WHO AT 60: CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO—Patrick Troughton / ‘The Krotons’ (1968–69)
‘The TARDIS materialises in a bleak wasteland. The Doctor and his friends encounter the primitive Gonds and hear of their mysterious unseen rulers, the dreaded Krotons. The Krotons seem benevolent — but the Doctor makes a terrifying discovery…’ (Radio Times, December 28, 1968)
The Krotons was written by Robert Holmes and transmitted in four episodes, between 28 December 1968 and 18 January 1969, and was the fourth story in the sixth season of Doctor Who, starring Patrick Troughton.
As Toby Hadoke notes in the opening of episode one’s DVD commentary, The Krotons begins with a door unintentionally getting stuck as Selris (James Copeland), leader of the Gonds, retrieves the exam results from the Kroton ship. It’s not a good omen for a story that wasn’t well-regarded by some after its repeat screening in 1981’s ‘The Five Faces of Doctor Who’ season on BBC2. Although it’s tone wasn’t very representative of the era, it was sadly the only complete surviving Patrick Troughton story then currently preserved in the archives. Fortunately, time has been somewhat kinder to Troughton fans with more of his missing episodes returned to the archive in the interim, culminating with 2013’s spectacular recovery of The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World.
The Krotons originated from a story called The Trap by writer Robert Holmes. Holmes, who had served in the army, was an ex-policeman, and became a court reporter, journalist and magazine editor, moved into writing for television in the late 1950s. His first television work was on Knight Errant and then through the 1960s he contributed to, among others, Market at Honey Lane, Ghost Squad, Doctor Finlay’s Casebook, Undermind and Public Eye. The Trap started life as an unsuccessful submission to the BBC’s Head of Serials, Shaun Sutton, who suggested Holmes pitch it to Doctor Who story editor Donald Tosh.
Reformatted and resubmitted to Tosh in April 1965, Holmes concocted a story where the Doctor and his companions, as they explore a crashed spaceship on an uninhabited planet, have their memories wiped by robots. They are then tested for their suitability as replacements for members of the crew that died during the crash. The twist is that only three of the four travellers are required to help the surviving members of the crew to repair and pilot the ship. One of the Doctor’s group is expendable and will be killed. Tosh eventually rejected Holmes’ script as he felt the robot creations in the story, who anaesthetise and capture the crew of the TARDIS, were going to steal the thunder from the Mechanoids, a race of robots that the BBC were hoping would emulate the success of the Daleks and who would feature in The Chase, a story due to be broadcast in May of that year. Holmes filed the story away and busied himself with other commissions.
Fast forward to 1968 and during a clear out while he was moving house, Holmes retrieved The Trap and, believing there was still life in the old dog yet, submitted the outline to current Doctor Who producer Peter Bryant. Bryant forwarded it to his script editor Derrick Sherwin, who wasn’t keen on it. But Sherwin’s script assistant Terrance Dicks saw ideas in it that could be developed into a story. Holmes met them in May 1968 and they asked him to deliver a new story breakdown, now retitled as The Space Trap. A month later Holmes was commissioned to write the scripts with the caveat that they might be suitable as the penultimate serial in the current season. However, behind the scenes all was not well as a number of scripts for earlier slots in the season were running into problems.
… the crystalline menace with long rubber skirts
Scripts for Paul Wheeler’s The Dreamspinner had already been rejected and the team was still searching for a replacement when problems with Dick Sharples’ commission The Amazons, later retitled as The Prison in Space, emerged. He was asked to write out Jamie because Frazer Hines had intended to leave the series as, at this stage, his contract was due to end. A new companion called Nik, devised by Bryant and Sherwin, was to make his debut in the story. The assigned director David Maloney and the production team were not entirely satisfied with the scripts that Sharples was submitting. Further to this, Hines changed his mind in September 1968, when he learned that Troughton would also be departing at the end of the season, and Sharples was thus pressured to revise the scripts and, in the process, remove the new character Nik. He became so irritated by requests to redraft scripts and by the number of rewrites undertaken by the production team itself, that he stopped working on the scripts.
