Episode 228: The Krotons (1)

Synopsis:

In a subterranean chamber on an alien world, a ceremony is taking place. One wall of this chamber differs from the others, in that it is made of metal, with a hexagonal doorway set in the centre, at the side of which is a small circular hatch. 

Selris, leader of the Gonds, receives a document from this hatch which lists two names. These are Abu and Vana, a pair of their brightest young students. They have been chosen to become Companions of the Krotons. 

Thara, son of Selris and boyfriend to Vana, objects as this will take her away from him forever. He is restrained by his father and Eelek, one of the ruling council. Both argue that the Krotons can never be disobeyed. They were once, and the result was a desolate wasteland which lies beyond their settlement.

It is here that the TARDIS materialises. The Doctor and his companions emerge, and are immediately assailed by a sulphurous smell. The Doctor has his umbrella with him, as this world has twin suns.

Abu is given a ceremonial robe and medallion, then enters through the hexagonal doorway.

As the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe explore, they come across an identical doorway set into the rocks.

They conceal themselves as it opens, and witness a young man stumble out. Short nozzles emerge from either side of the doorway, which emit a cloud of highly acidic vapour. The man - Abu - is killed, his body disintegrated.

They soon discover the settlement, comprising a number of squat buildings surrounding a huge spherical structure. They find their way into the underground chamber where they are captured by Eelek and a young man named Axus, whom Jamie overpowers when he tries to attack them.

They see the robed Vana enter through the doorway and the Doctor informs the assembled Gonds that they have just seen someone dressed like her killed in the area nearby. The Gonds are horrified to learn that they have been in the wasteland, as it is supposed to be toxic.

The Doctor and his companions rush back to the other doorway, accompanied by Thara.

They arrive just in time and try to block the nozzles with pieces of mica as the door opens and Vana stumbles out, dazed.

The Doctor uses his umbrella to shield her from the vapour jet and they pull her to safety - at the cost of his favourite umbrella.

She is taken to the home of Selris where the Doctor's examination reveals that she has been drained of mental energy. 

From the Gond leader, he learns something of this society. Generations ago, "silver men" arrived on the planet. They laid waste to a great area with acid rain, which is now supposedly a deadly forbidden zone - the region where they saw Abu killed.

The visitors were the Krotons, who live within a great machine around which the chamber - the Hall of Learning - is built.

Also here are teaching machines, and every so often the two brightest students are invited into the machine, to become Companions of the Krotons.

The Krotons determine what knowledge the Gonds may possess. They are never seen, with messages relayed through the small hatch only.

Selris cannot believe that every student has been secretly disposed of out in the wasteland all these years. The Krotons have always been their friends and benefactors. 

The Doctor has realised that the Gonds are being manipulated into a form of self-perpetuating slavery, and determines that it must be stopped.

The hot-headed Thara has no problem believing the Krotons to be malign, and he gathers a group of student friends together to mount an attack on the Hall of Learning - determined to draw them out of their machine. They accost the Hall's Custodian. He is unable to tell them any more about the Krotons than they already know, so Thara and his friends begin smashing the teaching machines.

Beta, the settlement's chief scientist, arrives at the home of Selris to warn him of what his son is doing.

Selris joins the Doctor and his companions as they rush back to the Hall, arriving just in time to hear the booming voice of the Krotons ordering the Gonds to leave immediately. They are being monitored on an automated system within the machine, which focuses on the Doctor.

As he tries to warn Thara and his friends that they are in grave danger, the small hatch opens and a long serpentine probe emerges, equipped with a camera eye.

It extends further into the Hall and concentrates on the Doctor, bearing down on him as he trips and falls to the ground...

Data:

Written by Robert Holmes

Recorded: Friday 22nd November 1968 - Riverside Studio D

First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 28th December 1968

Ratings: 9 million / AI 59

VFX: Bill King & Trading Post 

Designer: Raymond London

Director: David Maloney 

Guest cast: James Copeland (Selris), Philip Madoc (Eelek), James Cairncross (Beta), Gilbert Wynne (Thara), Madeleine Mills (Vana), Richard Ireson (Axus), Maurice Selwyn (Custodian), Bronson Shaw (Student), Terence Brown (Abu), Roy Skelton (Kroton Voice)

Critique:

It was a troubled time for Doctor Who on the scripting front in late 1968. Of the seven stories which make up Season 6, only four were planned from the start. Even then, The Dominators lost an episode, The Mind Robber gained one, and The Invasion was expanded to eight episodes. And The Seeds of Death was heavily rewritten by Terrance Dicks. 

