The Krotons (TV story)

The Krotons was the fourth story of Season 6 of Doctor Who. It was the first story penned by future script editor Robert Holmes, whose prolific contributions to the series would create or contribute to many key elements of the programme's mythology.

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 earlier after being damaged in a space battle.

The Krotons are 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, nominally 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. With help from the Gond scientist Beta, he destroys them and their ship with 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, Thara objects desperately begs Vana not to go. The Gonds argue with him. She has been selected for the highest honour. Those companions who have gone before have never been seen nor heard from again. The Gond leader Selris, Thara's father, is resolute, stating that Kroton law dictates that she must.

The Doctor's TARDIS lands in a desolate area nearby. Jamie immediately notes the strong odour of sulphur whilst the Doctor states that the planet has twin suns. 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. Jamie noticed that the smell is stronger. The Doctor is cautious. He identifies the structure as a machine and wants to head back to the TARDIS. As they head off the door opens and they hide as a dazed and weary Abu emerges from the hatchway. Before their horrified eyes, he is evaporated by blasts of energy.



Thara and Selris argue over Vana’s selection. Thara questions if the Krotons even exist. Thara draws a weapon and is soon surrounded by Gonds. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe enter the city. They are regarded with suspicion; the Gonds have never met strangers before and the area where they landed, the Wasteland, is believed uninhabitable. Meanwhile the stand off between Thara and the Gonds continue. Vana wants to go through the door in order to protect Thara. He relents. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe watch this and the Doctor tries to stop it, thinking it some kind of sacrifice. The Gonds seize the Doctor and his colleagues for stopping their ritual. As a particularly hotheaded young man named Axus fights with Jamie, Vana rushes into the Kroton machine. Jamie wins the fight with Axus. Selris interrogates the Doctor and his colleagues. The Doctor’s description of the death of Abu shocks the crowd. As does the revelation that they have been in the Wasteland. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe rush back to the Wasteland to rescue Vana, followed by Thara.

They all reach the door. The Doctor sets about finding stones and starts blocking the energy beams with rocks. They hide. Soon Vana appears and swoons. The Doctor swoops in with his umbrella up to save her. The gas knocks the stones free which causes the Doctor's umbrella to disintegrate but everyone is safe. Vana is near-catatonic. They all set off for Selris' house. Back in the city, the Doctor tends to Vana through hypnosis. Selris tries to make sense of what is happening. Have they always been murdering the selected Gonds. The Krotons, he says, have not been seen for thousands of years.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. Thara and a band of students sneak into the Learning Hall and interrogate the Curator for information about the Krotons. The Curator states he is forbidden to tell and that they only communicate through messages and, very occasionally, voice. They decide to fetch the Krotons out by smashing their teaching machines. The Doctor and his colleagues learn that the Krotons created the teaching machines to train the Gonds on the laws, science and culture that require their top students to become companions; the Doctor notes this is a form of self-perpetuating slavery. Selris panics about what this means for his society. Beta, their chief scientist, arrives and tells Selris of Thara's actions. Selris worries he will not reach the Learning Hall in time; however the Doctor states that they can cross through the Wasteland. Selris is reluctant but soon relents.

Thara and his gang vandalise the Kroton teaching machines to force them to emerge. They are stopped by a bellowing, mechanical voice ordering them to leave the hall. Thara wants to push on to bring the Krotons out. The Doctor, Selris and everyone else arrive and unarm the vandals and reason with them. Somewhere inside the machine, a check is run on the Doctor.

In the Learning Hall a portal opens and a metallic, snake-like object emerges and moves towards the group. Inside the machine all screens display an image of the Doctor.

The probe homes in on the Doctor who backs away. The Doctor falls and covers his face as the machine bears in...

Episode two


The device stops when the Doctor shields his face. Zoe notes that the device must use pattern recognition. This is confirmed when the Doctor deliberately lowers his hands momentarily and it comes back to life. A student attacks the device, which vaporises him and then retracts into the Kroton machine. The Doctor notes the apparently limited logic of the device's programming; it seems to think it has completed its task of destroying him. Thara wants to continue destroying the machines but Selris stops him. The bellowing mechanical voice returns, ordering them to leave the hall. Selris orders the Gonds back.

