4 episodes
Aired between 28th December 1968 and 18th January 1969
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by Peter Bryant
Directed by David Maloney
Synopsis
On a faraway planet, a primitive society called the Gonds undertake a ceremony to celebrate and acknowledge their two brightest students. Abu-Gond (male) and Vana-Gond (female). As the smartest of their student body, they have been selected to go and assist the other race of beings on this world, a mysterious race known as the Kroton's.
Everyone is really happy about all this, except Vana's lover Thara-Gond (yes, everyone is a Gond). The reason why he's upset is because those who are chosen as assistants enter through a metal doorway into a complex, never to return. Despite Thara's insistence that he doesn't want Vana to go, his father Selris (who is also leader of the Gond's) says it is the only way, as the centuries old law states that this is what must happen, and he dare not risk incurring the wrath of the secretive Krotons.
Elsewhere on the planet, the TARDIS materialises in a desolate landscape.
When they emerge, Jamie immediately notices that the place stinks of rotten eggs. The Doctor smiles and says that it's a mixture of Sulphur and ozone. Zoe wants to leave for somewhere more pleasant, but the Doctor wanders off, carrying an umbrella with him to protect his delicate skin from the rays of the twin suns beaming down on them.
Soon the group crest a ridge that leads down to a strange looking city. The Doctor remarks that the people who built it must be used to low gravity environments. The TARDIS crew go down and explore, finding a strange metal building half buried in the ground, and containing a strange metal door. The Doctor identifies it as part of a machine rather than a building, just as the door begins to open.
They all hide, watching from cover as a dazed and confused Abu-Gond emerges from the door. From the sides of the doorway, tubes emerge and spray a cloud like acid at him, evaporating him in seconds.
The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are naturally horrified and begin working their way around the machine to discover where the woozy man had come from.
They eventually stumble into the Gond celebration ceremony as Thara and Selris argue over whether or not Vana is going to be sent inside the machine to work for the Krotons. The Gond's are astounded at the sight of the Doctor and co, as they believe the outside world to be an uninhabitable death zone. They initially point their spears at the Doctor, but Jamie gets himself into a brawl with one of the Gonds. As this commotion is going off, Vana ends up being taken inside the machine as the doors open.
The Doctor shouts out to stop her but it's too late. He explains to the primitive Gonds that the world outside is in fact totally okay to walk in (even if it is a sulphuric wasteland), and explains about Abu-Gond's untimely death by the acid jets. The Gonds are shocked and few can believe that they've been sending students into the machine for hundreds of years, just for them to die at the other end. The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe waste no time waiting for the Gonds to come around to the revelation. They rush back out onto the surface to reach the other end of the machine before Vana gets an acid bath. Thara goes with them, They get there just in time and manage to block the holes where the jets emerge from, dragging her dazed form to safety as she emerges from the machine. As they examine her, it turns out she's virtually in a coma.
The group carry her back to the city where she can be tended to. Inside, Selris tries to make sense of everything that the Doctor has told him. He explains that for centuries, the Krotons have remained hidden within the machine, but have provided the Gonds with education via the use of computer terminals. This was a sort of brokered peace treaty after the Krotons arrived from outer space and waged war upon the Gonds, devastating the planets environment in the process. The Doctor isn't impressed with the set up, decrying it as self-perpetuating slavery.
Thana is also dissatisfied with the society too. Now he knows of the true fate of the students, he leads a party of student boys into the learning room (where they keep the computer terminals) and gets them to smash them up, in the hopes that it will force the Krotons out of the machine. From the machine, a loud booming voice calls out for the students to leave the area at once. The Doctor and Selris turn up to try and stop the students destruction, but it's too late. A large metallic hose / snake emerges from the wall, moving menacingly towards the Doctor.
He raises his hands in front of him (seemingly in fear) and discovers that the snake-like device goes dormant when it cannot see his features.
One of the students attacks the snake, but is killed by its acid spray. Inexplicably, the snake then returns into the wall of the machine. The Doctor theorises that it's got limited logic and that it was told to kill one person - him. Now that it's killed someone, it believes it's accomplished its mission.
