Synopsis:
Thara and his fellow students have been smashing the teaching machines in the Hall of Learning, to draw the Krotons out of their machine. The Doctor and his companions have arrived to try to stop them. An automated system within the machine focuses on the Doctor as the suspected ring-leader and a serpentine probe emerges and homes in on him. As he retreats, he stumbles and falls - and the probe bears down on him...
The probe seems confused when he protectively brings his hands up to his face, and he realises that it works by pattern recognition - the pattern being his features.
One of the students attempts to attack the probe with a stone axe and it lunges at him - dissolving his body with a spray of acid. It then retreats back into the machine. The Doctor explains that the confused probe must have thought that it had destroyed its target.
The booming voice is heard once more, claiming to have killed their leader and demanding that everyone leave the Hall.
Back at Selris' home, the Doctor examines Vana once more and finds she is recovering. Zoe points out that the Gonds are advanced scientifically in some ways, but not in others - having little chemical knowledge for instance. The Doctor suspects these gaps in their knowledge are significant.
He orders Jamie to stay behind and look after Vana, whilst he and Selris return to the Hall so he can investigate it properly. Zoe will accompany him.
On entering the Hall, the Doctor notes a trapdoor set in the floor, and Selris explains that this leads to the under-hall which hasn't been visited for many years.
He and Selris descend and find the foundations of the Kroton machine, resting on three huge pillars.
Coming back up, the Doctor is shocked to see Zoe seated at one of the teaching machines, wearing a metal headset. She explains that she was simply curious. She has taken a test, and states that the Krotons were very pleased with her performance - or so she felt.
The Doctor reminds her that they know the Krotons are not friendly, and she has had an impression planted in her mind.
Selris indicates a dial which shows that she has obtained one of the highest scores he has ever seen. Most Gonds register half of what she has achieved.
Vana wakes from a nightmare, talking about a burning ball. Thara thinks this must be some Kroton weapon she has been exposed to. Jamie decides to go and tell the Doctor.
The Doctor is telling Zoe about what he saw in the under-hall, which resembles a root structure. He believes it to be organic and hopes to get a sample.
A gong suddenly sounds, and Selris receives another document from the hatch in the machine.
Zoe is horrified to learn that she has been selected as a Companion of the Krotons and must enter the machine. Selris warns that there will be a terrible price to pay for the whole community if she fails to do so.
The Doctor has no choice but to take the test himself so that he can at least accompany her. Somewhat flustered, he makes a few mistakes but soon achieves a higher score - though only by answering more questions.
Jamie arrives just in time to see them enter the machine.
They explore inside and find that it appears to be deserted. They come upon two chairs and sit down - and are then gripped by a powerful forcefield which immobilises them, though the Doctor is first able to give Zoe one end of a small metal chain to hold. A device descends from the ceiling above them - appearing like a burning ball - and they are bathed in a bright light. The Doctor hopes that the chain will help equalise the power being exerted against them.
Jamie tries to break into the machine, but without success.
The Doctor and Zoe pass out momentarily, but wake to find a vat of liquid bubbling away beside them. Zoe thinks that the Krotons have a way of turning mental power into pure energy. They have been used to activate some device.
The Doctor takes a sample of the liquid. He identifies it as being a solution of crystals in suspension, and reminds Zoe that life on Earth began as a form of primordial soup. They see a shape begin to form in the vat and decide it is time to leave.
Behind them, a huge crystalline form has emerged from the vat, linked to it by a hosepipe. A second shape is beginning to form.
Once complete, the two Krotons consult - noting that the Gonds they have just processed should still be here as they have been programmed to obey.
The Doctor and Zoe reach the exit into the wasteland. He uses a piece of mica to trip the door mechanism and they hurry out, jumping down to the side of the ramp to avoid the acid sprays.
The Krotons observe this on a monitor, and identify that the pair cannot be Gonds. They must be captured and brought back - and the Gonds will be used to do this.
