Holistic Review: The unique marsh setting, home to a gargantuan ravenous squid, infuses every aspect of The Power of Kroll, yielding a thematically cohesive plot with loads of visual interest (especially if you've never met a split-screen effect you didn't like).
Despite being written by Robert Holmes, The Power of Kroll is often panned by fandom. Fair enough; I myself am not a massive fan of his previous effort, The Ribos Operation. But personally speaking, The Power of Kroll has always floated my boat (ha, no pun intended, honest). In fact, I've always counted it among my three favorite stories in the Key to Time season. So I was surprised to find that watching it through my review lens actually did make me reassess it, both downwards and upwards.
One prominent element of the story went up greatly in my estimation. As I was preparing to review The Power of Kroll, it suddenly hit me: should I be worried about the story's treatment of the indigenous Swampies? Even in the 1970s, it was still widely considered acceptable, even expected, to portray non-technological societies as primitive and backwards, and I began to worry that a closer viewing of Kroll might reveal prejudice that I hadn't noticed as a child of a less woke era. I was, therefore, extremely grateful to find that not only does Kroll avoid treating the Swampies like ignorant savages, it actually highlights their plight at the hands of the refinery people, and the threat that these (white, English) colonists pose to their entire culture, and for that matter their very lives.
But before I delve into that discussion, I just want to talk for a moment about the naming convention I'll be using in this review. I've never seen this topic raised before, so I feel it's all the more important to point out that the Swampies are the makrut lime of Doctor Who fandom: the name by which they're popularly known is clearly meant (in the script) to be a racist slur. (Not only does the word have a pejorative connotation, when it's used by the refinery workers, it's typically accompanied by either a dismissive tone or a look of disgust.) So, if you don't mind indulging me, I would far prefer to refer to the indigenous people of Delta Magna by the name they call themselves: the People of the Lakes.
What I remembered about this plot thread is that there was tension between the refinery workers and the People of the Lakes, not unlike a 1950s "cowboys and Indians" film: hence my concern, before starting this review, that the indigenous people were going to be portrayed as murderous savages. What I'm ashamed I never internalized as a child, and am extremely grateful to have rediscovered in the story as an adult, is that their portrayal is actually far more nuanced.
Before the story properly introduces us to the People of the Lakes, we're made privy to the refinery workers' perception of them. Let's just say, it's not a favorable first impression.... of the colonists, that is. The refinery men hold sadly typical racist views about Delta Magna III, echoing common sentiments uttered by privileged white people who visit third-world nations and denigrate the terrain as a place where no sane person would want to live. ("There's nothing out there but a wasteland!" sneers Harg.) Their view of the locals is even less enlightened: they're often referred to as savages, as well as 'different', ignorant, uncivilized, and murderous. When Harg uses the "savages" slur early in part one, I hoped for a moment that director Thawn might reprimand him. "Those 'savages', Harg..." Thawn begins — maybe he's about to point out their intelligence and rich cultural traditions? — "...are getting a lot of sentimental support. The company is putting a lot of effort into making a more balanced picture, but you've got to remember that most people on Delta Magna have never even seen a Swampie." That last word, as I mentioned above, he practically spits with venom. So, he's clearly not going to be the natives' ally. In fact, we eventually come to realize that Thawn is a dyed-in-the-wool racist, more extreme than any of his workmates. (As if it weren't explicit enough, the script has Thawn refer to the Doctor as a "Swampie-lover", he insists upon a "final" solution to get rid of the native "problem, once and for all", and — importantly — he claims not to hate them, a common refrain of people who use that excuse to blind themselves to their own racism. Though I doubt Thawn would claim to have any "Swampie friends".)