With this situation unresolved and further gaps in the production schedule, Dicks suggested that Holmes’ scripts, which he had completed in August, were ready to go. The Krotons was therefore a fall back brought in to keep the production running when it was clear that Sharples’ story, close to production, was halted. After Maloney had read the scripts, and with some reservations about them, he agreed The Krotons could move up in production order. He and Dicks continued to make more changes to The Space Trap to ensure it was ready for studio and location. Holmes subsequently pitched several other ideas and his futuristic pastiche of the Western, The Space Pirates, eventually slotted in as the penultimate serial for the season and as a replacement for The Dreamspinner. The Prison in Space was cancelled and the situation with Sharples was resolved and he was paid for his work on the scripts. Dicks and writer Malcolm Hulke, then tasked with filling the remaining slots in the schedule when Hulke’s original six-parter and Sherwin’s four-parter both fell through, came up with the ten-episode epic The War Games to conclude the Troughton era.
The Space Trap was renamed The Krotons at the end of October and among other production changes Troughton, Hines and Padbury were all contracted between September and November until the end of the season, Sherwin officially replaced Bryant as producer by the time The War Games went into production and Terrance Dicks took over the script editor position. Troughton was already exhausted from the punishing schedule on the series and although he welcomed the alterations to the final season’s reduction in episodes and production recording (changes suggested by Barry Letts during the making of The Enemy of the World), his decision to leave was made in September and his departure from Doctor Who was announced to the press on January 7th, 1969, three days after the transmission of episode two of The Krotons. And Robert Holmes… well, he would turn out just fine, becoming a highly regarded contributor, as a writer and script editor, to Doctor Who.
Location filming took place at the Tank Quarry and the West Of England Quarry, both owned by owned by Pyx Granite Ltd, in Malvern in November and several days were also spent at Ealing on sequences that used physical effects at the entrance of and inside the Kroton spaceship as well as the filming of models and some visual effects involving the demise of the Krotons. After rehearsals for studio, the episodes were then taped (except episode one which was shot on 35mm film) in Studio D at Lime Grove from 22nd November 1968, five weeks prior to transmission. The Kroton costumes, designed by Bobi Bartlett as full length crystalline creatures, were contracted out to Jack Lovell Ltd which unfortunately built them to the wrong scale. This left them far too short and Bartlett then had the unenviable task of hiding the legs of the actors playing the crystalline menace with long rubber skirts attached to the bottom of what had been constructed. Maloney tried shooting round the Krotons, with a great deal of creativity and skill, to avoid showing the skirts until they are revealed in their full glory in episode four.
“increasing politicisation of education”
Elizabeth Sandifer pointed out that The Krotons was, for many fans watching the 1981 repeat, their first experience of Troughton and initially it may well have been found wanting. On the face of it, the story is something of a low budget runaround and does not feel or look like other much vaunted Troughton stories. However, don’t let it deceive you into thinking it seems rather passé as Doctor Who itself hurtled towards the 1970s and a shift in format and tone. There’s something rather refreshing about The Krotons and if you’ve ever watched the Troughton era in succession, you’ll certainly note the difference between this and the exhausted ‘base under siege’ tropes that really do suffocate much of the Troughton tenure in season five. Sandifer makes a very cogent point too, that this story strikes out in a different direction within the context of the era, rejecting the formula for something more akin to a world building exercise, creating a society into which the Doctor and his companions arrive as agents of change: “Base under siege stories are, generally speaking, invasion stories — a defined territory is penetrated by aliens that must be repelled. But this is the opposite — Gond society has already been taken over by the Krotons. By definition, that means that the story is about the world as opposed to just about fighting monsters.”
While it may not be totally successful in this respect, the story does manage to depict a Gond society and a world view dominated by the Krotons that the Doctor then encourages the Gonds to challenge. It’s likely Holmes was aware of the New Wave in science fiction, one that Ursula Le Guin saw as a particular reaction to the 1960s where “the change tended toward an increase in the number of writers and readers, the breadth of subject, the depth of treatment, the sophistication of language and technique, and the political and literary consciousness of the writing.” Some of the latter attitude filtered into The Krotons and it touches on a number of concerns of the period about education, capitalism and free thinking. Holmes has the brightest intellectuals of the Gond race chosen to enter the machine of their masters, the Krotons, to enter a life of service only for the Doctor to discover that in fact the Krotons are draining the high minds of the Gonds to power their ship.
When the young Gond students (most of them don’t look a day under 30) being educated by the Krotons begin to rebel and smash up the Hall of Learning, it’s noted by Martin Wiggins in the production text of the first episode that this reflects how left-leaning undergraduates, unhappy about the way they were being educated, spent a good part of 1968 occupying campus buildings and clashing violently with the police. However, there was a serious debate about progressive education raging in the late 1960s which The Krotons also reflects, even though it may not have been Holmes’ specific intention. Certainly the debates within Gond society provoked by the Doctor’s arrival and the clash between councillors Eelek (Philip Madoc) and Axus (Richard Ireson), the deposing of Gond leader Selris and Eelek’s machinations to appease the Krotons touch on these themes.