Other stories fell by the wayside, sometimes at a very advanced stage. One of these was "The Prison in Space", by Dick Sharples.

This story saw the Doctor and his companions arrive on a future Earth, now an oppressive matriarchal society ruled over by a dictator known as Chairman Babs. Women dominated their male counterparts. The police were leather-clad "Dolly Guards". Zoe was brainwashed into joining this society, whilst the Doctor and Jamie ended up consigned to the titular prison and helped lead a revolt. At one point Jamie would have disguised himself as a "Dolly Guard". Zoe was snapped out of her support for the regime by being spanked by Jamie...

Just think of The Two Ronnies' 1980 serial "The Worm That Turned" and you'll have some idea of what this sexist nonsense might have looked like, if it hadn't been scrapped late in the day.

It had been intended that this story might also write out Jamie, to be replaced by a new young male companion named Nik.

Frazer Hines had been under pressure from his agent to capitalise on his prominent TV role and get into movies. In the end, Hines was talked into holding back his departure for a few months by Patrick Troughton, so they could both leave the series together. Additionally, Hines had just lost his father and so was the sole breadwinner for his family, so a regular role with steady income was beneficial at this time.

Robert Holmes had lived an interesting life before turning to writing. He was the youngest commissioned officer in WWII thanks to lying about his age, and after the war became a police officer. He began his writing career through attending court cases, noting the drama they generated. This led to a move into journalism and then onto script writing. He had contributed to the soap Market on Honey Lane - a forerunner of EastEnders - amongst other things. His first brush with science fiction was with scripts for the ITV series Undermind. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Invasion, elements of which he would later use in Spearhead From Space.

He had submitted, unsolicited, a story called "The Space-Trap" to the BBC for its sci-fi / fantasy anthology series Out of the Unknown, only to be informed by Shaun Sutton, Head of Serials, that they had all the scripts they needed, and the series was likely to be discontinued. He was, however, going to pass it onto the Doctor Who production office. The Story Editor at the time was Donald Tosh, and he and John Wiles saw some potential in it - though the robots were a little too close to the Mechonoids. 

In the original Doctor Who version of the story, the Doctor was travelling with Ian, Barbara and Vicki. Landing on an alien world, they were subjected to an amnesia gas and captured by a pair of robots which took them into their spaceship. There they were set a number of intelligence tests, being rewarded with food when successfully completed. The actual crew of the ship were a trio of humanoids, who had been in suspended animation for thousands of years after crashing here. They needed three more people to pilot the ship home, and so the robots had been set to work on finding new crewmembers of sufficient intelligence, first to reanimate the surviving crew and then to join them. The travellers quickly realised that only three of them were needed, who would be press-ganged into making the long journey, and the other one would be disposed of. The Doctor sabotaged the ship and they escaped.

It was hoped that the story might be developed for Season 3, but Holmes secured a job on another series and so had no time to do further work on it.

Later, Holmes came across the script during an office clear out and decided to resubmit it to the Doctor Who team, adding a note that if they weren't interested then they should simply bin it as he didn't want it back.

It wasn't binned, as Terrence Dicks had a look at it and, like Tosh, saw some potential.

Derrick Sherwin was not so sure, so Dicks asked if he could develop it as a project of his own since he was due to take over the Script Editor role from Sherwin.

When "The Prison in Space" collapsed, Dicks was able to put forward as a replacement "The Space-Trap", which he had been working on with Holmes. Retitled simply "The Trap", and then The Krotons, it headed into production. 

There were few substantial changes between the first draft and the broadcast version. Eelek was named Avrik, and Selris received the names of the chosen students in a crystal casket which was taken from the hatch in the Hall of Learning. The Dynatrope was named the Dynatron, and was described as toroidal in shape. Instead of an image composed of dots, the Doctor's face would have appeared on the scanner like an identikit picture. The Gond settlement was said to lie in a green and verdant valley, contrasting with the wasteland. The Doctor used a rolled up item of Thara's clothing to try to block the acid jet, instead of a rock, when rescuing Vana.