One of the refinery crew is an indigenous man, Mensch, though he's given no responsibilities aside from fetching and carrying. Naturally, the other men don't consider him to be an official crewmember; moreover, they treat Mensch like a slave. He's given a drab gray coverall to wear, almost never allowed to speak for himself (or perhaps at all), forced to wear boots, ordered around without even a hint of politeness, even yelled at for no reason, and Thawn doesn't even bother to hide his glee about discussing the elimination of Mensch's people right in front of him. I had thought that perhaps Mensch might serve as an intermediary between the two cultures, but the refinery workers don't appear to have any interest in mediating anything with the People of the Lakes. As far as many of them are concerned, the natives are sub-human.
As the above quote demonstrates, the Doctor steps into this toxic culture and, to Thawn's astonishment, doesn't immediately buy into the justification that the People of the Lakes are ignorant savages. He continually refuses to accept Thawn's closed-minded assumptions, instead constantly probing and pointing out alternative possibilities. Rather than swallowing the story that the locals are simply bloodthirsty, for example, he tries to find out why (or indeed if) the villagers have killed two refinery men. (As it turns out, they weren't responsible.) Best of all, the Doctor isn't shy about confronting the refinery workers' racism head-on, as in this exchange, which made me literally gasp out loud and go "Oooooooooh!" I've always been a huge fan of The Power of Kroll, but now I think I LOVE it.
That's not to say that The Power of Kroll portrays the local tribe as complete angels (or, thankfully, as "noble savages"). Interestingly, though the Doctor comes vehemently to their defense, the story doesn't otherwise go to great lengths to make the People of the Lakes seem sympathetic. The plot casts the white settlers in a much worse light than the native people, certainly, but it also suggests that the natives are violence-prone. Not only are they gathering weapons to launch a war against the refinery, which is completely understandable given the circumstances, they also kidnap Romana, and twice attempt to sacrifice the regulars in order to appease their god before battle.
But a closer look at the script reveals that it's not the People of the Lakes themselves who are being portrayed as an adversary. Like The Face of Evil, The Power of Kroll takes aim at misguided religious faith. Even still, it's not criticizing the "primitive spirit worship" of the People of the Lakes as much as it's criticizing any blind faith in false gods (especially if they demand, say, human sacrifice). Specifically, Kroll calls out Ranquin's zealotry and extremism. Outsiders are more easily able to recognize that Kroll is killing the villagers purely because he's a hungry animal; Ranquin, however, ascribes Kroll's motives to anger, because two sacrifices were averted, and he continues espousing that viewpoint in the face of all evidence to the contrary. By part 4, even the other villagers begin to realize that Ranquin's religious views are becoming dangerous.
In the way it addresses religion, The Power of Kroll is not unlike The Aztecs, in which Barbara championed the positive aspects of Aztec culture while still attempting to stop their tradition of human sacrifice. (True, both these stories do have an element of a "white saviour" narrative, but as long as the Doctor is played by a white actor, that seems sadly unavoidable.) However, the People of the Lakes' grievances against the settlers are demonstrated to be very real and very justified.
These shades of grey are much appreciated, but the misstep that I think The Power of Kroll makes is that it doesn't satisfactorily wrap up this storyline. One moment, Kroll is interrupting an attack on the refinery by the surviving People of the Lakes, and the next... the Doctor and Romana stroll back to the TARDIS. We never get a scene in which the story clarifies that Varlik will be a better leader for his people than Ranquin, or in which the refinery men begin to acknowledge and atone for their prejudice. Which, frankly, is truer to life than the Hollywood ending I'm advocating, but the fact remains that the story leaves an impression of the People of the Lakes as aggressive and adversarial, rather than hammering home the point that the Earth colonists were entirely in the wrong, and the villagers' actions (sacrifice aside) were justified and necessary for the survival of their people and their culture.