The monitor then shows the Hall of Learning, and they note that Jamie isn't a Gond either. They suspect that aliens have arrived on the planet, and assume he is a "high brain" like the other two.
Jamie believes that his efforts to open the door have been successful - unaware that he has been allowed to enter.
He is captured by the Krotons and forced into one of the chairs before having his mind analysed.
They identify that he is not a "high brain", and state that the power will destroy him...
Written by Robert Holmes
Recorded: Friday 29th November 1968 - Lime Grove Studio D
First broadcast: 5.15pm, Saturday 4th January 1969
Ratings: 8.4 million / AI 57
VFX: Bill King & Trading Post
Designer: Raymond London
Director: David Maloney
Additional cast: Patrick Tull (Kroton Voice), Robert La'Bassiere (Kroton One), Miles Northover (Kroton Two)
Critique:
Two rumours persisted for a very long time about the Kroton costumes. The first was that they were the result of the Blue Peter "Design A Monster" competition; and the other was that due to some miscalculation of Spinal Tap proportions, they were manufactured too short and the rubber skirt had to be added at the last minute to cover this...
Regarding the latter, you can see the rubber skirt quite clearly indicated on the design sketches - as reproduced below in Marcus Hearn's book Doctor Who - The Vault:
As for their real origins, they were designed by Bobi Bartlett, and constructed by Bill King's Trading Post company, who were based in Southall, West London (and not by the Lovells, as DWM's "The Complete History" Vol 13 claims).
The idea, which was in the script, was that they should be crystalline in nature, hence the use of diamond shapes. Ideally they ought to have been transparent, or more glass-like. Instead, they look like metallic robots, as it would have been impossible to have something both transparent and with an operator inside.
Bartlett was generally pleased with the design, especially the rotating head - which didn't feature in Holmes' script - and the fact that they were faceless. There had been a thought to have them glide along on rails in studio, but the need for one of them to move around on location led to the notion of a hovercraft-like skirt. The heads were made by a company which specialised in manufacturing racing cars.
David Maloney himself claimed that the Krotons were built too short, and if anything Bartlett was surprised to find that the upper bodies had been made much larger than she had envisaged, expecting something sleeker. Maloney went on to say that Holmes was not pleased with how his monsters had turned out, hoping for a more humanoid form - "crystal men". In his initial draft for this episode he writes that the Doctor and Zoe see "a man-like form emerge from the tank".
A later version has the Kroton "now solidified into a recognisable humanoid shape... a silver hand and arm, covered in metal pyrites, comes out of the liquid. Kroton One is climbing shakily out of the tank... It gropes for one of the tank pipes and clips it into a socket at its waist...".
The only filming required for this episode was work undertaken at Ealing on Wednesday 13th November. These were scenes set inside the Dynatrope of the Doctor and Zoe being subjected to the mental processing. Maloney distorted the image by using a fish-eye lens, and Catherine Wheels were filmed to be superimposed over the picture in several scenes.
Extra Barry Ashton played the Gond student who is killed by the probe.
Also filmed were the Doctor and Zoe escaping through the exit hatch of the Dynatrope.
The following day, Miles Northover was present to film the sequence where the first of the Krotons is reconstituted from the vat, along with other material of the bubbling tank of liquid. Northover had already played Kroton Two on location earlier in the week, for sequences in the third episode.
Friday 14th saw graphics work undertaken, which included the various test images which would be shown on the teaching machine monitors. These animated sequences were the work of Janet Pimlott of the BBC Graphics Department.
Joining the cast in rehearsals for Episode Two was Robert Grant, who would perform as Kroton One. He requested that he be credited as Robert La'Bassiere on screen (with the unintended result of him sometimes being mistakenly named La Brassiere in some publications).
Publicity photographs were taken on the day of recording, of the Doctor with Vana, and of Zoe using the teaching machine.
The cliffhanger sequence was restaged, though using the same filmed material of the serpentine probe as used the week before.
