The Krotons (TV story)

The Krotons was the fourth story of Season 6 of Doctor Who. Future script editor Robert Holmes penned this story, his first for the series.

Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on the unnamed planet of the Gonds, who are ruled and taught in a form of self-perpetuating slavery by the alien Krotons - crystalline beings whose ship, the Dynatrope, crash-landed there thousands of years ago after being damaged in a space battle.

The Krotons are at present in suspended animation, in a crystalline slurry form, awaiting a time when they can be reconstituted by absorption of mental energy. Periodically, the two most brilliant Gond students are received into the Dynatrope, apparently to become 'companions of the Krotons' but in truth to have their mental energy drained, after which they are killed.

When the Doctor and Zoe take the students' test, their mental power is sufficient to reanimate the Krotons. The Doctor discovers that their life system is based on tellurium and, with help from the Gond scientist Beta; he is then able to destroy them and their ship using an impure form of sulphuric acid.

Part I
On the unnamed planet of the Gonds, a selection is taking place. Selris, who is the leader of the council, reads out the names on a piece of paper left in the message hole. He announces the names: "Abugond" and "Vanagond". They have been chosen to become companions of the Krotons. The man Abu steps into a machine. In a wasteland behind their city, the TARDIS materialises. At once, Jamie complains about the smell of rotten eggs. After a short walk, they find a city while Jamie has wandered off and found a door which opens to reveal a very disoriented Abu. Poison jet streams shoot out from behind the door which vaporises him. The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie rush of to the city for an explanation. Back at the selection, a young man by the name of Thara is trying to stop his fellow Gonds from putting Vana into the machine. When the time traveling team arrive, they see Thara concede and Vana walk into the machine. Hurriedly, they rush back to the Wasteland to save her from the poison jets. When they arrive, the Doctor plugs up the poison jet holes and takes out his umbrella. As Vana steps out of the machine (quite disoriented) the Doctor pushes her out of the way, shielding themselves with his umbrella. The rocks give way and destroy the umbrella. Vana does not recongnise anything. She is almost braindead. The team along with Thara take him back to his father, who happens to be Selris's house. Selris tells a story of how the Krotons came to their land. When they first came, the Gonds attacked them. They then caused poisonous rain to fall creating the wasteland. Since then, the Krotons have never come out of the machine. A band of students, led by Thara lead an attack in the Learning Hall where they were earlier. The Krotons deliver knowledge to the students through teaching machines. Their ambition it to bring the Krotons out of the machine to defend the teaching machines. A voice tells them to leave when the Doctor turns up and tries to persuade them to stop. A computer inside the machine sees the Doctor talking. With an inoperative sound unit, the computer mistakes him for their leader. And sends a machine to destroy him.

Part II
The Doctor shields his face causing the machine to stop its attack. Zoe works out that the machine operates using pattern recognition. The pattern being the Doctor's face. And that it was sent out to kill the Doctor and only the Doctor. During the explanation, the Doctor has uncovered his face and the machine continued its attack. They duck and the machine vaporises the man behind them. The machine retracts thinking it has completed its mission.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * Jamie McCrimmon - Frazer Hines
 * Zoe Heriot - Wendy Padbury
 * Abu - Terence Brown
 * Axus - Richard Ireson
 * Beta - James Cairncross
 * Custodian - Maurice Selwyn
 * Eelek - Philip Madoc
 * Kroton - Robert La'Bassiere
 * Kroton - Miles Northover
 * Kroton Voice - Roy Skelton
 * Kroton Voice - Patrick Tull
 * Selris - James Copeland
 * Student - Bronson Shaw
 * Thara - Gilbert Wynne
 * Vana - Madeleine Mills

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - David Tilley
 * Costumes - Bobi Bartlett
 * Designer - Raymond London
 * Film Cameraman - Alan Jonas
 * Film Editor - Martyn Day
 * Make-Up - Sylvia James
 * Producer - Peter Bryant
 * Production Assistant - Edwina Verner
 * Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
 * Special Sounds - Brian Hodgson
 * Studio Lighting - Howard King
 * Studio Sound - John Holmes
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - Bill King

Story Notes

 * A preliminary outline for the story, then entitled The Trap, was submitted for Season 2, but it was rejected because the robots were deemed too similar to the Mechanoids, then set to feature in DW: The Chase.   Three years later, Holmes re-submitted the outline as The Space-Trap to a more receptive new production team.  The script — under the name The Space Trap — was actually commissioned for delivery in 1969, probably to be the penultimate story of Season 6.  However, because Holmes had completed the scripts early, the story  could go into production in late 1968 when a Dick Sharples story, The Amazons (later known as The Prison in Space), fell by the wayside.
 * All episodes of this serial exist in 35 mm telerecording negative
 * This was repeated as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who.
 * This is the first collaboration between writer Robert Holmes and script editor Terrance Dicks. It was only Dicks' second story in that capacity.  In a neat bit of symmetry, Horror of Fang Rock was one of script editor Robert Holmes' last stories, written by Terrance Dicks.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 9.0 million viewers
 * Episode 2 - 8.4 million viewers
 * Episode 3 - 7.5 million viewers
 * Episode 4 - 7.1 million viewers

Myths

 * The Krotons were the winning entry in a Blue Peter 'design a monster' competition. (One of the winning entries in a Blue Peter 'design a monster competition, the 'Aqua-Man', resembled a cardboard box with legs and arms - similar to the Krotons' appearance.)

Filming Locations

 * West of England Quarry and the Tank Quarry in Malvern, Worcestershire
 * Ealing Television Film Studios, Ealing Green, Ealing
 * Lime Grove Studios (Studio D), Lime Grove, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * The first shot is of a sliding door refusing to open.
 * Beta is magically transported from place to place.

Continuity

 * When the Doctor hypnotizes Vana he at first uses a stopwatch, much as his third, fourth and sixth selves would later do. However in the later moments of the process, seen at right, he appears to use his hands in a "significant" manner.  It is possible to interpret this last stage of the hypnosis process as the Doctor giving the process an extra psychic "nudge".
 * It might be a limited form of the more extensive "mind-meld" heavily used by the Tenth Doctor.


 * The Krotons appear in EDA: Alien Bodies which greatly fleshes out Kroton history, biology and origins. They also return to battle the Sixth Doctor and Charley Pollard in BFA: Return of the Krotons.  Further examination of the Gond has, as of 2008 not been undertaken in any medium.


 * The Second Doctor's affinity for umbrellas in this story prefigures the Seventh Doctor's obsession with them. Indeed, the umbrella in this story is key to saving the Doctor and Vana's lives, perhaps suggesting why the Seventh Doctor seemed to find them so useful.

Timeline

 * This story occurs after ST: The Avant Guardian
 * This story occurs before DWM: Land of the Blind

DVD and Video Releases

 * Released on video as "The Krotons" in episodic format in 1991.

Novelisation

 * Main article: The Krotons (novelisation)


 * Novelised as The Krotons by Terrance Dicks published in June 1985.
 * The Doctor's claim that he is "not a doctor of medicine" is repeated, followed by the omniscient narrator describing this reply "a little unfair[...], since he was in fact a doctor of almost everything."