In terms of both their culture and the prejudice they face, the People of the Lakes seem to embody a blend of various Earth cultures. Some details of their culture — like the metallic zigzag face-paint Ranquin wears, their tradition of animal worship, their use of hunting spears — are difficult to pin down to any one Earthly indigenous population. But overall, they bear the greatest similarity to Native Americans: not only do they they travel in canoes and build teepees (made of reeds), and refer to outsiders as 'dryfoots', but the Doctor explicitly notes the parallel between their plight and the plight of Native Americans following the European invasion and colonization of North America. The implication is that the People of the Lakes were native to Delta Magna, until the Earth settlers arrived and stole their lands, banishing their people to the third moon just like Native Americans were forced onto reservations. (Given their name, and how well they've adapted to life on the third moon, one hopes that the People of the Lakes inhabited the swampy areas of Delta Magna, otherwise relocating them to such an inhospitable environment was even more cruel.) Then — just like the US government — the settlers on Delta Magna, motivated by greed, proceeded to break that treaty as well. Now, the settlers have forcibly staked a claim on native lands in order to obtain mining rights, which promises to deplete the local resources and, at best, force the native tribes out; or, at worst, make the land completely uninhabitable and wipe out the indigenous people altogether. It enrages me to think that, even today, Native American tribes in the US are still fighting similar battles with our government. How I wish the messages in The Power of Kroll were less timely. I also noted some references to ethnic African tribes: the locals' green skin immediately marks them as different to the people in power, they wear their hair in braids, they frame the entrance to their sacrificial altar with decorative Maasai-style shields, and they face not just discrimination and institutionalized prejudice, but undisguised dehumanization, with a fervor comparable to plantation-era slavery. (The Doctor additionally notices an "early Samoan influence" on their culture, possibly in the drum rhythms though I think he's referring to the architecture, but I can't say I detected that homage.)
Given how much I enjoy this story — and was now enjoying it even more — I wasn't expecting to downgrade any aspects of The Power of Kroll, but to my dismay, I did find three areas where the story was a bit more lacking than I'd remembered.
First: the pace. Most of the story is exciting and eventful, but every now and then — particularly during part 2 — all of the action just stops for a long, static talky scene. Some of the scenes set onboard the refinery — and for that matter, even some scenes in the village — feel interminable. For example, in part 2, we're treated to a 12-second shot of Dugeen staring perplexed at his monitors, and sighing in frustration; the Doctor filling Romana in on the lengthy refinery backstory, much of which we already know; a nearly three-minute-long scene of the refinery men discussing how much they don't know; and the start (and end) of a gunfight which never goes anywhere (though for that, I am grateful). The episode does have its moments, like the discovery of the holy book at the bottom of the pit, but nothing at all advances the plot until Kroll's fourth manifestation, 15 minutes in. And even after that, we go right back to another three-minute scene of the refinery crew discussing how to handle the natives. Likewise, part 3 gives us another two-minute scene of the crew sitting around discussing how to destroy Kroll. I appreciate the realism of their debate, particularly about the effectiveness of depth charges, but it's hardly gripping television.
Second: I must admit that the guest characters are, on the whole, not all that interesting.
Among the refinery team, two members do eventually stand out: Thawn and Dugeen. Thawn (Neil McCarthy), the aforementioned foaming racist, isn't a very pleasant man to anyone aside from his friends. (No surprise, really.) Ironically for a man who calls other people 'savage', Thawn seems to take an inordinate amount of gleeful pleasure from the idea of committing violent acts of revenge. When he suspects that Rohm-Dutt's ship has landed on Delta Magna III, he sets out with the express aim of murdering the man. (Instead, he nearly murders the Doctor, in a case of mistaken identity.) As for his prejudiced attitudes, Thawn starts out espousing views that are repellent but, sadly, not unheard of. It's not until later that he develops from a run-of-the-mill racist jerk into an outright psychopathic villain, when he begins eagerly seizing on any flimsy pretext he can find or invent, heedless of the cost, to justify annihilating the native settlement. By the end of the story, Thawn is so crazed with supremacist bloodlust that he even begins to lose his grip on sanity. (And then, before he gets any proper comeuppance, he's killed — in a surprisingly blood-soaked shot for Doctor Who — by a native spear, which is at least karmic.)
