Four episodes
Aired between 23rd December 1978 and 13th January 1979
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Graham Williams (actually it was John Nathan-Turner but he's unaccredited)
Directed by Norman Stewart
Synopsis
The Doctor and Romana arrive on the third moon of Delta Magna, a swamp planet.
They are once again split up as The Doctor is captured by a bunch of humans that are refining chemicals from the planet.
Romana is captured by a bunch of green skinned natives referred to by the humans as "Swampies".
The Doctor is told by the humans that their refinery is in danger as the Swampies attack it, and are helped by the notorious arms dealer - Rohm Dutt to try and drive off the humans from the moon.
The Doctor escapes the refinery and manages to rescue Romana, just as the Swampies try to sacrifice her to their god, Kroll.
They are captured again and throughout their captivity, they discover that Kroll is a giant squid that has swallowed the Swmapies holy symbol and grown enormous. Now, it wakes up every few hundred years and feeds.
The high priest believes that Kroll is punishing them for consorting with Rohm Dutt and does what he can to repent, by tying them up to a bed with vines that shrink in the sunlight, thereby making it like a rack.
The Doctor frees them all by using an ultra high pitched scream to shatter the window above them and let rain wet the vines, allowing them to escape.
Meanwhile, the refinery staff squabble amongst themselves until their leader lets his racism get the better of him, kills one of his crew and intends to blow up the swampies once and for all.
The Doctor, Romana and Rohm Dutt race to stop the Swampies as they go to storm the refinery but Kroll turns up and kills Rohm Dutt and some of the natives.
They all get to the refinery, just as Kroll returns to attack it.
Many die including the deluded high priest and the refinery leader, before the Doctor touches Kroll with the tracking device for the Key to Time and turns him into the fifth segment! It turns out that the holy symbol he swallowed was the true segment, and Kroll has reverted back to a tiny squid.
The Doctor and Romana make their way back to the TARDIS and console K9 whom they had to leave behind.
Trivia
- The story was given to Robert Holmes, but with orders to keep it serious and for the monster to be huge. He didn't like it, but that's what he did.
- There were many mess up's on the casting front, as Philip Madoc (the man who played great characters in the Brain of Morbius and the War Games) was due to play the refinery commander, but ended up as a subordinate, and John Leeson, the voice behind K9, was pulled in as one of the crew too.
- Graham Williams was taking a break when this was filmed, and then Production Unit Manager, John-Nathan Turner, stepped in to fill his shoes, with Barry Letts being asked to keep an eye on them from a distance.
- It was around this time that Script Editor, Antony Read decided that he'd had enough of the low budgets and Tom Baker's bullying, and so he gave notice.
- The green makeup for the Swampies had to be waterproof, as there were several scenes in the swamps and during rainfall. After the scenes were shot, the unfortunate actors had to go to a nearby RAF base and get it off with swarfega in the chemical showers; a process that could have been avoided had the necessary solvent that removes the paint been ordered at the same time!
The Review
This would be one of the stories that if it was lost and only existed in stills, would be a true classic. Just look at the pictures above and you can see that your imagination makes it feel terrifying, just like the 1950's B movie - you can see what they were getting at.
Alas, we do have this story, and the reality is somewhat deflated. You expect a story about a giant squid to have lots of action, but this just doesn't. It's boring.
There's a good kind of analogy around man's hubris, drawing parallels with the refinery leader and the high priest stubbornly clinging to their beliefs that ultimately cause their downfall, but we have 90 minutes of it. Kroll shows up now and again, and we're left to fill the remainder with funny men painted green dancing around, and other men with terrible accents looking to fill the void.
This story tries too hard to be something it's not. The selling point is the giant squid, but all we get is capture and escapable death trap after capture and escapable death trap.
This could have been so good, and from Robert Holmes, I expected better.
Rating
4 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
5 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- An Unearthly Child
- The Ark
- Fury From the Deep
- Colony in Space
- The Mutants
- The Face of Evil
- The Caves of Androzani
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