on his mind all along as is obvious by the way he leaves Jamie behind giving him a not 100% satisfactory explanation.

SELRIS: How is she, Doctor?
DOCTOR: Well I think she's better. It's difficult to tell. Selris, is it safe to enter the Learning Hall yet?
SELRIS: Why?
DOCTOR: Zoe and I want to have a look round, don't we, Zoe?
ZOE: Oh, do we?
DOCTOR: Yes, that's right. Jamie, hold out your hand, will you?
JAMIE: What for?
DOCTOR: These pills I got from Beta.
JAMIE: There's nothing wrong with me.
DOCTOR: No, no. They're for Vana. I want you to stay and look after her.
JAMIE: Oh, now why can't I go with you?
DOCTOR: Because I particularly want you to give her those pills the moment she wakes up.
JAMIE: Ah, well.
ZOE: Well, why are we going back to the Learning Hall?
DOCTOR: To learn, Zoe. Why else?

Our Jamie isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer as evidenced by his assessment by the Krotons later!

KROTON 1: Have you damaged it?
KROTON 2: No. It is alive. Animal tissue is weak.
KROTON 1: It is recovering. Test its mind.
KROTON 2: This is not a high-brain. It is a primitive!

However even Jamie can see the Doctor's up to something ....

JAMIE: Zoe, watch him. You know what he's like.
ZOE: Oh don't worry, Jamie. I'll make sure he doesn't do anything rash.

Our first glimpse of the Krotons is of something bubbling away in a tank of fluid.

We're then teased with a metallic claw emerging from the tank, followed by a shot of their bodies before we see their heads.

However you never get to see all the Kroton at once! Script Editor Terrance Dicks has made no secret for his dislike of the Monsters in this story and for many years they were rumoured top be the winner of a Blue Peter Design A Monster competition, which Patrick Troughton helped to judge, but this just isn't true. Nowadays Blue Peter have contributed not just a monster to the series, the Asorbalof in Love & Monsters, but a Tardis console as well in The Doctor's Wife! I suspect Dicks' dislike for them may have been shared by some of the rest of the production team, hence keeping them concealed. I don't mind them, the heads and bodies look quite imposing. Maybe the arms could be better but the only thing that's really wrong is the rubber skirt, concealed throughout this episode.

The Krotons are played by Miles Northover, who was a Man Carrying Caskets in The Invasion Episode 3, and Robert La Bassiere, who appears as Cmdr. Bill Jackson in two episodes of Moonbase 3, Departure and Arrival & Behemoth. Their voices are supplied by two actors: Roy Skelton is a frequent voice artist for the series who we've already heard as Monoids in The Ark, Cybermen in The Tenth Planet & Wheel in Space, Daleks in Evil of the Daleks and the computer in The Ice Warrior. The other voice comes from Patrick Tull. Like several of the cast of this story he has a Dad's Army to his name playing The Suspect in Man Hunt.

James Copeland as plays the Gond council leader Selris. He also has a Dad's Army episode to his name appearing in Operation Kilt as Captain Ogilvie. This episode, along with The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage, was missing from the BBC archives for many years before being returned in 2001. His Out of the Unknown appearances have been less fortunate however. The audio for Beach Head, in which he plays Oliver MacDonald, survives and was reconstructed for the Out of the Unknown DVD Set but nothing remains of the final broadcast episode of the series, The Shattered Eye, in which he plays Randall.

Selris' son Thara is played by Gilbert Wynne. His return to the world of Doctor Who came many years later when he played an Old Man in The Gathering, the penultimate episode of the fourth Torchwood series Miracle Day

Episodes 2 & 3 of The Krotons existed as 16mm prints at the BBC in 1978 when Ian Levine visited the Film & Video library. I'll be honest: this episode looked rubbish when I saw it on VHS. As to why .... well some internet comments on the creation of the Krotons DVD might throw some light on the matter!

ClassicDW (Dan Hall) said

Restoration work on The Krotons going better than expected, thanks to help from @BFI providing original negs for selected eps

which Steve Roberts of the Restoration Team translates as

Or to put it another way, "Restoration work on The Krotons ground to a dismal halt when it was discovered that half of the BBC negatives were poor quality dupes, thank **** the BFI hold the originals instead!"

At the time I said

I await the forthcoming crystal clear DVD with interest.

Indeed viewing this episode now it looks much, much better than it did before!