Since K-9 is marooned on the TARDIS, it's both appropriate and delightful that John Leeson is given the in-person role of Dugeen. I don't know that it's possible to dislike Leeson, so it seems entirely fitting that Dugeen is the lone voice of conscience and tolerance on the entire refinery, and — as we eventually discover — a member of the Sons of Earth advocacy group, fighting for indigenous rights. He seems to have his priorities and morals straight, and he's sympathetic to the natives' plight, to the point of giving his life in an attempt to save them. It's a sad moment when his character is killed, though Leeson gives a great (perplexed, and shocked) death expression. Throughout the story, in fact, Leeson gives the most interesting performance of any of the refinery crew, as on lines like "Well, I — I think you were followed down, sir! Somebody using your track as a cover."
Despite several highly memorable previous roles in Doctor Who, including a fantastic performance as Solon, Philip Madoc sadly doesn't make much of an impression as Fenner. That's partly because Fenner doesn't get very much to do, or indeed much personality — he and Thawn seem to enjoy killing people together, until Fenner finally grows a conscience at story's end, and that's about it — but also because Madoc has a consistent tendency to mutter his lines so softly, and trail off at the end of sentences, that it's difficult to make out what he's saying. In fact, I feel comfortable estimating that roughly half his lines are inaudible to some degree. (I could give many, many examples, but just to provide a couple: unless you're reading the subtitles, there's no way to make out Fenner's line "It's a lot bigger than we thought" — even though he's the closest one to the camera! — or the end of "Yes, as you said, it looks like a really big daddy." which I promise, in context, isn't as pervy as it sounds.)
Harg (Grahame Mallard) is quite chummy with Thawn, who even brings him back gifts from Delta Magna, but that's about it in terms of the character's personality. He's rather gruff, and rather bland.
Among the People of the Lakes, Ranquin and Varlik end up with some decent characterization. Ranquin (John Abineri) is a stern leader, adhering closely to every communication he believes he has with Kroll, and deviating not a jot from the letter of the law as he understands it. He's a fervent leader for his people, and clearly devoted to the tribe's well-being, but his religious blinders lead him down a self-destructive path that threatens to take the whole tribe with him.
It's really Varlik (Carl Rigg) who demonstrates the more compassionate side of the People of the Lakes: he's shrewd, logical, and fair-minded, appealing to Ranquin for leniency for the Doctor and Romana, and understanding that Kroll responds not to prayers but to vibrations. As such, he's more willing to question his people's faith, and follow his conscience over a literal interpretation of his holy book.
Skart (Frank Jarvis) appears to be Ranquin's trusted aide, though he also seems to be more familiar with the outside world than one might expect; the machinery of the refinery frightens Ranquin, but Skart takes it in stride. Jarvis gives a fine performance, but Skart isn't given much backstory or personality, so he tends to fade into the background.
Mensch (a rare non-stunt appearance by Terry Walsh) is an awfully sympathetic character, an indigenous man who's been "hired" by the refinery to work as a servant, or quite possibly as a slave. Certainly the refinery staff take him for granted, barely even registering his personhood. It is, therefore, no surprise that he's secretly working to undermine them from within. But it's a real shame that he never gets the opportunity to confront his employers about their crimes before he's ignominiously drowned and eaten by Kroll; yet again, a missed opportunity to drive home the serial's moral.
The final member of the cast is gun-runner Rohm-Dutt (Glyn Owen). His role in the story has potential: he's supplying the People of the Lakes with weapons, ostensibly in support of their fight to maintain ownership of their land, but secretly he's in league with Thawn, to deliver defective weapons and give Thawn an excuse to eradicate the tribe. However, the character just seems flat. His physical and sartorial resemblance to the Doctor is a great way to land the Doctor in hot water (in fact, I wonder if viewers thought we were in for the second "identical duplicate" story in a row!), but once we actually meet the man, he's just not very exciting. No great shame when Kroll gobbles him up. In fact, given that his guns fatally blow up in the villagers' faces, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!
