I've been off work this week on Easter break. Fortunately I haven't actually gone away so it was no hassle to get in the 4 episodes of The Power Of Kroll.
It seems that I have finally hit a low point in The Key To Time season here. Whilst it's not a bad story I think it's definitely the weakest one of the season so far.
I can't really pinpoint what it is about this story that makes it suffer for me. Watching one episode every day as I have been doing it is sometimes hard to work out whether I haven't enjoyed a story due to it being a poor story or due to my general mood at the time.
Anyway, to the story itself. The TARDIS materialises in a swamp which is actually really well realised in the location work done. The main thrust of the story is the animosity between two groups on the planet. The humans, who have set up a methane mining installation, and the Swampies who are the native people of the planet. It reminds me very much of Colony In Space.
Meanwhile to add further jeopardy the ancient creature Kroll has awoken and terrorises both groups. The leader of the Swampies, Ranquin, is an interesting character who believes that Kroll is their God and it's quite funny to watch how he keeps changing his God theories to fit in with the changing facts around him as Kroll turns on more and more people.
K9 is not in this story. (It was filled in a swamp so it probably wasn't very practical for him!) However John Leeson who voices the robot dog is not given the time off as he is actually used as one of the actors in the story, playing the human, Dugeen. It must have been nice for him to finally get his face seen in Doctor Who.
Some of the effects are a little ropey as evidenced in the picture above. However some effects are pulled of quite well including all the times when Kroll grabs hold of someone with his giant tentacles and pulls them down through the swamp.
The Doctor soon realises from reading an ancient book that Kroll is a regular giant squid that has grown to even greater size by eating the "symbol of power" which ends up being the fifth segment of The Key To Time.
When I find a Doctor Who story poor, it usually starts off well and goes downhill. Strangely I found the opposite here. I really didn't enjoy episode 1 but then things picked up. Thinking about it I was very hungry when watching episode 1 so may have just been hoping it would end soon so that I could get food. This is exactly what I meant when I said that my mood can affect how I feel about a story.
So the Doctor's quest to locate all six segments of The Key To Time is almost over. I can't believe how fast it's gone! Just one more segment is needed and then The Key will be complete!
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