The voice of the Krotons booms out again, ordering them to leave the area. Seeing no advantage in pushing things further, they all obey.
As the Doctor and Zoe discuss things with Selris, it becomes apparent that the Gonds have only limited technical knowledge, and a lot of their understanding has gaps in it. Selris explains that the Krotons tell them what to learn and all the knowledge, everything they know is given to them by the Krotons. The Doctor and Zoe decide to re-enter the teaching room to investigate the computer consoles further. On the way, Selris leads the Doctor on a little detour to show him underneath the teaching chamber, revealing that the learning modules have root like structures running under the floor.
When the Doctor and Selris catch up to Zoe, the Doctor is shocked to see that she has taken it upon herself to complete one of the tests the console gives the students.
It turns out that she scored twice as high as any Gond has ever done, a fact that she is overjoyed at, even if its part of the machine's brainwashing process. The Doctor chastises her for the foolish move, and is horrified when she's summoned to join the Krotons almost immediately.
The Doctor has little choice but to take the test himself so that he can travel with her into the machine. At first he does terribly. but soon gets the hang of it, and scores pretty high too.
The Krotons indeed summon him as well.
The door to the machine opens, and the Doctor and Zoe enter. They soon find a pair of chairs and sit in them. A device lowers from the ceiling and begins to convert their mental prowess into energy.
The energy travels from the device to a couple of glass tanks nearby, both of which contain a bubbling crystalline solution that is forming together into matter. The Doctor and Zoe realise that their combined mass intellect has been enough to start the process, whereas the Gond's limited knowledge has not. The Doctor gathers a small bottle of the solution and they both run off to the other end of the machine.
They escape through the outer doors with a bit of mica that the Doctor found earlier, and evading the acid jets just in time.
The Krotons, now fully formed rise up to take control of their machine once more. They recognise that the Doctor and Zoe aren't Gonds and decide that they need to capture them again.
Back in the Gond city, Selris tells Jamie that the Doctor and Zoe have gone inside the machine. He is distraught and tries everything he can to get inside to rescue them. He eventually gains entry by using an iron rod as a crowbar. He's soon captured by the Krotons who know he's not a Gond either. They put him under the same mental probe as the Doctor and Zoe underwent, but they soon recognise that because he's not a "high brain" like the Doctor or Zoe, it's likely that the mental probe will destroy him.
The Krotons turn off the machine, deciding that Jamie can actually prove himself useful by giving them more information about their race and how they came to the planet. As they show him images of the Doctor and Zoe escaping to the TARDIS, they discover from Jamie that they are time travellers.
Back in the Gond city, Security Chief Eelek-Gond approaches Scientist Beta-Gond and starts asking him how they can fight the Krotons.
Beta shares Eeleks willingness to act against the Krotons but he's smart enough to realise that everything they've been taught has come from the Krotons themselves, therefore their weapons and scientific knowledge is inadequate. They need time to research alternative weapons and science. But Eelek is impatient as he wants a quick way to rise to power and overtake Selris. He says that if the scientist won't help them, they will simply opt for an all out frontal assault on the machine with slings and fireballs.
With the information at hand, the Krotons decide that they need to go and capture the Doctor. One of them leaves, whilst the other uses a comm. link to relate directions to it (they are effectively blind outside the machine they call the dynatrope). As it leaves, the Kroton takes a large canister shaped weapon with it.
The remaining Gonds go to a council meeting to decide their next course of action. Selris turns up, only to find that they've chosen Eelek to replace him. He tries to reason with the warmonger, but his pleas fall on deaf ears.
Despite Jamie's fears that the Doctor and Zoe may have retreated to the TARDIS to fly off and leave him, they re-emerge from the TARDIS, having analysed the bottle of solution using the TARDIS' lab equipment. They gather sulphurous rocks from the landscape for a plan that the Doctor is keeping close to his chest for now.
The first Kroton turns up and holds them prisoner, but Jamie seizes the opportunity whilst the second Kroton is distracted, to grab one of the canister weapons and use it.