On hearing of "silver men", Zoe was to have asked the Doctor if it could be Cybermen again. Beta was to have been a much younger man - a contemporary of Thara.

David Maloney, who had only recently directed The Mind Robber, had been given the task of making "The Prison in Space". Whilst happy to see this abandoned, he was less than impressed with its replacement. The Doctor's use of an umbrella as a prop was one of his ideas. (It was supposed to be an antique, whalebone-handled one, but self-opening brollies had just come on the market and one of these would be used instead).

Bobi Bartlett continued to be responsible for the costumes, whilst designer Raymond London had previously worked on The War Machines.

Filming commenced on Sunday 10th November at the Pyx Granite Quarry near Malvern, the spa town in Worcestershire. This would represent the wasteland region. Footage was captured on 16mm film, though 35mm film was also used for some zoom shots.

Wendy Padbury wore a new outfit, red and black in colour, which was made from a strengthened type of paper, and she hoped to keep it after completing the story.

Filmed the first day were some establishing shots and the TARDIS arrival, as well as the travellers' initial exploration of the planet. Troughton hummed the English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher, which he had learned to play on the recorder. The model of the Gond settlement was filmed on location.

At one point it looks like Hines has slipped and pushes against Wendy Padbury as they descend a rocky slope - but this was simply a bit of business they worked out between themselves at the location.

The following day, the crew moved to another quarry south of Malvern. Only one sequence for the opening episode was filmed here - when the Doctor and his companions first emerge from the TARDIS.

Filming then moved to Ealing for the rest of the week. 

On the first day, Terence Brown filmed his scenes where Abu merges from the doorway in the wasteland, to be attacked by the acid jet and killed. Dry ice was used for the acid cloud. The dispersion nozzles were actually inserted into cake tins at the side of the hexagonal door.

The sequences involving the serpentine probe came next. This was made and operated by a puppetry firm named Chimera.

The final day of filming, Friday 15th November, included the shot of the planet's twin suns. Various computer-style graphics were also put together, including the formation of an "X" on a monitor.

The main guest artist for the story was James Copeland, whose acting career began in 1953. One of his first film roles was one he is best remembered for - the comedy ensemble piece Innocents in Paris. Other film roles included Rockets Galore! and The Maggie. He had given up acting temporarily prior to being cast in The Krotons, to become a continuity announcer for Grampian TV. Doctor Who was one of his first jobs after resuming his old career.

Roy Skelton had pre-recorded his Kroton vocals on the Wednesday prior to recording the first episode, basing his performance on a South African accent.

It was decided that the opening instalment would be captured directly onto 35mm film, rather than the usual 625-line video tape as with the other three episodes. The opening captions were shown over a shot of the circular hatch opening - and unfortunately this became stuck for a few seconds.

A recording run-on allowed Troughton to swap his umbrella for a tattered version, after it had been doused in acid.

One recording break allowed the main cast to move from the exit doorway to Selris' home.

The computerised "X" appeared on a monitor in the machine's control room, along with an image of the Doctor's face composed of black and white dots, and camera output showing the Hall of Learning. 

The attack of the snake-like probe was a mixture of Ealing filming and use of the prop in studio. Maloney used POV shots to show it homing in on the Doctor.

I'll confess it from the outset, but The Krotons is another guilty pleasure of mine. We'll talk about the monsters themselves when they finally make an appearance, though they are one of the things people use to knock the story. Some of the acting is a trifle stagey, and we have some less than impressive production values on display. (That little hatch getting stuck in the very first scene, in close-up, does get it off to a poor start).

It is a cheap story, designed to offset more expensive ones this season, but I don't think you should hold that against it. Unlike something like Time-Flight, it doesn't try to do too much and deliver beyond what it knows it can achieve. As a four part space filler between eight weeks of invading Cybermen and the return of the Ice Warriors, it stands up reasonably well.

