Doctor Who (TV Series) The Krotons: Episode Four (1969) User Reviews

Very humorous.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 29 October 2019]

The Doctor and Zoe are handed over to The Krotons under the promise that they will leave soon.

It isn't the best of episodes, The Krotons started off pretty well, but went a little off the boil towards the end, there were some nice bits of humour here, Pat fooled around marvellously, but there was an overt amount of silliness here.

There were some good ideas, and it was at least true science fiction, Robert Holmes was always a class act, but how on Earth can anyone take The Krotons seriously?

I feel that Pat had a raw deal when it comes to missing episodes, this survives, when the likes of Evil of the Daleks, Power of the Daleks and Fury from the deep remain lost. There is no justice, fortunately the animations are a massive help.

"Yes it is finished, the end of the Krotons it's over." Not a bad story.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 27 October 2007]

Doctor Who: The Krotons: Episode Four starts as the Krotons give the Gonds an ultimatum, either hand the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) & Zoe (Wendy Padbury) over to them or face death. The Krotons tell Eeleck (Philip Madoc) that if they hand them over they will leave their planet, Eeleck agrees to the deal & forces the Doctor & Zoe to enter the Dynatrope for the Krotons to do with as they wish...

Episode 22 from season 6 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during January 1969, one of the few complete surviving Patrick Troughton stories The Krotons was directed by David Maloney & overall I thought The Krotons hasn't been too bad a story to be fair to it. The script by Robert Holmes had some OK ideas to start off with but they have sort of faded out in favour of a rather standard sci-fi adventure, that's not automatically not a bad thing though. The character's have been rather bland, the dialogue not much better & there has been a distinct lack of humour as well. The Krotons plans which amount to nothing more than trying to get home is rather underwhelming when revealed. Also if the Krotons needed people of a higher intelligence why did they purposely stop the Gonds from developing as a society & stop them from learning & developing as a race? Surely those actions were responsible for the Gonds as a race having low intelligence & therefore being absolutely no use to them & in their efforts to operate the Dynatrope & get back home? Then again maybe I'm just thinking about it too much.

This has been an unusual story in the sense that it has had no incidental background music at all, the sets haven't been particularly impressive & the Krotons themselves are really cumbersome looking creations although they sound great. The acting hasn't been that great, Wendy Padbury dressed in tight PVC is the highlight on the acting side of things. Having said that her & her PVC outfit is one of the highlights across the entire four episodes actually. There hasn't been many special effects either, at the end of this episode there are shots of the Kroton spaceship melting which looks OK.

The Krotons: Episode Four is an OK way to round of an OK story, I liked it but didn't love it. Overall I'll give The Krotons a watchable if unspectacular 5 stars out of 10 across it's four episodes, worth a watch if your a fan & of course there aren't many Troughton stories about so beggars can't be choosers.

A story which starts as a promising political allegory but turns into a bit of a filler.

[A_Kind_Of_CineMagic · 6/10 · 18 September 2014]

Review of all 4 episodes:

The first episode is, in my opinion, a lot better than this story's reputation would lead you to expect. It comes across as an intelligently scripted, interesting political allegory. The story features the humanoid Gonds being exploited by a strange alien race known as the Krotons. This is the first script from future Doctor Who writing legend Robert Holmes and his talent is already starting to show in episode 1. However his talent is less visible in episodes 2-4. Another great talent and Doctor Who legend involved is Philip Madoc as Eelek. His great acting skills are not fully utilised but, of course, he portrays his part perfectly.

After the very solid start the following three episodes turn into just a slightly bland, not massively interesting 'filler' between more meaty stories in the season. It also suffers from technical limitations of the age and budget. The Krotons themselves look and sound very unimpressive.

The final verdict has to be this is decently scripted and acted but unremarkable. It is a disappointment, taken as a whole, after a promising 1st part.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 8/10, Episode 2 to 4 - 6/10

Overall: 6.5/10

S6: The Krotons: You know where you are with this one

[bob the moo · 15 January 2014]

There are some Doctor Who serials where their weakness appears to be to me that they are overly familiar and seem such an overdone idea in sci-fi that they don't work as well as they could have done. For some of these I have to try to view it with fresh eyes because this show was part of creating that trend but for others this is not the case and the Krotons is one such example. Here we have a fairly standard overseers versus underlings scenario, with the underlings being the ones we are meant to identify with while the overseers are clearly "baddies" by virtue of being robots or lizards or something like that – in this case big robots. Even by the standards of the show this is fairly familiar territory and it mostly delivers as such.

There is drama here and there is some aspects of interest but this (comparatively) short serial really feels like a solid by-the-numbers affair, mostly because that is just what it is. It isn't bad by any means and indeed it does a decent enough job, but there isn't anything special about it that got me excited. The plot is mostly OK and the action moves forward reasonably so. The Krotons are not particularly good creatures – I was interested in them as a species but this information comes late and is not really followed (I'll look to those more knowledgeable than I to find out if the Krotons return at some point – that means PM me, Theo!). The Gonds are also just basic humans, although I did like the idea of artificial evolution, shame it is not explored so much as stated. The sets and design is nothing amazing but it did strike me how far the show had come in a few seasons – it really felt more detailed and "real" than just a few seasons ago.

The cast are solid. Troughton continues to be my favorite Doctor so far (don't forget I have only seen up to this point, then Davison onwards). He adds to all the action with his delivery and I enjoy his presence and energy. Hines continues to grow on me and I liked the comic element to his delivery in moments such as him being dismissed by the Krotons as lesser! As Theo Robertson observed, Padbury adds to her skill of "screaming" by dressing in a tiny PVC outfit – nothing by today's standards but it stands out here. Personally I still do not care for her, not because of her performances but just because she is more and more becoming the model for the "young sexy frightened companion", which might not seem like a big deal but soon enough we'll have Bonnie Langford and then you'll be sorry.

The Krotons is a decent enough serial but no reason to be excited about it. It treads familiar ground in a decent enough way but without pushing itself or the viewer and, with only 4 episodes, before you know it, it's gone.