This story in a nutshell: Attack the Machine! Children of
the revolution!
Sparkling Dialogue: 'She was one of the finest students we
had ever produced?' 'Oh really? Competition for you Zoe.'
'Sounds a bit like a dinner gong...'
The Good:
* Maloney is trying
his best with the resources at his disposal and despite being set in a filthy
old quarry he makes the location work really stand out. It gives him a chance
to work in wide open spaces away from the cramped studios and the long shot that
sees the TARDIS materialise and the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe emerge is especially
impressive.
* To modern eyes
the modelwork of the city might look some poorly done papier mache blocks but I
think it is rather imaginatively constructed. I especially like how props team
placed the dwellings in what appears to be a reconstruction of the quarry and
there are little paths interconnecting them. It's a bit like the miniatures in
Invasion of the Dinosaurs, easy to mock but worth studying what they were trying
to do and the effort that has gone into it. With Doctor Who in the sixties
where they had to make shortcuts visually, this is a creative example of trying
to bring something a little alien to the screen.
* It is fascinating
to compare the performances of Gilbert Wynne (Thara) and Philip Madoc (Eelek)
because the former is doing all he can to attract your attention (screaming,
emoting like a madman, dashing about the set) whilst the latter isn't moving at
all and doesn't raise his voice once. Beguilingly my eyes were all drawn to
Madoc.
* I can feel
Terrance Dicks working behind the scenes on this one, he and Robert Holmes
generating as many mysteries as possible to keep the viewer hooked (it is a
similar trick they pulled off in the first episode of Carnival of Monsters).
Who are the Krotons (perhaps it would have been better had we not found that
out)? Why do they need the smartest minds? What happens to the youngster
between heading into the machine and emerging the other side catatonic? And why
are they dispatched so callously? Holmes always had something of a rebellious
nature to his writing and he kick starts his Doctor Who career by jumping on
the bandwagon of the youth uprising in the sixties. Interestingly I can't
imagine scenes of rough kids behaving violently and smashing their way through
a story being allowed anywhere near the series these days, especially in the
wake of the London riots. Does placing this youthful uprising on another planet
distance the viewer from what is going outside their front door? Although I
have to say Holmes' script skips the metaphor completely and makes a direct
comment when he has one character screaming 'Smash the machine!' Add in the climax which features kids
dropping some acid to take on the system that has held them back and it's the
sixties in a nutshell. Progressive, riotous, revolutionary. I like how the back
story is left to the last minute so everything falls into place at the climax,
the Krotons raising the intelligence of the Gonds after they crash landed to a
level where their mental energy could be harnessed to enable them to escape.
* My favourite
sequences in The Krotons all take place in episode where the Doctor step into
the unknown of the machine. Doctor Who is often a straight forward action adventure
show and only every so often does it dip its toes into something weirder and
more idiosyncratic. These scenes certainly qualify with Maloney adopting some
dramatic camera techniques (he gets right in the Doctor and Zoe's faces as they
are having their mental energy torn from them) and indulging in some 60s
psychedelia to stress the weirdness of the Kroton ship. I love the bubbling
vats of liquid with the Krotons forming inside, at this point it is impossible
to know what exactly is going on. With no incidental music guiding this story
along, it is at this point where Brian Hodgson's sound effects really start to
create an atmosphere.
* That heart
stopping moment when it looks as though the Krotons have destroyed the TARDIS.
Although whether my dismay was because it was apparently taken out by one of
the least effective monsters the Doctor has met or because it means he will be
stuck on this miserable rock forever more, I'm not sure.
* Whilst I can
think of a fair few times when the HADS might have come in handy, it's sudden
mention is just another element of the ever expanding list of devices that the
TARDIS has on offer. Writers make these things up as they need them but it all
adds to the crafts sense of magic.
