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 Second 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.

Episode one
On the planet of the Gonds, a ceremony is underway. The two brightest students, Abu and Vana, have been selected to become companions of the Gonds' unseen masters, the Krotons. As Abu eagerly dons his selection robes and enters the Krotons' machine, Vana’s lover Thara desperately begs her not to go, as those companions who have gone before have never been seen again. Gond leader Selris, Thara's father, is resolute, stating that Kroton law dictates that she must. The TARDIS lands in a desolate area nearby. Jamie immediately notes the strong odour of sulphur, and Zoe suggests that they depart, but the Doctor opts to explore. From a clifftop they see the Gond city below. They encounter a metallic crystalline structure with a hatchway similar to the one in the city. The Doctor is cautious, identifying the structure as a machine, and they hide as a dazed and weary Abu emerges from the hatchway. Before their horrified eyes, he is evaporated by blasts of energy.

As Thara and Selris argue over Vana’s selection, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe enter the city. They are regarded with suspicion; the Gonds have never encountered strangers before, and the area where they landed, the Wasteland, is believed to be uninhabitable. As a particularly hotheaded young man fights with Jamie, Vana rushes into the Kroton machine. The Doctor’s description of the death of Abu sends shock waves through the crowd. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe rush back to the Wasteland to rescue Vana, followed by Thara. They block the energy beams with rocks and pull her away as she stumbles from the machine. She is near-catatonic.

Back in the city, the Doctor tends to Vana as Selris attempts to make sense of what is happening. The Krotons, he says, have long been the Gonds’ benefactors, providing them with knowledge. The Kroton machine landed on the planet thousands of years earlier, and the ensuing war nearly annihilated the Gonds and ruined the landscape. Since then, the Krotons have never left their machine, but created the teaching machines to train the Gonds, and the laws that require their top students to become companions; the Doctor notes this to be a form of self-perpetuating slavery.

Thara and a band of students sneak into the Learning Hall and vandalise the Kroton teaching machines to force them to emerge. They are stopped by a bellowing mechanical voice ordering them to leave the hall. As the Doctor and Selris reason with the vandals, a portal opens and a metallic snakelike object emerges and homes in on the Doctor.

Episode two
The device stops when the Doctor shields his face. Zoe notes that the device must utilise pattern recognition, which is confirmed when the Doctor deliberately lowers his hands momentarily, causing it to come back to life. A student attacks the device, which vaporises him and then retracts back into the Kroton machine. The Doctor notes the apparently limited logic of the device's programming; it appeared to think it had completed its task of destroying him. The bellowing mechanical voice returns, ordering them to leave the hall. They obey.

The Doctor and Zoe note the large gaps in the Gonds' knowledge; the Krotons apparently are training the Gonds for a specific purpose. They leave Jamie to care for Vana and enter the Learning Hall to investigate the teaching machines for themselves. On the way, the Doctor investigates a closed-off chamber running under the Kroton machine, and discovers that the machine's foundation resembles a root structure mentioned — could the Kroton machine be organic? When he returns, he is horrified to see Zoe operating a learning machine. She earns a score twice as high as any Gond, much to Selris's amazement, and is almost immediately summoned to be a Kroton companion. The Doctor takes the test himself; not performing as well as Zoe (scoring higher but requiring more questions) but nonetheless well enough to also be promptly selected. They enter the Kroton machine and find the interior chamber empty, save for two chairs. They sit and are subjected to a force device which activates a pair of tanks filled with a crystalline slurry. Zoe notes that the device converts mental power into energy. They see the tanks and realise that whereas the Gonds' mental energy was insufficient, their mental energy triggered the tanks into operation. Two Krotons, crystalline bipeds, are formed out of the slurry and awaken.

The Doctor and Zoe escape from the Machine's rear exit, eluding the blasters, while Jamie breaks in through the front. The Krotons note that the Doctor and Zoe are not Gonds, and resolve to recapture them. Jamie, who the Krotons believe to be a Gond, is captured and subjected to the mental probe. They note that he is not a 'high-brain;' consequently the power of the mental probe will destroy him.

Episode three
One of the Krotons determines that Jamie may be able to provide information about the Doctor and Zoe, and ceases the mind probe. They track the Doctor and Zoe as they head toward the TARDIS, and interrogate Jamie as he awakens, learning that they are travellers in space and time.