As Dominic Sandbrook notes in White Heat there was an “increasing politicisation of education” in the late 1960s, a fierce battle between the right and left about progressive education, comprehensive schools and the expansion of universities, and conservative fear was summed up by one of the first ‘Black Paper’ issues of Critical Survey in 1969 which was rather doom laden about the situation and suggested within education ‘anarchy’ was becoming fashionable and that ‘work and discipline’ had been rejected.
So the Dynatrope was, in fact, Milton Keynes
The May 1968 riots in Paris, the changes to selection for grammar schools via the eleven plus examination, the way schools and colleges were, up until the late 1960s, churning out clever people who would then get absorbed into the bureaucratic machine of local and central government, should also be seen in context with the infamous brain drain and the UK’s concern about the loss of skilled scientific and engineering personnel to other countries. All this forms a backdrop to the younger Gonds’ rejection of the status quo of social conditioning and their fate within the Kroton machine.
It also connects with the arrival of the counter culture of the time in which students rejected what they perceived as the strangling conformity of post-war society. The Doctor and Zoe are very much the enlightened Timothy Leary figures, asking the Gonds to recognise creative thought and free will as opposed to their elders subservience to the inhuman Krotons. That the Doctor drops some acid… literally and symbolically… into the Kroton’s Dynatrope and dissolves its brain-drain machinery suggests further influences on the story.
One last thing too… televised mass education is clearly a theme here (wonderfully satirised in The Prisoner’s ‘The General’ in November 1967) and this of course parallels the creation of the ‘University of the Air’ and what became the Open University, the success of which was claimed by Harold Wilson as the achievement for which he would most like to be remembered. The idea of ‘Televarsities’ (a concept coined by The Economist way before Wilson hi-jacked the idea) had been kicking about for a while and despite the doubts about such a scheme, Sandbrook notes Wilson “pressed on regardless.. and in 1969 decided the new university would be based in the last and most ambitious New Town.” So the Dynatrope was, in fact, Milton Keynes. Milton Keynes via Johannesburg judging by Patrick Tull and Roy Skelton’s dexterity with the Kroton voices.
This is all well and good, I hear you say, but clearly The Krotons is found wanting on several levels too. The Krotons themselves fall into the ‘menacing silver robots of 1950s pulp SF’ category, unfortunately compromised by design decisions, even though their booming voices are a thrillingly good Radiophonic realisation. The exteriors and interiors of the Kroton ship do perhaps err on the conventional and fall short of the mark in the attempts at credibility that Holmes and Maloney wanted. That Maloney, who felt the whole thing was a “disaster”, is economic with the use of model effects and the reveal of the Krotons also says a great deal about the attempts to world build in the limited space of Lime Grove Studio D. However, it is partially successful because Brian Hodgson gets a chance to create a suite of eerie Radiophonic sound design that generates claustrophobia and unease and infuses the story with an edgy unearthliness by blending together sound design and music. His soundscapes provide the glue that hold many of the weaker elements of The Krotons together.
The same can be said of the acting ensemble, and putting aside the three leads for the moment, at best only Philip Madoc’s scheming Eelek resonates as a fully formed character. The other Gonds tend to disappear into the background but Gilbert Wynne as Thara, the likeable angry young man, and James Cairncross as Gond scientist Beta, are both memorable. However, the regulars — Troughton, Hines and Padbury — get the most out of this script and are given great character moments, lovely bits of comedy business and even some slapstick. Even though Hines, in what he declared was his least favourite story, is reduced to being Jamie as ‘sub-intellectual brawn’, he still plays it very well. Giving one of his better performances, he manages to allow Jamie’s innocent nature to surface and at the same time show how resourceful he can be. The Troughton and Padbury double act steals the show. The intellectual snobbery and rivalry between Zoe and the Doctor, as they use the Gond’s learning machines (some lovely 1960s retro animations are the icing on the cake in this scene), is delightfully played by the two actors.
