Classic Who "The Power of Kroll" Parts 3&4 Reaction

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[@TheElderBlotch]

Sesska: Lack of K9 always docks points, those are the rules. City Of Death: Challenge accepted.

[@kaiper9982]

K9 needed to be written out often. He does fix most problems, so for sake of the story needed a day off.

[@GedUK]

I mean, John Leeson is in this story! That's basically K9!

[@BryanTidwell-k7q]

K9 cannot be running around in the swamp for obvious reasons... and John Leeson who voices K9 stars in this story.

[@DonnaLang42rockglobally]

I really liked John Leeson as Dugeen.

[@whobp8]

Yeah, it's hard to root for a side when both Thawn and the leader of the Swampies are so fanatical. Kroll is ironically one of the most sympathetic characters in the story. He's not really bad, he's just a crazy, mixed-up squid. 😂

[@DaveB806]

These were my very first episodes I watched when they first came out way back in the 70’s, I think I was 10, I had never seen anything like it and was INSTANTLY hooked! So glad to see someone else love these old episodes. Love your reaction ❤

[@cameronmonaghan6883]

great story with characters and villains Ranquin and Thawn being perfect counterpoints to the animal threat. Plus love the twist with Kroll having eaten a Key segment. Which means Kroll won't be making a come back. Looking forward to the finale. I know it's not popular with fans but I love it. I will pay good money to see Ncuti Gatwa use that technique (3:30) to escape in series 14 (same audio effect)

[@M-E_123]

That's a big reason Tom Baker was so often the most popular Doctor (before New Who started) - even the worst stories in his run are very watchable and still entertaining without really overstaying their welcome (so many 4 part stories that just move at a good pace - very few endless "capture & escape" cycles like alot of the earlier Doctor 6+ episode stories can occasionally suffer from) - and both the Doctor & all of his companions are very charismatic & likeable at least until Adric (Sarah Jane, Leele, both Romana's & K9) - and he was around for so long, consistently churning out fun adventures. Then every now and then you get a really great guest character / villain / story set up and it hits another level. There aren't really any dips in quality, just changes in tone depending on the lead writer at the time, which leads people to rank different seasons as "best ever" depending on their personal favourite writer & companion set up - but very few people will look at any single season and say "most stories are a miss" - because they all deliver a certain minimum standard of watchability. Unlike most other Doctor's, who often have one clear "best companion set up" where everything seems to click. Tom had several of those strung together one after the other.

[@rogershore3128]

I still think he's the best Doctor and I'd been watching since Power of the Daleks. Post Baker, David Tennant is the only actor for me who captured that magic the first 4 had..

[@joshuajoshua2732]

Even after New Who Tom Baker will always be the best in my opinion.

[@rogershore3128]

@@joshuajoshua2732 I think it was a unique era with so much greatness... I honestly don't think the show ever recovered from his departure. I feel greatull for growing up when he was the Doctor. Hard to believe I was 19 when Logopolis ended.... Only seems like yesterday...

[@coopercane500]

The green makeup was apparently extremely difficult to get off, and some of the actors' skin was still slightly green for weeks after production.

[@Melancthon7332]

Proof that some goodass giant squid can go a long way

[@gluuuuue]

I tend to be #TeamSquid more often than the average fan viewer too I’d say.

[@Tyrconnell]

"Oh My God, they killed K9!" If only your had known while watching....

[@joshuajoshua2732]

K9 was in it it's just you don't see him outside the TARDIS in this episode and as I explained a few comments back K9 was a very difficult prop to work with and wasn't very safe too use in some areas especially the swamp scenes as it would had been impossible for it to move with a grassy ground. I also love the scenes with the Doctor with his escape plan by using his high pitch loud sound I just love it when the Doctor has these special powers out of nowhere at all. I'm probaly one of the rare ones but I really love this story you just can't go wrong with Tom Baker even with the worst stories his humour always helps it. I hadn't noticed this before but watching this in your reactions i noticed with Thawn's death scene there was blood pouring out which would had been brutal for a kids show which you wouldn't see in Doctor Who nowadays.

[@Problembeing]

K-9 was in the story... It just wasn't the K-9 you were expecting lol

[@crustychris2]

Glad you enjoyed it, I agree with you that it's not top tier, but still good fun.😊

[@alexfletcher5192]

Kroll could so easily have been the undoing of this story, but it's actually the making of it (notwithstanding Robert Holmes' usual gift with dialogue). And I suppose, in the end, the right people die. If such a thing can ever be said.

[@MysteryFedoraMan]

Well you did have k9 actor John leeson in another role…

[@alexfletcher5192]

The Doctor's sudden explosion of talent here is either ridiculous or simply entertainment. And nobody seems to agree fully on which it might be.

[@subscorpion9560]

I like this story because of the different villains and their goals. Ranquin, a delusional fanatic who seeks the humans removed from his land. Thawn, a greedy, racist monster who is more than willing to kill all the swampies for mere profit, which even disturbs his apathetic crew. Kroll, a mutated squid that ate a segment of time and is merely a hungry creature

[@Jamestopboy]

Romana and the Doctor have one big difference: while they’re both geniuses compared to everyone else, the Doctor will waffle his way out of the situation. Romana, on the other hand, will let you know that she is terribly displeased by your actions and the fact that they have to involve her *and* ruin her clothes.