A group of Gonds, led by Security chief Eelek, approaches scientist Beta about how to attack the Krotons, now that the Doctor and Zoe are presumed dead. Beta is reluctant, not out of fear as Eelek infers, but out of a lack of knowledge. The Krotons have only taught the Gonds what they intend for them to know, and Beta bemoans the inability of the Gonds to think for themselves. Eelek is impatient to act against the Krotons; additionally he covets Selris's position for himself.

A Kroton leaves the machine (which they call the Dynatrope) to destroy the TARDIS, intending to trap the Doctor and Zoe on the planet, while the other Kroton provides directional information to its otherwise blind companion.

Thara is also resentful at Selris's apparent inaction. Although Selris considers the Krotons to be enemies, he is more cautious about how to fight back than Eelek. He doubts Eelek's intentions, seeing his ambition as more of a power grab. At the council meeting, he is alarmed to discover than in his absence they voted to elect Eelek as leader. He reminds Eelek that they still have no more weapons to fight back with than they did when the Krotons first arrived, and the resulting wasteland is still desolate thousands of years later.

Meanwhile the Doctor and Zoe have retrieved some items from the TARDIS, and collect sulphurous rocks from the Wasteland. The Kroton captures them, but when Jamie attacks the other Kroton, it is disoriented and they escape. The other Kroton must ignore Jamie to provide directional data, and instructs the Kroton to destroy the TARDIS. The Kroton fires a dispersion jet; Zoe is horrified when the mist clears and the TARDIS is gone, but shortly after the Kroton returns to the Dynatrope the TARDIS re-materialises. The Doctor had turned on the HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System) before leaving, and they return to the Gond city.

Eelek and his men prepare to attack the Dynatrope directly, a plan Selris and Beta dismiss as suicide. Selris has his own plan, which he shares with Beta, to attack the support pillars under the Dynatrope (accessible via the closed chamber in the Learning Hall). He hopes the attack will force the Krotons to emerge so they can be attacked directly.

The Doctor and Zoe return to find Thara with the recovered Vana, preparing to leave the evacuated city. The Doctor is alarmed when Thara informs him of Selris's plan, and he hurries off to the learning hall, stopping off at Beta's lab to leave the sulphur and some instructions for him to follow. His alarm heightens when he realises Jamie may still be in the Dynatrope. The Doctor enters the underchamber yelling for them to stop, as their efforts cause a massive rockfall.

Episode four
The Doctor is shaken but otherwise unhurt, though several Gonds are injured, including Thara. The Krotons struggle to stabilize the Dynatrope, which is slightly damaged, while Jamie attempts to escape. Vana provides the Doctor with a small sample of Beta's sulphuric acid. The Doctor is horrified to learn that Jamie is indeed in the Dynatrope, though he manages to escape due to his own ingenuity to the Doctor and Zoe's delight. Jamie assists Beta with creating the sulphuric acid. While Eelek and Selris argue over leadership a Kroton emerges from the Dynatrope, demanding that the two high-brains (the Doctor and Zoe) be returned. Their minds are needed to produce the energy to repair the drive mechanism, and the Dynatrope is quickly running out of energy. The opportunistic Eelek realises that if they are captured, the Krotons will leave, though Selris suspects that the Krotons will destroy the Gonds regardless. Eelek and his men capture the Doctor and Zoe and force them into the Dynatrope. Selris takes a bottle of Beta's acid and leaps through the closing hatchway, passing it to the Doctor before being blasted by a Kroton.

The Doctor realises that if the Dynatrope's energy is exhausted, the resulting explosion will destroy the city as well. While he stalls and distracts them, Zoe dumps the acid into the crystal slurry tank, fatally poisoning the Krotons. Meanwhile, Beta and Jamie reach the clifftop and pour the vat of acid over the Dynatrope, causing it to dissolve. The Gonds rejoice at their freedom. Thara intends to fill his father's hereditary post as leader in place of the disgraced Eelek. As Beta looks forward to learning more from the Doctor, however, he finds that the travellers have gone.

In the Wasteland, the TARDIS dematerialises.

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. 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 35mm telerecording negative
 * This story was repeated as part of The Five Faces of Doctor Who as it was, at that time, the only complete four-part Patrick Troughton story available in the BBC Archives.
 * 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

Production errors

 * Beta is simultaneously in his lab AND underneath the Learning Hall at the end of Episode 3.
 * Jamie collides with Zoe whilst climbing in Episode 1, and in the same scene her knickers are briefly visible.

Continuity

 * When the Doctor hypnotises Vana he uses a stopwatch at first, 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 2011, 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 BFA: Prison in Space
 * This story occurs before DWM: Land of the Blind

Home video and audio releases

 * This story was released on video as The Krotons in episodic format in 1991.