Will Brooks’ 50 Year Diary - watching Doctor Who one episode a day from the very start...
Day 517: The Power of Kroll, Episode One
Dear diary,
Ah, The Power of Kroll. Along with The Space Pirates, this one is sort of the Robert Holmes child that people try to overlook when discussing the man’s career. As I’ve said before, my memory of these last few Key to Time stories is hazy at best, so the most I can tell you about this one is that there’s a giant squid in it. I’m not sure if the squid is the reason for fans’ dislike of the story, but I’d wager that ti could well be a factor - the phrase ‘giant quid’ seems to go hand-in-hand with ‘Doctor Who production team over stretching themselves’…
As for this first episode, though, there’s plenty to enjoy. I love the look of the swamp, and after my moaning the other day about the season needing a bit more variety in its locations, I think they’ve satisfied it rather nicely. Especially wonderful is the moment when the TARDIS arrives, and we only see the very top of the prop poking out, and follow the thrashing around in the plants to see where our heroes are. It creates a very different look for this adventure, and that’s never a bad thing. We’ve also got more night shooting - something that’s becoming increasingly common in the programme of late, considering that it used to be such a rarity! All the shots of the Doctor out in his boat at night look lovely, and I’m hoping we’ll be treated to some more night scenes as the story continues.
It’s a shame, with such a nice location, that I’m so disappointed in the model of the refinery. It’s often pointed out that you have to be careful with explosions in model shots, because if you shoot them at the regular speed, they look like real flames on a scale model. The same seems to be true of water here - it looks like they’ve made a model of a refinery and plonked it down in the director’s bath tub! All the waves just look too large, and it spoils the effect for me. My other complaint about this comes as a counterpoint to my praise for the night-time scenes, and it’s the lack of lights on the model! We get the flashing code when the Swampie communicates with his own people, but it’s a shame not too see a few more lights to indicate windows and the like. As it is, it simply feels like they weren’t expecting night shots, so forgot to fit the model with electronics.
That’s only a small issue, though, and it hardly ruins the episode because of a few dodgy shots. There’s a lot of other things to commend this one. It might not be Holmes’ finest script (and the issue of slavery isn’t being weaved into the story with a great deal of tact, it has to be said), but he’s certainly got a nice handle on the Doctor, and it’s plain to see throughout. I love the way he sits and makes himself a flute, and simply slips away when people aren’t looking. There’s plenty of nice lines written in for the Doctor, too, and Baker seems to be genuinely enjoying himself still - something that’s been present for a few stories now.
I’ve yet to really make much mention of the Swampies, and I don’t really plan to until I’ve seen a bit more of them in action, but I will say that they’re almost effective here, simply because of the number of them they’ve got, painted head to toe in green and jumping around preparing to sacrifice Romana. Had they simply got three slightly uncomfortable supporting artistes to stand around looking cold then it wouldn’t have been as effective as it is here, and that’s saying something, perhaps!