Third: the story's final major downside is that Romana is barely given any role in the unfolding plot. As the only woman in an otherwise entirely-male story — we never see a female Person of the Lakes, and we're told outright that the refinery hasn't hired any women (though whether that's a deliberate decision or just random chance, we never learn, but signs point to sexism, given that they immediately assume that the Doctor's missing friend is a man) — it's even more of a shame that she's given nothing to do, beyond distracting the Doctor from his time-sensitive task of disabling the rocket. Mary Tamm has said that she decided to leave the program because Romana was beginning to devolve from an intelligent Time Lady into just another screamer, and personally, I've always felt that was an unfair assessment of her character, because Romana is classy and intelligent from Tamm's first story through to her last. However. I have a sneaking suspicion that during The Power of Kroll, you can see the exact moment when Mary Tamm decided, "you know what, one year is enough", as she exhaustedly takes a breather from nonstop screaming at a mushroom-headed craft-fair monster who's menacing her throat with its claws. Alas, this is indeed the one story in which I can't present any counterargument to Tamm's criticism. Poor Romana, this makes the second story in a row that she's been tied up, and she doesn't have anywhere near as exciting a storyline to compensate as she did on Tara. Still, Tamm gives some delightful line readings, as always, and Robert Holmes continues to script her dialogue beautifully; in particular, I'm thrilled that he remembers to include Romana's psychoanalytic background. I love the way she sounds like she's trying to preemptively shut the Doctor up on "It either means the source is right on top of us — which it isn't.", and other great lines include "Yes, they seem to think I should be quite honored to be sacrificed to the thing.", a delivery of "I can't... breathe!" that would do Lis Sladen proud, and an agonized delivery of "It's not my muscles I can't relax, it's my vertebrae. They feel like beads on a piece of... (gasps) ...elastic!" that makes the simile truly memorable.
So I agree that The Power of Kroll has flaws in its pace and characters. But in my opinion, these are more than balanced out by the elements which I've always loved.
The first of these is the story's setting. One of the most appealing things about Doctor Who, in my opinion, is its ability to tell stories set absolutely anywhere, so it's always thrilling to be immersed in a story which utilizes the dramatic possibilities of a more unconventional location than, say, London, or a spaceship, or a scientific research base. Don't get me wrong, I love all of those settings, but variety is the spice of life, after all, and a swamp moon is fairly unusual not just in Doctor Who but throughout the genre, as far as I'm aware. What absolutely sells the setting is the fact that it was filmed on location, in the Snape Maltings. So, instead of some dark futuristic steaming jungle (as in, for example, Star Wars, or even Planet of Evil), Delta Magna III is represented by a genuine living wetland. As enthralling as a quality studio-bound jungle can be, it's difficult to adequately stress what a huge boon the location filming provided. It makes the story feel so much more realistic, so much more colorful, so much happier. For one thing, the authentic weather is a great asset — it varies from sunny to breezy to cloudy, along with some manufactured rain, all of which adds to the story's atmosphere. (I would say "they're lucky, given the storyline, that they had overcast weather" but, well... Britain.) But as natural assets go, the real stars of the Snape Maltings — and of Delta Magna III — are the tall green reeds, lazy streams, and copious amounts of mud. Because of them, the soundscape of Power of Kroll is absolutely lush: the rustling and cracking of the reeds as characters push their way through, the constant squelching of the mud and boggy ground, the sound of the water as boots splash and canoes paddle through it... it all helps this story to feel completely unique among the Doctor Who canon.
Best of all, the marsh setting isn't incidental to the unfolding plot, it's integral. Every element arises naturally from it (in Kroll's case, literally), and that to me is the mark of great writing. Delta Magna III is an excellent example of Holmes' worldbuilding skills; in fact, I might argue, one of his best. The People of the Lakes have adapted (to whatever degree necessary) to life in the marshland, building structures out of reeds and protective dikes out of vines, fishing with barbed spears, and perceiving outsiders as 'dryfoots'. Their swamp is abnormally productive of methane, which leads colonists from Delta Magna to establish a refinery on the moon, with the view toward building a lot more, which exacerbates already-tense relations between themselves and the indigenous people. And the source of the abundant methane is the indigenous people's great squid god Kroll, who — oops! — just happened to swallow the fifth segment of the Key to Time and has grown to monstrous size (with an oversized metabolism to boot).