Recording run-ons rather than breaks were employed to allow cast members to move from set to set.
Reexamining Vana, the Doctor wished for an ETC machine. This ought to have been an ECT, but it's not a mistake by Troughton. Holmes had misspelled it and he was simply giving the line he had read.
Dummy teaching machines had been in studio the previous week, as they would be smashed by the rebellious students, but this time one had a monitor installed on which the Kroton tests could be shown.
The Catherine Wheel superimposition effect was used as Vana began to recall her experiences inside the Dynatrope, and when Jamie comes under mental assault.
Troughton ad-libbed the "great jumping gobstoppers" line, when the Doctor hears the gong sound.
The exit hatch set was not needed in studio, and a couple of photographs had been taken of it the week before - one with the door closed, and another with it open. These could then appear on the monitor in the Dynatrope, as viewed by the Krotons.
Maloney opted not to show too much of the monsters until the very end of the episode.
The Dynatrope interior sections were mostly achieved by use a number of different flats set against black drapes, dressed with props which included items from previous stories - such as a Cyberman spaceship from The Invasion (as can be seen below at right of image).
Last week Jamie had a fight with Axus, but he will have less and less to do in this story as it progresses. This week, after being left behind to look after Vana, he takes on the "damsel in distress" role usually assigned to the female companion, whilst Zoe gets to demonstrate her scientific knowledge, having been paired with the Doctor.
This leads to the highlight of this episode, and probably of the whole story - the sequence in the Hall of Learning involving the Doctor and Zoe sitting the Kroton tests.
It results in some amusing interplay.
The Doctor (to Selris): "Yes, well, Zoe is something of a genius. It can be very irritating at times..."
Then later, when Selris suggests that the Doctor might not be able to answer all the questions on their most difficult machine, Zoe responds: "Of course he can. The Doctor's almost as clever as I am."
There's also the business with the Doctor first sitting his test...
Zoe: "Oh sit down. And put this headset on. And press the button... Press the button!"
The Doctor: "Alright, there's no need to shout. Now go away and don't fuss me. No, come back. What's this? It's alright, I know...".
Robert Holmes originally intended the Gonds to have "gond" as a suffix to their names, such as Eelekgond or Tharagond. This was dropped, though the Krotons use this nomenclature. When the Doctor is summoned to enter the machine he retorts "Doctor-Gond. Idiots!".
The Krotons themselves may not have turned out quite as everyone had hoped, but they are actually impressive - from the waist up. It's that rubber skirt which lets them down as a piece of design, and the fact that they simply resemble robots - despite what the dialogue does its best to state.
David Maloney shows once again that he liked to experiment visually. In The Mind Robber he had employed stop motion animation for Medusa's snakes - a technique he will use again in The War Games. Here, he uses computer animation-style graphics for the teaching machine. Janet Pimlott, who provided these for him, is probably best known for the title sequence to the popular '70's sitcom The Good Life.
- Last week's episode had the highest viewing figure for the entire Troughton era - so it's inevitable that we see a drop this week. However, it's only a small one and the figure remains well over 8 million, and with a strong appreciation figure.
- As it concentrates mainly on the Doctor and his companions, Eelek, Beta and Axus are all absent from this episode.
- Patrick Tull was a character actor who featured in several British TV shows of the 1960's, including Z-Cars, Softly, Softly and soap Crossroads. He moved to the USA, settling in New York, where he had a successful stage career.
- Miles Northover had previously appeared as an IE warehouseman in The Invasion. These are his only acting credits.
- Robert La'Bassiere may well have changed his name to differentiate himself from Bob Grant, famous for playing bus conductor Jack in On The Buses, which was just about to launch on ITV. La'Bassiere also appeared in Moonbase 3 and films including Ken Russell's The Boyfriend, Revenge of the Pink Panther and Arabian Adventure.
- Radio Times used a small photograph of Patrick Troughton from The Power of the Daleks to accompany the day's programme listing for this episode - but only in some regions.
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