The Doctor checks up on Vana. She is getting better. The Doctor and Zoe note the large gaps in the Gonds' knowledge. They have a great knowledge of chemistry and medicine but no knowledge of electricity. The Krotons apparently are training the Gonds for a specific purpose. They leave Jamie to care for Vana to go and look round the Learning Hall. Selris says he will come with them.

The Doctor, Zoe and Selris enter the Learning Hall. The Doctor investigates a closed-off chamber running under the Kroton machine and he and Selris go to investigate. Left alone, Zoe's curiosity forces her to experiment with the learning machines. She becomes enthralled as she operates it. The Doctor and Selris come back saying it is only the foundations of the machine; however the Doctor has noticed something is peculiar. Before he has a chance to explain what he notices Zoe on the machine and pulls her off it and berates her. Zoe has a big smile on her face and says that the Krotons are happy with her. The Doctor tries to snap her out of this brainwashed state. Selris notices that she has registered twice as high as the record for a Gond score.

Vana wakes up. She begins to babble about a "burning ball." Thara tries to calm her but she continues to talk about "flashing lights" and her "burning mind." She briefly recognises Thara but then goes back into her reverie. Jamie gives her some pills the Doctor gave him which send her back to sleep. Jamie leaves to tell the Doctor of the situation.

The Doctor and Zoe are inspecting one of the walls in the Gond city and find it covered in some kind of crystalline substance. The Doctor states that underground he found that the machine's foundation had a root structure; suggesting the Kroton machine may be organic. A gong sounds and a message from the Krotons is delivered. Zoe has been summoned to be a companion of the Krotons. The Doctor takes the test himself so as to accompany her. He does not perform as well as Zoe; scoring higher but requiring more questions. The Doctor comes away from the machine stating that he is happy he has pleased the Krotons; before realising he too is becoming brainwashed. The gong sounds again and the Doctor has been summoned also. The door opens. The Doctor and Zoe have lost a bit of their bravery but edge their way in. As the door closes, Jamie enters and sees his two friends enter the dangerous machine.



The Doctor and Jamie find the interior chamber empty, save for two chairs. They sit and are subjected to a force generator that keeps the, glued to the spot. The Doctor asks Zoe to hold onto the other end of a chain which may equalise the power load and save them. The machine lights up and bears down on them.

Jamie is furious with Selris for allowing the Doctor and Zoe to enter the machine. He tries to get in.

The Doctor and Zoe struggle against the machine. They succeed and awake. Zoe notes that the device must convert mental power into energy. They see some bubbling tanks and realise that whereas the Gonds' mental energy was insufficient, their mental energy set the tanks into operation. The Doctor takes a sample and realises that it is a crystalline slurry for making life. Zoe discovers some pipes on the floor, similar to an astronaut's airlines. They notice something forming in the tanks. As it starts to climb out the Doctor and Zoe escape. As they do two Krotons, crystalline bipeds, plug themselves into the airlines and watch them on their scanners.

Outside Jamie is still trying to get in. He moves off in search of a crowbar.

The Krotons wander why the Doctor and Zoe are not following the same pattern as the other Gonds. They speculate as to whether the conditioning is failing.

The Doctor and Zoe make their way through an elaborate series of pipes and find a photo-electronic circuit that should open the door, however it has been disabled. The Doctor uses a piece of metal he has with him to complete the circuit manually. They door opens but they realise that they are on the cusp of where the deadly gas vaporises the Gonds.

The Krotons watch the reasoning of these Gonds in shock.

Zoe decides to risk it but they should drop down the side of the ramp and escape that way. They do so.

The Krotons decide to keep monitoring the Doctor and Zoe whilst also ordering the Gonds to bring them back. They speculate that they are not Gonds. They look in the Learning Hall and see Jamie attempting to enter. He is also not a Gond but another Gond, Selris, is watching on. They speculate the Gonds are working in alliance with a new race. They decide to take Jamie.

The door opens. Jamie, armed with the crowbar enters. He is immediately gripped by a Kroton. They test his mind. The machine starts and Jamie is paralysed. He tries to resist. The Krotons realise he has a primitive brain. They state that the machine will destroy him if he does. Jamie slumps to the ground...

Episode three
One of the Krotons determines that Jamie may be able to provide information about the Doctor and Zoe and turns off 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 taught the Gonds only what they want for them to know. Beta bemoans the inability of the Gonds to think for themselves. Eelek is impatient to act against the Krotons. He also covets Selris's position.