The second Kroton is temporarily stunned and cannot relay directions to the first Kroton, thus allowing the Doctor and Zoe to run off. Jamie is knocked unconscious, and the second Kroton returns, giving orders to destroy the TARDIS. The first Kroton fires the canister weapon at the ship, and it disappears within the cloud of acid.
Zoe believes that the TARDIS is destroyed, but the Doctor assures her its fine. Seconds later, as the Kroton wanders off, it reappears higher up the quarry side. The Doctor explains that it was all part of the Hostile Action Displacement (HADS) system that he'd set on board the ship before they left. Whenever it's attacked, the TARDIS relocates itself.
Back in the Gond city, Selris and Beta decide to take their own course of action, correctly assuming that the frontal attack will be suicide. They attempt to draw the Krotons out of the Dynatrope by attacking the computer consoles, just as Thara did, but this time they do it by attacking the root structure underneath.
As the attack gets underway, and the rest of the Gond city is evacuated, the Doctor and Zoe return, finding Thara leaving with the recently recovered Vana. Thara tells them what his father, Selris, is attempting to do, but the Doctor thinks its a foolish idea. He rushes off with Zoe to stop them before its too late. On his way, he still has time to drop the rocks of sulphur in with Beta with instructions on how to turn them into a weapon. Beta tells him that Jamie is inside the Dynatrope, which spurs the Doctor on all the more.
Zoe, Thara and the Doctor reach the under hall as Selris' attack is complete. The Doctor tells them to get out quickly as the ceiling begins to give way, but he's buried under rubble in the process along with Thara. The cave in is extensive, but luckily, the Doctor emerges from it fine. Thara on the other hand, is hurt. The Doctor chastises Selris for the plan, but soon sees that it had limited success, somehow damaging the Dynatrope.
Inside the machine, Jamie recovers and sneaks off to escape whilst the two Krotons try to stabilise the place. He uses a piece of mica on the floor to break the door lock and get out, avoiding the acid jets once more. He goes back into the city and meets up with the Doctor and Zoe.
They're all happy he's okay, and Jamie is soon set to work helping Beta make sulphuric acid from the rocks they brought back.
As Selris and Eelek argue in front of the machine as to the effectiveness of Selris' plan, it turns out that it did have the desired effect.The first Kroton emerges from the Dynatrope and demands that they return the two high brains (the Doctor and Zoe) to them. Eelek gets cunning and extracts a promise from the Kroton that if the Doctor and Zoe are handed over, and they help the Krotons to repair the Dynatrope and power it with enough energy to leave the planet (because the Dynatrope is really a spaceship stranded on the planet for centuries), then they will leave the Gonds in peace. Under that premise, Eelek sets about kidnapping the Doctor and Zoe and force them into the Dynatrope. Selris again tries to make Eelek see the truth that the Krotons will not honour their words and will simply kill the Gonds as they leave. His words once again fall on deaf ears.
As the Doctor and Zoe are shoved inside the Dynatrope, Selris realises that the strange visitors plan is the only way they can truly defeat the Krotons, and so he grabs a newly made bottle of Sulphuric acid and dives into the Dynatrope after them, getting disintigrated as he passes the bottle to the Doctor.
The Krotons complain that the mental energy that was drained from the Doctor and Zoe is running low. They have little time to lift off before they return to a soup like crystalline solution, and it requires four high brains to pilot the craft. The Doctor realises that and with the help of Zoe, he stalls for time. He palms the sulphuric acid off to Zoe who discreetly pours the contents into the glass vats, where it travels up life support tubes into the Krotons themselves, dissolving them into a puddle of mush.
Jamie and Beta finally complete cooking up a vat of acid and pour it onto the Dynatrope, disolving the ship as the Doctor and Zoe escape, thus ending the rule of the Krotons.
All the Gonds are happy, and as the TARDIS crew leave, Thara states that he will take up his father's mantle of ruler and depose Eelek.