Kroll is the other really successful element of the story. Yes, the visual effect could be a lot better — it always disturbs me to see Kroll lifting himself several feet above the horizon, when his lower tentacles are obviously meant to be flush with it — but conceptually he's terrifying. The "biggest monster ever", at least up to that point, literally looms over the tiny humans, and the enormous reach of his tentacles combined with his ability to home in on sound and travel through the swamp undetected means that nowhere on the marsh feels safe. When he finally lurches into action, reaching out to grab Mensch and drag him under the baygule, it's a truly horrific moment. I initially wondered how such a relatively tiny swamp could sustain a creature of Kroll's size, but the script handily addresses this by explaining that Kroll periodically hibernates, consuming nutrients through his tentacles while he sleeps, and then feasting — typically on plant matter, though recently he's developed a taste for flesh — whenever he awakens. The unsettling high-pitched creaky squeaking noise that he makes adds yet another interesting layer to the story's rich audio tapestry. Additionally, the fact that he's so ginormous throws an interesting new wrench into the Doctor and Romana's mission, as they're unable to pinpoint the segment's location from the Tracer's diffuse signal. In every way, Kroll represents a clever twist on the Key to Time format. And aside from the difficulty of integrating it into the live-action shots, the prop itself looks great, particularly its bulbous head that appears to be all teeth, and I love the texture of his tentacles. Overall, the Key to Time season is rather bereft of good monsters, but the Ogri and Kroll are both superb additions to Doctor Who's rogues gallery.
As I've hinted throughout this review, the plot is not only thematically cohesive but pretty watertight. I had a few questions about the logistics, which I'll mention below, but I didn't notice any plot holes that critically undermined the story. Quite the contrary: overall, it makes perfect sense. Partly that's because the script doesn't overreach itself in an attempt to be needlessly complicated, but one also gets the impression that Holmes has really thought through his storyline to make certain that all of the plot developments are logical, and important to the story.
Well, with one exception. I had forgotten that the orbital rocket launch played such a prominent role in the story's dénouement, probably because it could have been excised with no effect on the rest of the plot. In fact, excising it might have been for the best, given that the Doctor's solutions in this plot thread are more brute-force than usual: he first disables the rocket with a single blow from a hammer (?!?) and then attacks the console wiring with a pair of pliers (out of sight, even!). Then, inexplicably, he waits until the countdown actually reaches 00:00 before aborting the launch by touching the severed wires together. (If time was that short, why bother asking everyone to step back? If he fails, they're all going to get blown up when the rocket explodes anyway.)
Still, it's a rare stumble, and I suspect the reason I'd forgotten about it is that Robert Holmes scripts some extremely memorable scenes and set-pieces that lodge in the memory more firmly: Rohm-Dutt's brief but chilling drill-fly story, Romana's sacrifice in the Temple of Kroll, and the chilling moment when the refinery's sonar reveals just how gigantic Kroll is, not to mention the awe-inspiring 'manifestations' of Kroll himself, and every one of the death-by-tentacle scenes. In particular, the Seventh Holy Ritual of the Old Book is one of the all-time great Doctor Who sacrifices, if not one of the most creative executions that I've ever seen in many years of watching television. It's reminiscent of the rack, but given a wonderfully appropriate marshland twist in the form of creepers that contract as they dry out. Bonus points that the key to the Doctor's solution — a window, which he shatters to let in the rain — isn't just a convenient coincidence; it's integral to their execution, because it lets in the sunlight that warms up the vines. (Though one could make an argument about the conveniently-timed rainstorm.) The story's climax is quite tense, too, as the Doctor struggles against being crushed and/or eaten in his attempt to grab hold of the Tracer and convert the fifth segment inside Kroll.