A Kroton leaves the machine, which they call the Dynatrope, to destroy the TARDIS, intending to trap the Doctor and Zoe on the planet. The other Kroton offers directions to its blind companion.

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

Meanwhile the Doctor and Zoe have retrieved items from the TARDIS and collected 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 soon after the Kroton returns to the Dynatrope, the TARDIS re-materialises. The Doctor 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. Selris and Beta dismiss it 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. He hurries off to the learning hall, stopping off at Beta's lab to leave the sulphur and instructions. His alarm heightens when he realises Jamie may still be in the Dynatrope. The Doctor enters the underchamber yelling for them to stop. Their efforts cause a massive rockfall. Some of the rubble falls on the Doctor...

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 damaged slightly, 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 escapes by his own ingenuity, to the Doctor and Zoe's delight. Jamie assists Beta with making sulphuric acid. While Eelek and Selris argue over leadership, a Kroton emerges from the Dynatrope, demanding the two high-brains (the Doctor and Zoe) be returned. Their minds are needed to produce 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 out of existence 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 them, Zoe dumps the acid into the crystal slurry tank, poisoning the Krotons. Meanwhile, Beta and Jamie reach the clifftop and pour the vat of acid over the Dynatrope, dissolving it. The Gonds rejoice at their freedom. Thara intends to fill his father's hereditary post as leader instead of the disgraced Eelek. Beta anticipates learning more from the Doctor. However, he finds that the travellers have left.

In the Wasteland, the TARDIS dematerialises.

Cast

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

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

The Doctor

 * The Doctor flatly states he isn't a doctor of medicine.

Science

 * Hydrogen telluride is referred to as being the worst smell in the world.

TARDIS

 * The Doctor sets the HADS (Hostile Action Displacement System) on the TARDIS.

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 The Chase.   Three years later, Holmes re-submitted the outline as The Space-Trap to a new, more receptive production team.  The script — under the name The Space Trap — was actually commissioned for delivery in 1969, probably for the penultimate story of Season 6.  However, because Holmes had completed the scripts early, the story went into production in late 1968 when a Dick Sharples story, Prison in Space, fell by the wayside.
 * All episodes of this serial exist in 35mm telerecording negative.
 * This story was repeated on BBC2 on consecutive evenings from Monday 9 to Thursday 12 November 1981 as part of the repeat season 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 one - 9.0 million viewers
 * Episode two - 8.4 million viewers
 * Episode three - 7.5 million viewers
 * Episode four - 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 three.
 * Jamie collides with Zoe whilst climbing in episode one, and in the same scene her knickers are briefly visible.
 * The first shot is of a sliding door refusing to open.

Continuity

 * The Krotons appear in PROSE: Alien Bodies, which greatly fleshes out Kroton history, biology and origins. They also return to battle the Sixth Doctor and Charley Pollard in AUDIO: Return of the Krotons. Further examination of the Gond has,, not been undertaken in any medium.
 * The Eleventh Doctor sets up the HADS before his encounter with the Ice Warrior Skaldak. (TV: Cold War)

DVD releases

 * This story was released on DVD in the UK on 2 July 2012. The DVD extras include:
 * Audio Commentary with actors Philip Madoc (Eelek), Richard Ireson (Axus) and Gilbert Wynne (Thara), assistant floor manager David Tilley, make-up designer Sylvia James, costume designer Bobi Bartlett, and special sounds designer Brian Hodgson, moderated by Toby Hadoke.
 * Second Time Around - Retrospective documentary on Patrick Troughton's tenure as the Second Doctor
 * Doctor Who Stories - Frazer Hines - From an interview recorded in 2003 for the BBC's Story of Doctor Who
 * The Doctor's Strange Love - Fans' point of view with writers Joseph Lidster and Simon Guerrier
 * Photo Gallery
 * PDF materials: Radio Times listings
 * Production Notes Subtitle Option
 * Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Digital releases

 * Released in standard definition as a collection of Doctor Who: The Classic Series, this story is available for purchase as a full story or as individual episodes.
 * This story was also released in standard definition as part of the Doctor Who: The Classic Series collection Doctor Who: The Best of The Second Doctor, which additionally includes the stories The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Ice Warriors, and The Seeds of Death. This story is available for purchase with the whole best-of collection or as individual episodes.
 * The story is also available for streaming in the US through Hulu Plus or Amazon Instant Video in the UK.

VHS releases

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