The basic premise is the old one of alien visitors being taken for gods by a more primitive society, but Holmes avoids much of the sci-fi cliché by having the Gonds know that the Krotons are aliens from the outset. The whole false gods bit, which the Star Trek franchise will work to death, isn't necessary for the story to work. The "alien astronauts" concept is merely the framework on which to hang a story about exploitation and colonialism -  a more technologically advanced race, with superior weaponry, dominating another. Instead of exploiting natural resources, the Krotons harvest mental energy. 

The Gonds are an enslaved people - they just don't realise it as it's done in such an insidious way. They think that their cleverest students are simply entering the machine to become servants to the Krotons, whom they describe as "friends and benefactors", and the suppression of their technological progress is disguised by them only concentrating on what they are taught - not on what knowledge is being withheld.

There are some serious flaws in the Kroton plan, but we'll get to them in a later episode. A quick question here, though. If the metal medallions worn by the students aren't dissolved by the acid, shouldn't the ramp area be covered with them, if this has been going on for generations? Also, how can it be a Kroton speaking, if the creatures haven't been reanimated yet? If the Dynatrope is programmed with their voice pattern, why is it only now that it decides to speak to the Gonds?

Holmes will revisit elements of this story in his final completed story for Doctor Who, The Mysterious Planet - namely the pair of bright young things who are taken from a primitive society to serve a robotic being which has become semi-mythical to the society they have left behind, lurking in its high-tech lair and never being seen.

Inspirations appear to have come from The Tripods novels, by John Christopher. These began in 1967, and depict a non-technological community ruled over by alien machines, which process young people when they reach a certain age as a form of mental enslavement.

The Machine Stops, by EM Forster, is another possible inspiration. First published in 1909, it tells of a subterranean human society whose every need is served by a great machine. One of the inhabitants decides to break free and see what lies beyond - despite the machine's warning that only a toxic wasteland lies outside. This short story was dramatised for the second season of Out of the Unknown. As Holmes wanted to write for the series, he must surely have watched it.

Rebellious students were a thing seen regularly in the news in 1968 - most notably in May of that year in Paris. Protests against the Vietnam War, military dictatorships, Apartheid and racism in general were global, however. Those in Eastern Europe, such as the "Prague Spring", were a protest against Communist oppression.

Trivia:

• The ratings start off very well indeed. In fact, this is the highest rated episode of the Troughton era, both in terms of viewing figures and audience appreciation. No doubt falling in the weekend between Christmas and New Year helped - generally a quiet pause for people between the major festivities.
• An Audience Research Report was commissioned by the BBC for this episode, comprising the views of 186 respondents. Many found the episode intriguing and it was popular especially with younger viewers. There were some who found it boring, and missed the purely historical stories. Criticisms were voiced about the sets, costumes and some of the acting - including the opinion of some that Troughton didn't take the role of Doctor seriously enough.
• First appearance in the series of Philip Madoc, who is best known for his role as Mehendri Solon in The Brain of Morbius. He will be back later in this season to play the War Lord in The War Games, and his final role in the series would be as Fenner in The Power of Kroll. In 1966 he had featured as black marketeer Brockley in Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150AD.
• James Cairncross had previously played Lemaitre / James Stirling in The Reign of Terror.
• Gilbert Wynne would later appear in Torchwood, featuring in Miracle Day: The Gathering. He was well-known at the time as a regular on police drama Softly, Softly.
• Richard Ireson had worked on the series only a few weeks before, when he had played one of the Clockwork Soldiers and (uncredited) the Minotaur in The Mind Robber.
• Roy Skelton voices his fourth lot of aliens, after the Monoids, Cybermen and Daleks. He had also been the voice of the base computer in The Ice Warriors.
• James Copeland is the father of actor James Cosmo (Highlander, Braveheart, Game of Thrones, His Dark Materials amongst many others).
• "The Prison in Space" was itself a replacement story. Originally intended for this slot was "The Dreamspinner", by Paul Wheeler. This was written off at an early stage, and was one of the reasons that The Invasion was extended from six to eight episodes.
• On his real age being discovered, Robert Holmes wasn't censured by the Army. One General praised him, stating he had done exactly the same thing in the last war.
• Other than the usual daily programme listing, Radio Times opted not to cover the debut of the new serial with any additional feature.