The Bad:
* The first few minutes
of The Krotons might be solely responsible for its poor reputation because it
stacks up one cliché after another. When your first shot is of a cardboard wall
failing to separate properly followed by a stiff actor talking in what appears
to be a tongue tripping alien language ('Abu Gond!), children being
adorned with sparkly cloaks straight out of Flash Gordon and some
horrendous b-movie style reactions ('You can't go! I wont let you go!' -
you can see the beginnings of Jenny Laird's stylish interpretation of a
distraught mother here) all your worst fears might feel confirmed. I certainly
wouldn't recommend this as the first classic story to show to a non-fan. Not
because it isn't any good, but because you have to look past some questionable
performances, aesthetics and production values to get the gold. To my shame I
have seen far to many farcical b movie SF horrors usually obtained from my
local pound shop (and even then I would say they are overpriced) and there have
been plenty with scenes like this, hysterical men and women trying to sum up an
entire civilisation, wobbly sets barely holding themselves together and an
unconvincing culture born out poor aesthetics and lack of numbers.
* The Krotons, not
one of Doctor Who's finest moments in the costume department. Which is a shame
because the central idea of them being grown from crystal is genuinely
innovative. With the advent of CGI this is an notion that is ripe for a
re-invention, imagine being able to watch the crystal bubble and form, cracking
into place and the finished result emerging; sleek, faceted and deadly. What we
essentially get in this story is an egg box with a skirt, Dalek like appendages
and a phallic crystal standing erect from the top. Cumbersome, impractical,
artificial and unbelievable. Not exactly what every Doctor Who designer is
aiming for. Initially I rather liked the voices when they were used sparingly,
booming through the echoey halls of the learning to warn of the rebellious
students. Unfortunately they start to shred at the nerves when the Krotons are
actualised and they paper the last two episodes with their unintelligible
babble ('DIRECTION POINT!'). I don't even think with more time, money or
resources that the Krotons could be made to work with the methods of television
at this point. It really is the case of Holmes thinking outside the box and
conceptualising something that needed computer wizardry to bring it to life
convincingly. We needed to see the transformation (rather than the egg
boxes emerging from the machine - sorry standing up from their crouched
position) for this to really come off. I think the Krotons work much better in
episodes one and two where they are silently observing the Doctor and his
companions, Maloney uses some creepy spying techniques to give them a real
presence (given my phobia of snakes that viewing tendril that attacks the
Doctor give me a moments panic). What I came up with in my head was far more
impressive. Imagine The Krotons being brought to life with the same sort of
technology that wowed the audiences of Frozen.
* Compared to
Holmes' later work on the series (particularly in stories such as Carnival f
Monsters, The Talons of Weng-Chiang and The Ribos Operation) The Krotons
doesn't excel in the characterisation department either. The trouble is that
the guest characters aren't given enough exposure to make them truly relevant
and mostly serve to explain the mystery and help the Doctor to defeat the
Krotons. We cut back to the revolt plot every fifteen minutes or so, long
enough so we have completely forgotten about it. The dialogue isn't exactly
sparkling either and doesn't make the character stand out as individuals with
their own lives. Mostly it is the work of the actors that gives them any real
identity with Philip Madoc's Eelek and James Cairncross' Beta both standing out
amongst the rest. James Copeland struggles to make his unwieldy exposition work
and Madeline Mills is given a real bum deal, either unconscious or moaning for
the first three episodes. We needed to get to know the Gonds as a people, so we
can give a damn if the Krotons wipe them out or Eelek pulls off a political
coup but they are so faceless it is difficult to give a damn especially if
Selris, Vana and Thara are anything to go by. The line 'we still have Eelek
to deal with' thrown in at the end goes to show how irrelevant that whole
plot has been to the story, so much so that it doesn't deserve an ending. That
might be realistic but in dramatic terms it isn't very satisfying.
* Shots from the
Krotons POV as it hunts down the Doctor and Zoe = big plus. Long shots of the
Kroton ambling down the ramp trying to keep hold of his burdensome gun = big
minus. Just how was Maloney supposed to shoot these creatures? He couldn't do
it all in POV because money had been spent on the costumes. Perhaps he should
have always shot upwards, capitalizing on their stature and excising any
glimpses of the skirt.
* When the Kroton
gives Jamie a big cuddle why doesn't simply kill him? How does the Doctor walk
away from all that heavy rubble crashing down on his back?
1 comment:
Watching all in order. I saw this in 1981 and had it on sound tape from the recording. It is a part of my childhood, my first Troughton story. I love it but purely from nostalgia. The regulars are outstanding as is Philip Madoc. There is decent amount of comedy and it's all very neatly gift wrapped. Better than The Dominators but 3rd so far this season obviously.
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