And then there's wonderful Tom Baker, on top form in this story. The Doctor consistently seems five steps ahead of everyone else, whether it's figuring out where the TARDIS has landed, offhandedly proving his expertise by suggesting improvements to the refinery's systems, cleverly realizing that Kroll might be distracted by the noise of the refinery centrifuge, or deducing a potential escape from their execution before he's even been strapped into the killing device. Much more unexpectedly, he demonstrates new musical talents, not only for hand-whittling and expertly playing a reed flute, but also for singing at glass-shattering pitch. Among my top favorite of his many delightful line deliveries: "No no no no, I'm looking for my friend. You see, she's important to me.", the very serious way he says "Shh! ...Will there be strawberry jam for tea, hmm?", "What, this? A methane catalyzing refinery, classified?", "Well... well, of — well, of course I know what it is, I've seen hundreds of them.", his haste on "A sort of mineralogical survey. Look, I've got to go and find my friend.", "Bleargh!" as he jumps into the mud, and I love his early visual gag, in which Baker has stuffed some reed leaves under his hat so that he can yank them out and hurl them away. I also adore his new green felt hat, and most especially his adorable flying-duck lapel pins. Somehow they really seem to suit his character, as well as the story!
Aside from the iffy full-body Kroll model effects, which were scuppered partly by a poorly-executed split-screen, anything to do with tentacles is realized very well, which frankly is a miracle given how difficult tentacles are to animate convincingly. The scenes of Kroll snagging Harg and Ranquin, and dragging them into the pipeline — no doubt achieved in part through reversing the film — look great, as does the shot of Kroll's tentacles breaching the barrier around the settlement, and the effect of Kroll attacking the refinery. There's also a great moment, as the Doctor stalks Kroll with the Tracer on the exterior walkway, as one tentacle begins to wind its way down the wall behind him, and another tentacle startles him with a slap in the face. (The energy sparking around Kroll, as the fifth segment is converted, is perhaps not such a great effect.) I like the refinery model too, especially the algae around the waterline, though bits of it do wobble alarmingly as Kroll's tentacles thrash over it. But then maybe that just adds to the tension about whether the refinery's structural integrity will withstand Kroll's onslaught.
Points to the costume designers, too, for the refinery workers' uniforms. The diamond-patterned fabric of their tunics looks really expensive, not to mention eye-catching, and the holographic stripes are a nice design touch. The scantily-clad villagers, in their leather breechcloths, help to achieve some degree of gender equality after a season and a half of Leela's similar attire. Ranquin's status is denoted by a sash that looks as if it might be made of squid skin, which is a culturally-fitting detail. And I appreciate that the People of the Lakes aren't all the same shade of green; there seems to be some variation in the shade and the depth of color from person to person. I can't say that I'm overly fond of Romana's outfit — it seems more 'function' than 'fashion' — but I do like the color combination, especially the black trousers under her red vest, and the black chevron on the vest is both flattering and appealingly bold.
Norman Stewart's direction isn't flashy, and probably contributes to the ennui of some of the long conversational scenes, but he's (arguably!) given quite a gift in the location filming. I'm sure it can't have been easy to find solid ground for stabilizing the camera, but the terrain allows for plenty of interesting angles. Among my favorite shots: the low angle as the refinery men point their guns at the kneeling Doctor, the transition from the Doctor realizing why Kroll has awakened to an angle on the approaching People of the Lakes, and Kroll looming over the horizon (and the Doctor and Romana's canoe) as the locals gawp.
Minor points:
Doctor: "This must be one of the moons of Delta Magna!"
(He licks his finger, and tests the wind.)
Doctor: "I'd say the third."
Thawn: "You've shot the wrong man."
Doctor: (popping up) "Not quite! You shot the wrong man's hat, though."