Back in 1981, when many of us first clapped eyes on it, The Krotons was atypical of everything we thought we knew about the era but, in hindsight it can be seen, in the context of the sixth season that began in August 1968, as an entertaining, back-to-basics kind of Doctor Who that hadn’t been around for a while. A pleasant enough distraction where the regular cast were clearly having some fun judging by the amount of material they added or ad-libbed in rehearsal and recording (“great jumping gobstoppers” being typical of Troughton) and it harks back to the less rigid narrative structures of season four.
Sources:
Shannon Patrick Sullivan, Doctor Who — A Brief History of Time (Travel).
Elizabeth Sandifer, ‘A Mineral Slime’ (The Krotons) at Eruditorum Press.
‘The Krotons’, Doctor Who — The Complete History Volume 13 (Stories 45–47).
Dominic Sandbrook, White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties.
Howe-Stammers-Walker, The Handbook: The Second Doctor.
This review was originally of a pre-release check disc supplied to the writer prior to the release of The Krotons — Special Edition DVD in July 2012. The following added material was included across the two-disc set.
Special features
- Commentary
Tobe Hadoke once again marshals his forces and brings forth warm memories from a good line up of actors and production personnel working on this serial. With a tinge of sadness, it should be noted that this was completed before Philip Madoc’s recent demise and it’s now sad to hear his voice and know he’s no longer with us and Madoc’s memory of a chance meeting with Billy Hartnell is one to savour here. Joining Madoc are actors Richard Ireson (Axus), who can’t quite get over the mod costumes of the production, and Gilbert Wynne (Thara) who recalls the brutal rehearse/record schedule on the programme. On the technical side, sound designer extraordinaire Brian Hodgson, floor manager David Tilley, make up designer Sylvia James and costume designer Bobi Bartlett all contribute memories about creating the look, sound and feel of The Krotons. - Second Time Around — The Troughton Years (52:22)
Perhaps one of the best reasons to pick up The Krotons DVD is this wonderful documentary by Ed Stradling that covers the Troughton era in its entirety. It begins with the end of the Hartnell period, the decision to continue the series and the eventual casting of Troughton and features memories from Anneke Wills (who describes the taping of the Hartnell/Troughton regeneration as “a gentlemanly exchange”), comments on the new concept of regeneration from Rob Shearman and Gary Russell, and anecdotes from Gerry Davis and Innes Lloyd about the development of the second Doctor’s character. There’s a lovely clip of Troughton talking to a bemused Pertwee about “his wig” and Anneke and Michael Craze refusing to go on with him looking “like Harpo Marx”. It discusses the ‘base under siege’ template and its limitations and takes us to the experimental approach of season six which emerged from what Terrance Dicks and Derrick Sherwin describe as the behind scenes chaos of collapsing scripts, including Dick Sharples’s The Prison in Space. The departure of Troughton and the making of The War Games concludes a great trip down memory lane. - Doctor Who Stories — Frazer Hines (part one) (17:25)
Actor Frazer Hines reminisces about his time on the series in an interview originally recorded in 2003 for the BBC’s Story of Doctor Who. - The Doctor’s Strange Love (7:15)
Writers Joseph Lidster and Simon Guerrier take an affectionate look at The Krotons. - Radio Times Listings
- Production Information Subtitles
Martin Wiggins provides a smashing set of on-screen notes covering the making of the serial (and where things went wrong or were changed) and including script and scene revisions, trivia on actors, writers and production personnel. All delivered with a great sense of humour. - Photo Gallery
Good collection of production stills, set reference images and a couple of Bobi Bartlett’s costume designs soundtracked with Brian Hodgson’s rather splendid electronic ‘atmospheres’. - Coming Soon Trailer
Can you tell me the way to the Psychic Circus? A lovely promo for the DVD release of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
Doctor Who: The Krotons
BBC Worldwide / Released 2 July 2012 / BBCDVD 3480 / Cert:U
4 episodes / Broadcast: 28 December 1968 to 18 January 1969 / Black & white / Running time: 90:33
Originally published at https://www.cathoderaytube.co.uk. Revised for the 60th Anniversary, 2023. All written material by Frank Collins (the author) is © 2007–2023 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Please seek permission from the author if you would like to quote or re-use any of the author’s own written material.
Reproduction, quotation and use of text, images, audio and video material in the author’s work published on Medium is for the purposes of non-commercial criticism, comment, education, scholarship and research only. This text-audio-visual material may be original content that may not be authorised for use by the author. The author is legally using this original content under the ‘fair use’ principles as defined in: Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 (US) and by Sections 29 and 30 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (UK). All rights and credits go directly to the rightful owners. No copyright infringement is intended.