[@tokublwhovian]

We brits wish it was raining, it too hot here! 🥵

[@ladycplum]

We Southern Americans can sympathize!

[@jaymorrison4886]

It's horrid the heat over hear in uk

[@MisterUnlikely]

It's a regular theme through many episodes of Doctor Who: most people at the top of the command structure can't be trusted.

[@thethinkingcatakaneonormie3527]

Of the key to time this is the only clunker story, its interesting Dugeen whos one of the station crew is John Leeson who is the Voice of K-9 who doesn't appear in the story due to the non waterproof nature of the prop.

[@tommarshall4561]

Living for how much Sesska has been enjoying the sheer fun summery energy of the Williams era, if anything more than the Hinchcliffe era - an enjoyable riposte to the idea that the earlier of the two is automatically superior in every way, which has always struck me as a bit of a misguided fan view that only that which is Serious and Gothic has merit, and giddy, witty fun does not…

[@jimcat6795]

My feelings exactly!

[@Melancthon7332]

So much this. One development over the years that's cheered me up is how we've gone almost full circle in so-called 'nerd culture' from insisting that everything we love be taken super duper seriously and that the dark and troubling works are proof of worthiness, to now, when the preferences of new generations of fans allow us to admit that it was the fun, joyous stuff that made us fall in love in the first place.

[@jimcat6795]

@@Melancthon7332 YES!

[@Allancarlostani]

I also like a lot the Graham Williams era, but to be fair, most of the negative reviews about his era tend to focus on season 17 ("City of Death" aside).

[@AnotherScifiGuy]

I love season 17 even Horns is a lot of fun if you approach it was a fun funny story.@@Allancarlostani

[@michaelhallett4110]

Filmed on my doorstep. Outside bits. Mx

[@magus104]

I feel like an arch like this is what Flux was TRYING to be but either due to not enough episodes or bad overall writing it just didnt land for me. I hate that the whole world uses covid as an excuse for why some stuff was lack luster.... Ive never understood deadlines when you look at how infrequent doctor who releases are now theres literally no reason they couldnt give it more time. The way media is today stuff could so easily be adjusted.

[@Skeezer66]

Streaming is one thing, but Dr. Who is a BBC show, which means it has a tight schedule, because they save a certain time and place for it in the big picture of their programming. The higher ups in the BBC most likely hated how Chibnall ran things, because it throws off marketing and promotions, when and who can be available to put the production together. No one can wait for the job, they have to move onto other jobs.

[@neptune04]

Yeah K9 and water don't mix well as we find out in a later story.

[@Skeezer66]

I like this story too! Much of it is really a 'hate watch', because I cannot stand all the "Swampie" talk and trash talk! It would have been beautiful to see Kroll gobble up the main racist, but him being killed by a native person is satisfying! Some great surprises coming in the next couple of stories!!!

[@geoffmason7215]

so close to the 80's

[@torenatkinson1986]

All the tropes of classic Doctor Who are here - a corporation looking to exploit resources which disturbs an otherwise peaceful monster, in turn worshipped by the local savages who are controlled by a zealous high priest. The only thing missing is the myopic scientist over-invested in his work. I can’t get over Neil McCarthy’s face - he’s the actor who plays the head company man Thawn. He also played Calibos in the 1981 Clash of the Titan and was in the movie Zulu! I feel for the actors and crew having to film on location in a marsh, and Wikipedia tells me the green dye used on the ‘swampies’ (what a name) wouldn’t come off for some time after production ended. All in all not a terrible episode, but pretty par for the course.

[@rogershore3128]

Fun is an excellent way to describe this season.. There is an energy that was lacking in the previous season.

[@kemmdog4444]

They put the wrong green paint on the actors and it took them a long time to get it all off.

[@ladycplum]

Yeah, they had to go to a nearby Army base to get it scrubbed off!

[@bugsby4663]

This isn't a story I enjoy and only watch if doing a season 16 rewatch as a whole. However, it does have sterling support actors.

[@ladycplum]

I have to say The Power Of Kroll is probably my least favorite story of the Key To Time series.

[@zipadeedooda7938]

Maybe worse than the effects for Kroll are the Swampies chanting. Apparently green people have no rhythm. They are so amusingly out of synch. Maybe that's what really irritated Kroll about them. :)

[@chrisbrooker7260]

Pretty average stuff. It’s OK. Nothing more. Definitely one of the lesser Robert Holmes contributions to the Who canon

[@conscienceaginBlackadder]

So annoyed by the worst pile of lazy writing implausibility! One of the reasons to only count myself a critical observer of DW. * A chance thunderstorm at the right moment saved them. * Plus on top of that, the window was breakable by clever sound wave science, instead of made of reinforced very thick glass as it sensibly would be made of to keep out a stormy environment! * The window was conveniently above them, instead of to the side where the water inrush would miss them. * The window existed at all. Instead they could have been at a sacrifice altar in a windowless inner chamber, + never known there was a storm. I need to know that the Key quest was actually set sensibly and doably, instead of with a near-certainty for them to get themselves killed. To know that, I need to know there was a way to escape even if it had not rained and there was no window !