Beta shares his excitement of learning lots of cool new science tricks from the Doctor, but is gutted to find that when he turns round, the strange visitor has returned to his ship, leaving the planet of the Gonds forever.
Trivia
- This story was originally submitted by Holmes during season 2, but it was turned down because the Krotons were felt to be too similar to the Mechanioids (see the Chase). He resubmitted the proposal on a whim when he found the manuscript lying about as he moved house. To his surprise, it was accepted.
- As you will have seen by now, the scripts at the BBC production office were in utter chaos. Terrence Dicks got hold of Holme's script and liked it. When he approached Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant with it, they turned it down as they already had something in mind for the slot called Prison in Space. They did allow him to keep it on the backburner though.
- The Prison in Space was to be a story about a matriarchal society that brainwashes Zoe to join their ranks and, as the name implies, imprisons the Doctor and Jamie. It was to include such controversial things such as Jamie in drag, and the Doctor breaking Zoe's conditioning by slapping her on the bum. It also included an exit for Frazers character.
- As it turned out, the Prison in Space's author, Dick Sharples, became frustrated with the sheer amount of re-writes Sherwin and Bryant were asking him to do. He was eventually paid off and the script became unusable. Luckily, Dicks stepped up at the eleventh hour with Holme's story that was slotted in.
- As a point of interest, the Prison in Space was eventually used by the Two Ronnies as a basis for their comedy serial - the worm that turned (apparently).
What worked
- The use of other senses to describe the world adds another dimension to the world
- The progression of a changing belief within the Gond's thanks to the Doctor and co's arrival
- The fact that Zoe can spend some time with the Doctor, it gives us a lot more of a sense of how they interact
- The interaction between Zoe and the Doctor is really funny and a welcome change to Jamie hogging all the companion spotlight
- The use of acid is something we've not seen too much of before, and an organic spaceship seems quite cool. It's a concept explored much better in the Third Doctor's reign, but it started here
What didn't work
- The fact that the Krotons turn the mind probe on, just to serve as a cliff hanger and then turn it off again at the start of episode three. That's lazy writing from someone who I'd never suspect it to come from
- I can't get away from it. The Kroton costumes are just horrendous. I bet the crew fell about laughing
- There's a bit in the end of the story where the Doctor realises that there might be a tremendous explosion, and then it's never mentioned again as the ship just quietly dissolves instead
- The Kroton weapons
- The fact that the Gonds just carry on arguing about sending Vana into the Dynatrope, even though a strange alien enters the city from a place previously thought uninhabitable.
Overall Feelings
Just in case you didn't know. Robert Holmes would go on to be THE best Doctor Who writer that the show has ever had (yes, even better than Steven Moffatt in my humble opinion). With that kind of lofty position, many fans would paradoxically expect me to be saying things like "this story was awful beyond belief and deserves never to be watched again". Many fans think this, I don't...quite.
There's a lot to like about the Krotons and even if they're not immediately obvious, there's some hallmarks here of good writing. For a start, the initial scenes give us a rich history of this alien world, and thanks to the doctors intervention, he sets off a cultural change, where people begin to question the authority of their masters and take an interest in their society once more. This is brilliant because its far richer than 90% of Troughton's stories. The Krotons culture is equally interesting, with their use of unusual terms such as high brains, Dynatropes and dispersed.
The problem with the Krotons is that the only thing of interest is the quirkiness. The monsters cannot be taken seriously for their looks and the fact that they need high brains to grow new bodies, but yet restrict the level of knowledge they receive. Similarly, they need high brains to pilot their way off the planet but yet choose the most intelligent Gonds and kill them.
The whole sub plot with Eelek is pointless, even if Phil Maddock plays the part well. He wants a frontal attack and in the end does nothing. He declares himself leader but does nothing to stop the Doctor and co. ruining his day.
The story has lots of interesting ideas and nice subtle touches to how the cultures and characters have developed, but it's otherwise quite a static story with lots of false starts in the tension department.
Rating
6 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Trial of a Time Lord (episodes 1-4)
Consulting the Matrix
Do you think that the Krotons should return?
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