Romana: "How long am I going to be tied up here?"
Rohm-Dutt: "Well, that depends."
Romana: "On what?"
Rohm-Dutt: "On whether you cooperate. If you don't, you'll rot there. Won't take long, in this climate."
Romana: "And that doesn't bother you?"
Rohm-Dutt: "Young woman, I'm indifferent."
Romana: "Emotional insulation is usually indicative of psychofugal trauma."
Harg: "He is crazy."
Doctor: "Will you stop saying that? What gives him an insight into my mental processes, eh?"
Thawn: "All right, expert. What's that?"
Doctor: (distractedly) "An air vent."
Thawn: (pointing) "Not that! That."
Doctor: "It's a funicular gas separator."
Doctor: "Am I free to go now?"
Thawn: "No."
Doctor: "Oh."
Romana: "There's no need to be smug about it."
Doctor: "I'm not smug."
Romana: "I can tell that expression, even from behind."
Romana: "Ahh, bethought — because they thought this moon was no use to anybody."
Romana: "Oh, a sort of holy writ!"
Doctor: "Well... I think it's atrociously writ. But the pictures aren't bad, look!"
Romana: "Ooh!"
Doctor: "Well, you'd better introduce me."
Romana: "As what?"
Doctor: "Oh, I don't know, as a wise and wonderful person who wants to help. Don't exaggerate."
Romana: "Ahem. This is, erm —"
Ranquin: "Seize them."
Doctor: "I told you not to exaggerate."
Skart: "Soon, dryfoot, you will wish you had died on the Stone of Blood."
Fenner: "Now surely, if it were hostile, we'd have known of it before."
Thawn: "I've seen it! It's hostile!"
Ranquin: "The Great One condemns the prisoners to die by the Seventh Holy Ritual of the Old Book."
Doctor: (whispering to Romana) "Seven! My lucky number!"
Doctor: "Interesting how traces of old cultures survive, isn't it?"
Romana: "I'm rather more interested in surviving myself."
Doctor: "Well, it's understandable at your age."
Varlik: "I tried to persuade Ranquin that only Rohm-Dutt deserved to be punished by the seventh ritual, and that you others should die by the first. That's very easy, they just throw you down the pit and drop rocks on you."
Romana: "Oh! Thank you! It's nice to know who your friends are."
Doctor: "Stretching is good for the spine. ...well, up to a point."
Thawn: "I'm not going to be stopped by lily-livered sentimentalists wailing about the fate of a few primitive savages."
Doctor: "If we're caught loitering outside of here, put two and two together..."
(He turns around, to find Thawn pointing a gun at him.)
Doctor: "You're putting two and two together, I can tell by the expression on your face that you're putting two and two together."
Thawn: "I wonder who opened it?"
Doctor: "Well, I, maybe your cleaning l- I don't suppose you do have a cleaning lady here?"
Thawn: "Put your hands where I can see them, and walk straight ahead."
Doctor: "Ah. Haven't you forgotten something?"
Thawn: "What?"
Doctor: "Shouldn't you say, 'Don't make any sudden moves'?"
Thawn: "Don't make any sudden moves."
(The Doctor nods, satisfied, and dutifully walks straight ahead with his hands up.)
Doctor and Romana: "The fifth segment!"
Doctor: "Of course, he wasn't so big in those days. Kroll, I mean. Just an ordinary giant squid."
(The Doctor spies a baby squid in the mud.)
Doctor: "Hello!"
Romana: (brightly) "Hello!"
Doctor: "No no, look."
Reviewing The Power of Kroll hasn't altered my overall appreciation for the story one whit, but it has given me a greater awareness of its flaws and, more importantly, a greater appreciation of strengths that I didn't even realize it had. Sure, if we could do it over again, there are things I would change, but Kroll and the marsh are reason enough to love it, and in terms of how well it incorporates the Key to Time into the plot, The Power of Kroll is one of the most successful stories of the season. Robert Holmes may not have loved it, but I do.