Episode 102: The Power of Kroll.
Companions: 4th Doctor and Romana.
Air Date: Four episodes. 23rd December 1978 to 13th January 1979.
The Doctor and Romana arrive on the marsh moon of Delta Magna in search of the next segment of the Key to Time. They are caught in the conflict between the native Swampies and the crew of a chemical refinery. The presence of a gun runner complicates matters; to make things worse, the Swampies intend to awaken Kroll, the giant god that lives beneath the swamps.
The Power of Kroll is by far the best of the Key to Time storyline both in the subject matter and how well the story just flows. Some fans do disagree and say that it is just too slow moving but I disagree. It also features what is probably to date the largest monster to appear in the show... Kroll, and who doesn't like giant mutant sea monsters?
K9 doesn't make an appearance in this adventure due to the marshlands where the story was filmed. Instead John Leeson who normally voices K9 took on a role of a worker at the marsh refinery. Sadly, he doesn't make it out of the story alive.
Influences to this story are obviously the displacement and treatment of native populations by colonials. The swampies could easily be Native Americans for instance. The treatment of them by the lead crewman of the refinery has a strong play on the "they are savages on our land" mentality.
Kroll himself can be seen as laughable at times but I don't think in this case that a giant superimposed squid or giant rubber tentacles reaching through the pipes does anything but fit well into the story. It's typical of what we were used to back then and it fits well to the rest of the story.
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